European Seminar Businesses - IfGH European Seminar Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor´s Businesses 11-12 April 2002, Vienna, Austria WIRTSCHAFTSKAMMERN ÖSTERREICHS

PROCEEDINGS

European Seminar

Support Services for Micro, Smalland Sole Proprietor´s

Businesses

11-12 April 2002, Vienna, Austria

WIRTSCHAFTSKAMMERNÖ S T E R R E I C H S

Jointly organised by

European CommissionEnterprise

Directorate-General

Österreichisches Institutfür Gewerbe- und HandelsforschungAustrian Institute for Small Business Research


EUROPEAN SEMINAR ON

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL, AND SOLE

PROPRIETOR’S BUSINESSES

PROCEEDINGS

The European Seminar on Support Services for Micro, Small and SoleProprietor’s Businesses has been jointly organised by the EuropeanCommission, DG Enterprise, the Austrian Institute for Small BusinessResearch (IfGH) and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ)

Vienna, Austria, April 11/12, 2002

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL AND SOLE PROPRIETOR’SBUSINESSES

Foreword

Policies aimed at supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in theeconomic strategies of all major industrial economies. For most European Union MemberStates, however, the emphasis on supporting SMEs is relatively recent. The revival of interest inSMEs and the development of support policies for them dates back to the 1980s. But the in-crease in national policy-making to promote and support SMEs has developed in a very hapha-zard way in most countries. The overall result has often been a confused ‘SME policy jungle’made up of large numbers of policies and differing support services. A consequence is thatpolicy makers find it difficult to pinpoint well established, well proven policies and good practicesfor promoting and supporting SMEs.

Furthermore, it is believed that the entrepreneur’s own competencies and know-how may notalways be sufficient for solving major problems related to the management and structure of asuccessful business. It has been recognised that good information and advise services are valu-able support in the creation of businesses or in helping them at critical stages of their develop-ment. However, the specific needs, especially those of the smallest firms which have fewerinternal resources, are very heterogeneous and therefore hard to predict. Additionally, empiricalevidence suggests that the use of external advise grows as enterprise size increases. Thus,micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses have less access to external support servicesthan larger and medium-sized enterprises. There may be several reasons for this asymmetry, alack of awareness amongst the smallest businesses, insufficient or unreliable provision of highquality external advise or low target group-orientation of support services for micro, small andsole proprietor’s businesses being only some of them.

In order to find out whether existing services answer the specific needs of the smallest busi-nesses, the European Commission, DG Enterprise, assigned the Austrian Institute for SmallBusiness Research (IfGH) to carry out the study ‘Support Services for Micro, Small and SoleProprietor’s Businesses’ in the period December 2000 to June 2002 in co-operation with mem-bers of the European Network for SME Research (ENSR) and other partner institutions from allMember States of the European Union and Norway. The results of this study together with theCommission Staff Working Paper on ‘Creating Top-Class Business Support Services’ havebeen presented and discussed on this seminar.

It was the ambition of the seminar to make a valuable contribution to identifying major fields ofmismatch regarding the supply of and demand for support services targeted at micro, small andsole proprietor’s businesses and to identify their specific needs with regard to external support.The results of the seminar shall support the implementation of the recommendations containedin the European Charter for Small Enterprises, adopted at the Feira European Council on 19-20June 2000 and help to improve the provision of high quality business support for micro, smalland sole proprietor’s businesses. They will particularly be incorporated into the final report of thestudy ‘Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’s Businesses’ carried out by theAustrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH).

The seminar was structured around three workshops that addressed key fields of mismatchregarding the provision of support services for micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses, bypresenting recent analytical findings on these issues and examining good practices of businesssupport services targeted at micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses. The following threeworkshops took place in the scope of the seminar:

Workshop 1: Awareness and visibility of support services

Workshop 2: Types of support services provided and demanded

Workshop 3: Delivery mechanisms of support services

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL AND SOLE PROPRIETOR’SBUSINESSES

Workshop 1: Awareness and visibility of support services

Creating awareness on the existence and availability of support services among entrepreneursis considered one of the major challenges in support policy for small and medium-sized enter-prises. Analyses carried out in the frame of the European Observatory for SMEs have shownthat almost 70 % of enterprises surveyed have not been aware of the existence of any kind ofsupport programme for their business on regional, national or European level. This problem iseven more severe for micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses, as the rate of awarenessseems to decrease with decreasing size of a firm. The counterpart of ‘lack of awareness’ on thedemand side is a ‘lack of visibility’ of support services on the supply side. The provision ofsupport services is often very fragmented and uncoordinated and lacks effective communicationand promotion. It was the aim of this workshop to present recent analytical findings on theprevailing gap between awareness and visibility of support services for micro, small and soleproprietor’s businesses and to examine support services that have developed well targeted pro-motion measures or are organised in a way that effectively allows to reach their potential benefi-ciaries.

Workshop 2: Types of support services provided and demanded

Business support policy for small and medium-sized enterprises has undergone a rapid expan-sion and development during the last few years, both in quantitative as well as in qualitativeterms. However, support services have not evolved systematically, often resulting in a largenumber of policies and differing services, offering a confusing array of support to potentialusers. Thus, even once the problem of lacking awareness has been overcome by entrepre-neurs, it still remains difficult to find or identify that type of support that is considered relevant forthe development of ones enterprise. This problem is even reinforced by the fact that smallerenterprises often have problems in identifying or expressing their actual need for external sup-port. It was the purpose of this workshop to present recent findings on the gap between thetypes of support services currently offered by service providers and those needed or demandedby micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in different sectors and phases of their lifecycle. This presentation of research findings was supplemented by the examination of supportinitiatives that well managed to develop coherent packages of services that are effectively targe-ted at the needs of specific types of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses.

Workshop 3: Delivery mechanisms of support services

In order to increase take-up of support services by micro, small and sole proprietor’s busines-ses, creating awareness on the availability of support and offering suitable or relevant types ofservices might not be sufficient, if enterprises are not convinced of their real value added andusefulness. This credibility gap needs to be overcome through a well established system of qua-lity assurance as well as ex post evaluations of services offered in order to measure customersatisfaction and effectiveness. In this workshop gaps in the field of the delivery of support servi-ces (e.g. quality offered and demanded, pricing policy and territorial differences in the availabili-ty of support services) have been shown and initiatives were presented that have establishedwell proven measures for assuring the delivery of high quality support, including monitoring pro-cedures as well as evaluation practices of the overall performance of the support offered.

The following conference programme provides an overview on the various presentations madein the respective workshops and in the plenary sessions.

Programme

THURSDAY 11 APRIL 2002

12.30 Registration at the Austrian Federal EconomicChamber

13.00 Opening SessionSeminar moderated by Prof. Josef MuglerVienna University of Economics andBusiness AdministrationWelcome speechMichael WalterAustrian Federal Economic ChamberWelcome speechWolfgang KrebsAustrian Ministry of Economic Affairs and LabourWelcome speechTimo SummaEuropean Commission, DG EnterpriseIntroduction to the seminarFranco IannielloEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

14.15 Keynote speakerSonja SheikhAustrian Institute for Small Business Research

14.45 Keynote speakerMichael CoyneEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

15.00 Introduction to the workshops by the chairmen

15.15 Coffee

15.45 Three Parallel Workshops1. Awareness and Visibility of Support Services2. Types of Support Services Provided and

Demanded3. Delivery Mechanisms of Support Services

18.00 End of Workshops

19.00 Departure for Dinner

FRIDAY 12 APRIL 2002

9.00 Workshop rapporteurs report to the plenary

9.45 Panel discussion on the findings of the seminar

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Keynote speakerAlberto MeconcelliSociété Financière et d’Investissement pour laRenaissance de la Sardaigne

11.45 Keynote speakerPatrick FourguettePolish Agency for Enterprise Development

12.00 Keynote speakerDaniel GironEuropean Economic and Social Committee

12.30 Closing remarksTimo SummaEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

13.00 Lunch at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber

Workshop 1

Awareness and Visibility of Support Services

Chair

Julian HancockDe Montfort University (DMU)

United Kingdom

Rapporteur

Torsten SlinkHandelskammer Bremen

Germany

Speakers

Thomas OberholznerAustrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH)

Austria

Juri Kovaljeff

Softum MänttäFinland

Fabio PizzinoUnioncamere

Italy

Paolo CattapanArea Science Park - Trieste

Italy

Luis SánchezEscuela Organizacion Industrial (EOI)

Spain

Panel Discussion

Chair

Franco IannielloEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

Belgium

Panel Members

Antonello PezziniEuropean Economic and Social Committee (ESC)

Italy

Workshop 2

Types of Support Services Provided and Demanded

Chair

Prof. Giuliano MussatiUniversity Bocconi, CREA "Furio Cicogna"

Italy

Rapporteur

Inigo IsusiInstituto Vasco de Estudios e Investigación, (IKEI)

Spain

Speakers

Ingrid PecherAustrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH)

Austria

Catherine Dumouchel

DyadFrance

Jean Claude BachelotFrench Federation of Craft Sector Management and

Economic Centres (FFCGEA)France

Jose Sousa RegoNational Vocational Training Institute (IEFP)

Portugal

Birgit ArensEurochambre

Belgium

Luc HendrickxEuropean Association of Craft SMEs (UEAPME)

Belgium

Ahmet Ecmel YorganciTurkish Confederation of Craftsmen and Tradesmen

(TESK)Turkey

Workshop 3

Delivery Mechanisms of Support Services

Chair

Christian LettmayrEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

Belgium

Rapporteur

Rob van der HorstEIM Small Business Research and Consultancy

Netherlands

Speakers

Sonja SheikhAustrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH)

Austria

Prof. Nicola BelliniSant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies

Italy

Petri LintulaMedia Tampare Ltd

Finland

Peter Van CleefInternational PLATO Coordinator

Belgium

Lisa VaughanEnterprise Ireland

Ireland

Mattias MobergMinistry of Industry, Employment and Communication

Sweden

Andreas HenkelAustrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ)

Austria

CONTENT

OPENING SESSION

Michael WalterAustrian Federal Economic Chamber

Wolfgang KrebsAustrian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour

Timo SummaEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

Franco IannielloEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

KEYNOTE SPEECHES

Sonja SheikhAustrian Institute for Small Business Research

Michael CoyneEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

WORKSHOP 1: AWARENESS AND VISIBILITY OF SUPPORT SERVICES

Torsten SlinkHandelskammer Bremen

Thomas OberholznerAustrian Institute for Small Business Research

Juri KovaljeffSoftum Mänttä


Paolo CattapanArea Science Park - Trieste

Luis SánchezEscuela Organizacion Industrial (EOI)

WORKSHOP 2: TYPES OF SUPPORT SERVICES PROVIDED AND DEMANDED

Inigo IsusiInstituto Vasco de Estudios e Investigación, (IKEI)

Ingrid PecherAustrian Institute for Small Business Research

Catherine DumouchelDyad

Jean Claude BachelotFrench Federation of Craft Sector Management and Economic Centres (FFCGEA)

Jose Sousa RegoNational Vocational Training Institute (IEFP)

Birgit ArensEurochambre

WORKSHOP 3: DELIVERY MECHANISMS OF SUPPORT SERVICES

Rob van der HorstEIM Small Business Research and Consultancy

Sonja SheikhAustrian Institute for Small Business Research

Prof. Nicola BelliniSant` Anna School of Advanced Studies

Petri LintulaMedia Tampare Ltd

Peter Van CleefInternational PLATO Coordinator

Lisa VaughanEnterprise Ireland

KEYNOTE SPEECHES

Alberto MeconcelliSociété Financière et dÌnvestissement pour la Renaissance de la Sardaigne

Patrick FourguettePolish Agency for Enterprise Development

Daniel GironEuropean Economic and Social Committee

CLOSING REMARKS

Timo SummaEuropean Commission, DG Enterprise

CONCLUSIONS

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL AND SOLE


OPENING SESSION

Welcome speech

Michael Walter

Austrian Federal Economic Chamber

April 2002, Vienna

Seite 1/3

Support Services for Micro, Small andSole Proprietor’s Businesses

Konferenz 11.-12.4.2002, WKÖ

Begrüßung und Einführung

Begrüßung:

• Herr Min.-Rat Wolfgang Krebs als Vertreter des BMWA• Herr Timmo Summa, Direktor der Generaldirektion Unternehmen, wo er für

den Bereich „Promotion of Entrepreneurship“, also die Förderung von Unter-nehmertum verantwortlich ist.

• Herr Franco Ianiello, Crafts, Small Enterprises, Cooperatives and Mutuals inder GD Unternehmen

• Karl Doutlik, Abteilung für Business Support Measures in der GD Unterneh-men

Es ist sehr erfreulich, dass in der Generaldirektion Unternehmen, also dem der un-ternehmerischen Wirtschaft verpflichteten Verantwortungsbereich der EU-Kommission, eine inzwischen hervorragende Gesprächsbasis für die KMU-Welt auf-gebaut werden konnte. Wir begrüßen daher ausdrücklich die EU-Botschafter derKleineren und Mittleren Betriebe Europas und hoffen, dass auch diese Konferenzhier im Haus der Wirtschaft in Wien einen weiteren Beitrag zur Vertiefung dieses po-sitiven Klimas leisten wird.

Es freut uns besonders, dass mit EU und BMWA zwei der wichtigsten Partner derWKÖ und insbesondere auch des WIFI vertreten sind, die die langjährigen Bemü-hungen besondere auch des WIFIs im Bereich der KMU-Förderung nachhaltig unter-stützt haben. Als letztes Beispiel der engen Kooperation mit der EU sei an das Fo-rum von Cardiff erinnert, zu dessen Erfolg nicht zuletzt auch die Vertreter des WIFIsund der WKO beigetragen haben.

Ebenso wie in Cardiff ist es das Ziel dieser Konferenz, die inzwischen gefestigte Er-kenntnis weiter zu vertiefen, dass nämlich gut funktionierende Business Support Ser-vices mitentscheidend sind für die gedeihliche Entwicklung des kleinbetrieblichenSektors. Dies bedeutet natürlich und vor allem auch einen Auftrag für Organisationenwie die WKÖ und ebenso den Staat, finanzielle Mittel und andere Ressourcen für diestrategische Weiterentwicklung dieser spezifischen Art von Dienstleistung bereit zustellen.

Verstärkt wird ein solches Vorhaben durch die Erfahrung der hervorragenden Zu-sammenarbeit zwischen den Ministerien und anderen öffentlichen Stellen mit derWKO als der Organisation der österreichischen Unternehmer, in der auch die priva-ten Anbieter von Business Support Diensten mit vertreten sind. Dieses Netzwerk anUnterstützungsdiensten wird auch in Zukunft die Bemühungen um die Weiterent-wicklung der KMUs gemeinsam tragen und seitens der WKÖ wird alles getan wer-den, diese sehr hoch eingeschätzte Kooperation weiter zu vertiefen.

Seite 2/3

Der Anteil der KMU liegt in der EU und in Österreich weit über 90% bzw. knapp unter100% der Gesamtzahl der Betriebe. Von den KMUs selbst haben wiederum mehr als90% weniger als 10 Mitarbeiter, sind also Kleinstunternehmer im Sinne der EU-Nomenklatur.

Die KMUs haben daher – neben ihrer enormen beschäftigungspolitischen Wirkung -für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und den Strukturwandel in der EU und in Öster-reich heute und in Zukunft eine besondere Bedeutung. Die Zukunft der europäischenWirtschaft z.B. in den Bereichen des elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs, der Informa-tionsgesellschaft, der Zulieferung, der Bereitstellung grenzüberschreitender Dienst-leistungen, hängt weitgehend von der weiteren Entwicklung der KMU ab.

Business Support Services, die umfassend als „Wirtschaftsförderungsdienste“ zuverstehen sind, haben in Österreich seit mehr als 50 Jahren eine Heimat in der Wirt-schaftskammerorganisation und hier insbesondere im Netzwerk der Wirtschaftsförde-rungsinstitute gefunden. Das WIFI Österreich und die neun Landesinstitute habengemeinsam mit den Fachorganisationen eine langjährige Erfahrung in der Anwen-dung der verschiedensten Unterstützungsservice-Leistungen zur Verbesserung derWettbewerbsfähigkeit von KMUs aufgebaut.

Traditionellerweise bilden Aus- und Weiterbildung, Beratung und Informationsver-mittlung die Hauptschwerpunkte der Unterstützungsdienste der WIFIs. Jahr für Jahrbesuchen etwa 300.000 Mitarbeiter von Unternehmen die von den WIFIs angebote-nen Ausbildungsveranstaltungen oder nehmen mehr als 20.000 Unternehmer dieBeratungsleistungen in Anspruch.

