How Beauhurst Helps Ards and North Down Borough Council Support Businesses
"Some businesses are quite surprised about what we know about them — and this is primarily because of what we can get from Beauhurst."
Ards and North Down Borough Council serves the residents, businesses, and visitors of the Ards and North Down region in Northern Ireland. Established on 1 April 2015, the Council was formed through the merger of the former Ards Borough Council and North Down Borough Council as part of local government reorganisation.
Working with Beauhurst delivered:
The ability to map a full topology of GB and Northern Ireland businesses
Streamlined strategic research
Identification and support for high-growth companies across Northern Ireland
Why Ards and North Down Borough Council chose Beauhurst:
-
Replacing research tools
The Council previously relied on multiple research platforms with inconsistent coverage. Beauhurst consolidated these tools into a single, more effective solution. -
Strategically focussed research effort
Before Beauhurst, identifying businesses suitable for support programmes — or tracking the companies involved in them — was a challenge for the council. Beauhurst eliminated the need for complex manual searches, slashing research time, whilst making company discovery far more efficient. -
Identifying high-growth companies more easily
The Council previously struggled to develop a full picture of Northern Ireland’s high-growth businesses and those receiving innovation grants. Beauhurst’s growth signals provided instant visibility into these companies, enabling far better informed decision-making. -
Ensuring credibility
The Council needed a reliable way to verify company legitimacy before awarding grants or engaging with businesses. Beauhurst provides easy access to financial records, company timelines, and ownership structures. This reduces the risk of working with potentially unverified entities.
The Challenge
“Before Beauhurst, we used a number of research tools. Whilst there was some overlap, they were not providing the data we needed. We therefore required a dedicated platform that would better fit what we need.”
Ards and North Down Borough Council has long embraced digital technologies designed to improve how its team carries out vital work in the community.
Before Beauhurst, the Council used several research tools to gather intelligence on the business ecosystem, both locally and more widely across GB and Northern Ireland.
The key challenge with this technology infrastructure was that Ards and North Down lacked the detailed company data offered by a database such as Beauhurst. This data gap — experienced by many local and national governments — has detrimental knock-on effects, such as difficulties in delivering targeted support to businesses in the region.
The Solution
“When we’re looking for specific industries in a particular area, Beauhurst is ideal.”
The Council transitioned to the BeauhurstImpact platform — consolidating its data sources — to streamline research efforts and make identifying and engaging with new businesses easier.
Through the BeauhurstImpact Advanced Search function, the team at Ards and North Down can identify local businesses based on sector, size, and location. This enables the Council to deliver support as and when they need to. Furthermore, the team uses BeauhurstImpact for due diligence and pre-engagement research, ensuring that businesses are legitimate before any formal interactions take place, particularly in relation to business support services.
And it doesn’t stop there — our platform also helps to support business engagement efforts, by helping the team build lists of potential customers, suppliers, and participants for business support programmes. Historically, this would have been time-consuming, but now the team can do this research quickly and accurately.
Beauhurst provides Ards and North Down Borough Council with efficient, user-friendly solutions, enabling them to offer more targeted and effective support.
The Results
- The ability to map a full topology of Northern Ireland businesses
- Productivity and efficiency improvements for research time
- Enhanced reputation of research service due to higher value data
- Ability to conduct targeted business support campaigns
“We were looking for a platform with improved quality and a more friendly user interface, and Beauhurst ticks all those boxes.”
BeauhurstImpact is enabling the team to map the business economy, deliver more targeted business support programmes, and support due diligence efforts for companies applying for grants.
Using BeauhurstImpact, the Council has increased research capability, allowing the team to access vital information quickly and effectively in just a few clicks. It has filled gaps in their existing knowledge and streamlined their regional economic analysis processes.
The team have also utilised our Growth Signals to identify high-growth companies in the area. This has enabled the council to build a comprehensive topology of businesses in Northern Ireland — something that was previously a significant challenge.
Speaking to this, Irvine Abraham added, “This has enabled us to identify potential customers or suppliers within a specific sector for our local businesses.”
Beyond economic mapping, BeauhurstImpact also plays a key role in the delivery of targeted business support programmes. The Council can now curate lists of companies receiving government investment and track the impact of that funding. It can also identify companies that might benefit from targeted interventions, ensuring resources are allocated effectively.
"Beauhurst helps us deliver targeted business support service. I can now easily identify companies and make them aware of programmes and initiatives, or simply invite them to the events we deliver.”
See the platform for yourself
Fancy looking at the new industries classifications in action? Fill in the form below to book a meeting directly with one of our team members.
