Key Account Management (KAM) services for the beneficiaries of the SME Instrument
Each SME beneficiary of the Horizon 2020 SMEI has mandatory access to a free business innovation coaching service (3-days for Phase 1 beneficiaries and 12-days for Phase 2 beneficiaries) offered by the European Commission. These services are offered additionally to the grants received by the SMEs for their innovation project, with the main objective to help them overcome the challenge of bringing a new product or service to the market and, thus, bridge the so called innovation valley of death.
It is the role of the KAM to help the SME make the most of the coaching service, offering them a short list of suitable coaches to collaborate with and supporting them through all process.
In the period 2017-18 Catalan SMEs have had an excellent participation in the SMEI programme. 102 Catalan SMEs were awarded, a 4,89% of the total SMEs awarded in the programme. 73 SMEs were successful in Ph1, 28 in Ph2 and 1 in both.
All (100%) Catalan beneficiaries of the SMEI have been contacted and received KAM services. Furthermore, SMEs beneficiaries from previous SMEI cut-off received services too (cases started within project INNCAT 15-16).
In total, KAM services have been offered to 138 SMEs (84 in 2017 and 92 in 2018).
KAM services offered by ACCIÓ followed an easy 4-step process where 1) the company was contacted by the KAM to exchange general information. Once the company accepted receiving the service, a business innovation need analysis was performed using an open-source tool developed under the European Project sME-mPOWER; 2) The result of the analysis was used by the KAM to select at least 3 suitable coaches from the European Commission Database; 3) the company selected the coach and started the business coaching sessions; 4) the service was closed and KAM gathered feedback for improving forthcoming services.
In the sum, 63 cases were completed (31 in 2017 and 32 in 2018).
Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity for innovating SMEs
To help improve innovation management capacities in SMEs, ACCIÓ offered to Catalan SME assessment services using IMP3rove and Innovation Health Check (IHC), two tools that demonstrate compliance to the innovation management standard CEN/TS 16555-1. The services were offered by highly qualified senior staff trained in using IMP3rove and IHC and with experience delivering EIMC to SMEs.
The EIMC service for SMEs followed a 4-step process where selected SME with willingness to grow 1) received an assessment in Innovation Management capacity using the IMP3rove or IHC methodology; 2) based on the assessment needs/gap analysis results, an action plan was presented to the company; 3) the SME decided to implement the action plan and; 4) the case is closed and feedback was provided to ACCIÓ.
Once the service has finished, companies should be in a better position to manage its internal innovation processes in such a way that they were not only aligned with, but fully integrated into the company's overall business development and growth strategy.
ACCIÓ delivered EIMC services to 32 SMEs (17 started the EIMC process during the period 2017-2018).
On the other hand, during the period 2017-2018, 24 services were closed (5 that started in 2015, 10 in 2016 and 9 in 2017). Therefore, 8 will continue being open during 2019.
