Both service packages, offered by Enterprise Europe Network Bremen as an integral part to other activities, has contributed to the enhancement of innovation management capacities in the respective enterprises. In 2020/21 there were two beneficiaries for the SME Instrument in the Federal state of Bremen. The consortium has been able to deliver all fourteen planned EIMC services to SMEs in the Federal state of Bremen.
The EIMC services were provided to enterprises with significant potential for innovation and internationalisation. The actions have met the different objectives of the call and helped to unlock the latent potential within the beneficiary companies. The used methods have shown to be widely accepted as they demand close cooperation between the beneficiaries and the innovation management experts and therefore are very transparent. The actions have been linkable to advantages for the beneficiaries, i.e. in the optimization of quality processes, enhancement of international marketing and sales, definition of new target groups, methods for the systematic development of products and services products or granted national funding. By delivering the EIMC services the beneficiaries receiving these services were also enabled to improve their innovation management as they learned about the Innovation Management System that has been used during the consultancy (DD in-house Innovation Review Tool, basis: technical specification CEN/TS 16555-1, published by the European Commission).
The services are expected to influence the innovation management capacities in the significant fields of business operation of the companies. The aim is to initiate growth with the implementation of tailor-made action plans. The different ways of growth are derived from short- and long-term goals of the companies and are therefore individual. Measurable impacts so far have ranged from adjusting business plans to identifying new marketing strategies, new market opportunities and identifying cooperation partners. SMEs that were willing to improve their competitiveness in the context of globalized and internationalized market through the improvement of their innovation processes and management are convinced of the positive effects that these applied changes will have based on the advices and assistance provided during the EIMC services. Even if they didn’t immediately account to an increase in their sales or turnover, they were expecting valuable returns on the services received. These impacts are in line with the Implementation Strategy of Enterprise Europe Network Bremen, namely the objective to facilitate access to European and international markets for SMEs and to provide growth-oriented, integrated business and innovation support services that help strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of European enterprises.