Ein umfassendes Wirtschaftsförderungssystem kann aber nur funktionieren, wenn esan nachhaltigen und wirksamen Grundsätzen ausgerichtet ist. Im Zentrum der WIFI-Philosophie standen und stehen daher stets:

1. Kundenzufriedenheit2. Easy Access und Easy Availability für den Kunden3. Flexible Zielgruppenorientierung, u.a. durch Beachtung der Entwicklungspha-

sen der Unternehmungen (Start Up, Wachstumsphase, ..)4. Orientierung an der modernsten Entwicklung, u.a. durch Anwendung von Best

Practices5. Anwendung modernster Informationstechnologien für die Wissensvermittlung

und -implementierung6. Networking und Kooperation7. Organisatorische Optimierung der Support Service-Organisation u.a. durch

Qualitätssicherungssysteme nach ISO 9001

Ich komme zum Schluss meiner Ausführungen:

Die Förderung und Unterstützung der KMU steht im Mittelpunkt des Ziels, das sichdie EU vor zwei Jahren in Lissabon gesetzt hat, nämlich die Europäische Union zumwettbewerbsfähigsten und dynamischsten Wirtschaftsraum der Welt zu machen.Business Support Services u.a. Maßnahmen stellen dabei die für die Erreichung die-ses ehrgeizigen Zieles erforderlichen Rahmenbedingungen her.

Seite 3/3

Neben ihrer enormen beschäftigungspolitischen Wirkung haben die KMUs vor allemfür den notwendigen wirtschaftlichen Strukturwandel in der EU und in Österreichheute und in Zukunft einen besonderen Stellenwert. So hängt etwa in den Bereichendes elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs, der Informationsgesellschaft, der Zulieferung,der Bereitstellung grenzüberschreitender Dienstleistungen, die Zukunft der europäi-schen Wirtschaft weitgehend von der weiteren Entwicklung der KMU ab.

Wie die Studie des IfGH aufgezeigt hat, ist der österreichische Markt für Unterstüt-zungsleistungen im europäischen Vergleich durch ein hohes Bewusstsein der Unter-nehmen (KMUs) für die Nützlichkeit dieser Art der externen Unterstützung gekenn-zeichnet. EU-weit stehen Österreichs Unternehmer damit an dritter Stelle. Eine sol-che Bereitschaft gilt es weiter auszubauen und zu vertiefen.

Business Support Services und Wirtschaftsförderungsdienste helfen mit, den Stel-lenwert der KMU weiter zu stärken und ihre künftige positive Entwicklung nachhaltigzu sichern. In diesem Sinne wünsche ich der Konferenz bei ihren Bemühungen, mit-zuhelfen, die genannten Ziele zu erreichen, einen vollen Erfolg!



OPENING SESSION

Welcome speech

Wolfgang Krebs

Austrian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour

April 2002, Vienna

European Seminar „Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor´s

Business“

11 – 12 April 2002

Ich bin sehr froh darüber, daß sich die Europäische Kommission, Generaldirektion

Unternehmen, des so wichtigen Themas der „Support Services“, angenommen hat,

denn so können europäische Standards von Top Qualität erwartet werden.

Ich freue mich auch, Sie zu diesem hochrangig besetzten Seminar bei uns in Wien

begrüßen dürfen, um die Ergebnisse der bisherigen Aktivitäten zu diskutieren.

Es freut mich natürlich besonders, dass ein österreichisches Institut, nämlich das

Österreichische Institut für Gewerbe- und Handelsforschung, die

Gesamtverantwortung für die Durchführung der Studie über Dienstleistungen für

Kleine und Kleinste Unternehmen übertragen bekommen hat.

Das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit war ja im Jahre 1952 Mitbegründer

des IfGH und ich darf diese Gelegenheit nützen, dem Institut im Namen des BMWA

zum 50jährigen Jubiläum sehr herzlich zu gratulieren und alles Gute und viel Erfolg

für die Zukunft zu wünschen.

Auf nationaler wie auch internationaler Ebene steht außer Zweifel, dass Politik im

Allgemeinen und Wirtschaftspolitik im Besonderen in zunehmendem Maße aktueller

und wissenschaftlich fundierter Entscheidungsgrundlagen bedarf. Die vorliegende

EU-weite Analyse der Unterstützungsmaßnahmen für Kleinst- und Kleinbetriebe ist

ein exzellentes Beispiel dafür.

Die österreichischen Betriebe brauchen stabile und die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit

fördernde Rahmenbedingungen. Die Chancen des Wirtschaftsstandortes werden

aber auch entscheidend von der Qualität des Angebotes an

Unterstützungsdienstleistungen und dem Wissen darüber, daß es ein solches gibt,

geprägt.

In Österreich haben Unterstützungsdienste eine lange Tradition. Sie werden von

jeher von der Österreichischen Regierung, den Österreichischen Kammern,

staatlichen Organisationen und zunehmend von privaten Dienstleistern angeboten.

Das Interesse des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Arbeit an der

Weiterentwicklung von Konzepten zur Förderung österreichischer Unternehmen

durch professionelle Unterstützungsdienste ist besonders hoch. Dies ergibt sich aus

seiner politischen Aufgabenstellung ebenso wie aus der Bedeutung dieses Themas

für die österreichische Wirtschaft.

Die Größenstruktur der europäischen Wirtschaft belegt auch die Wichtigkeit des

Themas:

- 99 % aller Unternehmen in der Europäischen Union sind Kleinbetriebe mit

weniger als 50 Beschäftigten;

- 93 % der Betriebe zählen zu den Kleinstbetrieben mit weniger als 10

Beschäftigten.

- In diesen Kleinst- und Kleinbetrieben – auf die sich ja auch die hier zu

diskutierende Studie bezieht – haben immerhin 53 % aller Beschäftigten ihren

Arbeitsplatz.

Die kleineren Betriebe haben aber - nicht zuletzt durch die Arbeitsbelastung der

Unternehmerinnen und Unternehmer im Tagesgeschäft - vor allem im

betriebswirtschaftlichen Bereich – mit Defiziten zu kämpfen. Hier gilt es verstärkt

Managementkapazitäten auf- und auszubauen.

Die politische Verantwortung des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Arbeit

sehe ich vorrangig darin, mit unseren strategischen Partnern Programme für

Unterstützungsdienstleistungen zu erarbeiten, die höchste Qualitätsstandards sicher

stellen und weniger darin, diese zu finanzieren oder selbst anzubieten.

Beispiel dafür ist das „Gemeinsame Arbeitsprogramm 2001/2002, Beratung und

Weiterbildung KMUs“ das wir mit der Bundeswirtschaftskammer durchführen.

Benchmarking, bessere Nutzung des Binnenmarktes, Entrepreneurship sind

Bausteine dieses Projektes, mit dem wir die politischen Vorgaben in die gelebte

Realität überführen.

Als Ergebnis dieser Bemühungen erwarte ich hohe Selbständigenquoten, eine hohe

Gründungsdynamik verbunden mit hohen Überlebensraten, ein möglichst hohes

Maß gelungener Betriebsübergaben sowie eine hohe Innovationstätigkeit -

Faktoren, die sich positiv auf die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der österreichischen

Volkswirtschaft auswirken.

Wie aus der vorliegenden Studie des Instituts für Gewerbe und Handelsforschung

hervorgeht, sind die österreichischen Unternehmen im Vergleich zu den anderen

europäischen Ländern über das Angebot an Unterstützungsdienstleistungen sehr

gut informiert.

Wir müssen aber auch weiterhin dafür sorgen, dass Unternehmen problemlos

Zugang zu allen Unterstützungsdiensten haben und anderseits die Unternehmer

beim kontinuierlichen Aufbau ihrer eigenen Managementkapazitäten mit Hilfe

spezialisierter Unterstützungsdienste zu ermutigen.

In diesem Sinne heiße ich Sie noch einmal herzlich Willkommen in Wien und

wünsche Ihnen allen ein erfolgreiches Seminar und vor allem interessante

Diskussionen.



OPENING SESSION

Top class Business Support Services for Small Businesses

Timo Summa

European Commission, DG Enterprise

April 2002, Vienna

Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: (32-2) 299 11 11.Office: SC27 4/35. Telephone: direct line (32-2) 299.67.54. Fax: (32-2) 295.45.90.

E-mail: [email protected]

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONENTERPRISE DIRECTORATE-GENERAL

Promotion of entrepreneurship and SMEsDirector

Brussels,T.S. D(2002)

SPEAKING NOTE - INTRODUCTION

“Top class Business Support Services for Small Businesses”Vienna Conference – 11/12 April 2002

j Welcome

Welcome to all participants, personal greetings to the Chamber official and Mr.Krebs from the Ministry

Thanks to the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber for their welcome and forenabling us to meet in their premises;

Thanks to the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research for organising thisevent.

j WHO: Small Businesses

Small businesses are the backbone of the EU economy. They are a key source ofjobs and a breeding ground for business ideas. They account for 19,170 millionenterprises [98,9% of all companies in Europe] and provide with 52% of our jobs.

The European Charter for Small Businesses adopted in Santa Maria da Feira inJune 2000 recognises their role and importance to our economy and urges the EU tocreate the best possible environment for small business and entrepreneurship in theworld. It also calls policy makers to take due consideration of small business needsand to “listen to the voice of small business”

One of the key area to be addressed in the Charter and the reason why we are heretoday is the “promotion of top-class small business support”. As the CommissionSME envoy, my rôle is very much to put into practice in concrete terms the “thinksmall first” principle which is at the heart of Erkki Liikanen, our Commissioner’spriorities and to apply it to this area of work.

j WHAT: Create Top Class Business Support Services

There is strong evidence that the proper use of good business support canconsiderably improve not only the survival rate and the competitiveness of

2

companies but also the competitiveness and adaptability of our economies and theirability to grow .

There are however a certain number of issues that need to be addressed at local,regional and national levels. To mention but a few: the coherence of servicesprovision, the cost and effectiveness of public support services, the introduction ofICT, the quality of the services and of the personnel providing them. These issueshave been highlighted in the Commission Staff Working Paper that my ColleagueMike Coyne will present in a few minutes.

The Commission believes that it has done its fair share of the work by assessing theneeds of small businesses, by identifying good practices in business supportprovision, by providing professionals and policy makers with a common set ofprinciples for creating top-class service provision. It is the task of MS to implementthe recommendations and to learn from best practice in other countries.

All this work is now available on our internet. However we felt that the picturewould not be complete if we were not asking the views of the end users: smallbusinesses and assessing with them the room for improvement.

j WHY is it important to create top class Business Support Services?

Our policy objectives are clear and ambitious:

• Becoming the most competitive, most dynamic, knowledge-based economyin the world in the next ten years [Lisbon];

• Creating the best possible environment for small businesses [Feira].

The Commission is strongly convinced that this will only be possible if “top classbusiness support services are offered to small businesses at the right place, at theright level and at the right moment. One of way to find out whether this is the case isto ask those who are most concerned: the small businesses.

This is the reason why the Commission decided to carry out a survey on 1200 firmsin order to have as precise as possible a picture of the situation and to identify theroom for improvement. This study has been executed by the Austrian Institute forSmall Business Research to whom we are very grateful for the quality and therobustness of the methodology and for completing this very important piece of workfor the Commission.

Some of the results are surprising, some other are not and have confirmed what wealready suspected. Moreover, the study does not give answers but providesquestions and suggestions. We need to be careful when interpreting the results

j Our objectives for today and tomorrow

Therefore, our objectives during those two days are the following:

3

(1) Present to you the results of the survey carried out by the Austrian Institutefor Small Business Research and the Commission Staff Working Paper on“Creating Top Class Business Support Services”;

(2) Have a debate on the potential policy implications of these results at bothnational and European levels. Explore together and suggest ways ofimplementing in concrete terms the various suggestions contained in the studyand in the conclusions of the Commission Staff Working Paper;

j Conclusions

Small Businesses are the backbone of our economy and the UE will only deliver ourcommon ambitious objectives if we manage to motivate this 98 % of all ourcompanies to take on more risks, to grasp opportunities, to develop their skills, tocreate more wealth, more jobs, more cohesion whilst caring for the environment andpromoting a more cohesive Europe.

This will only be possible if we manage to create and make use of top class businesssupport services in Europe.

I hope that this seminar will help in that process and I wish you a very interesting andfruitful couple of days. I look forward to hearing to your views.



OPENING SESSION

Franco Ianniello


April 2002, Vienna

Summary of the introduction to the seminar / Franco Ianniello

First of all, I would also like to thank the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research for thisexcellent research study and I would like to thank the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber fortheir friendliness to host this conference. The Commission has a long tradition in co-operatingwith the Chamber in Vienna, several conferences have been carried out here in the last yearstogether and I am very glad that this co-operation will be continued.

Let me also thank the other colleagues of the different DGs of the European Commission whoare here today. This shows that the topic of this seminar does not only concern DG Enterprise,but also DG Research, DG Environment and DG Regio. The colleagues of these DGs, that arehere today are all very interested in the work that has been carried out and the results that havebeen achieved by this research study.

Like Timo Summa, I think that we are facing three difficult problems in this area:

• the quality of the services

• the visibility of the services

and finally, a problem that has not received enough interest in the past:

• the psychology of the entrepreneurs who run the smallest enterprises and access theservices.

Therefore, these three factors are very important to guarantee the delivery of top-quality supportto the smallest enterprises.

Our work does not have the intention to favour the smallest enterprises, but to allow them tooperate under the same conditions as medium and large enterprises do. To achieve this, theconditions for the smallest enterprises have to be improved.

Today, two basic documents, that will allow to continue our work, are going to be presented:

• Sonja Sheikh (who I have already thanked and who I thank once again for her excellentwork), who will present the results of the study

and

• Michael Coyne, our colleague, who will present the Commission’s document on Top-ClassBusiness Support Services. This documents represents an important step in the reflectionof the Commission.

Afterwards, we are going to have three workshops. These workshops will help to concretise ourwork and to draw conclusions: the smallest enterprises and their actual needs will be in focusfor those who are responsible to do politics.

Tomorrow, the rapporteurs will inform the audience on the concrete conclusions that have beenachieved in the workshops and a panel will then underline the orientations according to whichwe will have to orient our future work.

Tomorrow, we will also have to think about some very concrete aspects: Mr. Meconcelli ofSFIRS Sardinia will show us how he managed to put into practice the work that has beencarried out until today by the Commission. The region of Sardinia has been used as a‘laboratory’, if we may say so, and if the results on this territory resemble those of the research,the Commission can be nothing but satisfied.

Mr. Patrick Fourguette will speak to us about similar problems in the accession countries, he isresponsible for the Polish SME Development Agency.

The third speaker tomorrow will be Mr. Daniel Giron, he has been rapporteur in the EuropeanEconomic and Social Committee and worked, on a report about the application of the EuropeanCharter for SMEs. He is entrepreneur and he is a very representative persons for his sector inFrance. He will give us some very important reflections at European level.

Mr. Timo Summa will then speak about the work of the professional organisations (not of thework of the Commission) who will have to put into practice what we have achieved in these twodays.

I thank you very much, I wish you a good work and I am convinced that together, therepresentatives of the national and European organisations, we can do a good work to put thesmallest enterprises into the centre of the European economic development.

Thank you very much!



KEYNOTE SPEECH

Main findings from the Study

“Support Services for Micro, Small and sole Proprietor’s Businesses”

on behalf of the European Commission, DG Enterprise

Sonja Sheikh

Austrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH)Gusshausstrasse 8

A – 1040 ViennaTel.: ++43 1 505 97 61Fax.: ++43 1 503 46 60


April 2002, Vienna

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL AND SOLE PROPRIETOR’S BUSINESSES

1

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome in Vienna!

Creating an appropriate environment for businesses to flourish is a central element in public policy for promotingentrepreneurship in Europe. Dramatic changes have taken place in the nature and the provision of businesssupport services since their recognition as an increasingly important feature of economic policy. In someMember States of the European Union this has led to a proliferation of services, making it increasingly difficultfor policy makers as well as for entrepreneurs to pinpoint well established, well proven policies and goodpractices for the promotion and support of SMEs.

In order to find out whether existing services answer the specific needs of the smallest businesses, DGEnterprise of the European Commission has contracted the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research(IfGH) to carry out a study on ‘Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’s Businesses’, in co-operation with members of the European Network for SME Research (ENSR) and other partner institutions fromall Member States of the European Union and Norway.

I would now like to give you an overview of the purpose, the methodology the analytical framework and some ofthe main findings of this study → more detailed results of the project will be presented in the correspondingwork-shops this afternoon.

With regard to the analysis of the supply side of the market for support services a purposely narrow definition ofthe term ‘support services’ has been applied, in order to focus the study. As to this regard a support servicesubject to analysis in the scope of this study had to fulfil the following criteria:

• it had to originate in a public policy initiative;

• the service had to be targeted at micro, small or sole proprietor’s businesses either by its explicit intention orby its practical use;

• it had to be offered at non-commercial conditions and

• a substantial part of the service had to be of non-financial kind.

