Knowledge Intensive Business Services Sector

Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) covers a number of key sectors in the North East, including:

• Business, Professional & Financial Services
• Business Process Outsourcing
• Call/Contact/Shared Service Centres

Professional & Business Services employ some 225,000 people in the region and, together with transport, financial services & leisure, represents a total of 40% of all regional value-added, a trend that is still rising.

Knowledge Intensive Business Services are critical supporters of other industries, many of which rely on them to provide vital services in order to enable them to compete in today’s global market.

Key themes that will shape our activity include:

• The Regional Call Centre Strategy – an industry-led strategy aimed at identifying and addressing the key issues facing all businesses in the sector
• Support for key sub-sectors in order to maximise the region’s strengths and address its weaknesses
• The Growth Project which focuses on supply chain requirements and the technology required to support them
• Direct interventions through focused projects, delivered by partners, aimed at assisting Service SMEs

Major companies within these sectors in the North East that are engaged with us include:

• Northern Rock
• British Airways
• Orange
• EDS
• Barclaycard
• N Power
• GNER
• CJ Garland
• Dickinson Dees