VEN Group
VEN Group explained
Our mission:
VEN builds successful alliances to develop new business with leading organisations
Our vision:
To be the first-choice organisation for building business alliances with leading organisations
The VEN Group approach breaks down traditional business boundaries by increasing access to commercial opportunities for organisations of all types and sizes.
Across the globe, the way organisations are doing business is changing. VEN Group helps organisations who join us as members to become more adaptable and flexible in meeting the needs of customers like you.
This means that members such as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can work on contracts alongside member universities and research institutions using VEN Group’s suite of collaboration tools and processes. These include common IT, legal, financial, commercial and governance frameworks.
This allows VEN members to deliver significant joint cost savings for member organisations and their customers by creating customised networks of multiple suppliers acting as a single enterprise.
This brochure provides you with information about the role of VEN Group in Sheffield. VEN Group was established as a public body in April 2006 to define new systems and frameworks for organisations to work together, share reward and pool risks to win new business and become greater than the sum of their parts.
Virtual Enterprise Networks (VENs) are bespoke supply networks that offer a lower risk, lower cost alternative to supply chains. Throughout this document, you will read about ‘VENs’.
You will also read about ‘VEN Group’, ‘VEN International’, and ‘VEN’. These names are used when referring to our organisation.
The South Yorkshire region has created VENs in the following sectors:
• advanced engineering and materials
• chemicals
• construction
• digital
• environmental technologies
• food and drink
• healthcare
• re-cycling
• sport
These VENs take the supply chain process to a new level by carefully selecting member companies and integrating them into a ready-made supply chain network. The networks are characterised by genuine co-operation and enforced with clear ground rules about obligations and rewards. The VEN Group approach maximises ‘buy in’ from a highly co-ordinated team of suppliers whose primary mission is to deliver a service to their customers to a high standard, on time and at a lower overall cost than normal extended supply chains.
About VEN Group
VEN Group empowers Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to collaborate and win significant business opportunities in the private and public sector throughout the UK and worldwide. As a customer you achieve major commercial, cost and performance advantage from a highly co-ordinated team of suppliers whose primary mission is to deliver to a high quality, on time and at lower overall cost than normal extended supply chains.
VEN Group began life in 2003 in the county of Yorkshire, UK, as a project run by Yorkshire Forward, a Regional Development Agency set up by the UK Government to promote sustainable economic development throughout the UK’s Yorkshire and Humber region.
In April 2006, Yorkshire Forward, with the UK Government’s approval, created Europe’s first government owned commercial collaboration company; VEN Group. This was based on the project’s success of working with SMEs in the Yorkshire and Humber region, and large scale blue chip procurement customers
VEN Group works with Yorkshire Forward to identify potential customers and the opportunities they can offer to SMEs within the regions. Today VEN Group does business with a wide variety of organisations, ranging from giant retailing business ASDA (part of the Wal-Mart family), through to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the largest professional services firm in the world.
Located in Yorkshire, UK
VEN Group is ideally located in Sheffield, the fourth largest city in England. The Yorkshire region has the highest rates of economic growth in the UK and has outstripped the European average for five years running. A GDP of over £75 billion is large enough to rank South Yorkshire in the top 20% of the world’s national economies and represents 8% of total UK output.
Economic gateway to Europe
At VEN Group we understand that as a customer you will be interested in the capabilities offered in Yorkshire, and its potential as a gateway into the British and European markets. You will benefit from the ability to trade with multiple European suppliers, acting as a single entity through a common IT, quality and commercial system, but with only one contact to manage.
Yorkshire has the most motorways, largest port complex in the UK and three international airports. It is one of just three UK regions to have achieved 100% broadband coverage. As a major gateway to some 370 million potential customers in Europe, VEN members are in a prime position to network and identify new opportunities.
The city of Sheffield benefits from being minutes away from the M1 major motorway, which provides quick and easy access to all UK cities, docks and airports. VEN Group is also conveniently located within walking distance of Sheffield railway station.
Access to a professional community
The region boasts nine world class universities, four of which are ranked among the top 500 global universities. Yorkshire universities cover a wide range of subjects from bio and health science, chemistry and engineering through to innovation and technology. They aim to provide world-class knowledge and learning opportunities to contribute to sustainable regional growth and development. The region's universities spend £317 million each year on research, much of it geared towards the needs of business.
There is also significant investment into Research and Development (R&D), 12% above the European average. The region attracts the highest amount of research investment outside London; £340 million. In 2006 the University of Sheffield set up a state-of-the-art Nanoscience and Technology Centre as a result of a £10 million investment from the Science Research Investment Fund and European Regional Development Fund. This investment helps to develop R&D capacity in an area with great economic potential and to transfer knowledge gained to SMEs as part of Sheffield University's strategy of engaging more effectively with regional economic stakeholders and business.
VEN Group encourages universities and research institutions to become members in order to harness their latest commercial developments through enhanced collaboration with business. We allow research institutions to become professional members, to give the customer a practical, cost effective route to market for the latest in technological areas such as biotech, nanotech and radio frequency identification (RFID).
An extract from VEN Group customer proposal document