Based on this definition we have conducted an inventory of support services targeted at micro, small and soleproprietor’s businesses in all Member States of the European Union and Norway. In particular 335 supportservices ranging from the provision of information, advice and consultancy to SME-specific training services,have been identified and analysed in the scope of the study, which, however, naturally only represent a fractionof all external support available to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in Europe. Particularly, servicesthat mainly offer financial support, such as loans, guarantees, or all kinds of subsidies as well as tax relief forsmall businesses are excluded from the analysis.

The information gathered for this inventory by our co-operating research institutes in the Member States of theEuropean Union and Norway has been compiled in an electronic database, the ‘IfGH/ENSR Support ServicesData-base’, which presents the services identified in an analytical and well structured way and is available at theCommission services. Retrievals from this database allowed us to present the findings at country level (seeCountry Fiches) as well as at European level (see Draft Final Report).

Based on the inventory we have also been able to identify some cases of good practice in the provision of tailor-made support to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses. Particular 5 cases from Sweden, Ireland,Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands have been identified and described in the scope of the study. Some ofthese cases will be presented in the workshops this afternoon.


2

As far as the analysis of the demand side in concerned, three different methodological tools have been applied:

• a literature review

• a telephone survey and

• personal expert interviews

With regard to the literature review, publications from all Member States of the European Union and Norwaydealing with the specific needs of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses with regard to support serviceshave been collected and analysed. The corresponding findings have been incorporated in the Draft Final Reportof the study.

In order to obtain harmonised and comparable data on the needs and experiences of the smallest enterpriseswith regard to support services, in addition a telephone survey among more then 1,200 micro, small, and soleproprietor’s businesses in all Member States of the European Union and Norway was carried out on the basis ofa standardised closed questionnaire. The findings of the survey at European level are presented in the DraftFinal Report. They also include a detailed assessment of enterprises’ needs by size class, sector of activity, andphase of development of an enterprise. Findings at country level are based on the analysis of about75 interviews conducted per country and are presented in the corresponding Country Fiches.

The stratification plan for the telephone survey gives you an overview on the number of enterprises that havebeen interviewed by sector and size class. After survey closeout, these data have been weighted by enter-prises’ size class, sector and country of origin. Thus, findings presented in the report are representative for thewhole population of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in the European Union and Norway and donot only restrict to the sample analysed.

Finally, in order to also obtain information on the specific needs of micro, small, and sole proprietor’s businesseswith regard to support services that occur in specific situations, such as a crisis or the transfer of a businesses,personal interviews with a total of 32 experts in the field of crises and 32 experts in the field of business transferfrom all Member States of the European Union and Norway have been carried out. This has been consideredimportant, as it is rather difficult to identify enterprises in crises or in the transfer phase within the scope of atelephone survey. The findings of the expert interviews are incorporated in the Draft Final Report.

Turing to the main findings of the study, now, we found out that the participation rate in support services amongEuropean micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses is rather low. Only 20 % of the smallest enterprises inthe European Union and Norway have utilised any support services during the past five years. Of coursecountry specific differences exist as to this regard. While for example the participation in support services in theNetherlands, Ireland and in Denmark is above average it is below average in Norway, Greece, and Sweden, forexample.

In addition to being quite low, the utilisation rate of support services even further declines with decreasing sizeof an enterprise, ranging from a participation rate of 15 % for sole proprietors to 35 % for small enterprises(employing 10 - 49 employees). This pattern holds for most of the European countries.

Interestingly we found out that female entrepreneurs are generally more willing to make use of support servicesthan their male counterparts: Whereas 27 % of the enterprises owned by a woman have made use of supportservices within the last five years, this share of enterprises owned by a man amounts to 17 %. Particularly it iswomen, highly educated and growth oriented entrepreneurs who make the most use of support services offeredin the Member States of the European Union and Norway.

The most dominant reasons for European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses not to make use ofsupport services is that they do not see any need for external help as indicated by 54 % of the enterprises. Thesecond strongest reason for non-utilisation is that enterprises often lack awareness on the existence andavailability of support services even where they would in principle have a need for external support. This isstated by more than one third of enterprises. A comparatively minor reason for non-utilisation of supportservices by the smallest enterprises seem to be the content and the conditions under which support servicesare offered.


3

This picture, however, slightly changes when asking those enterprises that already have experience with theuse of support services. Almost one quarter of the European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses thathave used support services during the last five years indicate to have problems with the conditions of servicedelivery and a further 18 % are not satisfied with the content or the relevance of the support received. Still, notonly a large share of those enterprises that have not used support services claim the lack of awareness to be amajor reason for non-utilisation but also almost every third business with experience in the use of supportschemes defines the process of finding out about the existence and availability of support services to be themain obstacle when actually using external support.

The issues of awareness and visibility of support services, of the content and relevance of support services andof the delivery mechanisms of support services will be dealt with in more detail in the workshops this afternoon.However, the following findings shall give an idea on what is going to expect you this afternoon.

Regarding the awareness of support services we found out that more than three-quarters of enterprises lackinformation on the existence and availability of support for their respective enterprise. Only about one quarter ofmicro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses (24 %) in Europe are sufficiently informed on support services.Information rates even decline with decreasing size of an enterprise. Thus, creating awareness of the existenceand availability of support services among entrepreneurs might be considered one of the major challenges ofsupport policy in future.

The issue of awareness and visibility of support services will be discussed in more detail in Workshop 1, wherealso some more findings related to country specific differences in information rates, the promotion of supportservices, and the organisation of contact points will be presented.

With regard to the content of support services offered, we found that European micro, small and soleproprietor’s businesses generally express a rather low need for support services. But, when differentiatingbetween different types of services one can see, that there are some types of services that seem to be moreimportant to small businesses than others. The demand for financial services, professional information services,and advice and consultancy, for example, is clearly higher than the one for specific training courses or theprovision of facilities.

Also it is assumed that the relatively low take-up of support services by European micro, small and soleproprietor’s businesses is due to a lacking target group orientation of support services offered as the majority ofenter-prises express a strong demand for tailor-made support which takes account of their specific size class,their phase of development or their sector of activity, while most of the support services offered in the MemberStates of the European Union and Norway are targeted at SMEs in general.

However, this issue of the types of services provided and demanded in the European countries will be dealt within more detail in Workshop 2.

As regards the quality of support services, the vast majority (80 %) of micro, small and sole proprietor’sbusinesses in the European Union and Norway that have made use of support services within the last five yearsseem to be quite satisfied with their latest experience. But, divided by different aspects of service delivery wefound that enterprises express particularly high satisfaction with the communication with the provider and withthe professionalism of the staff, while comparatively low levels of satisfaction are achieved with regard to theunder-standing of the business by the provider and the effect the service had on the enterprise.

Workshop 3 will provide you with more detailed information on issues related to the quality and delivery ofsupport services. Particularly, on what types of quality assurance mechanisms are applied by service providersand which criteria indicate high quality to small enterprises, and on how pricing policy and communication withthe provider may be designed in order to fulfil the needs of the smallest enterprises

Finally, the following matrix provides an overview on the future potential of the market for support services in theEuropean Union Member States and Norway. Generally it can be seen that a the vast majority of micro, smalland sole proprietor’s business in the European Union and Norway consider support services to be quite usefuland more than one third of the smallest businesses express a need for support services.


4

quadrant 1 includes the share of enterprises indicating a need for external support and at the same time beingconvinced of the usefulness of support services. Enterprises located in this quadrant are the ones that are mostlikely to use support services in the future. Their share in all enterprises not having used support services in thelast five years in the European Union Member States and Norway amounts to 29 %. This group of enterprisesmight best be motivated to utilise support services by awareness-raising measures and increased promotionalactivities of support service providers.

Enterprises in quadrant 2 have indicated a general need for support services, but doubt their usefulness. Thismay be due to a certain discontentment with the existing offer of support services. These enterprises might bemost sensitive to strategies aiming at the improvement of the content and conditions of delivery of services.

quadrant 3 contains the share of enterprises that generally consider support services to be useful, but do notsee any need for their own enterprise as to this regard. It is usually quite difficult to mobilise enterprises thatindicate no need for external support. However, as these enterprises believe in the general usefulness ofsupport services they might be sensitive to strategies aiming at the proliferation of information on the merits ofsupport services by the dissemination of ‘good practices’ or the demonstration of success rates of enterprisesusing support services, for example.

Finally, quadrant 4 describes the share of enterprises that neither indicate any need for support services norbelieve in their usefulness. This attitude, particularly of smaller enterprises, is in line with other research findingsindicating that many small businesses do not have the competency to judge their own needs correctly and toderive a specific demand from them. This group of enterprises will most probably stay insensitive to anytraditional promotional or awareness creation measures and is thus not very likely to use support services in thefuture; their share amounts to 24 % in Europe.

Terminating the presentation I would like to give you a short overview on the various outcomes of the project.

Thank you very much for your attention!

© IfG

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EUROPEAN SEMINAR ON

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL, AND SOLE PROPRIETOR’S

BUSINESSES

11./12. April 2002 in ViennaAustria

© IfG

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Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’s Businesses

Research Project on behalf of the European Commission, DG Enterprise

Sonja Sheikh

Austrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH)

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Research Team

Project co-ordination:Austrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH)

Project partners analytical part:Members of the European Network for SME Research (ENSR) in: B, DK, ES, F, FIN, G, IT, N, NL, UK, GRother institutions in: IRL, P, S

Project partner operational part:Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ)

External quality control:EIM Business & Policy Research (EIM), Netherlands

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Purpose of the Project

1. To provide a comprehensive, descriptive and analytical overview of existing national and local support services tailored to the needs of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses (supply side analysis)

2. To analyse the needs of European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses with regard to the organisation, promotion, content and delivery of support services (demand side analysis)

3. To provide comprehensive elements for the improvement of the supply of support services available to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in the Member States of the European Union and Norway

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Analytical Framework

Characteristics:

Enterprise

needs

• organisation of contact points• target population• content of services offered• promotion/visibility• delivery mechanisms• pricing policy• objectives• etc.

Support Services

Characteristics:

• size class• phase of development• sector• location• internationalisation• growth-orientation• skill level• etc.

Demand Supplymismatch

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Analysis of the supply side

Definition of support services

• The service originates in a public policy initiative• it is targeted at micro, small or sole proprietor’s

businesses either by its explicit intention or by its practical use

• it is offered at non-commercial conditions and• a substantial part of the service is of non-financial kind

Methodology

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Inventory of support services

Identification and analysis of 335 support services for micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in all Member States of the European Union and Norway(Ù Country Fiches and Draft Final Report)

Analytical and well structured presentation of the services identified by means of an electronic database(Ù IfGH/ENSR Support Services Database)

Methodology

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Identification of cases of good practice

Identification and description of cases of good practice in the provision of tailor-made support services to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses(Ù Draft Final Report)

Methodology

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Analysis of the demand side

Literature review

Analysis and review of of literature available in all Member States of the European Union and Norway on the specific needs of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses and their potential mismatch with existing support services (Ù Draft Final Report)

Methodology

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Telephone survey

Conduction of a telephone survey among more than 1200 micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses inall Member States of the European Union and Norway providing harmonised and comparable data on the needs and experiences of the smallest enterprises with regard to support services (Ù Country Fiches and Draft Final Report)

Methodology

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Methodology

Number of enterprises interviewed by size class and sector (not weighted)

sole micro small total

manufacturing and construction 67 81 74 222

wholesale and retail trade 56 71 62 189

transport and communication 41 47 47 135

banking, finance and insurance 39 55 46 140

business services 68 77 65 210

tourism 56 66 54 176

repair and other services 41 49 52 142

total 368 446 400 1214

Stratification plan of the telephone survey

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Methodology


Personal interviews

Conduction of 64 personal interviews with experts in the field of crisis and business transfer in order to provide for information on the specific needs of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses with regard to support services in these situations (Ù Draft Final Report)

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Main Findings

Utilisation of support services by enterprises

20%

80%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

yes no

% of enterprises

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Main Findings

Utilisation of support services by size class

15%

25%

36%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

sole proprietor micro small

% of enterprises

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Main Findings

Utilisation of support services by gender

27%

17%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

female male

percent of enterprises

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Main Findings

Main reason for not using support services

54%

34%

9%

3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

no need for external help no awareness content (wrong kind ofsupport offered)

not offered underappropriate conditions

% o f enterprises

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Main Findings

Main difficulty when using support services

27%

18%

24%

31%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

finding out aboutexistence

content or relevance conditions of servicedelivery

no problems

% of enterprises

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Main Findings

Information level of enterprises on support services

4%

20%

35%

41%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

very well rather well not very well not at all

% o f enterprises

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Main Findings

Need for different types of support services

2.6

2.5

2.4

2.2

1.9

1.3

1 2 3 4

provision of facilities (e.g. technology parks)

specific training courses

one-stop-shops/general information

advice or consultancy

professional information services

financial services

rating from 1 = no need to 4 = strong need

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Main Findings

Satisfaction with the use of support services

80%

20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

satisfied dissatisfied

% of enterprises

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Main Findings

Strategic matrix on the potential of the market for support services in the EU and Norway

17%24%

30% 29%

no need need

useless

useful

I

IV II

III

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Outcomes of the project

• Inception Report (Feb 2001)

• IfGH/ENSR Support Services Database including 335 support services for micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in the Member States of the EU and Norway (July 2001)

• Interim Report (Oct 2001)

• 16 Country Fiches (March 2002)

• Draft Final Report (March 2002)

• Proceedings of the European Seminar (May 2002)

• Final Report of the project (June 2002)



KEYNOTE SPEECH

Creating Top Class Business Support Services

Michael Coyne


April 2002, Vienna

1

Creating Top Class BusinessSupport Services

European Charter for Small Enterprises :• Promote top-class small business support

– Best Procedure project :• Bringing the general level up to that of

the existing best

2


• Background :

– Good Practice Identification (Concerted Actions)

• Support for Start-ups

• Support for Growth– the use of the Internet

– facing up to global markets

– strategic services

3


• Background :

– Public Expenditure on Support

– Shift from Funding to Support Services

– Variety of Support Provided

– Variable Quality of Support Services

– Operational Challenges

4


• Conclusions :

1. Client orientation 2. Comprehensive provision 3. Coherent support services 4. Co-ordination, particularly at a regional level 5. Methodology of management capacity

building

5


• Conclusions :

6. Service packages for different target groups 7. Developing structures to meet individual

needs 8. Integrating a strategic dimension 9. Being at the forefront of ICT usage 10. The necessary human and material resource

6


• Conclusions :

11. A distinctive professional culture 12. Quality assurance systems 13. A culture of evaluation 14. Well-targeted promotion 15. Public and private provision

7


• Working Paper available at :

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/support_measures/top-class/index.htm



WORKSHOP 1(RAPPORTEUR)


Torsten Slink

Handelskammer Bremen

April 2002, Vienna

European seminar on support

services for micro and small

enterprises and sole

proprietorships

Vienna, 11-12 April 2002

Summary of Workshop 1 : Awareness and visibility of support services

Topic of Workshop 1 was the awareness and visibility of support services. In addition the

commission had asked for remarks about four relevant conclusions from the EC Paper

“Creating Top Class Business Services”.

The seminar started with four presentations. Thomas Oberholzner presented a summary

of the study on “Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietors Businesses”. He

focused his presentation on the relevant aspects of the study for the topic of workshop 1.

He also draw attention to the statistical base of the study and explained, that about 1200

enterprises across Europe were questioned for the study. Therefore the statistic founding

of the study was reliable to draw valuable conclusions. The conclusions presented were

as follows:

Ø The information rate of enterprises with respect to support services is very low. Only 4

% believe that they are very well informed. Overall 76 % believe they are not very well

or not at all informed.

Ø The information rate varies between different business sectors. Whereas 35 % of

business services believe that they are at least sufficiently informed, transport and

communication services believe only by 14 % that they are at least sufficiently

informed.

Bremen, 29. April 2002

Bearbeiter: Dr. TorstenSlink

Telefon 0421/ 36 37-410

Telefax 0421/ 36 37-400

E-Mail [email protected]

Ø The information rate also varies within the EU. Significantly above average are 5

countries with Belgium in the lead (45 % information rate), whereas 6 countries are on

average and 3 countries below average with Greece significantly below average (8%).

Ø The study also showed that there is a general correspondence between a high

information rate on business services and a high participation rate of the same.

Ø Promotional tools should focus on direct and personal contacts

Ø Co-ordination of service supply on regional levels should be co-ordinated.

The second speaker, Juri Kovaljeff presented his personnel case of entrepreneurship

within the compounds of “SOFTUM”. Softum is an IT-related enterprise centre established

in late 1998 an an it-centre. Enterprises, educational institutions in the region and public

administrations co-operate in the centre. Local IT-businesses, educational institutions and

public administrations have discovered synergies in each other operation.

