MCIN

So we decided we are a social enterprise. The next question was what are our products and services. We started thinking about this in June 2005.

We looked at the organisation and thought about what we were doing. Over the next 4 months we explored these ideas with some key stakeholders and staff and ran sessions with a number of consultants to help us identify these services. Although the work with the consultants was interesting we found that most consultants did not have enough knowledge of the organisation to be able to identify the products and also wanted to run vision sessions with us. Although the vision sessions were useful I am not sure they moved us on any further. What we really wanted was someone who could work with us closely for a couple of days a week for a few months to help us. In the end it came down to the senior management team to define the products. Although this was important as it focused our minds I think we would have got further quicker if we had someone working with us as part of the team.

The conclusion I came to after this experience was the only people who are going to make this happen is us and that we need to be cautious about consultants and the value they bring.

We decided that MCIN undertakes 4 main things. We provide ICT technical support services to the third sector, we project manage 8 UK online centres in East Manchester; we have 14 community web sites. Also, we felt we pretty good at managing ICT projects and being the accountable body. There was also a move by government toward evidence base and we felt we could have the skills to develop this.

This led us to develop 4 business functions. ICT services (Technical support), Learn Net (Training in community centres) , Web Connect (developing web based content and developing the community portal sites) and MCIN policy and management ( project management and research). As a result of this we wrote a new business plan in August 2005.

I showed the business plan to a number of Social Enterprise support groups who said it was not quite right but were not in a position to help us to refine it. In the end it helped us to develop our thinking but it will probably change anyway so we decided it had little value.

We thought the business plan may help attract some additional resources to allow us to develop the plan further and experiment with our products and services. So we went to a number of local and regional Social Enterprise funds. But were not successful. One said we are a charity dependent on grant funding and not a social enterprise ! In the end we said “let’s just do it” rather than wasting our time in developing business plans and applying for social enterprise monies.

What was clear was that we should concentrate on Web Connect, Learn Net and ICT services rather than MCIN Project and Management. We also made a decision that rather than the Director trying to create 3 businesses we should employ 3 business development mangers. This was easier said then done.

ICT services

In terms of ICT services it was relatively easy because we already had an existing member of staff who became the ICT services business development manager. He developed the products and started to market and sell them almost straight away. This is a competitive market but we felt we had the right links. Change Up, a Home Office initiative to develop voluntary sector infrastructure, had identified the development of ICT in Voluntary and Community sector organisations. MCIN was part of the Manchester consortium and we undertook the implementation of this work in Greater Manchester. This contract helped support the development of this enterprise. It widened our geographic basis and also linked us up with other ICT technical staff in Greater Manchester. (Click here for more details on Greater Manchester Circuit Riders)

This formed the basis of the development of ICT services, which has subsequently changed its name to Circuit Riders. I am pleased to say that this business function is developing nicely and is now selling its services across Greater Manchester.

Learn Net

Learn Net was more complex. It become clear that for Learn Net to survive we needed to expand outside East Manchester. In consultation with existing partners we explored other organisations that could join. We felt our USP was community centres and so targeted community centres. In April 2006 another 10 centres joined the partnership making a total of 18 centres. (Click here for more information on Learn Net.). The next challenge was to find a business development manger. How do you begin to do this?

I did not want to go out to open recruitment as I was not confident enough that our recruitment process would identify appropriate candidates. Instead I would prefer to hire someone who I already knew and had a track record. Fortunately we were undertaking a review of Learn Net and needed a consultant to undertake an independent evaluation of the centres. We had identified a consultant who understood the community agenda but also had experience of colleges. As a result of her undertaking this piece of work this consultant recognised the possibilities of the centres and bought into the idea of what we were trying to do. She also produced a first class piece of work on the evaluation.

So the next question was how was I going to pay for her ? The MCIN board decided that in order to develop Learn Net investment was required. As none had been forthcoming from existing social enterprise monies the board decided to invest from MCIN reserves in order to develop a business plan. This meant we were able to employ the consultant of our choice and one we had faith in being able to achieve what we wanted. She started work for MCIN for 2 days a week for 6 months and not only helped develop the business plan but also helped us clarify the product and services we were offering, identified things we had not thought about and piloted a number of new ideas. This opened up markets and potential we had not previously thought about. She is still here working with us and the experience she brings to Learn Net has been invaluable. We have restructured Learn Net and changed the role of the project coordinater into an operations manager. Thank goodness I have a good board who saw the need to invest in Learn Net and were prepared to take the risk .

Web Connect

Web Connect was more difficult. Although we had the sites we were not clear about what other products and services could be developed. We thought advertising might sustain us when we developed the business plan in August 2005. However it became clear that this was not realistic without some serious investment and time.

We recognised our strengths were in content creation but were unclear about how to do this. Fortunately at that time we had a training session with the Manchester Digital Development Agency on social software.

After this session we realised that the development of content was the future and that we had good links with communities, were effective in engagement and had good skills in developing and producing material as well as a distribution network for the content through our community portal sites. This lead us to do a bit more research and we found something called social media. Essentially this is about using technology to create user generated content. This includes developing content using blogs, podcast, photos and texts. This was clearly one way forward. However we did not want to just be another training organisation so developed a community reporter program that empowered individuals to have their say in communities .

We also identified a link with the BBC who liked the idea and were keen to support us by offering training. We even had a BBC journalist working with us for 3 months to help us develop community content. Fortunately we found some project money from lots of different sources which has helped us to pilot the community reporters program. We also identified a new software company that had roots in the Voluntary and Community sector called Agraman. They helped redesign the community portal sites and came us with a number of ideas to brand Web Connect. This took our thinking even further and developed Web Connect as a social media company or as we like to call it the Reuters of the community.

However , although we have identified some products these are constantly changing and being revised and I am sure we are not at the final product list. So how to take the business forward? I am afraid it’s back to staff. I am still on the hunt for a business development manager who can do what the consultant did for Learn Net. But how do we begin to find someone with the right skills ? There is still a need to develop the aims and mission of Web Connect and get clarity. Whats the best way of doing this? So in reality it means the the Director of MCIN has to also be the business development manager in the short term.