The innovation services were operated by 4 specialised partners among the 9 partners of the Walloon consortium.
- the KAM service: the service was proposed to all the Walloon beneficiaries from SME Instrument grants.
Wallonia got 5 cases during the reporting period 2015-2016. Four of them have been processed during the period. The latter one will be processed beginning of 2017. All the cases were phase 1 cases.
Until June 2016, the coaching service was optional for beneficiaries. During this first period, Wallonia got 2 files. One company, already EEN client, accepted the coaching service and was therefore helped by an EEN advisor to identify a coach corresponding to its needs.
During the last semester of the project, Wallonia got 3 more cases. As the coaching service began to be mandatory for all beneficiaries from July 2016, these cases were duly taken in charge by the Walloon EEN team resulting into 2 successful cases and the last one planned for early 2017.
- the EIMC service: the first objective of the period were to check whether proposed tools are adapted to Walloon SME through field tests among selected clients. Two real-life field tests, one with Improve and one with the tool CCI MAP developed in France, both agreed tools, were performed. As a result, it appeared that CCI MAP was more convenient because developed with a mind-set closer to the working environment of Walloon SMEs.
Another objective was to integrate the new service in the Walloon framework of support services to innovate Walloon SMEs. As this framework is closely linked to the ERDF projects and that the start of those projects was delayed until fall 2016, the provision of EIMC service was also delayed.
It is therefore expected to really start this activity during the first quarter of 2017.
