Almost half of the Catalan companies with between 10 and 49 employees have applied for the digital bonus to digitize their businesses during the first two months since the call was opened. The aid, of up to 12,000 euros depending on the size of the company, will allow SMEs to invest in various technological solutions, such as the design of their website, customer management and electronic commerce or cybersecurity.
In the coming months, it is planned that there will be two more calls, one for SMEs with between three and 10 employees and another for SMEs and freelancers with between one and three workers. The Digital Kit program bonus, which some of the first SMEs that have requested it have already begun to receive, is part of the Recovery Plan for the Digitization of Small Businesses, Micro-businesses and the Self-Employed, which has a budget of more than three million euros, which will be distributed until 2023 financed by European Next Generation funds.
To analyze how the process works so that they can apply for this aid, Dialogues at La Vanguardia, with the collaboration of BBVA, organized the telematic meeting "The opportunity of European funds for the digitization of SMEs". The debate included the participation of the director of the BBVA Catalunya SME segment, Juan Carlos Alba; the CEO and co-founder of Vola, Victor Giró; the manager of Minsait Consulting, Marta Cunill; and Picber's administration manager, Josep Mas. Alba, at the beginning of the meeting, valued the "ambitious challenge" that the Government has set in its digital agenda for 2025 "so that a quarter of companies leverage the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the analysis of data or the management of electronic commerce, since digitization is key to economic recovery after the pandemic.”
Cunill encouraged SMEs "not to be afraid and not to be reluctant to bet on these aids, since they are not grants that are difficult to access". For the manager of Minsait Consulting, the Government "has greatly simplified the concession process to ensure that European funds end up reaching SMEs". The funds, he points out, are channeled directly through the Acelera Pyme platform (acelerapyme.gob.es), where interested companies must carry out a self-diagnosis test in terms of digitization and access the list of digitizing agents that are providers authorized by the administration to execute the solutions in the SMEs that receive the aid. Technology “allows SMEs to grow sustainably and empowers people in their work, allowing them to reconcile work and personal life”, agreed Giró. Her company is authorized by Red.es as a digitizing agent, a condition that allows her to sign agreements to provide digitization solutions with the beneficiaries of the Kit Digital program and holders of the voucher to accompany SMEs in their digital transformation processes.
“We have registered as a digitizing agent to provide good advice to clients. The day to day catches them a bit and we try to establish priorities based on the help of the digital kit”, revealed the CEO and co-founder of Vola. One of these clients, who has requested the digital bonus, is the company from the livestock sector Picber. “In a one hundred percent traditional sector, such as ours, the technological evolution is less pronounced. However, the fact of being able to have direct communication between offices, farms and factories has allowed us to have a flexibility that previous generations would not have even imagined”, celebrated Picber's administration manager, Josep Mas. “We have opted for internal communication for relocation for telecommuting of employees and the improvement of communication between offices through cloud switchboards. It has been an exciting challenge”, said Mas himself.
The process of technological transformation, the experts clarify, is different for each business. The director of the BBVA Catalunya SME segment considered that "there are many possibilities to go digital, so each company must approach it according to its circumstances, because each one is in a different situation."
For her part, the manager of the Minsait consultancy explained that “to carry out a diagnosis, establish the main objectives to be achieved, design the action plan and implement it. And once finished carry out the corresponding follow-up”. Digitizing agents provide solutions in different areas: website and internet presence; social network management; electronic commerce; Customer Management; virtual office tools and services; artificial intelligence and analytics; process management; Electronic bill; secure communications; and cybersecurity.
Based on these technological solutions, depending on the company's objectives and its starting point, according to Marta Cunill, there are "five main lines of action: create an online store to expand its potential clientele, multiplying exponentially the possible sales of the business; get new customers with technologies that position you against the competition; retain the current customer portfolio, moving from reactive actions to proactive actions that allow you to anticipate customer needs; optimize processes and automate, for example through chatbots on websites to answer the most frequent questions from customers, and acquire digital knowledge, so that there are professionals in the company who can carry out technological projects”.
SMEs make up most of the business fabric, since "99% of companies have fewer than 50 employees and those with fewer than 10 employees make up 93% of the total," recalled Juan Carlos Alba. "Digital transformation allows them to be more competitive and resilient, as well as adapt to new consumer habits," he stressed. BBVA accompanies SMEs to publicize the digital voucher and how to request it, carrying out informative actions in which it is informed about the lines available at any given time. Together with Minsait, which belongs to the Indra group, this financial entity has developed "a free online portal (bbva-ayudaspublicas.minsait.com) to report on all subsidies from available European funds, which includes all the information about the digital kit”, detailed Cunill. “We work with the authorities and with strategic partners such as Minsait to offer comprehensive advice for both SMEs and companies that play the role of digitizing agents. And, finally, as a financial entity, we provide financing solutions for those who need to make an investment greater than that of the digital voucher, advancing them 100% of the digital voucher or the entire invoice", stressed the director of the BBVA Catalunya SME segment. For Juan Carlos Alba, "encouraging the competitiveness of companies, SMEs and the self-employed for the modernization of our business fabric is a strategic priority".
“Digitization is a commitment to the future”, predicted the director of the BBVA Catalunya SME segment. "The important thing is the continuous improvement to adapt to the changing world in which we live", advised Alba, who at the end of the session insisted on the "opportunity that this digital kit represents as a dynamic element for this necessary technological transformation of the Spanish economy".
