Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - KAMINLER (KAMINLER – KAM and Innovation services for SMEs in Lombardia and Emilia Romagna)

Teaser

The objective of the project was to provide a new Enterprise Europe Network service to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs in Lombardy and in Emilia-Romagna. The project has been implemented by three partners of the EEN SIMPLER Consortium, Finlombarda, the...

Summary

The objective of the project was to provide a new Enterprise Europe Network service to enhance the innovation management capacity of SMEs in Lombardy and in Emilia-Romagna. The project has been implemented by three partners of the EEN SIMPLER Consortium, Finlombarda, the coordinator, ASTER and CCIAA di Milano/Innovhub SSI.
The work plan consisted of two work packages, one for each typology of services:
- WP1: “Key account management” for the beneficiaries of the SME instrument
- WP2: “Enhancing SME innovation management capacity” for innovating SME independently from a specific project.
EEN partners in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, despite the short-time available to carry out the project, have successfully delivered Key Account Management services to the beneficiaries of the SME Instrument of Horizon 2020 and supported particularly promising SMEs to improve their capacity to manage innovation processes.
The new services were provided to two target groups of companies:
- Beneficiaries of the SME Instrument: the partners contacted and involved all SMEs that have received funding in Phase 1 SME Instrument - Horizon 2020 (Emilia-Romagna Region 3; Lombardia Region 9). The SMEs that required and used the services were 8 (Emilia-Romagna Region 2; Lombardia Region 6).
- SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalization with reference to the Innovation Management Service (IM): the service, well integrated with other Enterprise Europe Network activities, was provided to companies located in the two regions, selected on the basis of different criteria: “predisposition to innovation”, area of activity, investments in research, participation in research projects or involvement in other innovation activities of Enterprise Europe Network.

Work performed

WP1: “Key account management”- The partners, led by CCIAA Milano/InnovhubSSI assessed the needs of the companies and identified the lead coaches and facilitated the SME/coach interaction.
The action produced the following numeric results:
- N° 8 SME Instrument beneficiary companies received Key Account Management services, within the purposes of WP1 activities (delivered to SME Instrument Phase 1 beneficiaries only, in connection to the H2020 SME Instrument calls timing).
WP2: “Enhancing SME innovation management capacity” - the partners, led by ASTER, assessed SMEs suitability to the service, assessed innovation management capacity based on performance with the support of IMP3rove tool (realizing a “Benchmarking report”), carried out needs/gaps analysis and designed an Action Plan which was delivered to companies and implemented.
The action produced the following numeric results:

- N° 11 SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation, were supported for the enhancement of their innovation management activities.
Both innovation services were successfully delivered to companies and, from a qualitative point of view, have been considered extremely useful. The services have been integrated into Enterprise Europe Network innovation support services.

Final results

From a numeric point of view the impact was relatively modest, due in particular to the fact that project implementation time was significantly reduced by contract delays and limited really to the last three months of 2014.
From a qualitative point of view, the action had a strong impact on the capacities of SMEs:
- KAM: services were delivered in a timely manner and coaching support was considered very useful by the companies; this was also demonstrated by the fact that all companies that benefited from the services submitted a Phase 2 proposal.
- Innovation Management: services were considered very useful by the beneficiaries in terms of improvement of their innovation capacities. This appreciation was measured by the partners, who collected a first feedback (“Short term feedback”) at the end of the assessment and will collect a second one (“Long term feedback”) after nine months. All “Short term feedback collected were positive.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.simplernet.it.