In terms of QUALITY for the the EIC Accelerator, FET Open and FTI beneficiaries :
- When granted, the companies immediately had a professional and entitled interlocutor (that’s to say the KAM – Key Account Manager) to rely on for needs analysis, identification of the most suitable coach, advice on the project deployment and its next steps. This has proven to be very appreciated by the companies.
- Actually, in a very short timeframe, the KAM has been able to assess the main needs of each beneficiary assigned and identify THE coach that was going help them boost their growth beyond their current boundaries. This has been a sometimes burdensome task for the KAM, but has yielded very good results.
- The KAM’s availability during the coaching process and for the submission of the report at the end of the period has also proven to be efficient for the companies.
In terms of QUALITY for the EIMC services (although premature to assess the long-term impact of services delivered during 2020-2021) :
The benefit to have an objective/external view on:
• Where the company stands now and where it wants to be in the future
• Identify the company’s strength and weaknesses in terms of innovation management
• Establish how innovation-oriented the company is
• Bring the company’s innovation capabilities to the next level
• Take decisions based on facts and priority areas for improvement
• Challenge the company’s vision and objectives
• Start-up companies used the services in order to structure their innovation processes.
Worthwhile mentioning for this group of services (EIMC):
The Innovation Advisors (IA) adapted the way the services were deployed: because of the COVID crisis, these services were delivered by remote. Taking into account their specificities, even more attention was put on the preparation phase, and the assessment itself. At that specific phase, the IAs designed a dynamic based on the split of the assessment parts over 2 IA, so as to better manage from remote the interaction with the companies’ teams, put a changing and personal style for the different dimensions undergoing the evaluation, making the conceptual links with synergic knowledges and experiences, arrange the sessions with suitable mini-breaks in order to keep the virtual assessment as a positive experience. This was appreciated by the SMEs and adopted as well in the released workshops when assessment’s outputs and recommendations are presented, as well as in additional workshops run to facilitate the deployment of one given recommendation.
In terms of QUANTITY:
hub.brussels overachieved the target of completed the KAM service for the expected to be granted under the 2020-2021 contract period, with an overall of 7 successful cases out of the 2 set as an objective. On top of this, 20 Seals of Excellence in the Brussels Capital Region were as well supported - via Enterprise Europe Brussels - towards other options, including where possible COSME services or discussion with hub.brussels financial experts for further actions (investors/assessment of financial needs) and meeting with NCP-team for signposting to regional funding agency.
For the EIMC services, hub.brussels successfully fulfilled the number of cases opened under the 2020-2021 contract period, keeping the balance with the KAM services. Therefore, 15 selected SMEs benefited from these services.
The total number of beneficiaries under the two types of services was 22 companies over the year.
hub.brussels deployed the action in line with the IS-Implementation Strategy and notably by applying the funnel approach. This approach was adopted both for the communication (general / universal awareness raising on a panoply of supports and channels down to targeted communication to a very precise community of players) and for the identification and above-all selection of companies entitled to access these services.
