University of Salford and Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce partner to develop an innovative new membership service 

University of Salford Business School and the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) have successfully completed a two-year knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) that developed a blueprint for digitally orientated membership services.

The new proposition, Membership 4.0, will establish the benchmark for engaging with business and growing membership; transforming the existing business model for Chambers of Commerce by introducing digitally orientated membership services that deliver new and additional value.

KTPs are the UK Government’s flagship scheme for collaborative research and development; a three-way collaboration between a business, an academic partner and a highly qualified researcher. As a result of the KTP with the team from Salford Business School – including Maria Kutar, Marie Griffiths and Gordon Fletcher along with researcher Ernest Obu-Cann – GMCC has disrupted the traditional membership model, facilitating a migration from the ‘one size fits all’ model to a radically different customised model that provides a suite of appropriately responsive services.

Membership 4.0 will be a flexible and customisable membership, which allows member businesses to choose specific services most beneficial to their needs through a ‘blocks of value’ model, supporting a more detailed and flexible subscription model for service provision. This will facilitate engagement with a larger number of businesses across a range of sectors, including start-up digital businesses and gig economy professionals.

Dr Alex Garcia-Miranda Ferrari, Collaborative Research and Development Manager at the University of Salford, said: “At the University of Salford, we’re dedicated to fostering partnerships that drive innovation and progress. Our recent knowledge transfer partnership with the GMCC, which introduced advanced system integration and automation, stands as a testament to this commitment.

“We look forward to continuing our work with the GMCC, further enhancing operational efficiency and contributing to the Greater Manchester business landscape.”

As the firmly established voice of business in our region, the KTP will amplify the Chamber’s brand, policy and campaigning work, making it the go to organisation for Government departments who want to engage with the Greater Manchester business community. 

The team from GMCC included Subrahmaniam Krishnan-Harihara and Reet Seercombe. Subrahmaniam, Head of Research at GMCC, said: “We are delighted to have worked with the team at Salford Business School on this project, which has given us the capability to rethink how Chambers of Commerce and, more widely, how membership organisations can reinvent their business models to respond to the new requirements from our members and clients for digitally enabled services.

“When implemented, Membership 4.0 will have huge positive impact on the Chamber and how we engage with Greater Manchester’s business community. The partnership with Salford Business School has also spawned other opportunities for the Chamber on research and business outreach.”

KTPs create a dynamic tripartite relationship, known as the ‘knowledge triangle’, between a company, a research institution, and a KTP associate. Innovate UK provides substantial funding for KTPs with the remaining covered by the industrial partner. The KTP provides a full-time researcher – the KTP associate – as well as supervision from an expert academic with specialised knowledge, and access to the University’s cutting-edge research capabilities and state-of-the-art technologies.

Dr Imrana Mushtaq, Knowledge Transfer Advisor from Innovate UK, said: “This KTP project facilitated the exchange of ideas allowing for a unified approach on embedding emerging digital business systems and management practices in support of improved operational efficiency, business resilience and agility.

“Beyond the KTP project, with the knowledge transferred into GMCC and the scalability of the digital architecture, the goal is to empower the Chamber to achieve mastery over its new digital platforms. This proficiency is expected to unlock future opportunities within the Chamber and ensure members can access key business services quickly and efficiently.”

Following the success of the partnership, the researcher Ernest Obu-Cann has now been employed by GMCC as Digital Transformation and Research Support Officer.