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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 (ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 SERVICES TO ENHANCE THE INNOVATION MANAGEMENT CAPACITY OF GREEK SMEs)

Teaser

Summary

ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 partners were mandated to offer a set of innovation related services to their clients with the view to support their capacity to manage and improve their innovation process. Specifically, consortium partners were focused on working with clients to support them with key element of the innovation route such as internal processes for inspiring innovation as part of the business development efforts, improving internationalisation capability as well as investing in networking to form partnerships, seek new market channels and clients. For consortium partners, the end results always remain to have an impact on the competitiveness and further growth potential of its clients.
With regards to the EIMC service partners adopted and implemented the IMPÂ³rove approach. As IMPÂ³rove consultants partners were faced with a few challenging issues but managed to overcome them and offer the service effectively. Key to that was identifying the most suitable clients for the service as well as capitalising on the existing strong relationships with clients that allows for sound understanding of their needs. With regards to offering the KAM service ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 used the case tracker platform to identify the coach, develop the action plan and manage and document the whole coaching process. Key to the success of the service was again assessing successfully the clientsâ€™ needs and identifying the most suitable coach as well as following closely and overlooking the process. Equally important was offering feedback based on their own experience as well as from feedback gathered from the client.
Through the service provision ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 partners managed to identify and attract clients with the capacity to innovate and internationalise on the one hand and focused on offering support to SME Instrument beneficiaries on the other. The service was then orientated on providing tools and tailored services to improve their capacity to manage innovation processes. This meant giving them the opportunity to benchmark themselves and their activities against peers in other countries as well as opening up the path to allow them to fully utilize the opportunities offered under the SME Instrument.
The overall impact of ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 is that for a large number of EEN clients it managed to raise awareness on the importance of innovation management as tool for boosting entrepreneurial competitiveness. In addition, it identified for clients bottlenecks to avoid, activities to adopt and how to use networking and business development to stay at the forefront of their industry developments. Finally, ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 was a strong example of how innovation management services can be offered at high quality and how they stimulate innovation capacity and boost business acumen.
URL: www.enterprise-hellas.gr

Work performed

\"WP1 Key Account Management services for the beneficiaries of the SMEs Instrument
i. Overview of the progress towards the objectives
Consortium partners (2 partners) responsible for carrying out the specific activity offered 6 KAM services during the first year and 12 during the second year.
This section is elaborated properly through the PDF final report submitted - please refer to the pdf file.

ii. Issues encountered and actions taken to address them and improve performance and results
This section is elaborated properly through the PDF final report submitted - please refer to the pdf file.

iii. KAM summary table

WP1 â€“ KAM services
2015 2016
# SMEs/clients served 6 11
# of Phase 1 6 7
# of Phase 2 4

WP2 Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity for innovating SMEs
i. Overview of the progress towards the objectives
Consortium partners delivered the service to 43 clients during the first year and 90 during the second year. This section is elaborated properly through the PDF final report submitted - please refer to the pdf file.

ii. Issues encountered and actions taken to address them and improve performance and results
This section is elaborated properly through the PDF final report submitted - please refer to the pdf file.

iii. EIMC summary table

WP2 â€“ EIMC services
2015 2016
# SMEs/clients served, 43 90
\"

Final results

Consortium partners did well over the two-years in providing the KAM and EIMC services to their clients. Clients see these as important services that will add value to their plans for growth, being innovative as well as staying competitive within their field. Being given to opportunity to measure your capability against competitors or by being coached to implement efficiently a set of activities within the SME Instrument framework was well received and appreciated. Although consortium partners came across a number of hurdles with applying the IMPÂ³rove tool and methodology in some cases, they managed to find the ways to overcome these and highlight to the client the valuable elements of the process. To this end the strong relationships of the consortium partners with clients is key.

This section is elaborated properly through the PDF final report submitted - please refer to the pdf file.

ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 partners involved in with KAM services focused their efforts over the past two years on supporting their clients to identify weaknesses in the innovation capacities that hinder realisation of growth opportunities and their respective commercial potential. In addition, partners focused on the SME Instrument and the particular opportunities it holds for clients. More specifically partners focused on promoting the opportunities offered by the SME Instrument in the framework of Horizon 2020 and to accompany the client through the submission process or the through the project phase. For the purpose of such task, partners focused on screening the database and identifying the most suitable coaches to support a strong coach-client relationship.

Concerning input fed back to the process we note that consultants were restricted from receiving appropriate replies/feedback from clients in an integrated and workable way. Instead, consultants receive client input only through a reporting module which is not thorough and which doesnâ€™t support the consultants in feeding the action plan with appropriate input.

With regards to enhancing the innovation management capacity of clients, ENHANCEMENT 2015-16 partners focused on identifying the exploiting their innovation potential for export and internationalization. To achieve this, partners focused on providing in-depth identification and analysis on the elements lagging between the innovation capabilities of the clients and their innovation goals. Furthermore, emphasis was placed on encouraging clients to explore their research and technological potential and focus their activities of commercialisation of innovative technologies, products and services to increase their profit.

The results of the concentrated efforts towards enhancing the innovation capacity of suitable consortium clients led to increased competitiveness. This, was achieved as clients had the possibility to benchmark themselves against peers in the same sector in other countries to identify innovation weaknesses and alternative modes of work. This is turn allowed client to proceed with necessary corrective actions and to shape/update their own action plans to stay at the forefront of their field.