The participants in the workshop agreed that the SOFTUM concept is a good example of

a public support service for enterprises as it enables the enterprises to start their business

by supplying the important hardware. Most striking is the close co-operation with local

business school and universities and the exchange of students within these institutions

and the enterprises.

The third speaker, Fabio Pizzini, presented the system of Italian Chambers of Commerce

and their local support activities for SMEs in Italy. He pointed out, that

Ø In 2001 the Regional Foreign Centers of Chambers of Commerce have invested for

globalization 12,000,000 Euro, Chambers of Commerce have invested 38,000,000

Euro. All together the Italian system of Chambers of Commerce has invested at least

50,000,000 Euro in this sector.

Ø In 2001 at least 34,197 companies were contacted by Chambers of Commerce and

11,666 companies were contacted by the Regional Foreign Centers of Chambers of

Commerce.

The fourth speaker, Luis Sanchez from EOI presented the EOI system.

EOI has been working since 1989 in entrepreneurship and consolidation of Sme´s. Since

1994, through an operative program approved by the European Social Fond (ESF), EOI

has soared its work in this area. In 2000, the Ministry of Science &Technology of Spain,

as protector of EOI, has added directly to this line of support through CRECE

INICIATIVE. Nowadays EOI gives 50.000 training hours per year in this scope.

EOI has developed a three stages program, which use different ways of awareness.

These programmes are divided into three stages:

1. From the Idea to the Viable Project

During three and a half months each of the entrepreneurs develops a viable project of an idea

for a business. With the help of the Consultants, the entrepreneurs conduct an exhaustive and

customised study of each case, and at the same time they acquire the basic tools for the running

of their firm. (50,000 training hours per year)

2. From the Viable Project to the Opening of the Firm

In this next stage, a team of Lecturers-Consultants monitors the projects and assists the

entrepreneurs in the setting up of their firms.

3. From the Opening of the Firm to its Consolidation: REDEPYME

Summary of Discussions in Workshop 1

The participants expressed their wish that future conferences should focus on such best

practice examples as given by the Finish and Spanish speaker. It was believed that a lot

of national best-practice-projects are transferable to other European Countries with minor

adjustments.

The following discussion focused on several aspects of support services and the

aforementioned conclusions of the commission paper. Next to the raised question about

the general need of such a study and the EC paper

It was found, that

Ø In general, the number of different support services is rather confusing for SMEs.

Ø It was discussed, if awareness raising is a real solution to the problems of SMEs and it

was agreed that it can only be a tool.

Ø It was also discussed, that awareness raising can only be performed properly if the

funds for public support services are actually high enough to deal with the higher

number of request for assistance, otherwise the results would be counterproductive.

The participants of the workshop also agreed that referring to the conclusions No 2, 4, 8

and 14 there are several inconsistencies in the paper. The inconsistencies were seen in

the following aspects:

Ø The lack of inclusion of private support services in these conclusion and the general

concentration of the paper on public support services. It was agreed within the

participants that only a regional network which includes both public and private

support services can provide services of high standard to SME.

Ø Public bodies, who provide support services, were mainly seen as dealers between

SMEs and private consultants. Therefore the general idea of the co-ordination of

activities on a regional level in conclusion number 4 was agreeable between the

participants.

Ø Between conclusions number 2 (convenient access to all support services) and 14

(well targeted audiences) it was found unclear what the intention of the commission is.

Ø In conclusion number 8 the participants did not agree with the holistic approach. It was

found that the assistance of public bodies within the rapidly changing circumstances of

the knowledge economy should focus on activities like SOFTUM or EOI, which were

presented in the workshop. It was found that the e in general public bodies are to slow

to react on “software” aspects but could provide the necessary hardware (like

compounds and basic technique).

A participant from Finland provided workshop 1 with the final conclusion. SMEs need

“Customer driven wide based public-private co-operation networks.”

Dr. Torsten Slink

Handelskammer Bremen

Bremen, 27th of April 2002



WORKSHOP 1


Results from the Study

“Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’s Businesses”


Thomas Oberholzner


A – 1040 ViennaTel.: ++43 1 505 97 61Fax.: ++43 1 503 46 60


April 2002, Vienna


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CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. THE INFORMATION RATE

3. TWO FACTORS INFLUENCING AWARENESS

3.1 PROMOTION OF SUPPORT SERVICES

3.2 ORGANISATION OF CONTACT POINTS

4. CONCLUSIONS


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1 INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the main findings of the study ‘Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’sBusinesses’, related to the issue of awareness of support services. Findings presented are based on aninventory of 335 support services targeted at micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in the MemberStates of the European Union and Norway as well as on a telephone survey among more than 1,200 micro,small, and sole proprietor’s businesses in the these countries. More detailed information on the methodologyapplied can be obtained from the Draft Final Report of the study. (1)

In particular, this paper deals with the following issues:

• the information level of enterprises with respect to the availability of support services

• the type of promotion activities preferred by businesses and used by service providers

• the organisation of contact points

Creating awareness of the existence and availability of support services among entrepreneurs is consideredone of the major challenges in support policy for small and medium sized enterprises and in particular for micro,small and sole proprietor’s businesses. Several previous empirical studies (e. g. European Observatory forSMEs) have identified this issue as being one of the major constraints for the utilisation of support services bysmall enterprises. As shown in the Draft Final Report of the a. m. study, the second strongest reason for non-utilisation is that enterprises lack awareness on the existence and availability of support services even wherethey would in principle have a need for external support. Also, a grand share of those enterprises that havealready used this kind of services found it most difficult to find out about the existence of the respective support.The counterpart of a potential ‘lack of awareness’ on the demand side might be a ‘lack of visibility’ of supportservices on the supply side. Thus, it is the aim of this paper to further elaborate on the issue of awareness byproviding data on the information level of enterprises with respect to the availability of support services and byanalysing a potential mismatch between enterprises’ needs with respect to how they want to be informed onsupport services and how providers actually promote and organise the services they offer.

1 Austrian Institute for Small Business Research: Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’s Businesses. Draft Final Report, on

behalf of the European Commission, DG Enterprise. Vienna 2002.


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2 THE INFORMATION RATE

As can be seen from Graph 1, European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses are rather poorlyinformed on the existence and availability of support services: Only 4 % of enterprises indicate to be ‘very well’informed, another 20 % feel ‘rather well’ informed. Thus, in total, more than three quarters (76 %) of micro, smalland sole proprietor’s businesses lack information on the availability of support services for their enterprise.

Graph 1: Information rate of enterprises with respect to support services

4%

20%

36%

40%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

very well rather well not very well not at all


Source: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

These findings are supported by Thomas (1994) who found that the search for information often takes too muchefforts for the smallest enterprises and if they have gained knowledge on the services offered by businessconsultants and/or on the possibilities of using public support programmes, this knowledge is usually verysuperficial and general. Also, Das Dores Guerreiro et al. (2000) come to the result, that the smallest businessesare frequently unaware of existing support systems.

The information level of enterprises on the existence and availability of support services seems to decrease withdecreasing size of an enterprise. Whereas among small enterprises (10 to 49 employees) 35 % of businessesindicate to be ‘very well’ or at least ‘rather well’ informed, only 22 % of the sole proprietors claim to be suffi-ciently informed (see Graph 2). The comparatively high level of awareness on the existence and availability ofsupport services on the side of small enterprises is associated with a relatively high level of participation amongthese enterprises. Similarly, information rates amount to about 33 % for enterprises with a turnover of more than€ 1,000,000 per year, whereas only 20 % of enterprises not reaching the turnover-level of € 100,000 are wellinformed on support services.

These results are in line with Briza (1996) who found a positive correlation between enterprise size (in terms ofemployees) and the information level of businesses: with the number of employees growing, the usage ofdifferent information sources rises. Moreover, Prognos AG (1999a) come to the result that micro enterprisesperceive the public support landscape to a higher extent as too in-transparent than smaller enterprises.


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Graph 2: Information rate of enterprises with respect to support services, by size class

22%25%

35%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

sole proprietor micro small


The same pattern appears when differentiating Europe’s micro, small and sole proprietor’s businessesaccording to their phase of development: The more mature enterprises get, the more likely they are to besufficiently informed on the existence and availability of support services (see Graph 3). However, it has to benoted that when controlling for size class, this is only true for sole proprietors and micro enterprises.

Graph 3: Information rate of enterprises with respect to support services, by phase of development

20%23%

26%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

start-ups growth mature

percent of enterprises rather well or very well informed


As with the participation rates also information rates differ when the sector of activity is taken into account: Ascan be seen from Graph 4, among those sectors with more than an average share of enterprises being suffi-ciently informed on support services are the business services (35 %) and tourism (25 %). Comparably poorlyinformed on support services are enterprises in the transport and communication (14 %) as well as in the repairand other services (18 %) sector.

Graph 4: Information rate of enterprises with respect to support services, by sector

35%

25%21% 21% 20% 18%

14%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

business services tourism manufacturing wholesale andretail trade

banking andfincance

repair and otherservices

transport andcommunication



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Furthermore, female entrepreneurs are not only using support services more often than their male counterpartsbut are also slightly better informed on this kind of support: Whereas 27 % of the enterprises owned by awoman are well informed on support services, this share of enterprises owned by a man amounts to 22 %.

The same pattern is visible among highly educated and growth oriented entrepreneurs; i.e. above-average parti-cipation rates are accompanied by comparatively high levels of information. For instance, the information rateamong entrepreneurs with secondary or university education amounts to 29 % in comparison to 7 % amongentrepreneurs with elementary education.

Also, enterprises having increased their number of employees for more than 10 % during the last three yearsshow a higher information rate (32 %) in comparison to enterprises with a stagnating number of employees(18 %). Furthermore, enterprises located in rural areas with less than 50.000 inhabitants are - though morelikely to participate in support services - on average not as well informed on support services than their counter-part in urban areas (22 % and 27 %, respectively).

As can be seen from Table 1, the average share of sufficiently informed micro, small and sole proprietor’s busi-nesses in the European Union Member States and Norway lies at 24 %. In terms of comparison, (2) the share ofenterprises being very well or rather well informed is particularly high in Belgium (45 %), the Netherlands(43 %), Austria (36 %), Sweden (36 %) and Finland (34 %). The lowest information rates are in contrast found inGreece (6 %), Portugal (11 %) and France (15 %).

Table 1: Information rate of enterprises with respect to support services, by country

country information rate*)

Belgium 45 %Netherlands significantly 43 %Austria above average 36 %Sweden 36 %Finland 34 %Italy 31 %Denmark 30 %Spain 29 %Norway on average 27 %Ireland 25 %EU (15) and Norway 24 %

Germany 22 %United Kingdom 18 %France significantly 15 %Portugal below average 11 %Greece 6 %Luxembourg **)

*) enterprises rather well or very well informed on support services, maximum sample error at country level: +/- 10 %**) no reliable data availableSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

2 Variations from the EU-average at country level have to be interpreted cautiously due to comparatively high sample errors (see notes in

Table 1).


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There are significant differences in information and participation rates by country. As can be learnt fromGraph 5, Greece, for instance, shows extremely low rates in both dimensions, whereas the opposite is true forcountries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, and Finland: In these countries the comparatively highrates of participation among micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses might be explained by relatively highlevels of information among the enterprises. Hence, there is a (statistically slightly positive) correlationobservable between information and participation rates in so far as a high level of information tends to result in acomparably high share of enterprises utilising support services. However, not in all countries high (low) sharesof enterprises well informed on support services coincide with high (low) participation rates. In Norway andSweden, for example, enterprises are generally quite well informed on support services but do rarely use them.This can be explained by the fact that in these countries the availability of external support is often restricted tocertain regions (e.g. in Northern Norway) but nonetheless promoted throughout the country. Also Austria andItaly show relatively high information rates but only medium participation rates.

In contrast, in countries such as Portugal, France and the United Kingdom high participation goes along with lowlevels of information on the side of enterprises. This might be due to a support policy in these countries that con-centrates on particular groups of enterprises and organises the promotion of the respective services accor-dingly; i.e. by directly addressing targeted enterprises whilst leaving the vast majority of enterprises uninformed.In the United Kingdom, for instance, providers often promote their support services by directly contacting orpersonally visiting their potential clients. In France, the low level of information on support services amongmicro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses does not seem to be the result of exclusionary promotional prac-tices, but of the fact, that many French providers restrict their promotional efforts to providing information onavailable support on their web-sites or to organising presentations on trade fairs, which requires active engage-ment in information gathering and prior interest among enterprises.

Graph 5: Information and participation rates of enterprises with regard to support services

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Information rate

Par

ticip

atio

n ra

te

Greece

Sweden

Netherlands

Ireland

Italy

Norway

Germany

Denmark

Belgium

Finland

United Kingdom

Portugal France

Austria

Spain



EU-average



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3 TWO FACTORS INFLUENCING AWARENESS

3.1 PROMOTION OF SUPPORT SERVICES

Obviously, the degree of information respectively awareness on the side of enterprises might be closely relatedto the effectiveness of promotional activities applied by support service providers in order to attract or to reachas many potential users as possible. With respect to how enterprises want to be informed on support services, itcan be concluded from Graph 6 that European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses have a clearpreference for direct contacts (52 % of enterprises prefer to be informed in this vein). Still 36 % of the enter-prises appreciate being personally visited by the provider’s staff and one third of the enterprises are content witheither using the Internet for information gathering purposes or with being informed on support services throughadvertisements in newspapers or journals, respectively.

Graph 6: Type of promotion activities preferred by enterprises*)

31%

23%

52%

30%36%

19%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

advertisements innewspapers,journals, etc.

agents direct contacts(e.g. mailingcampaigns,telephone)

internet, web-site personal visits ofprovider

presentations ontrade fairs,exhibitions,

seminars, etc.


*) more than one answer allowedSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

This pattern is observable in most European countries under consideration. Particularly, either direct contacts orpersonal visits are among the two most welcome promotional methods in all countries except for the Nether-lands, where enterprises prefer using the Internet and newspapers or journals in order to inform themselves onsupport services. Enterprises also commonly use the Internet for information gathering purposes in Austria,Belgium and Denmark. Among the least preferred promotional tools are, as illustrated in Graph 6, the disposalof agents and the presentations of services on trade fairs or exhibitions and the like. This is true for almost allcountries with the exception of Luxembourg and Spain, where the least preferred tool is the Internet, and theNetherlands where the least preferred tool, besides agents, are personal visits.

Furthermore, European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses rather actively search for information onthe availability of support services than reacting to advertisements of the service providers. Also, almost everysecond enterprise listens to recommendations of other people in this matter. These results are in line withseveral empirical studies that have previously been conducted in different Member States of the EuropeanUnion (e.g. Boter et al. (1999), Chatzakis et al. (2000), Deutsche Ausgleichsbank (2000), Enterprise Ireland(2000), Unioncamere et al. (2000a)) and that found that the smallest businesses prefer a personalised adver-tising approach. When looking for external support, most attention is paid to word-of-mouth-recommendationsby a third party and to information provided by means of direct contacts or personal visits by service providers.

It has to be mentioned that promotional tools have to be particularly carefully selected when enterprises in thephase of crises are the target group. Entrepreneurs in such situations usually lack time and personnel to activelysearch for information on support possibilities as they are too occupied with solving their problems. To someextent the best method might be to leave it to those that are traditionally closest to the firm (banks, accountants)to personally talk about the crisis with the entrepreneur and inform him/her on support possibilities. The issue ofcrisis requires sensible advertising through persons the entrepreneur trusts in. Nevertheless, althoughadvertising through these channels seems to be most effective, it requires a close co-operation and networking.Most European countries lack a ‘crisis culture’, as entrepreneurship and success is promoted everywherewhereas being in crisis is often only regarded as failure.


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As far as the use of different communication means by support service suppliers is concerned, it can be seenfrom Graph 7 that the majority of support services for micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses is advertisedin the Internet. This applies for virtually all countries that have been analysed in the course of this study. Theuse of the Internet for promoting support services seems most relevant when young entrepreneurs or inno-vative/technology enterprises are the target group. The majority of Finnish support services, for example, isstrongly advertised on well structured and easily accessible web-sites and the Finnish service ‘Invention market’(‘Keksintöpörssi’) created in 1994 to assist inventors and enterprises in developing ideas into business opportu-nities is an example for a service exclusively promoted via Internet.

