In the 2020-2021 period the EEN-Ukraine consortium had the opportunity to offer KAM and EIMC services for Ukrainian SMEs. All specialists involved in the project from the EEN-Ukraine Consortium constantly improve their skills by participating in various training to keep in touch with the IMP³ROVE – European Innovation Management Academy and receive all necessary consultation and advice. The KAM and EIMC services have been presented in Ukraine since 2017, so representatives of the EEN-Ukraine Consortium continue promoting them during information campaigns in order to bring new opportunities for Ukrainian SMEs. To attract more innovative clients the consortium used the hub-and-spoke model. A number of channels were created to disseminate information on the prospects and benefits of passing the Imp3rove innovation and digital assessments. The network of Information partners of the consortium, which includes offices of business support organizations in all regions of Ukraine, was also used to disseminate information about the Network and its successes stories. Various ways of cooperation with other projects, such as EEN, and the capacities of each partner based on its regular work were used to implement the client-centric approach. In total, 85% of the companies that passed any type of assessment received additional EEN services, which in most cases has already led to a positive impact on their business.
The EIMC service aims at promising SMEs which show significant growth potential and have real potential for innovation via proper development of their products, processes, services, or business model but who lack the right skills, knowledge, and experience to manage the innovation activities.
The main benefits that companies receive from the EIMC service are the following:
- A clear vision of their strengths and weaknesses compared with other companies, contributes to the competitiveness of SMEs.
-Companies are starting to think about the development of their innovative potential and begin to develop documentation for the implementation of the innovative strategy of the enterprise.
-The Action plan helps SMEs implement concrete ideas in the development of an enterprise's innovation strategy.
-Participation in the Assessment of the status of the innovation management system in the company helps to move from random innovative actions to their systematization.
The KAM service was focused on SMEs which have been successful in applying for the Horizon2020 Program focused on scale-up, such as SME Phase II and EIC accelerator.
According to the feedback from Ukrainian SMEs which used KAM and EIMC services, it was a great step for them in a way of professional development in the field of innovation management. They got a vision of a coherent image of the company based on innovative projects, systematization of the process of collecting feedback from customers, establishing close cooperation with the local and external partners, identifying strong and weak company points, etc. Many companies have already received extra value from innovation efforts, created new jobs, receive profit and some clients' success stories have been highly acclaimed internationally.
