TWO products designed to help North-East companies revamp out-of-date technology will be revealed next month.

Sunderland University's Towards Tomorrow's Company project will unveil the innovations at a seminar aimed at helping companies to maintain successful development.

The £250,000-plus project is backed by the European Regional Development Fund, equally matched by the university and private sector.

As part of the seminar, the university will unveil the UK's first tool to help small and medium-sized firms solve their information technology problems, urging them to restructure their computerised management systems for the new century.

It follows a £500,000 three-year research project, part-financed by the Government research funding agency, the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, which first identified the "legacy system problem" in the UK.

One of the innovations, the Rameses Tool, will be launched at the seminar following a series of successful pilot studies with small to medium-sized North-East companies.

The seminar is at The Industry Centre, Wessington Way, Sunderland, on Wednesday, March 28, from noon to 2.30pm.