Graph 7: Promotion of services identified

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

advertisements in newspapers agents, e.g. business associations, etc.

direct contacts internet, web-site

presentations on trade fairs, exhibitions, etc. personal visits to the enterprises

others

*) more than one answer allowed

number of services *)

Source: IfGH/ENSR Support Services Database, 2001

Although the promotion via Internet has become a standard in Europe, most service providers in the MemberStates of the European Union plus Norway use additional tools for promoting their services. The most prominentcombination is Internet/web-site and advertisements in newspapers. In the Netherlands, the United Kingdom,Sweden and Germany, for example, more than half of the support services are advertised on the Internet and innewspapers at the same time. ‘Almi Business Partner’ (‘Almi Företagspartner’), for instance, a Swedish publicprogramme that aims at stimulating growth and development, counts on good reputation and presents in itsnewspaper advertisements companies that have benefited from the programme. Additionally, detailed informa-tion on how to access the service is provided on their web-site.

In some countries, the presentation of support services on trade fairs, exhibitions, etc. has a long tradition. Theyseem to be quite prominent in the middle and northern European countries. Each year the ‘Start-up and Run aCompany Fair’, for example, is held in Stockholm. In Austria these kinds of educational exhibitions are oftentargeted at school leavers and young people, such as the ‘Founder-month’ with action days, seminars, specialevents, etc.

Many support services that are offered in several Member States of the European Union plus Norway, such asthe ‘European Innovation Centres (EBN-Network)’, the ‘Euro Info Centres (EIC)’ or ‘Young Enterprise’, areadvertised through a combination of Internet and agents. Such agents act as intermediaries and can directlyaddress the issues of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses. The personal contact with the agent allowsthe promotion of the support service and the assessment of its suitability for the client at the same time, whichhelps to built trust and economise the clients’ resources.

When compared to how support services are actually promoted, it is found that although more than half of theenterprises would like to be directly contacted by the providers (e.g. with the help of mailing campaigns) thistype of promotion is rarely applied in Europe. One of the most important promotional activities seem to be thedeliverance of information on support services on the Internet (providers’ web-pages). This tool is both, readilyapplied by the providers as well as wanted by every third European micro, small and sole proprietor’s business.Nevertheless, in order to reconcile the supply of support services with the demand of the enterprises withrespect to promotion and dissemination of information is seems advisable to put more emphasis on direct


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contacts and personal visits. Still, it has to be borne in mind that exactly these two modes of promotion areamong the most cost-intensive ones. Thus, adapting the supply of support services to the demand of theenterprises in this respect might also be a matter of feasibility.

3.2 ORGANISATION OF CONTACT POINTS

Generally, businesses seem to clearly prefer looking for support services either at local or at regional level. Lessthan every third enterprise would consider visiting contact points at national level and even less than every fifthenterprise would look for information on available support services at European level (see Graph 8). As shownin Graph 9, the contact points of support services are indeed mainly decentralised in all European UnionMember States and Norway. Centralised services at national level are mostly data bases which are accessiblevia the Internet. These databases usually offer basic information and serve as a first-orientation point forenterprises. It can, therefore, be concluded that the organisation of the contact points of support serviceseffectively matches the demand of enterprises.

Graph 8: Organisation of contact points preferred by enterprises*)

67%

50%

31%

16%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

local level regional level national level european level



Graph 9: Organisation of the contact points of services identified

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250

centralised on national leveldecentralised on regional leveldecentralised on local level

number of services



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4 CONCLUSIONS

Creating awareness of support services is an important aim for support policy in future

More than three-quarters of enterprises lack information on the existence and availability of support for theirrespective enterprise. Thus, the relatively low participation in support services among European micro, smalland sole proprietor’s businesses might also be connected to the low level of information on support servicesoffered. Information rates even decline with decreasing size and maturity of an enterprise. Creating awarenessof the existence and availability of support services among entrepreneurs is thus considered one of the majorchallenges of support policy in future.

Promotional tools should focus on direct and personal contacts

Problems with respect to a lack of information on the side of enterprises are often closely related to the effec-tiveness of promotional activities applied by support service providers. European micro, small and sole proprie-tor’s businesses would generally prefer being directly contacted by service providers or even personally visited.However, these promotional tools are hardly applied by providers. The challenge is to develop (innovative) costefficient promotion measures for directly and personally contacting businesses.

The presentation of service supply should be better co-ordinated between providers

Most contact points of support services are decentralised; i.e. most services can be accessed either at regionalor even local level. This effectively matches the way European enterprises are actually looking for supportservices. However, it seems important that public authorities implement a more strategic approach to thesupport they provide and ensure that it is well co-ordinated with other service provision, particularly at theregional level. New stand alone initiatives should be avoided, in order not to confuse the client and to facilitatethe process of awareness creation.



WORKSHOP 1


Juri Kovaljeff

Softum Mänttä

April 2002, Vienna

VIDEO:

Graphic and technical visualization that uses drawing and 3D modeling goes beyond the surface –it

begins where a photograph ends.

Graftek offers you individualised graphic and technical drawing services and training packages within

the Softum Netcenter concept.

The strength of Graftek Quality is the combination of technical drawing and artistic vision. Illustrative

and clear product images for brochures and installation instructions are created by using AutoCAD and

CorelDraw together. This way it is possible to create a product image that is dimensionally accurate

and it is also easy to create different projections and perspective drawings .

By using a drawing the manufacturer can give the potential buyer an image of the product even though

only a preliminary plan or a prototype of it exists.

Drawing makes it possible to demonstrate products that cannot be taken along or photographed. And

what comes to business-secrets, in illustration you can always leave out the details and only display the

ones that are needed to get the message across.

Graftek’s specialties are skilful portraits made in pencil and other freehand drawings. As a starting

point you need a good photograph and what you get is a beautiful and unique portrait - a popular and

different gift for special occasions!

SPEECH:

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, my name is Juri Kovaljeff and I work as a sole trader in Softum

Netcenter, which is a fast expanding group of IT-related enterprises in Mänttä, Finland.

I would like to talk to you about the operating model of Softum and its support services and also how I

become familiar with Softum concept and decided to take a step to an entrepreneur. I have divided my

presentation into three main parts:

• First, I will show you a video-insert, which presents Softum-concept and some of its companies,

including my firm Graftek Quality, which is the latest addition to Softum.

• Then I will tell you a bit more about the Softum-concept.

• And finally I will talk about myself and my experiences in Softum and benefits I have received.

This presentation will take about 15 minutes.

VIDEO PRESENTATION HERE

POINT 1.

Mänttä is an industrial town with more than a century of industrial traditions. Traditionally strong

industrial fields are wood processing industry and paper industry. Several internationally known

companies operate in the Mänttä region, for example Metsä Tissue Ltd, Sulzer Pumps Finland Ltd

Mänttä Pump Factory, Lillbacka Ltd and Patria Finavitec ltd.

In Mänttä great value is given to creating favourable conditions for especially metal industry and ICT –

entrepreneurship. These two fields have been given extra importance in the business strategy of the

town of Mänttä. Softum Netcenter is a fast expanding group of IT-related enterprises, which offers

significant benefits for businesses in the field and a co-operation channel to students studying the

branch and to the services of Pirkanmaa Polytechnic.

The IT-related enterprise centre Softum Netcenter was established in late 1998 as an IT centre of

expertise operating in north-eastern Pirkanmaa. Enterprises, educational institutions in the region and

public administration can cooperate in the centre. Local IT-businesses, which have taken part in the

centre from the beginning, educational institutions and public administration have discovered synergy

in each others’ operations. It has been in the businesses’ interests to combine each others’ skills and

knowledge into shared market advantage. The educational institutions’ tasks are to develop know-how

and to increase the workforce. Public administration has been involved in the centre of expertise

especially through YRKE Business Developing Company.

The political efforts made in the region and the co-ordination of the co-operation between the different

parties are also remarkable.

In the Mänttä region there operates the Northeastern-Pirkanmaa Information Network Project, which is

funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Regional Council of Tampere Region, the

phone company Pohjois-Hämeen Puhelin Ltd and the municipalities of the region. The project has

provided the region with fast Internet connections based on optical fibre.

The monthly expenses of the fast and permanent LAN- connections have been kept in a reasonable

level from a small- or medium-scale entrepreneur’s point of view.

Through co-operation and shared costs, the expenses of a permanent LAN-connection can be kept to a

fraction of the original price.

As an example of Softum´s fast LAN-connections I could give you some figures

100 Mbit for intranet traffic

10 Mbit for national traffic

2 Mbit for international traffic

In addition to the technical benefits mentioned before, Softum Netcenter offers its companies other

important things:

The popularity of remote work hasn’t increased as expected. One of the reasons behind this is the lack

of reference group. It is precisely the social dimension that Softum offers the enterprises. One of

Softum’s aims is to develop the computing environment for telecommuting both nationally and

internationally. Softum’s operational environment with its permanent entrepreneurs offers a

telecommuter the necessary contacts with other people, professional know-how and a flexible working

environment.

One goal of the enterprise centre is to help especially small and medium-sized enterprises in their IT-

related problems. A small-scale entrepreneur can’t necessarily afford to hire a PC advisor – if you have

problems, you can get help through the co-operation of the enterprise centre.

It is expensive and even sometimes difficult to employ someone if you take into account the additional

expenses, but there is demand for subcontractors. Netcenter’s enterprises also subcontract to each other.

Along with increasing information technology comes the increasing need for help in troubleshooting.

The corporate image of the enterprises in Softum Netcenter is also associated with company training.

Tailored courses and training are organised for companies.

Work premises for the polytechnic students of Pirkanmaa. It is possible for the students to develop to

their knowledge and skills in the new media branch or other business-related branch into

entrepreneurship.

The workforce in Mänttä is very committed and and there is a low turnover of workers. This is good

news to many IT-related businesses, which suffer from high turnover of personnel.

In addition to work Mänttä offers exceptionally good recreational facilities. Anyone can use the library,

ice stadium, indoor swimming pool and recreation centre with its bowling alley and gym.

POINT 2.

Softum is very well known in its local area, and more and more people are beginning to recognize the

name Softum also outside of Mänttä.

Softum Netcenter is a network of enterprises, which operates in the IT branch and covers the area of

southern Finland. In addition to the Mänttä production unit we have premises in Arabianranta in

Helsinki in connection with the Centre for Extended Studies of the University of Art and Design and

the Design, Media and Art Business Centre Arabus. We also have premises in Tampere in connection

with Media Tampere. The shared premises enable the enterprises have better connections with the

clientele. Every enterprise operating in Softum can use this extended sphere of operations and take

advantage of the different branch offices according to its needs.

The enterprise hatcheries operating in connection with the Helsinki or Tampere branch office are a

possibility for a new entrepreneur. Although the production is located in Mänttä you can market your

products in Helsinki and Tampere.

Since last autumn we have begun to establish international relations. Our goal is to establish a

European telecommuting centre, which would also include research activities in the IT branch.

POINT 3.

Why did I choose Softum Netcenter?

- fast telecommunications link- the benefits of synergism- affordable rent- very good premises

I was born in Tampere but moved to Helsinki when I was quite young. I grew up and studied in the

capital. I got to use my artistic skills for example when I worked as a set designer in the Helsinki City

Theatre and did different graphic design and illustration work for companies and private customers.

However, as time went by the hectic lifestyle of the capital began to feel too strenuous and after many

different twists and turns I ended up in the peaceful countryside in Pohjaslahti with my family, away

from to noice and bustle of the city.

I was touring the different municipalities of my native area with the intention of getting a picture of

enterprises in different branches that could employ me until I met managing director Esko koikkalainen

and Softum Netcenter coordinator Arja Ranta-aho. They soon persuaded me to start a business of my

own.

I had been thinking about starting a business of my own for a long time, and I had always thought that

it would be a perfect opportunity to use my skills in a versatile way. It was only due to Softum that I

had the courage to implement the idea. Softum offers modern high-tech equipment and a great working

environment, which is really functional and well designed. Everything was sorted out at once. The

town of Mänttä and living with my family in Pohjaslahti give me enormous amounts of strength, and

this also has a positive effect on my work. The hectic pace and cold demands of Helsinki are now far

away. Instead I have positive creative power and unreserved customer contacts. In addition to this, I

still have access to the contacts I created when I was working in the capital – I can also work for them

but in completely different surroundings. Softum’s good telecommunications connections make this

possible. Thanks to Softum’s “computer hotel” and information support I have been able to start my

business with as little risk as possible. As a customer of the “computer hotel” I was given comfortable

premises, an effective PC with the basic software and a permanent Internet connection. I also have

access to office and cleaning services. It would have been impossible to get the same kind of package

in the private sector with as little cost. Acquiring my most important tool AutoCad would also have

been a big expense for a small-scale entrepreneur who is just starting out. Now I have Softum and Yrke

to back me up and I got the program quickly, thanks to project funding.

I feel that I can now use my professional and artistic skills in a way that has been impossible before.

Softum Netcenter has made it all possible.

So now I would like to summarise the main points:

• Softum Netcenter is a fast expanding group of IT-related enterprises, which offers significant

benefits for businesses in the field and a co-operation channel to students studying the branch and

to the services of Pirkanmaa Polytechnic.

• The goal is both to create synergy between the enterprises and to build the cooperation between

the educational institutions and the enterprises into a sort of “motor”, a driving force that helps

the enterprises to get qualified workforce, affordable Internet connections and access to other

resources needed in developing the branch.

• The co-operation between the enterprises, educational institutions and public administration is

vital for the growth of Softum Netcenter.

• It doesn’t pay to sit around and wait for someone to offer you a job. It is a better idea to employ

oneself. Thanks to the Softum concept it is easy to become an entrepreneur.

And this concludes my presentation, thank you for your attention.



WORKSHOP 1


Fabio Pizzino

Unioncamere

April 2002, Vienna

According to a census undertaken by the Ministry for Productive Activitiesin Italy there are 178,000 companies working with foreign countries. About80% of these 178,000 companies has less than 15 employees.

Italy, therefore, is a country with a lot of small and medium companies thathave convenience in founding their own way for accessing internationalmarkets.

Nowadays, which is the meaning of the word “globalization”?

According to me this word has at least three different meanings.

The first meaning is foreign trade. It is the most traditional method and it ischaracterized by the export of products abroad.

Since the end of 1980’s a new method of globalization has being developedand it is characterized by direct investments abroad. As known, the openingof Central and Eastern European markets has brought to new opportunitiesfor Italian companies. In countries like Poland, Slovak Republic andRomania, Italian companies, small and medium, have found verycompetitive costs of labor and of energy than in Italy. This is why Italiancompanies have established production plants abroad. In Romania, forexample, there are about 2,000 Italian companies.

The third method of globalization, is the so called company’s network. Thislast method of globalization has been precisely described by Robert Reich,future Labor Minister of President Clinton. In a company’s network thereare various kind of relations: independent earning methods, systems ofexternal partnership such as joint venture, granting of franchising,subcontracting.

In this dynamic and growing context, what have Chambers of Commercedone?

I believe to can affirm that Italian Chambers of Commerce have developedabsolutely specific services in the field of assistance to companies.

As stated in the working document of the European Commission “Createfirst class services to sustain companies” “all Chamber’s interventionpolicies, at European level, are characterized by their proximity to localeconomies that qualifies and makes their mission specific”.

The Italian Chamber’s of Commerce system has concentrated its activitiesin order to strengthen assistance services to companies as far as contractual,fiscal and customs information is concerned.

The fact that Chambers of Commerce offer these services makes theChamber’s system specific and at the same time complementary to otherpublic bodies working on the distribution of services for the globalization.

In 2001 the Regional Foreign Centers of Chambers of Commerce haveinvested for globalization 12,000,000 Euros, Chambers of Commerce haveinvested 38,000,000 Euros. All together the Italian system of Chambers ofCommerce has invested at least 50,000,000 Euros in this sector.

In 2001 at least 34,197 companies were contacted by Chambers ofCommerce and 11,666 companies were contacted by the Regional ForeignCenters of Chambers of Commerce.

If we analyze consultant services offered by Chambers of Commerce, wecan see that those regarding guidance and training (19%), customs andtransports (16%), fiscal matters (10%) cover the greatest part of the offeredservices.

This result comes also from the analysis of the consultant services offeredby the Regional Foreign Centers of Chambers of Commerce. The greatestpart of these services is focused on guidance and training (22%), customsand transports (14%), contracts (11%) and fiscal matters.

The analysis of the consultant services offered has correspondence also inthe number of initiatives realized in 2001.

As far as Chambers of Commerce are concerned, the initiatives realizedfocused on training (1390), participation at exhibitions abroad (515) andfinancial contributions for initiatives of Italian Chambers of CommerceAbroad (343).

As far as the Regional Foreign Centers of Chambers of Commerce areconcerned, initiatives focused mostly on training (117), participation atexhibitions abroad (114) and welcome of foreign delegations (69).

In 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, an initiative of the Ministers ofForeign Affairs of Italy, Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia, created the firstnucleus of regional continental that was to gradually expand into theCentral European Initiative (in the 2001 the CEI countries are: Albania,

Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, CzechRepublic, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Hungary, Italy, FormerYugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, SlovakRepublic, Slovenia and Ukraina) with the aim to strengthen relationshipbetween the Central European Countries and the European Union.

