There are two main objectives the Consortium aimed to achieve by delivering KAM And EIMC services under the project KAM2CentralPoland-3.
The first objective was to ensure that the beneficiaries of the following schemes: EIC SME Instrument (SMEI) now called EIC Accelerator, Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and Future and Emerging Technologies Open (FET-Open) – now called Pathfinder received the most appropriate services to enhance the probability of successful exploitation of the innovation project supported by the schemes and and to create conditions for sustainable growth of the beneficiaries thanks to the help of coaches able to identify bottlenecks and indicate solutions. This objective was implemented by the tailor made service of The Key Account Manager (KAM). The second objective was to build its own brand of a reliable organization that provided valuable and comprehensive services, which helped to increase the innovation management capacity to the business community, and in particular to innovative SMEs. This objective were implemented by a specially designed activity called Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs (EIMC), addressed to SMEs with a real potential for international growth via product, process, service or business model innovation but lack the knowledge, skills or ability to manage innovation activities. A lack of capacity for innovation management is recognized as an important barrier which adversely influences the development of SMEs. Most of Polish companies are small, privately owned entities. A majority have advanced their business by introducing new technologies and equipment, but still not a large number of them recognize the need of creating their own new products or solutions. These companies usually tap on the low cost of human resources which allows them to compete on local or international markets. Even when welcomed by companies, the innovation process is hard to be initiated. SMEs have limited financial and human resources, and most of them do not know how to identify their strengths and weaknesses. They often struggle with inadequate access to quality consulting and coaching services. These shortcomings were addressed by the EEN-CP consortium providing EIMC services in accordance with the widely recognized Innovation Health Check and IMP3ove methodologies. A relatively small number of innovation-developing companies in Poland have benefited from Horizon 2020 programs such as SME Instrument, FTI and FET-Open. According to the NCP statistics in the years 2014-2020 (as of 02/02/2020), 3,699 SMEs applied for grants in Horizon 2020 but only 348 SMEs were successful (out of which 108 were SMEI beneficiaries). During the last 4 years, the majority of those companies is the group that have been offered access to more sophisticated forms of assistance, such as coaching provided by highly specialized international experts. That allowed them to accelerate the process of innovation and quickly deliver their solutions to the international market. Such assistance also helped them to apply for further funding available from public and private sources. Nowadays, coaching and mentoring are quite popular and are offered as added value in different schemes, therefore the companies are willing to benefit from this kind of services. Although many of them lack experience necessary to identify the right coaches and to take best advantage from their services. They usually have limited access to databases containing profiles of coaches, and particularly coaches with proven track record in supporting SMEs on the international stage. Key Account Management (KAM) services provided by the Consortium were aimed to address these problems.
Both the KAM and EIMC services were compatible with the general offers of the Consortium partners, which allowed the latter to deliver services targeted at different stages of company development.
