TOPIC2INNO : Implementation of services enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs by the Enterprise Europe Network TOPIC

Project Information

TOPIC2INNO

Grant agreement ID: 674856

DOI

10.3030/674856

Project closed

EC signature date 20 August 2015

Start date 1 January 2015

End date 31 December 2016

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 613 841,25

EU contribution

€ 613 841,00

Coordinated by

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE ET D'INDUSTRIE DE REGION PARIS ILE-DE-FRANCE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TOPIC2INNO (TOPIC2INNO : Implementation of services enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs by the Enterprise Europe Network TOPIC)

Reporting period: 2015-01-01 to 2016-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

A. KAM mission (Key Account Manager)
The goals of the KAM during this trial period consisted of mentoring services as:
 To identify weaknesses in the innovation capacities of the beneficiary that hinders the realisation of growth opportunities and of the full commercial potential of SME Instrument participants.
 To identify suitable coaches (based on the assessment above) to address the identified weaknesses and moderating the coach-client relationship.
 To accompany the beneficiary through the SME instrument project.
B. Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity (EIMC) or IMSA.
IMSA stands for Innovation Management System Advisor.
For information, we have chosen a tool developed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Auvergne-France called Check’Innov to do the assessment based on the CEN/TS16555-1 standard.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

A. KAM mission (Key Account Manager)
60 SMEs in the TOPIC geographical area were beneficiaries of the SME instrument and were monitored by the KAM team in Paris Region Entreprises.
We have followed the process below:
Initiate: Contact with the SME and initial offer to provide KAM.
Step 1: The assessment of gaps and needs has been made on the basis of the CoachCom2020 methodology.
Step 2: Pre-selection of coaches and selection of the best match between the SME needs and coaches’ offer.
Step 3: Facilitation of coach-SME relationship and support to the establishment of the coaching plan.

Paris Region Entreprises organized 25 SME instrument workshops in the period in cooperation with stakeholders (clusters) to review SME projects and advise them in the application to SME instrument calls. 75 companies benefitted from these workshops over the two years.
Moreover Paris Region Entreprises set up a community of SME instrument beneficiaries. Two sessions were held in July and November 2016 to discuss access to finance, the management of the EC grant, and the coach service.

B. Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity (EIMC) or IMSA.
During the period, 59 companies benefited from an EIMC service.
A dedicated tool called “Innoquiz” was designed to raise awareness about the service in TOPIC geographical area. The tool gives an opportunity to any SME to make a quick first assessment of its situation with regard to its innovation management capacity, and to identify areas of progress that can be address with the EIMC service.
Innoquiz is available at http://www.parisregionentreprises.org/offres-accompagnement/linnovation-comme-levier-de-croissance-pour-votre-entreprise
The following steps were achieved:
Promotion: Selection of candidates – Assessment of SME suitability for the service
The candidates are selected on the basis of their ambition and motivation, and against a list of criteria to check:
 Strong interest for European / international markets (maturity to go international, awareness that further development is associated by a capacity to go international through innovation),
 Combination of strong assets for European cooperation and international growth with bottlenecks on a set of innovation management aspects.
Step 1 & 2: Action plan preparation. This includes two steps
 Assess innovation management capacity based on performance
 Needs / gaps analysis and action plan development

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

http://www.parisregionentreprises.org/actualites/info-ile-de-france/sme-instrument-le-programme-qui-finance-les-google-facebook-uber

http://www.parisregionentreprises.org/actualites/actualite-de-lagence/les-laureates-de-linstrument-pme-se-retrouvent-chez-paris-region

Synthèse Norme CEN/TS 16555-1