Some of them belong to the European Union (Italy and Austria), some willbecome members of European Union (Hungary, Poland, Czech andSlovenia and then Romania, Bulgaria and Slovak Republic), others havesigned European Agreements, while others have different links (contractualties, financial support,) with the European Union and some have norelationship at the present.

In the framework of the Central European Initiative (CEI) activities, thenational Chambers of Commerce set up in 1995 in Trieste a multi-regionalco-operation in order to create a network to improve business investmentsand common projects and transfer experiences and best practices in fieldssuch as training, activities for business development and etc.

The collaboration between the Presidents of Chambers of Commerce ofCEI Countries is assured by the Secretariat (held by Unioncamere). Everyyear there is the Conference of the Presidents of the Central EuropeanChambers of Commerce Initiative and this year the Conference will be heldin Scopje (Macedonian presidency 2002) in November.

In 2001 the Italian system of Chambers of Commerce, in cooperation withthe Ministry for the Productive Activities, gave a contribution to thedevelopment of the project about the regional desks for globalization.

At this regard, together with the material network composed by theglobalization desks of the Chambers of Commerce, an electronic networkcalled Globus was created.

At the moment Globus involves 82 Italian Chambers of Commerce, 4Regional Foreign Centers of Chambers of Commerce and 1 RegionalUnion of Chambers of Commerce together with more than 40 ItalianChambers of Commerce abroad.

The aim of Globus is to offer a first aid service and guidance to companieswishing to have relations with foreign countries.

Globus is divided into various sections: exhibitions and missions, tenders,business opportunities , countries and markets, partners’ research, seminarsand training, financial tools and international emergencies.

In 2001 more than 200,000 pages of the sections were requested by theusers and more than 22,000 users visited the web site.




WORKSHOP 1


The results of a project involving 1500 businesses

Paolo Cattapan

Area Science Park - Trieste

April 2002, Vienna

Conference:

Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole-Proprietor Businesses

The results of a project involving 1500 businesses

AREA Science Park is the first started and actually the largest science park in Italy;formally launched in 1979, it has been a multi-disciplinary centre since 1982; today it is hometo over 70 organizations, including laboratories and research bodies both public andcommercial, with a total of 1700 employees.

The initial trend was for AREA Science Park to provide a concentration of highlyspecialized research centres and to promote the creation of two international projects ofglobal importance: UNIDO’s Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnologies, andELETTRA Synchroton Light Machine. The number of industrial research laboratories on sitehas increased since the early Nineties, and new enterprises have also appeared. By the endof 2001 AREA Science Park boasted 16 national and international research institutes, 24R&D laboratories owned by external companies, as well as 29 high-tech industries.

In 1997, the AREA launched an initiative designed to structure the activities ofdiffusion of innovation and technology transfer to SMEs in order to operationally promote andgive visibility to the institutional role it plays in this area of services in the Friuli-VeneziaGiulia Region.

The project draws its strength from the structures it is able to exploit thank to beingone of the leading science parks in Italy located within a system of enormous potential interms of production of skills and innovation that can benefit the business world.

A work programme has been drawn up for the project, with the goals of:- exploiting the output of research, and promotion of its take-up in the business

world- expanding the area of collaboration between the world of research and that of

the economy- building up technological development that supports enterprise

competitiveness.The working group is made of 3 persons full time and myself part time. In view of the

fact that even innovation related services are to be sold, the 3 full time people have beenchosen with a “non technical” University degree.

The activities have been carried out throughout the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region,where – with reference to the industrial characteristics – three types of zone are present:

- objective 2 zones (areas of industrial decline), where project funds availableallowed services to be offered without charge

- objective 5b zones (areas mainly devoted to agriculture), where the limitedresources available permitted launch of only a first phase of the innovativeprogrammes

- ‘non-objective’ zones, where activities were carried out without anyconcessions for the enterprises there.

Because of the wide range of different ways in which enterprises consider innovation,the project has made special effort to couple ‘lead services’ – as demanded by the bestorganised businesses – with other activities that are more suitable and attractive forenterprises of small and micro dimension.

Major emphasis has been placed on activities promoting direct relation withcompanies through door-to-door services.

The data summarising activities between 1998 and 2001 are shown in the followingtable:

Overall activity: July 1997- September 2001Zone Total

Ob. 2 Ob. 5b No-Ob.Businesses contacted 872 420 208 1500Businesses visited 361 119 59 539Total no. interventions 317 115 101 533

In order both to perform the contractual engagements and to try to understand thesense of our work, three areas of research have been launched to analyse the differentaspects of the work carried out:

1. The social-economic impact;

2. The factors determining acceptance and refusal of the innovative services;

3. The customer satisfaction analysis.

1. The social-economic impact.

By means of a very simple questionnaire the companies assisted in theimplementation of innovation projects, have been requested an evaluation ofthe potential economic consequences of the activities carried out:

- planned process innovation and investment in machinery and installations,equipment, non-tangible goods

- product innovation- commercial developments in the present sector, new sectors, and new

geographical areas- impact on turnover- impact on employment- other innovative projects and/or applied research planned, launched or to be

launched following the intervention and structures involved.

We got responses from 50 companies over a universe of 62.

Their average size is pretty small: 18 employees with a turnover of 2,28Meuro.

Most of them belong to the subcontracting business with a special emphasison the mechanical industry.

In very short terms the figures can be summarised in the following figures:

Investments €/1000New machinery 4.350New equipment 1.340Immaterial investments. 273

Total 5.963Innovation Projects

Product 1.340Process 770Organisation 310

Turnover increase National ExportTotal actual turnover 78.112 36.014

Expected increase 7.520 6.961% 9,63 19,33Average % 12,69

EmploymentNew jobs 72% increase 7,60

2. Factors determining acceptance and refusal of the innovative services.

This part of the research was been assigned to a laboratory expert on thethemes of the business analysis and innovation who suggested to explore thefollowing topics:

- efficiency of communication, for assessing modifications to be made to thepresent model of communication

- ways of effecting approaches to a business- ways of supplying innovative services, in order to link service delivery to the

market system- strengths and weaknesses of the project- effects of project on business customers, in terms of new impulses transmitted- influence of service cost on decisions made.

The test sample of 62 companies was selected within a universe of 1.292 ofwhom 253 gave their answers.

The output to us – in terms of acceptance / refusal of our services –underlined that most of “No Thanks” was due to the fact that innovation in nota priority in the daily agenda of the entrepreneur. Nevertheless this can beovercame by means of:

- Communication:- proximity between the consultant and the entrepreneur- understandable language- compatible proposals.

- Approach to the Business:- to propose feasible projects, agreed and participated- to support the change of the companies’ cultural model

- to plan carefully the interventions (competence and integration).

- In other terms:- to keep in mind that to promote diffusion of innovation and to support

technology transfer means to intervene into the business complexitywhere the success factors do not belong to one system only.

3. Analysis of customer satisfaction.

To work out this part of the research, a company specialised in this type ofanalysis was engaged. It is nice to mention that, even if they are wellrecognised with a good reputation for this type of activities, this was their veryfirst approach with themes of this kind. In consequence it has been aninteresting exercise the phase of definition of the questionnaire to besubmitted to our clients.

- correspondence of the product/service offered with the product/serviceactually delivered

- assessment of the process of service delivery- satisfaction as regards promises made- satisfaction as regards demands from business customers- factors in favour and against.

4. Conclusions

In general we feel happy for the results archived.

As regards relationship between enterprises and innovation (research bodies anduniversities) the interventions carried out encouraged consolidation of existing links amongparticipants in the various programmes. This was partly a consequence of the approachadopted, which involved functional sharing of activities between the consultants of anenterprise and its personnel. This has led to various types of co-operation; despite thelimited resources, these have both allowed optimisation of results and also enabled theenterprises involved to test out practically the employment of innovative factors in their ownactivities.

Happy but not satisfied.

We have in front of us further six years of program with a reasonably fair budget, thathas been granted to us mainly on the base of the results obtained, with the engagement todo better.

Being very careful not to self-reference our activity, we will periodically submit outwork to the analysis of third parties, and hope to be in the position, within a couple of yearsto present even better scores to a next meeting.



WORKSHOP 1


Creation & Consolidation of SME´s

Luis Sánchez

Escuela Organizacion Industrial (EOI)

April 2002, Vienna

CRECE INICIATIVE (Creation & Consolidation of Sme´s)

EOI has been working since 1989 in entrepreneurship and consolidation of Sme´s.

Since 1994, through an operative program approved by the European Social Fond

(ESF), EOI has soared it´s work in this area. In 2000, the Ministry of Science

&Technology of Spain, as protector of EOI, has added directly to this line of support

through CRECE INICIATIVE. Nowadays EOI gives 50.000 training hours per year in

this scope.

EOI has developed a three stages program, which use different ways of awareness. The

preliminary phase of the project consists in an information and awareness-raising

campaign for local groups of entrepreneurs and sme´s using two ways, media (press,

radio, posters, local tv, etc.) and local advisors (sme´s associations, town halls, local

partners, etc.).

A special characteristic of these Programmes is the individual attention and

involvement with each of the participants to enable them to start or consolidate their

own business.

These programmes are divided into three stages:

1. From the Idea to the Viable Project

During three and a half months each of the entrepreneurs develops a viable project of

an idea for a business. With the help of the Lecturers-Consultants, the entrepreneurs

conduct an exhaustive and customised study of each case, and at the same time they

acquire the basic tools for the running of their firm. (50,000 training hours per year)

2. From the Viable Project to the Opening of the Firm

In this next stage, a team of Lecturers-Consultants monitors the projects and assists

the entrepreneurs in the setting up of their firms.

3. From the Opening of the Firm to its Consolidation: REDEPYME

With the firms now operating, the third phase begins: consolidation. For this

Redepyme was created, a network of firms to encourage consolidation and

cooperation among the firms operating.

This network currently has more than 2,600 firms from all business sectors

distributed throughout Spain and is managed by EOI.

In this selected group (of people trained in our programmes) the answer to any

activity that EOI promotes (Seminars, Consuelling, Website, Congress, etc.) is very

high.

Depending on the activity EOI wants to develop, we combine passive visibility with

an active information and an awareness campaign.

Passive Visibility is achieved through Redepyme´s Website (www.redepyme.com). This

website is being linked to the main Spanish Websites (Vodafone, Auna, etc.). In this

website companies are able to find a wide range of tailored services, for instance

(counselling, design of its own website, training on line, Newsletters, EOI information,

etc.)

The other great event Redepyme organises yearly is its Congress. Nearly 500

companies of our network assist to this meeting. This Congress is a big chance for

then to promote their products and services and a good way to make contacts. The

interest of Media has been steadly increasing from its first edition. The last year

edition, the sixth was widely coverage by media (national tv news, radio, press, etc.).

The results of these Programmes for the Setting up of Firms as of November 2001are:

Courses 360

Participants 8,300

Projects 6,800 82%

Firms operating 2,600 38%




TYPES OF SUPPORT SERVICES PROVIDED AND DEMANDED

Inigo Isusi

Instituto Vasco de Estudios e Investigación, (IKEI)

April 2002, Vienna

Rapport of Workshop 2: Types of Support Services Provided and Demanded

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

Yesterday in Workshop 2 we had the opportunity to reflect on the issue of ‘Types ofsupport services provided and demanded’.

We had 5 speakers in our workshop:

ü Ingrid Pecher, from the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH),who gave us some input from the European report on existing evidence on thesupply and demand of Business Support Services (BSS).

ü Catherine Dumouchel, who as an entrepreneur gave us her experience on heraccess to general BSS, and specially as far as acess to external EU fundingservices are concerned

ü Jean Claude Bachelot, from the French federation of Craft sector Managementand Economic Centres, who provided us with his organisation’s reflections onthe issue of quality of services.

ü Jose Sousa Rego, from the Portuguese Vocational Training Institute, who gaveus some input on his experiences from a programme he is responsible inPortugal, called Programme REDE.

ü Birgit Arens, from Eurochambre, who gave us some examples of BSS providedby Eurochambre at this moment.

From the presentations and the discussion, several points were suggested that areworth being mentioned here:

1. First of all, when we refer to BSS, we are talking in the end about ‘access toexternal knowledge’. For very small enterprises, private and specially publicbusiness consultants are one form of support, but there are other, who veryoften play a significant role in giving external input to the entrepreneur,specially the smallest ones. Examples include relatives, friends, other businesscolleagues, sector/employer associations, as well as specific businessconsultants such as accountants or bookkeepers.

2. The European Survey shows several important results:

ü The more demanded services by very small enterprises correspond to financialservices, professional information services and advice/consultancy, as well asthe business areas of bookkeeping, financial and legal matters. In any case,important demand differences can be appreciated in terms of size, sector orstage of development.

ü The main reason for very small enterprises for not using BSS have little to dowith the contents of the service but with other issues more relevant for themsuch as awareness problems or lack of need

ü The main problems that very small enterprises identify when using supportservices are not related to contents but rather to other issues such as findingout about the existence of the services or the conditions of delivery

ü The survey also shows that the needs suggested by the very small enterprisesare rather met by the existing supply.

ü From the previous results, perhaps it can be concluded that very smallenterprises are not concerned by the problem of contents but rather with thescope of these contents. Thus, very small enterprises argue that most of the

Rapport of Workshop 2: Types of Support Services Provided and Demanded

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

Yesterday in Workshop 2 we had the opportunity to reflect on the issue of ‘Types ofsupport services provided and demanded’.

We had 5 speakers in our workshop:

ü Ingrid Pecher, from the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research (IfGH),who gave us some input from the European report on existing evidence on thesupply and demand of Business Support Services (BSS).

ü Catherine Dumouchel, who as an entrepreneur gave us her experience on heraccess to general BSS, and specially as far as acess to external EU fundingservices are concerned

ü Jean Claude Bachelot, from the French federation of Craft sector Managementand Economic Centres, who provided us with his organisation’s reflections onthe issue of quality of services.

ü Jose Sousa Rego, from the Portuguese Vocational Training Institute, who gaveus some input on his experiences from a programme he is responsible inPortugal, called Programme REDE.

ü Birgit Arens, from Eurochambre, who gave us some examples of BSS providedby Eurochambre at this moment.

From the presentations and the discussion, several points were suggested that areworth being mentioned here:

1. First of all, when we refer to BSS, we are talking in the end about ‘access toexternal knowledge’. For very small enterprises, private and specially publicbusiness consultants are one form of support, but there are other, who veryoften play a significant role in giving external input to the entrepreneur,specially the smallest ones. Examples include relatives, friends, other businesscolleagues, sector/employer associations, as well as specific businessconsultants such as accountants or bookkeepers.

2. The European Survey shows several important results:

ü The more demanded services by very small enterprises correspond to financialservices, professional information services and advice/consultancy, as well asthe business areas of bookkeeping, financial and legal matters. In any case,important demand differences can be appreciated in terms of size, sector orstage of development.

ü The main reason for very small enterprises for not using BSS have little to dowith the contents of the service but with other issues more relevant for themsuch as awareness problems or lack of need

ü The main problems that very small enterprises identify when using supportservices are not related to contents but rather to other issues such as findingout about the existence of the services or the conditions of delivery

ü The survey also shows that the needs suggested by the very small enterprisesare rather met by the existing supply.

ü From the previous results, perhaps it can be concluded that very smallenterprises are not concerned by the problem of contents but rather with thescope of these contents. Thus, very small enterprises argue that most of the

existing BSS supply is very generalist, as it is aimed at all SMEs in general.However, very small enterprises argue for a strong need of tailored-madesupport services considering the different needs of different types of enterprisesin relation to size, sector or phase of development considerations.

3. Very small enterprises have distinctive characteristics vis-à-vis otherenterprises, in the sense that these enterprises are managed by a single personwho very often cannot rely on middle managerial staff. This situation has gotimportant implications for the demand and supply of BSS for this group. Just afew topics dealt with in our workshop on this perspective:

ü Very small entrepreneurs have problems to identify to whom they shouldaddress for help, either because there are many services or because they do notknow their existence

ü The service provider (not only his/her analytical or business skills, but alsohis/her interpersonal skill and values) plays a key role for building acollaborative and fruitful atmosphere with the entrepreneur. This fact reinforcesthe issue of the continuous training of the service provider.

ü Services should be delivered as close as possible to the entrepreneur from ageographical perspective, especially in rural areas.

ü Very small entrepreneurs require not only tailored and specific-to-their-needssolutions, but also ‘rapid or prompt solutions, since problems are ‘here andnow’.

4. Business problems amongst very small enterprises are very often global (‘amixture of small big problems’), so BSS providers have to be holistic adviserswith a global perspective on the enterprises’ problems. In any case, theseholistic advisers need a network of specialised advisers on very specific topics.

Finally, I would like to pose to this plenary session a number of questions that wewere not able to address yesterday:

ü What areas/contents/issues are going to be the most important ones in thecoming years?. Will they be the same as today or there will be new ones?

