Posted Friday 31 July 2015
Kingston University and The Entryphone Company Ltd have been awarded a £335,000 grant from Innovate UK to fund a double Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), lasting 30 months.
Entryphone is a 55-year-old family business based in south-west London. The company specialises in hard-wired door intercom systems for private residences and also offers installation services.
Smart technologies now allow us to remotely manage many aspects of our home life such as adjusting the heating or controlling lighting through our phones or laptops. Entryphone has a strategic vision to develop new wireless solutions allowing users to interact with their entry door and visitors through their mobile device or browser, from anywhere in the world.
The project requires multidisciplinary expertise and product development based on recent research. The new technology needs solutions that cannot easily be assembled, acquired or outsourced in the UK.
This is where the KTP model is of benefit. The government-funded scheme involves a talented graduated being recruited to work on a strategic project for a business. Supervised by a specialist academic team, as well as a manager within the company, the objective is to enable an organisation to grow through harnessing the knowledge, technology and research that reside within a UK university.
Two masters or post-doctorate level graduates, known as KTP associates, will be recruited to work on two projects for 30 months, under the supervision of Entryphone and academics from Kingston University's School of Computing and Information Systems.
The successful projects will shift Entryphone into a new mobile, connected era and enable the company to enter new markets and customer groups including large residential developments, social housing and commercial sectors.
"This KTP will facilitate the implementation of wireless technologies and the embedding of new skills within our company. The project will be vitally important to the future success, indeed the survival, of Entryphone in the coming years." Oliver Ashbee, Development Director, Entryphone.
Find out more about KTP or for general information please see the Innovate UK KTP website.