With technical assistance, PennTAP helps businesses improve their competitiveness
University Park, Pa. -- Sharon Custom Metal Forming, a metal fabricator based in the northwestern region of Pennsylvania, needed to improve its Web presence. The company's Web site had poor search-engine rankings and did not provide measurable benefits. For help, it called on Penn State's Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP). PennTAP helped the client launch a brand new Web site, created by a Pennsylvania IT provider. PennTAP also educated the client on search engine optimization -- allowing the client to achieve a better ranking in searches. The company reported $930,000 in economic benefits.
This is just one example of PennTAP's many success stories last year. Pennsylvania businesses aided by PennTAP reported 450 jobs created or retained and $52 million in economic benefits as a result of help in 2005.
According to a year-end report, PennTAP provided an overall total of 630 cases of technical assistance to Pennsylvania businesses in all 67 counties. Economic benefits included cost savings, sales increases and investments as a result of PennTAP assistance. Jack Gido, director of Penn State's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the Penn State Outreach unit that includes PennTAP, noted that 225 of the jobs and $28 million in economic benefits were reported by companies in counties designated as distressed.
With its statewide network of technical specialists, PennTAP helps businesses improve their competitiveness by providing a limited amount of technology assistance and information to help resolve specific technical questions or needs. The program also connects business with University expertise and resources and with other economic development providers.
Below are some additional examples of how PennTAP aids businesses:
-- Drennen Firewood, a firewood manufacturer, contacted PennTAP because it was interested in establishing a new fuel business venture producing charcoal and kiln-dried firewood. PennTAP researched what would be required to meet the stringent air-quality guidelines to produce charcoal; and, after determining the costs would be astronomically high, PennTAP assisted the client by focusing on kiln-dried firewood, providing information on such details as operation, maintenance and air-quality standards. The client was able to establish a new revenue stream in a market that has great potential due to the increased cost of fossil fuel.
-- Unicast Inc., a castings manufacturer, has a diverse workforce. The company requires that the staff receive orientation training in policies and safety procedures -- a time-consuming task. It approached PennTAP for help to determine an efficient way to train new and incumbent employees in both English and Spanish on a daily basis, or whenever needed. PennTAP recommended and helped implement a computer-based training program in both languages. This not only saved the time and money of hiring a trainer, but it also provided consistent content and an "anytime, anywhere" training technique.
For more information about PennTAP, visit http://www.PennTAP.psu.edu online.