ITS Member comment – a view from an SME Who’s Who on the ITS (UK) Council
Do procurement processes help or hinder innovation by SMEs? From the end customer’s perspective, the
procurement process is there to ensure that they receive value for money and that the balance of risk is firmly in their favour. In reality, this oſten means that custom-
ers will settle for tried and tested solu- tions whose cost may be significantly greater than that of an innovative solu- tion that has not yet been proven. All too oſten the procurement
process includes disproportion- ately high financial due diligence thresholds way beyond the require- ments of the actual tender value. Equally, existing preferred suppli-
ers can too readily influence the tender’s specification requirements to suit their own products or suggest qualifying questions such as being able to prove deployments of X thousand products that eliminate other competitors; valid questions, but hardly ones that enable a level playing field and surely not questions that should ultimately decide whether a proposal is valid or not.
at the European ITS Congress Helsinki; 2 July Maritime Interest Group visit to the Port of Liverpool (tbc) - Liverpool; 10 July Enforcement Interest Group Meeting - Atkins, Birmingham; 15 July Smart Environment Interest Group Noise Webinar; 16 July ITS (UK) President’s Dinner - London, EC3; 4 September Local Authority
exception. Te Group also functions as a net- working and information sharing forum for women professionals. Anybody who has ever been in a minority of one or possibly two in any forum knows that this is not the ideal condition for effective networking. Te Group positively welcomes male par-
ticipation – in the current situation, men take nearly all recruitment and promotion decisions in ITS employment, so without their commit- ment, nothing will change.
Te recently renamed Connected Vehicle Interest Group met as the guests of Atkins in Birmingham. In this fast changing area of ITS, the acronyms change as fast as the technologies and policies, so what was the CVHS group has renamed itself to reflect trends and particularly the fairly new (in ITS at least) topic of autono-
smartHIGHWAYS Vol 2 No 1 Tis practice clearly excludes new solutions
from being utilised and becoming established, hampering opportunity for further innova- tion. Strong SMEs will work with smaller customers and create trial sites and do what they can through their marketing efforts to build their credibility, but the reality is that without these bigger opportunities, the business case for developing these products becomes weak and is fighting for the same small pot of money that any SME can devote to new product development whilst keeping the company on a solid financial footing. It reminds me of the catch 22 situation as
a fresh graduate trying to get that first job, where the only stumbling point was lack of experience…but IF ONLY someone would take the risk, they might be the one to reap the rewards as you blossom into a valuable asset. Like graduates in an overcrowded market, SMEs have to do more to make them stand out and make them worth the risk.
Wayne Stant is Head of Product and Marketing at Clearview Traffic Group
wayne.stant@
clearviewtraffic.com
/ Urban Interest Group, Glasgow hosted by Mott MacDonald and Imtech Traffic & Infra; 25 September Joint Communications / Local Authority & Urban Interest Group meeting: the Cloud for ITS – Location tbc; 26 September IG Plenary Meeting - London, E1; 2 October Women in ITS Interest Group - Manchester (tbc)
mous vehicles. With talks by INRIX, Atkins, SBD and the Highways Agency, attendees got a thorough round up of where we are in this excit- ing area. Harrod Booth Consulting was on hand to update regarding standards work, an essential strand in these activities. With more responsibility to act and even abil-
ity to act moving away from the vehicle driver to various service and infrastructure providers, and car manufacturers, standardisation is even more essential to help with the tricky questions of liability which arise. Te Group is working on a document
entitled 39 Steps to Connected Vehicles which will capture the range of expertise within the Group in an accessible format to inform non- technical experts about the topic and assist in intelligent decision making by policy makers and budget holders.
smarthighways.net President
Steven Norris Chairman Sharon Kindleysides, Kapsch TrafficCom Vice Chair
Dr Alan Stevens, TRL Immediate Past Chairman Jeremy Evans Ambassador Prof Eric Sampson CBE, Newcastle University Technical Director Joanne Dodds, URS Finance Director Gary Umpleby, Hogia International Director Richard Harris, Xerox Membership Director Graeme Scott, IBI Group Communications Director Giles Perkins, Mouchel Chairman, Young People in ITS Committee Graeme Scott, IBI Group Chairman, Vision Working Group Keith Keen, TAN Chairman, Strategy Committee Dr Alan Stevens, TRL
ITS United Kingdom 312 Tower Bridge Business Centre, 46-48 East Smithfield London E1W 1AW
020 7709 3003
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