"The project “P2P Digital” addresses the problem recognized by most European national governments and the European Commission, that there are increased demands of digitalisation of SMEs in order to maintain and extend European competitiveness.
Digitalisation is an integral and vital part of the future Industry 4.0 which will be driven by a new generation of information technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data and data analytics, robotics, artificial intelligence and 3D printing. While many big companies can allocate resources to research, innovation and implementation, many SMEs are lagging and there are also large differences between regions and sectors in their uptake of digitalisation.
There is an urgent need to find measures which can increase the speed and ease of adoption of SME of digitalisation. Some of these options can include the successful use of ICT vouchers, methods of putting SME in touch with experts / research / approved technological centres, skills to support innovation among digital SMEs.
The five partner-organisations from five business and innovation development centres or agencies in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Sweden have a common recognition, that the support to SMEs of digitalization could be collectively enhanced by a peer learning approach.
The overall objective of ""P2P Digital"" is to provide innovation support institutions in regions across Europe with insight into parameters upon which initiatives can be based or refined, with regards to methodologies that can increase digitalisation in SMEs.
Through the project a Design Option Paper (DOP) about “Digitalisation Support to SMEs” was produced. This paper is the result of studying multiple initiatives that aim to improve the awareness and ability of SMEs to take advantage of digital technology in their administrative, manufacturing or sales and marketing processes.
The study shows that the five participating countries and regions are all dedicated to work with initiatives that address the issue of digitalization with a focus on SMEs. Each agency has chosen initiatives that represent and are characteristic for their region or country, and these examples demonstrate a variety of mechanisms that should be taken into consideration when designing such initiatives or programs. Studies show that SMEs are generally less digitalized than larger companies, and many of the initiatives work with financial incentives to encourage SMEs to address barriers to adopting digital technology in their operation, work processes or market relations.
Although most of the initiatives can be characterised as “voucher” programs, there is a great variety in for example, program size, budget, number of recipients and administrative processes.
The DOP can be used as a template for learning within the project-partners, as well as a conduit for further communication to other business and innovation support organisations that are involved in digitalisation of SMEs.
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