Bizmentors International Interactive Online Mentoring System

Tender description

Bizmentors International is part of a recently launched European-wide project which see’s five EU regions come together to create a transnational business mentoring solution. The initiative is a three-year project co-funded by the EU Interreg Northern Periphery and Artic Programme (NPA), with a total budget in the region of €1.3m. Participating partners are from Ireland, Finland, Iceland, and Northern Ireland. While an established mentoring support system exists in all the partner regions, many fail to meet the criteria to qualify for mentoring support, the mentors lack a working knowledge of specific areas of expertise or the funding model is unsustainable. The Bizmentors model, developed by SCCUL Enterprises, has been proven to support individuals and businesses in a small dispersed community setting in Galway since 2012. It relies on the local support of established businesspeople (Mentors) to provide free guidance to those seeking it (Mentees) in a structured and low-cost way. In a quadruple helix partnership approach, this project aims to innovate the model using an online interactive system and shared learning to scale and expand Bizmentors in the NPA Region, making expertise accessible to all enterprises and entrepreneurs. The online system will be made freely available to other communities to enable the sharing of goodwill, knowledge, wisdom and experience. The online system will interface with both the Mentor and Mentee providing easy online access to manage the application, input data, perform matching and analyse outcomes. The back end of the system will securely store and process the database information of mentors, the skillsets and review data and metrics. The back end will also act as a CRM reminding and prompting individuals involved throughout the 3-month mentoring period.