SMEs are by far the most relevant actor in European
economy, thanks to their high contribution to the employment and value added
generation. Even in the last 10 years, characterised by two significant slow-down
of the European economy, SMEs have increased their employment, thus compensating
for the reduction in the labour-force undertaken by large enterprises.
The
‘digital economy’ is now an important challenge for SMEs. The introduction
of ICTs can be an opportunity to develop new management methodologies and for
accessing new markets. SMEs face more problems than larger companies in introducing
and effectively using these new technologies. Their traditional constraints
are still conditioning their development: difficulties in accessing the financial
markets, an R&D activity that generally is scarcely formalised and that
scarcely benefit from co-operation with research centres or universities, difficulties
in introducing formalised management tools, difficulties in accessing specialised
staff and competencies, etc.
The definition
of SMEs is based on the EU quantitative parameters: employment, assets
and turnover (i.e. any company with less than 250 employees). The BEEP analysis
will consider both single business units and networks of SMEs.
A BEEP working definition of the digital SME includes
three aspects:
- An
SME whose products and services are predominantly digital
- An
SME which uses digital methods as the primary means of carrying out core operations
- marketing, sales, service etc, (e.g. a pure dot.com)
- An
SME that exploits the benefits of digital methods to a significant extent
In this
domain, the digital economy will be defined as follows: all digital and networking
technologies or applications for information and communications.
In
this domain the focus will only be on SMEs evolution and on the ‘external’
factors, related to ‘digital economy’ that directly affects SMEs development.
This focus will result in addressing:
- Structural
changes in SME organisation and management related to the impact of digital
economy
- Changes
in the competitive scenario that may affect the SME evolution
- Interventions
and policy instruments that have contributed to fostering SME adaptation to
the digital economy
- Changing
business environments creating demand for digitised products and services
The possible cases to be addressed by the project can be divided
into two main categories:
- Success
and failure cases of SMEs that already apply digital solutions to their business.
The Project will focus upon the cases representing the optimal
performance of the 'digital SME' in one, more or all of the following:
- Performance/impact
of the 'digital SME' on management and organisation
- Performance/impact
of the 'digital SME' on the organisation/ management of supply chains
- Performance/impact
of the 'digital SME' on the market (customers)
- Performance/impact
of the 'digital SME' on the creation of (new) business opportunities
- Success
cases of programmes/projects supporting SMEs to become digital
SMEs
not yet ‘digital’ are the target of public-funded initiatives. The
collection and evaluation of initiatives aiming to help SMEs go digital will
focus on programmes and projects:
- Supporting
access to I&C physical networks (promoting SMEs to go on-line and develop
the necessary skills)
- Supporting
an SMEs 'ability to use' ICTs in its business, referring to:
-
Company organisation and management
- Supply
chains organisation and management
- Customer
relation management
- Development
of business opportunities
Two possible typologies of users are likely
to be interested in the cases analysed in the digital SME domain:
- Companies
and representatives of the private sector, looking for business success models.
These may also include investors in digital SMEs. These could include:
- SMEs
(cases should be traceable by sector/product and market), including e.g. gazelle
companies – fast growing small businesses
- Business
associations, e.g. for spawning new ideas into businesses (incubators)
- Public
authorities (project planners, policy makers, etc)
- Researchers
(universities, etc)
- Business
consultants
- Representative of the public sector
or of actors involved in the definition of information for better targeting
or improving programmes and policy initiatives for digital SMEs. These could
include:
- Business
support agencies
- Public
authorities (project planners, policy makers) at EU, national and regional
levels
- Researchers
(universities, etc)
- Business
consultants
Due to
the definition of two possible sub-domains, two different sets of indicators
will be proposed.
The first set of indicators relates to objectives and outputs
defined and pursued at the company level. Therefore, the level of ‘success’
refers to business indicators (such as turnover, rate of growth and profit,
value-added, employment added, export, unique web-site visitors), and to the
increase of employment (that is an ‘indirect’ effect of company improvement).
The second set of indicators refers to the aims of the public
planning and intervention.
In both cases, some outputs and CSFs can overlap more than
one objective.
