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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - We4SMESLO_3 (Enhancing the Innovation Management Capacity of SMEs (by EEN), Slovenia)

Teaser

Summary

\"The EC has within its Survey of 2011, carried out on request of DG Enterprise and Industry (DG EI), realized that the main barriers of innovation in the eyes of the SMEs, are lack of financial resources and inability to manage innovation process. Since different understandings of the term \"\"Innovation Management System\"\" (IMS) have been noted the EC has supported European Committee for Standardization to provide the stakeholders with a unified definition of relevant parts in the IMS. According to this definition the most important parts of IMS include company\'s innovation processes from idea generation to innovation result, but also leadership, management skills and other enabling factors, like the ability to cooperate with third parties like RD partners, clients, and suppliers.
The objective of this project in Slovenia was to enable SMEs to bridge the knowledge gap in innovation management, get aware of shortages and improve their internal innovation management system and/or focus on achieving market value with their inventions. The consortium proposed to achieve these objectives through: 1.) Enhancing the Innovation Management Capacity of SMEs. The beneficiaries received diagnostic of their innovation system based on the SME-Mpower tool. This lead to the formation of tailored action plan to improve the SMEâ€™s capacity to better manage innovation.2.) Key Account Managers â€“ Facilitators for the H2020 SME Instrument. Key Account Managers role was to identify and source appropriate lead coaches (from predefined pool of coaches), facilitate linking the SMEs to innovation support services and to support the lead coach in delivering services to the SME. The SME Instrument participants received the most appropriate services and support to enhance the probability of successful exploitation of the innovation project and to leave a footprint for their future sustainable growth.

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Work performed

In the reporting period, 2017-2018, project partners supported overall 21 SMEs with KAM services and 43 SMEs with EIMC services. Slovenian SMEs mostly appreciate and understand the value added by the coaches. Impact of the project is in-line with the demanded impact described in the Work programme as a direct impact brings a significantly enhanced growth and profitability of SMEs receiving the services. Furthermore, the KAM and EIMC service partners present services of Enterprise Europe Network to SME Instrument beneficiaries. SMEs were mostly interested in Individual Advisory Support services to support their own strategies and plans for internationalization and build-up of their own networks and client databases; information about reliable contacts in foreign countries, contacts of stakeholders and legislation in specific fields in Slovenia and abroad. Special care was given to invite the beneficiaries to related events being organized by the EEN. We promoted Phase 3 activities organized by EASME. The consortium partners will monitor the progress of SME Instrument beneficiaries and continue to support beneficiaries with EEN services.
In the project We4SMESLO_3 preparation phase the hardest thing was to predict the correct number of successful Slovenian SMEs applying for SME Instrument projects. Based on very successful applications by Slovenian SMEs in previous periods we predicted that trend will continue and thus planed provision 43 KAM services. The final number of concluded KAM services was 21, much lower than predicted (43). The main reason for lower number of KAM services concluded is the lower number of successful SME Instrument applications from Slovenian SMEs.
In the project proposal we envisaged a very lean and flexible management system â€“ knowing that the outcome of the SME instrument is unpredictable â€“ correctly allowing us to effectively distribute KAM services to the specific KAM and also to manage number of KAM cases versus EIMC services after each (SME Instrument) cut-off dates. In this respect we successfully served all SME Instrument beneficiaries coming from Slovenia and used the rest of resources for provision of EMIC services (43 EIMC services provided).
Overall consortium achieved 64 KAM and EIMC services provided, which is 4 less than planned (68). The consortium will make some corrections to better align provision of EIMC services to SMEs by introducing a half year internal reporting on cases compared to half year plans. Thus corrective actions will be proposed among partnership in order to achieve planned results.
On the basis of the SME_mPower tool Enterprise Europe Networkâ€™s services have been offered to SMEs. Mainly companies expressed interest for inclusion in the Enterprise Europe Network database particularly for international business cooperation, AMT subscriptions, participation at brokerage events (1 ASO achieved) and other advice and information support services (i.e. IP support services).

Final results

SME Instrument is well accepted among Slovenian SMEs due to simple formal procedure and relatively quick evaluation procedures, availability of more cut-off dates during the whole year and wide range of topic. Due to clear goals of Phase I and Phase II projects are easy to understand and consequently the implementation of projects is easier and in-line with companiesâ€™ processes. Support of Phase III will be crucial for success of SME Instruments beneficiaries in order to support introduction of products and/or services to the market and also to support needs of growing SMEs for capital, finances and other business support (e.g. talent scouting, IPR, legal counselling on BCC markets etc.).