ü Since available public resources are limited, should public authorities put a limitin their provision of services? Should these resources be aimed at specific verysmall enterprise groups, or to specific contents or competencies?. In otherwords, what are the boundaries between public and private provision of BSS?

That is all from me. I hope not to have missed any important point. If this is thecase, people who attended workshop 2 are kindly invited to bring these issue(s) todiscussion in the plenary session. Thanks very much.

existing BSS supply is very generalist, as it is aimed at all SMEs in general.However, very small enterprises argue for a strong need of tailored-madesupport services considering the different needs of different types of enterprisesin relation to size, sector or phase of development considerations.

3. Very small enterprises have distinctive characteristics vis-à-vis otherenterprises, in the sense that these enterprises are managed by a single personwho very often cannot rely on middle managerial staff. This situation has gotimportant implications for the demand and supply of BSS for this group. Just afew topics dealt with in our workshop on this perspective:

ü Very small entrepreneurs have problems to identify to whom they shouldaddress for help, either because there are many services or because they do notknow their existence

ü The service provider (not only his/her analytical or business skills, but alsohis/her interpersonal skill and values) plays a key role for building acollaborative and fruitful atmosphere with the entrepreneur. This fact reinforcesthe issue of the continuous training of the service provider.

ü Services should be delivered as close as possible to the entrepreneur from ageographical perspective, especially in rural areas.

ü Very small entrepreneurs require not only tailored and specific-to-their-needssolutions, but also ‘rapid or prompt solutions, since problems are ‘here andnow’.

4. Business problems amongst very small enterprises are very often global (‘amixture of small big problems’), so BSS providers have to be holistic adviserswith a global perspective on the enterprises’ problems. In any case, theseholistic advisers need a network of specialised advisers on very specific topics.

Finally, I would like to pose to this plenary session a number of questions that wewere not able to address yesterday:

ü What areas/contents/issues are going to be the most important ones in thecoming years?. Will they be the same as today or there will be new ones?

ü Since available public resources are limited, should public authorities put a limitin their provision of services? Should these resources be aimed at specific verysmall enterprise groups, or to specific contents or competencies?. In otherwords, what are the boundaries between public and private provision of BSS?

That is all from me. I hope not to have missed any important point. If this is thecase, people who attended workshop 2 are kindly invited to bring these issue(s) todiscussion in the plenary session. Thanks very much.

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL AND SOLEPROPRIETOR’S BUSINESSES

WORKSHOP 2



‘Support Services for Micro, Small and sole Proprietor’s Businesses’

on behalf of the European Commission DG Enterprise

Ingrid Pecher


A – 1040 ViennaTel.: ++43 1 505 97 61Fax.: ++43 1 503 46 60


April 2002, Vienna


I

CONTENT

1 INTRODUCTION

2 TYPES OF SUPPORT SERVICES OFFERED

3 CONTENT OF SUPPORT SERVICES NEEDED

3.1 NEED FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF SUPPORT SERVICES

3.2 NEED FOR EXTERNAL SUPPORT IN DIFFERENT BUSINESS AREAS

4 CONCLUSIONS


1

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the main findings of the study ‘Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’sBusinesses’, related to the issue of content of support services. Findings presented are based on an inventoryof 335 support services targeted at micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in the Member States of theEuropean Union and Norway as well as on a telephone survey among more than 1,200 micro, small, and soleproprietor’s businesses in the these countries. More detailed information on the methodology applied can beobtained from the Draft Final Report of the study. (1)

In particular, this paper deals with the following issues:

• types of support services offered to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses;

• micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses needs for different types of support services;

• micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses needs for external support in business areas.

The content of available support seems to be no major reason for micro, small and sole proprietor’s businessesnot to make use of support services: It is shown in the Draft Final Report of a. m. study, that the content ofsupport services prevents 9 % of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses from the utilisation of supportservices. Nevertheless, of those enterprises that have made use of support services within the last five years,18 % quote to have faced the main difficulty in relation to the content or relevance of the service that has beensupplied. A close investigation of the needs of the smallest enterprises with regard to the content of externalsupport is therefore necessary. Particularly smaller enterprises often have problems in identifying or expressingtheir actual need for external support and there are some types of services that seem to be more important toenterprises than others. Thus, it is the aim of this paper to further elaborate on the issue of the content ofsupport services by providing data on the need for different types of support services by sector of activity, bysize class and by phase of development of the enterprises. Even more detailed information is provided withregard to the needs of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses for external support in different businessareas.


behalf of the European Commission, DG Enterprise. Vienna, 2002.


2

2 TYPES OF SUPPORT SERVICES OFFERED

When analysing the types of support services offered to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses the defi-nition applied in this part of the assessment shall be mentioned, i. e. it should be noted that basically all kind ofpurely financial support, such as loans, guarantees, or all kinds of subsidies or tax relieves for small businessesare excluded from the analysis. Thus, it is not surprising that only relatively few services have been identifiedwith a focus on ‘finance’.

Graph 1: Types of services identified

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

external advice and consultancy finance

premises and environment professional information services

reception, facilities and basic information SME-specific training




Providers who are active in the field of external advice and consultancy in most cases also offer a wide range ofsupport in all areas of business activity. This kind of service usually includes training measures and providesoverall information and can, therefore, be characterised as so-called integrated systems. ‘Entrepreneuship inFrance’ (‘Entreprendre en France’), for example, offers a broad range of services, from basic and professionalinformation services to external advice and training. As it disposes of 181 contact points all over France, the ser-vices are practically available to all entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs receive consultancy from lawyers, banks,guarantee funds or they can get the ‘entrepreneur pass’, which guarantees the support of the network for threeyears. In addition, financial aid is provided to start-ups or enterprises in the transfer phase of their business.

Another service provider operating in all fields of business support is the Finnish Employment and EconomicDevelopment Centres (EEDCs or TE-Keskus) which aim at offering coherent packages of support to entrepre-neurs. Each of the 15 EEDCs has a ‘Business Service Point’ (‘Yrityspalvelupiste’) and thereby acts as a one-stop-shop helping enterprises to set up, expand and develop their business operations and personnel by offer-ing different kinds of services ranging from the assistance in setting up a company (provision of regional coun-selling, information) to evaluations of alternative financing options and the provision of training services.

With the objective to support business activities in Eastern Germany the German Compensation Bank (‘Deut-sche Ausgleichsbank, DtA’) was founded. Apart from purely financial services, the German Compensation Bankoffers various services in the field of external advice and consultancy mainly for the Eastern German FederalStates (‘Neue Länder’). The supply entails a virtual start-up-centre, an info-hotline for all questions concerningfinancial support, the preparation of individual finance plans as well as the procurement of professional advice.The ‘DtA/DIHT mentoring project’ (‘Patenschaftsmodell’) and the ‘DtA - round table’ (‘Runder Tisch’) primarilytarget at enterprises undergoing a crisis. The ‘DtA - Consulting-Agency’ (‘Beratungsagentur’) offers a data baseincluding 1,600 consultants specialised in advising SMEs. The ‘DtA - Consulting-Centres’ (‘Beratungszentren’)provide information on public support programmes as well as consultancy services. Although all mentioned pro-jects started with a focus on Eastern Germany, the contact points of the services now cover entire Germany.


3

Examples for services which are specialised in SME-specific training are ‘Vocational qualification for entre-preneurs’ (‘Yrittäjän ammattitutkinto’) in Finland, ‘Company Development Cluster Programme’ in Ireland, ‘Self-Employment for Useful Social Labours’ (‘Lavoro autonomo per lavoratori socialmente utili’) in Italy, ‘Training forManagers and Supervisors’ (‘Formation au Manager – PME‘) and ‘Development for Management Skills’(‘Formation au Brevet de Maîtrise’) in Luxembourg, ‘Entrepreneurial Training for Inventors and Employment andUnemployed People’ (‘Formación Empresarial para Inventores, Trabajadores en Activo y Personas Desemp-leadas’) in Spain and ‘Products in Practise’, ‘Women into Enterprise Programme’ and ‘Individual LearningAccount Initiative (ILAI)’ in the United Kingdom. ‘Training for Entrepreneurs’ (‘Formación pare Emprendedores’)in Spain, for example, offers courses on business start-up and management support for entrepreneurs. Thesecourses last between 20 and 150 hours. Additionally, distance learning courses are supplied. On average 40 %to 50 % of the participants of these start-up courses create a business.

In many countries services are offered to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses that promote exportactivities. These programmes supply information on foreign markets and on legislative matters in the field ofexport, logistical support and advice concerning the internationalisation and the development of business con-tacts, for example. Such services aiming at exporting SMEs are the Belgian ‘Export Promotion Agencies’ (e. g.‘Export Vlaanderen’ or ‘Agence Wallonne à l'Exportation’), the Danish ‘Export Development Programme’ (Ek-sportudviklingsprogrammet’), the French ‘Unique Contact Point to Export’ (‘Le Fil de l’Export’), the German ‘Pro-gramme for Export Consultancy and Support in Accessing Markets’ (‘Außenwirtschaftsberatung und Markt-zugangsförderungsprogramme’) and the Swedish ‘Exportcentra’ from the ‘Swedish Trade Council’. The ‘ExportPromotion Agency Flanders’ (‘Export Vlaanderen’) in Belgium has five export centres and provides advice andcoaching concerning export activities. The export coach aims at making the enterprise ready to conquer a newmarket. The products and the production process is evaluated and the strategy of the enterprise is reviewed.After that, an action programme with a concrete time planning is developed and the coach supervises the effortsof the enterprise to get ready for the export activities. Furthermore, the Agency analyses the request for financialsupport and is active in market research and in collecting information on foreign markets.

Services related to premises and environment mainly refer to incubators and technology centres. Incubators arecreated to ensure an optimal environment for technology and innovative businesses. They offer, for instance,favourable rents within technology centres, information for start-ups, information on patents and partner searchand infrastructure or rent office equipment for businesses. Examples for such incubators are the ‘EnterprisePlatform Programme’ in Ireland, the ‘Oporto Polytechnic Incubator’ in Portugal’ (‘SOGISTFIPP – Sociedade deIncubação Sectorial, SA’), ‘Twinning’ in the Netherlands and the ‘UK Business Incubator (UKBI)’. In Portugal,services in the field of premises and environment seem to be quite prominent. This might be due to thecomparatively strong focus of the support policy on innovative and technology-oriented enterprises in Portugal.The support of the ‘Coimbra University Incubator’ (‘Incubadora de Empresas do Instituto Pedro Nunes’), for ex-ample, is restricted to technology based firms, preferably spin-offs in universities and R&D institutions. Candi-dates must submit a feasibility study, a business plan, a marketing plan and the profile of their promoters. Physi-cal incubation is then provided for a period of three years and a number of support services are available to theincubating firms.


4

3 CONTENT OF SUPPORT SERVICES OFFERED

The content of available support (i. e. the types of support offered) seems to be no major reason for micro, smalland sole proprietor’s businesses not to make use of support services. Furthermore, comparably few enterprisesclaim this aspect of support services to be a major difficulty when participating in or using support services.However, although the need for support services generally seems to be comparatively low, which might be dueto the fact that particularly smaller enterprises often have problems in identifying or expressing their actual needfor external support, there are some types of services that seem to be more important to enterprises thanothers. Thus, it is the aim of this section to detect prevailing mismatches between enterprises’ need for externalhelp and what is actually available on the market for support services.

3.1 Need for different types of support services

European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses generally express a low need for support services (on ascale from 1 - no need to 4 - strong need on average 2.1).

Graph 2: Need for different types of support services

1.3

1.9

2.2

2.4

2.5

2.5

1 2 3 4

provision of facilities (e.g. incubators)

specific training courses

one-stop-shops/general information

advice or consultancy

professional information services

financial services



However, when differentiating between different types of services one can see, that the demand for financialservices, professional information services, and advice and consultancy, for example, is clearly higher than theone for specific training courses or the provision of facilities (see Graph 2).

Table 1: Need for different types of support services, by sector of activity*)

type of servicesector

financialservices

professionalinformation

advice andconsultancy

one-stop-shops

trainingcourses

provision offacilities

all types(average)

banking, finance and insurance 61% 69% 63% 46% 54% 17% 52%business services 57% 58% 54% 33% 40% 10% 42%repair and other services 49% 69% 46% 43% 26% 12% 41%manufacturing and construction 58% 54% 42% 45% 30% 9% 40%tourism 55% 57% 40% 25% 39% 3% 37%transport and communication 66% 51% 39% 34% 22% 4% 36%wholesale and retail trade 57% 40% 42% 37% 23% 7% 34%total 58% 57% 47% 38% 33% 9% 40%*) share of enterprises with a need (3 or 4 on a scale from 1 - no need - to 4 - strong need) for certain types of support servicesSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001


5

As illustrated in Table 1, it is micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses from the banking, finance and insu-rance sector that generally have the strongest demand for support services (mainly for professional informationservices, advice/consultancy and financial services). A comparatively strong need for support services is alsofound among enterprises in business services as well as in the repair and other services sectors. This pattern isalso reflected in comparatively high participation rates in these sectors.

Financial services are strongly demanded from enterprises in the transport and communication sector. One-stopshops mainly attract businesses in banking, finance and insurance, manufacturing and construction, and repairand other services. Training courses seem to be quite popular among banking, finance and insurance busines-ses, in business services as well as among enterprises in the tourism sector.

As illustrated in Table 2, small enterprises do not only participate in support services more often than micro orsole proprietor’s businesses but also express a stronger need for support services. This is particularly true fortraining courses which are demanded by 46 % of all small enterprises but only from less than every third microor sole proprietor’s business. Not surprisingly, one-stop-shops providing general information are most popularamong sole proprietors (44 % of these businesses indicate a need for this kind of support). Also financialservices are stronger demanded by the enterprises with less than 10 employees than by small enterprises withmore than 10 but less than 50 employees.

Table 2: Need for different types of support services, by size class*)

type of serviceenterprise size

financialservices



one-stop-shops

trainingcourses


all types(average)

small enterprises 53% 60% 50% 30% 46% 14% 42%micro enterprises 59% 58% 47% 34% 31% 9% 40%sole proprietors 57% 46% 42% 44% 29% 7% 38%*) share of enterprises with a need (3 or 4 on a scale from 1 - no need - to 4 - strong need) for certain types of support servicesSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

As illustrated in Table 3, also start-ups do not only participate in support services more often than micro or soleproprietor’s businesses, they also express a stronger demand for most types of support services thanenterprises in the growth phase or mature enterprises. This is likely to be due to the fact that founders and verysmall enterprises mostly need interdisciplinary advice Bremberger and Klimitsch (2000). (2) However, no matterin what phase of development, enterprises show the greatest demand for financial and professional informationservices, whereas training courses or the provision of facilities are far less popular. Additionally, start-upsexpress a comparatively strong need for one-stop-shops (57 % of the enterprises express a need for this type ofservice), advice and consultancy (50 %) as well as training courses (38 %).

Table 3: Need for different types of support services, by phase of development*)

type of servicephase of development

financialservices



one-stop-shops

trainingcourses


all types(average)

start-ups 63% 63% 50% 57% 38% 3% 46%growth 65% 53% 46% 39% 33% 10% 41%mature 50% 49% 43% 33% 27% 8% 35%*) share of enterprises with a need (3 or 4 on a scale from 1 - no need - to 4 - strong need) for certain types of support servicesSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

2 Bremberger, W./Klimitsch, M.: Initiativen zur Unternehmensgründung und -entwicklung auf dem Prüfstand. Erfahrungen der

Wirtschaftskammer Oberösterreich. (Initiatives to promote enterprise founding and develop-ment under inspection. Experiences of theEconomic Chamber of Upper Austria.) In: Kailer N./Pernsteiner H./Schauer R.: Initiativen zur Unternehmensgründung und -entwicklung.Vienna: Linde Verlag, 2000.


6

There are regional differences with respect to the needs of the enterprises: Whereas 75 % of the enterpriseslocated in Objective 1 regions express a strong or at least some need for financial services, for example, thisshare amounts to only 52 % among enterprises not located in disadvantaged regions. Also one-stop-shopsoffering general information are stronger demanded in Objective 1 regions than elsewhere (44 % and 37 %,respectively). All in all, the share of enterprises demanding some type of service amounts to 43 % in Objective 1regions and to 38 % elsewhere.

Enterprises located in rural areas with less than 50,000 inhabitants generally express the same pattern of needas firms in urban areas. The only exception are one-stop-shops, that are clearly stronger demanded in ruralareas (45 % in comparison to 30 % in urban areas). The overall share of enterprises demanding support servi-ces amounts to 39 % both in rural as well as in urban areas.

