STIMULATING AND SUPPORTING NEW BUSINESS IN IRELAND

ICT-VN Helping SMEs go Digital

By Joan Fahey, March 25, 2011

ICT-VN is a European project involved in the promotion of ICT usage among SMEs, particularly SMEs in the agri-food, tourism and services sectors. The aim is to support companies to improve their competitiveness, to transform business models, to promote networking and to improve regional economic competitiveness.

Specific objectives of the project include:

• To identify good practices at policy level, implemented within the participant regions and the EU, where policies and its instruments have promoted ICTs usage in SMEs as a tool to networking and accelerating innovation

• To bring together decision-makers and key stakeholders from different regions in Europe in order to exchange experiences and knowledge in ICT's promotion initiatives in business

• To select the best practices for a deeper study and evaluation of their innovativeness, the networking involvement, effectiveness and efficiency, policy reach as well as potential and critical points to be transferred

• To develop a ‘Good Practices Transfer Process Plan’ that will include in its scope the initial identification of good practices and the final transfer of such good practices in less experienced regions by the commitment of ‘Regional Transfer Action Plans’

• To produce and disseminate a methodology to ease the future deployment of such successful experiences

• To involve regional final beneficiaries (SMEs) in the project activities to facilitate the exchanges and cooperation among them

• To increase the degree of cooperation among SMEs in Europe at a regional and interregional level by obtaining from the exchanges real networking experiences based on ICT

If you are interested in learning more about ICT-VN, contact Michael Ward mward@westbic.ie