So what did the pilot study achieve?

For one thing it identified 38 per cent cost savings on an IT systems upgrade for the National Railway Museum by exploiting its prestigious brand image

It also found that only 20 per cent of the Museum's actual IT expenditure was assigned to an account code that identified it as such, whereas the true IT spend across all the departments was five times the budgeted figure.

The consultant recommended changes to the financial reporting system to accurately track expenditure on all categories. Armed with this information, the museum could "seek better terms from its suppliers"

Massively-growing ioko365, the £10 million turnover company at the Science Park which provides IT services and solutions to big corporate clients, also benefited from the study which showed that half its total expenditure went to just six suppliers, a clear sign that management was correctly focusing spend on preferred suppliers.

But the Science City York consultant recommended that relationships should be developed at director level with key suppliers to create better mutual understanding and to explore opportunities for enhanced service and co-operation.

It also recommended ways of streamlining ioko 365's purchasing processes and offered an action plan for improvement.

SensorCare Systems Ltd of Kirkhammerton was able to start discussions with a potential £56million partner after its need was identified in the study to join forces with a bigger player to market its movement-generated spontaneous call system for old people in care.

Updated: 11:02 Tuesday, February 26, 2002