Technology Parks have successfully differentiated their property marketing by customizing their services and infrastructure to meet the needs of their tenants who mostly consist of tech companies. A survey conducted by AGIT Consulting however, has been done to various technology parks around the world to determine the effectiveness of its Internet services which includes offerings of broadband, IPTV, wireless network and such. GadgetsMonk What was glaringly clear was that tenants of technology parks from Ireland, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India are not too overly satisfied with the service offerings in their parks. In fact, except for a few tech parks, Internet services remains much the same as it is outside the park. The result of this survey is intended to highlight to management of technology parks as well as to potential investors who may consider locating to Technology Parks
Science Technology Parks (STPs) have mushroomed all over the world since 1950s beginning with the first establishment in Silicon Valley at the University of Stanford. Initially, the purpose of developing STP was to generate income. Today, however, Technology Parks are considered as an essential tool for economic development. Such a tool is even more needed in a country such as Malaysia whose economy is entering a stage of transformation from Agricultural and Manufacturing based to one which is a knowledge driven.
Definition
Technology Parks are sometime referred to by others as Research Parks, Technopole, Technology Precinct and various others. techitree For the purpose of this report, STP is defined in accordance with the definition given by the International Association of Science Park (IASP) which clearly stated that “Science and Technology Parks are the perfect habitat for businesses and institutions of the global knowledge economy. Science & Technology Parks promote the economic development and competitiveness of regions and cities by:
The quintessential composition of a Science Technology Park is that it should be designed with the following objectives
- to encourage the formation and growth of knowledge based organizations who are normally residents on site
- to have links among its tenants consisting of Universities, Research Institutions and Companies
- to have other value added services together with high quality space and facilities
The last objective will be the focus of this report. Various STPs have declared that the services and facilities, ie the infrastructure, provided by their parks are of high quality, if not of world class. Such are the claims made by STPs from Edinburgh Technopole , Northern Ireland Science Park and various others. techmagician The definition of quality should also mean that the physical infrastructure provided by the STPs meets the requirement of its customers or in this case, the tenants in the park who consists of Multinationals and small medium companies both local and international. The objective of this report is to assess whether some of the Technology Parks’ physical infrastructure are of high quality. One way of gauging this is by measuring the success of the Technology Parks itself, such as the number of tenants it generates compared to its goals. However, this proposal will instead conduct a research that will assess whether the physical infrastructure provided, have sufficiently met the requirements of its tenants through a survey. From the survey, evidence will also be gathered as to whether such infrastructure particularly the internet services which may consist of dial up, broadband, techvaluetrends wireless and added value such as IPTV contributed to the country’s economic development and growth.
