The LINK-IT Programme is an interactive initiative developed by Platinum Consulting in conjunction with Leitrim County Enterprise Board and Carrickfergus Enterprise agency. The initial pilot programme was aimed at assisting eight companies in Northern Ireland and eight companies in the Republic of Ireland. This programme was highly successful and both delegates and funding agencies gleaned a great deal from the programme.
The aim of this innovative programme is to foster and develop small and medium sized business's through the application of information Technology.
Commissioned research has shown that .... "a greater understanding of IT applications, and in particular, e-commerce and internet technology, would increase capacity and competitiveness among small and medium sized companies throughout Ireland".
Programme Objectives
- To assist delegates in the development of a consistant, innovative and useful e-commerce solution strategy.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
In order to answer the specific needs of this programme, Platinum Consulting Group designed the programme in a modular format. Each module, while separate, made up integrate aspects of an interlocking and empowering programme. LINK-IT is restricted to a maximum of twelve participants in order to deliver a powerful and useful programme on a one-to-one basis.
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The MODULES
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The Aud-IT
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The Audit took the form of a technology audit in order
to determine the suitability and the capability of each delegate. This
exercise also allowed PCG to benchmark each delegate in order to determine
an achievement record for each delegate.
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Seminars
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The Seminars (4) were used to deliver the main message
of the programme. Two of the seminars took place over a weekend and these
sessions required full day participation by all delegates. These half
day sessions covered many topics including IT trends, The Future, Communications,
The Internet, The WWW, E-mail, Disk Defragmenting, Resource Maximisation,
Web Page Design Issues and Change Management Through Technology.
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Vis-ITs
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The Mentor Style visits were designed to augment the Seminars
and to allow each delegate to implement certain aspects of technology
which they learned during the Seminars. The mentor visits were organised
on a one-to-one basis with each delegate and they enabled our facilitators
to assist each delegate directly. All of the delegates involved found
these visits to be most useful and of particular benefit to their particular
requirements.
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Check-IT
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The Check-IT concept allowed PCG to follow up on the performance
and requirements of each delegate. This aspect of the LINK-IT Programme
involved follow-up assistance on a monthly basis for a period of six months
on completion of the programme. PCG were available on-line six days per
week for queries and enquiries from delegates. Indeed many delegate have
kept in contact with PCG in order to keep up to date on new and developing
technologies.
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