Finally, for evaluating the SME success stories, the following
has ‘evaluation matrix’ has been created in which some SMEs basic
characteristics would be classified, for example in the following ways:
- Sectors
(industrial, service)
- Products
and product mix (i.e. multi-products, mono-products)
- Position
in the market (subcontractor, producer of final goods for other enterprises
or for final consumers, retailers)
- Technological
profile (mature, innovating, high tech)
- Typology
of markets served (export oriented, domestic market; uphill, downhill)
Objectives
|
Outputs
|
Possible CSF
|
- Increase
in the rate of profit, turnover export, employment
|
- Improved
quality products and services that are competitive on the global market
|
- Market
knowledge
- Awareness
of ICTs benefits and opportunities
- Improved
access to qualitative sources of information within the ICT/IST knowledge
society (providers, service centres, research centres)
- Diffusion
and application of knowledge management systems
- Human
resources
- Existence
of a strategic approach to the ‘digital economy’
- Knowledge
and application of standards
- Diffusion
of ICT equipment, software and contents within supply chains/SMEs networks
- Integration
in a innovative industrial cluster
- Access
to financial resources
|
|
Objectives
|
Outputs
|
CSFs
|
- Increase
the number and success of enterprises
|
- Increase
of the number of companies
- Estimated
- direct - employment creation
- Diversification
of the local economy into knowledge related activities
- Improvement
in affordability of services
- Increase
of regional income
|
- Existence
of an integrated strategic approach
- Integrated
projects aimed at developing the IS
- Clear
hierarchy of objectives
- Level
of co-financing from private sectors
- Clear
focus on target beneficiaries
- Level
of participation of the potential/actual local users
- Level
of ex-ante assessment of the users demand and needs
|
- Upgrade
regional competitiveness, trading and globalisation
|
- Market
accessibility for firms
- Increase
of exports
- Increase
of the ratio of high value-added products in the export
- Increase
in the start-up of new companies
- Increase
of the level of innovation within companies
- Diversification
of the local economy into knowledge related activities (in terms of
firms and of employment)
- Improvement
in affordability of services
- Strong
supply and delivery chains
|
- Diffusion
of ICT equipment, software and contents within supply chains and SMEs
- Market
knowledge
- Existence
of an integrated strategic approach
- Integrated
projects aimed at developing the IS
- Clear
hierarchy of objectives
- Level
of co-financing from private sectors
- Clear
focus on target beneficiaries
- Level
of participation of the potential/actual local users
- Level
of ex-ante assessment of the users demand and needs
|
- Maximise
the impact of digital economy within the companies
|
- Telecommunications
traffic growth
- Ratio
of voice to data telecom traffic
- Increase
of the service sector (related to ICTs)
- Improvement
in affordability of services
- Facilitate
and increase the access to ICTs networks
- Improve
human resources within the enterprises
- Promote
the diffusion of the new management tools and methodologies
|
- Affordability
of services
- Diffusion
of ICT equipment, software and contents within SMEs
- Knowledge
management systems
- Existence
of an integrated strategic approach
- Integrated
projects aimed at developing the IS
- Clear
hierarchy of objectives
- Level
of co-financing from private sectors
- Level
of participation of the potential/actual local users
- Level
of ex-ante assessment of the users demand and needs
|
|
Key objective
|
Action Lines
|
Actions
|
Beep domain coverage
|
- A
cheaper, faster and secure internet
|
- Easy
and faster access to a baseline resource of ICT solution providers
- Secure
networks and smart cards
|
- Improved
access to qualitative sources of information within the ICT/IST knowledge
society (providers and users)
|
- Partial
coverage by Digital SMEs domain (public intervention sub-domain)
- Indirect
coverage for action line N° 2
|
- Investing
in people and skills
|
- Increase
in the aquisition of ICT skills in institutions and the workplace
- Participation
for all in the knowledge-based economy
|
- Provision
of new learning skills in the use of ICT
- Development
of IT infrastructure that can facilitate these actions
|
- Direct
coverage by Digital SMEs domain
|
- Stimulate
the use of Internet
|
- Availability
of ‘user friendly’ interactive system
- Digital
content for global networks
|
|
- Direct
coverage by Digital SMEs domain (public intervention sub-domain)
|