Flagship building becomes ict active

The flagship development of York Science Park IT Centre has signed up to the ict active assessment scheme.

The IT Centre, which is used by the University of York, has achieved ict active Leading Edge status.

This means that, in addition to all the features and facilities found in standard ict active accredited buildings, the Centre offers valuable extended and high-specification facilities and services.

Leading Edge properties are particularly suitable for IT-centric businesses.

The IT Centre is home to 85 companies from the IT, digital and creative industries sectors, employing more than 200 people in total.

The buildings on site were purpose built and offer a stylish and modern backdrop within excellent business facilities.

York Science Park was the first UK Science Park to offer dedicated IT, bio and knowledge-based incubation space on a single site. Now it is also the first Science Park in the UK to have an ict active property on site.

As a Leading Edge property, the IT Centre offers several extended services, which include a sophisticated telephone system with reception and conference calling, bandwidth management and a backup Internet connection, video conferencing, web hosting and publicly available wireless Internet access.

Anne-Marie Daniel, Marketing Co-Ordinator of York Science Park, explains the thinking behind becoming ict active, and what this will mean for the property.

“We first heard about ict active at a UK Science Park Association (UKSPA) meeting in Coventry and it sounded like something we could benefit from being a part of. Although our occupancy level hasn’t been affected by the current economic climate, we feel it is important to look after our tenants and to still offer potential tenants an attractive place to base their business. Being ict active is certainly something extra to attract businesses to the Science Park – it is a unique selling point.”

Anne-Marie continues, “We are delighted to be the first Ready to Occupy building in North Yorkshire to sign up to ict active. We are the leading Science Park in the North and the ict active accreditation emphasises the reason why we are one of the leading sites in the country, and a flagship development.

“But ict active also has another purpose for us – it has acted as an audit for our ICT infrastructure. It has given us the opportunity to look at our ICT and ensure that we have everything we need in place, and up to a premium standard.

“We are currently developing a new building on the site, so we can take things we have learnt from the ict active survey and ensure that the new property is correctly set up right from the start. I would certainly recommend ict active to other Science Parks and members of UKSPA.”

Tracey Smith, General Manager of York Science Park and Anne-Marie Daniel.