Services in Support for Business and Innovation in Croatia - Key Account Management - SSBI-CRO-KAM4

Project Information

SSBI-CRO-KAM4

Grant agreement ID: 831298

DOI

10.3030/831298

Project closed

EC signature date 1 February 2019

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 37 075,60

EU contribution

€ 37 075,60

Coordinated by

CROATIAN CHAMBER OF ECONOMY CCE
Croatia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SSBI-CRO-KAM4 (Services in Support for Business and Innovation in Croatia - Key Account Management - SSBI-CRO-KAM4)

Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overall objective of this action was to continue with the provision of the innovation support services addressing Croatian SMEs with significant innovation activities, and in particular the beneficiaries of the SME instrument, FTI and FTE-Open. This was the continuation of the activities started with previous Key Account Management activities. In order to address the sever lack of innovation creation processes in SMEs and consequently almost complete absence of successful innovation management activities, the partners based all their activities on a client-centric approach, providing fully integrated services to the SMEs. This approach had a positive impact on the SMEs, leading to their enhanced growth and profitability.

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

Based on the findings from the previous actions and on the analysis of the needs and of the potential of the region, the consortium defined the service packages that will be delivered: 8 service packages for KAM and 15 service packages for EIMC.
As the delivery of the KAM services in 2018. was lower than planned, we focused the activities on promoting EU funding for innovation by organizing info days, roadshows, workshops and through direct contact with the companies. Unfortunately, the availability of national structural funds for innovation, with much higher success rate and much lower competition, caused the decrease in application number to SME Instrument, compared to previous years. The total amount available through the structural funds for the innovations and competitiveness of the SMEs in Croatia (for the period 2014-2020) was 1.634.792.000 EUR. This is the reason why we didn’t have any new client for KAM despite all our activities.
Project partners focused on the delivery of the services to the 2 cases started in 2018: one was finalized and the other is having trouble in the delivery of the coaching services (described in detail in the final report on KAM services). The project partners provided continuous scale-up support to the projects finalized during year 2018-2019., leading to a significantly enhanced growth and profitability (described in detail in the next paragraph).
The consortium delivered 1 out of 8 planned KAM services.
The EIMC services were delivered even more than planned dynamics (16 out of 15), even if one of the project partners (HAMAG-BICRO) experienced lack in human capacities for performing envisaged activities. The consortia redistributed the tasks among other partners in order to ensure the delivery of the services. At this moment we still cannot measure the impact of the services on these clients (the period is too short). The clients that received the services during the period 2017-2018 improved their innovation management activities, which led to their enhanced growth and profitability (described in detail in the next paragraph).

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)

The impact of all the activities on clients’ performance in terms of significantly enhanced growth and profitability is visible in many cases. Some of the examples are:
- The company FOXY d.o.o. that received the KAM service in 2018. was signposted to our COSME partner that helped them to apply for the national Proof of Concept. They received 60.000 EUR for the further development of their product.
- The company ALVEUS d.o.o. that received KAM services in 2018.-2019. improved their position on the market by finding a distributor of their innovative composite repairs technology
- The company VENTEX d.o.o. that received the EIMC services in 2018. focused more on the innovation activities and received in December 2019. a grant of 26.500 EUR for the commercialization of their innovation
- The company M.G.S. grupa that received the EIMC services in 2018. realized the innovation potential they have within the company. In November 2018 they applied for the Proof of Concept fund (with the support of the COSME advisors) and received the grant of 27.000,00 EUR for their innovative fire-fighting vehicle
- The company ADRICOM d.o.o. that received the EIMC services in 2018. applied in 2019. for the Proof of Concept fund and received a grant of 18.000,00 EUR.

EIC Roadshow

EIC Roadshow