Also Unioncamere et al. (2000) (3) have found, that the demand for different types of support services is relatedto the development of the enterprises location: Whereas in expanding as well as strongly underdevelopedareas, the use of planning and organisational services (including logistics), project planning and both technicaland managerial training is more accentuated, in consolidated areas there is little use of services related toplanning, company organisation or company finances. Conversely, wider use is made of services such as post-sales assistance, purchases and telecommunications/information systems.

As far as gender differentiation is concerned, male and female entrepreneurs show equal demand levels: About40 % of the enterprises headed either by a women or a man express a need for some kind of support service.However, whereas male entrepreneurs clearly demand more financial services (62 % in comparison to 49 %among females), female entrepreneurs have a stronger need for one-stop shops (48 % in comparison to 34 %among males) and specific training courses (40 % in comparison to 31 % among males).

Generally entrepreneurs with secondary or university education (41 %) show a higher level of need than entre-preneurs with elementary education (30 %). Particularly, advising and consulting services (51 % in comparisonto 22 % among entrepreneurs with elementary education) and specific training courses (36 % in comparison to23 % among entrepreneurs with elementary education) are much more demanded by better educated entrepre-neurs as compared to less educated ones.

When compared to the types of services offered in Europe (mainly external advice and consultancy, followed byprofessional information services and reception, facilities and basic information, see Graph 1) it can be assumedthat the needs of the enterprises are rather effectively met. Thus, the EU-wide low participation in support ser-vices might not be due to a mismatch between the types of services offered respectively demanded.

However, needs concerning the content of support services vary from country to country: Professional infor-mation as well as financial services, for example, are among the most demanded types of services in almost allcountries under consideration with the exception of the United Kingdom, where enterprises rather need advisingand training services. Advice/consultancy services are furthermore particularly needed in the Netherlands,Greece and Ireland; training services, on the other hand, are rather needed in Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain.The need for one-stop-shops is particularly prominent in Austria, Belgium, France and Italy, differently toDenmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain, where this kind of service isamong the two least preferred. Lastly, the provision of facilities (e. g. incubators) seems to be the least neededtype of support services in all countries of the European Union and Norway (for more detailed country-specificfindings in this respect, see the relevant country fiche produced in the course of this study).

3 Unioncamere/Ministerio della Industria , Commercio e Artigianato, Italia: Support Services to SMEs in Italy. Sponsored by the European

Commission within the Framework of the Concerted Action Working Group on the Visibility and Quality of Support Services, 2000.


7

3.2 Need for external support in different business areas

In order to further assess what kind of support services the smallest enterprises require, the following analysison the need for external support in different business areas has is carried out.

With respect to the need of enterprises for external support in specific business areas, it is mainly bookkeeping,financial and legal matters, enterprises seem to need help with, as can be concluded from Graph 3. By contrast,there does not seem to be much demand for help with research and innovation, management or personnelqualification matters, which however, are core business areas with regard to the development and competitive-ness of an enterprise.

Graph 3: Need for external support, by business area

2.5

2.3

2.3

2.0

1.8

1.8

1.6

1 2 3 4

research and innovation

management

qualification of personnel

marketing

legal matters

financial matters

bookkeeping



According to Boter et. al. (1999) (4), an important explanation, why services in the area of bookkeeping/auditingare of such importance to smaller enterprises is that in many countries legislation obliges the majority ofcompanies to have their annual accounts done professionally. Especially new and growing enterprises rely onexternal help in this area, as can also be seen from Table 6.

As can be seen from Table 4, it is mainly enterprises in the banking, finance and insurance sector that demandhelp with bookkeeping and legal matters. Help with financial matters is needed by the majority of businesses inthe transport and communication sector. Support in the field of marketing, on the other hand, is rather requiredby whole sale and retail trade as well as by manufacturing and construction businesses. In the tourism sector,businesses highly demand help with the qualification of their personnel.

Table 4: Need for external support in business areas, by sector*)

business areasector

bookkeeping financialmatters

legal matters marketing qualificationof personnel

management research &innovation

banking, finance and insurance 60% 46% 56% 18% 34% 23% 16%business services 47% 48% 46% 33% 34% 30% 22%repair and other services 52% 42% 48% 18% 22% 14% 22%manufacturing and construction 52% 46% 46% 39% 26% 17% 18%tourism 47% 51% 46% 22% 58% 24% 17%transport and communication 55% 63% 45% 30% 33% 18% 15%wholesale and retail trade 43% 45% 36% 41% 25% 19% 12%total 51% 49% 46% 29% 33% 21% 17%*) share of enterprises with a need (3 or 4 on a scale from 1 - no need - to 4 - strong need) for certain types of support servicesSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

4 Boter, H./Hjalmarsson, D./Lundström, A.: Outline of a Contemporary Small Business Policy. Stiftelsen Forum för Småföretagsforskning -

FSF (Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research). Örebro, 1999.


8

As illustrated in Table 5, small enterprises mainly demand help with legal and personnel qualification matters;micro enterprises are particularly in demand of help with bookkeeping and legal matters and sole proprietorsespecially need support with bookkeeping and financial matters. While larger enterprises often have accountingdepartments within their company, and therefore do not use services like filing tax returns of help with audits ona regular basis, smaller enterprises make regular use of such services as has been noted by Deutsche Aus-gleichsbank (2000) (5). Moreover, Hermosilla (1997) (6) found that, besides accounting, smaller firms are alsomore likely to demand basic services, such as legal or financial advice.

Table 5: Need for external support in business areas, by size class*)

business areaenterprise size

bookkeepingfinancialmatters legal matters marketing

qualificationof personnel management

research &innovation

small enterprises 36% 40% 46% 35% 46% 27% 23%micro enterprises 44% 41% 45% 38% 36% 22% 18%sole proprietors 57% 54% 42% 32% 20% 20% 16%*) share of enterprises with a need (3 or 4 on a scale from 1 - no need - to 4 - strong need) for certain types of support servicesSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

As shown in Table 6, start-ups, growing and mature enterprises mainly need help with financial matters as wellas with bookkeeping. However, whereas the emphasis among start-ups is clearly upon financial matters, amongthe more mature businesses the primary need is to do with bookkeeping. Growing enterprises, though generallyexpressing a lower overall need than start-ups, stronger demand help with personnel qualification as well asresearch and innovation matters than both start-ups and mature enterprises. Based on expert opinion, enter-prises in the transfer phase need most external support in legal matters, but also in management. As financialproblems are only the symptoms of a crisis, most enterprises in this phase of development rather need supportin bookkeeping (especially in controlling), management (strategic planing) but, of course, also in legal matters(when the crisis is acute).

Table 6: Need for external support in business areas, by phase of development*)

business areaphase of development

bookkeeping financialmatters

legal matters marketing qualificationof personnel

management research &innovation

start-ups 55% 61% 45% 42% 29% 30% 18%growth 55% 51% 42% 29% 33% 22% 23%mature 43% 41% 37% 37% 25% 18% 13%*) share of enterprises with a need (3 or 4 on a scale from 1 - no need - to 4 - strong need) for certain types of support servicesSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

5 Deutsche Ausgleichsbank: Analysis of the market of support services with the view of improving its efficiency in the context of the working

group on the visibility and quality of support services. Country Report: Germany. Supported by the European Commission. Brussels,2000.

6 Hermosilla, A.: El Consumo der Servicio por la Industria Espanola. La Encuesta der Servicios a la Industria. (Service demand by Spanishindustry. Survey on services to industry.), in: Economía Industrial, no. 313, pages 77-91. Madrid, 1997.


9

Yet again, needs concerning the content of external support also vary from country to country when the differingbusiness areas are taken into account: The pattern described in Graph 3 holds true for most countries underconsideration. In Germany and Greece, however, enterprises rather seem to need help with financial matters aswell as with marketing. Support with financial matters is furthermore strongly demanded by enterprises locatedin Austria, Norway and Luxembourg. British, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian and Swedish enterprises, on theother hand, seem to need more help with personnel qualification matters (in contrast to Belgian, Irish, Dutch orItalian enterprises). Only few enterprises in the European Union and Norway indicate to need help with researchand innovation matters. In almost all countries enterprises believe to need no help within this business area, theexceptions being Sweden, Finland, Portugal and the Netherlands. In these countries research and innovation isnot among the two business areas enterprises need the least help with.

One reason for the comparatively low take up of support services by enterprises of all size classes might be alacking target group orientation of the majority of support services offered as far as size class, sector, or thephase of development of an enterprise are concerned. The majority of micro, small and sole proprietor’s busi-nesses (70 %) would prefer using support services that are specifically targeted at enterprises of their res-pective size class. More than a third of these enterprises even indicate that it is ‘very important’ for them to beoffered support tailored to their specific size class. When compared to the supply side of support services,however, it can be concluded that the demand for size class specific support services is significantly higher thantheir actual supply: Almost all support services offered address all SMEs in general without differentiatingbetween sub-groups such as micro enterprises or sole proprietor’s businesses.

The majority of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses (77 %) also considers it important that support ser-vices are specifically targeted at their respective sector. In particular, this holds for enterprises in the tourism,business services, transport/communication and trade business. Less than an average need for sector-specificsupport is, in contrast, expressed by manufacturing enterprises. When compared to the supply side of supportservices, it can be assumed that the demand for sector-specific support services is significantly higher than theiractual supply: Almost all support services offered in Europe address all sectors alike, rather than being focussedon specific ones.

Similar considerations hold true with regard to the targeting of support services towards specific phases of deve-lopment of an enterprise. The majority of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses (73 %) would preferusing support services that are specifically targeted at their current phase of development. Particularly, it isbelieved that it is the start-up phase, the early phase of development, and the phases of crises in which enter-prises need most external support. When compared to the supply side of support services it might be concludedthat there is indeed a wide range of support offered to enterprises either starting-up or in their early phase ofdevelopment, however, it has to be noted, that although almost 60 % of all enterprises believe that businessesin crises are among those needing most external help, hardly any support service provider seems toconcentrate on enterprises in this particular phase. This might, however, also be due to a lack of transparencyof services due to insufficient promotion, as indeed many support service providers may dispose of agents orconsultants specialised on this specific phase of development.

Overall, enterprises express a strong need for tailor-made support services that consider the differing needs ofdifferent types of enterprises. Service providers may take account of these needs by providing distinct packagesof services for the different target groups, ranging form prospective entrepreneurs through start-ups, growingenterprises, to enterprises that are about to be transferred to new owners or are in a crisis. Furthermore, take-up of business support services might benefit from services being targeted at enterprises with respect to sizeclass more specifically than merely addressing SMEs in general. Also, market segmentation by selected sectorsmight be efficient with regard to increasing the utilisation of support services by micro, small and sole proprie-tor’s businesses in Europe (e. g. by putting a stronger focus on tourism, business services, and tradeenterprises as these sectors are among those almost all participants in support services are part of).


10

4 CONCLUSIONS

Coherent support services in the area of professional information and finance need to be assured

Although enterprises generally indicate a rather low need for support services in the European Union and Nor-way, there are some types of services that seem to be more important to small businesses than others. Thedemand for professional information services, financial services and advice/consultancy, for example, seems tobe higher than the one for training courses or the provision of facilities. Generally, entrepreneurs with secondaryor university education show a higher level of need than entrepreneurs with elementary education. Particularlyadvising and consulting services and specific training courses are much more demanded by the better educatedentrepreneurs as compared to less educated ones. With respect to the need of enterprises for external supportin specific business areas it is mainly bookkeeping, legal, and financial matters, enterprises need help with. Bycontrast, there is less demand for help with research and innovation, management or personnel qualificationmatters. When compared to the types of services actually offered all over Europe, it can be assumed that theneeds of the enterprises with regard to the content of services are rather effectively met.

The demand for specific types of support services differs by the location of an enterprise

The need of the smallest businesses for support services seems to vary by different types of regions. The shareof enterprises demanding support services in Objective 1 regions, for instance, is higher than elsewhere.Differences are particularly pronounced as far as financial services are concerned. Whereas 75 % of theenterprises located in Objective 1 regions express a need for financial services, this share amounts to only 52 %for enterprises not located in disadvantaged areas. Similarly, there is a clearly stronger demand for one-stop-shops in rural areas (with less than 50.000 inhabitants) than in urban areas. Therefore, public authorities needto ensure that enterprises can get convenient access to all the support services they need, irrespective of thegeographical location of an enterprise.

Small businesses need more tailor-made support and more targeted services

One reason for the relatively low take-up of support services by European micro, small and sole proprietor’sbusinesses might be the lacking target group orientation of support services offered. The majority of enterprisesexpress a strong demand for tailor-made support which takes account of their specific size class, phase of de-velopment or field of activity. Most of the support services offered in the Member States of the European Unionand Norway, however, are targeted at SMEs in general, micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses are hardlysubject to a separate business support policy. Also services are usually targeted at all phases of the businesslife-cycle alike, with a particular focus only put on enterprises in the start-up and early phase of development.



WORKSHOP 2


CREATION dùne ECO-INDUSTRIE

CYBELE Environnement

Catherine Dumouchel

Dyad

April 2002, Vienna

26.04.02 2

SYNTHESE DU PROJET

« DE LA BOUTEILLE AU TRANSPORT »

L’objectif de CYBELE ENVIRONNEMENT est de fabriquer des PALETTES àpartir des bouteilles plastiques issus des déchets ménagers assemblées pourformer des palettes, identiques aux palettes bois.

Nous désirons construire une usine, dans le département du Pas de Calais,pour fabriquer les différents éléments constitutifs de la palette.

Ä DE LA BOUTEILLE A LA PALETTE. Le projet porte sur la créationd’une usine de 5000 T / an pour traiter industriellement sur un mêmesite, au sein d’une même usine les balles des bouteilles plastiques issuesdes centres de tri.

Ä Trois années de recherche ont été nécessaires pour transformer leplastique PET cassable comme du marbre, en planche épaisse et clouable.Pour effectuer cette recherche et sur la demande d’Eco-Emballages qui asubventionné nos travaux, nous avons créé Cybèle Environnement.

Ä Nous avons déposé deux brevets pour la France et l’Europe, le Japon,les Etats Unis

Ä . Les planches produites permettront de réaliser des palettes ou serontcommercialisées comme tels dans différents secteurs du bâtiment, de ladécoration.

Ä L’étude marketing et la rentabilité sont étudiées à partir du produitdes palettes qui, compte tenu de certaines directives en France et enEurope, constitue un marché porteur.

Ä Le produit final se présentera sous forme d’une gamme : palettes dedimensions 800*1200, 1000*1200, 800*600.

Ä Le chiffre d’affaires prévisionnel est de 6 M€, 15à 20 emplois peuventêtre créés.

Ä L’implantation envisagée est dans le Pas de Calais et plus précisémentle district de Lens.

26.04.02 3

CYBELE ENVIRONNEMENT a été élue lauréate du PRIX DE LA MICRO-ENTREPRISE 2001

LES FONDATRICES

Catherine DUMOUCHEL

Pharmacienne, diplômée 3 ème cycle I A E et 3 ème cycle ESSECcompétente dans les domaines : Marketing, Commercial, Communication etFinancesGestion de budgets de 500 KF à 22 MF. Et de 12 à 80 personnesCréatrice d’une première société, dans le domaine du service et de laformation au management.Co-fondatrice d’une deuxième société : Cybèle Environnement

Catherine FRANA

Diplômée de l’école du LouvrePrésidente de l’association Française des Types PsychologiquesCompétente dans les domaines: Juridique, Commercial, Gestion desorganisations et Ressources HumainesCréatrice d’une première société, dans le domaine du service et de laformation au management.Co-fondatrice d’une deuxième société : Cybèle Environnement



WORKSHOP 2


Jean Claude Bachelot

French Federation of Craft Sector Management and Economic Centres (FFCGEA)

April 2002, Vienna

1

CONFERENCE DE VIENNE - 11 et 12 Avril 2002

ATELIER 2 : type de services de soutien disponibles etdemandés

Intervention de Monsieur Jean Claude BACHELOT, directeur de la FFCGEA, président duCESCEThème : présentation du C.W.A : « DESCRIPTION DES TYPES DE CONSEIL ETD’ACCOMPAGNEMENT DES PETITES ENTREPRISES EN EUROPE »

Historique des travauxDepuis 1990, la FFCGEA, organisation française spécialisée dans l’accompagnement despetites entreprises artisanales, mène des travaux visant à définir et clarifier les services àfournir aux petites entreprises, en réponse aux questions quotidiennes auxquelles leursdirigeants sont confrontés.

Au niveau national , la FFCGEA a concrétisé ses réflexions par l’élaboration d’une normefrançaise AFNOR « NF Services » sur les services des Centres de Gestion Agréés et Habilitéspubliée en Décembre 1997. Aujourd’hui, 10 de ses CGAH sont certifiés et 7 sont enpréparation.

A l’échelle européenne, il n’existait pas de réelle réflexion commune et construite surl’accompagnement de la petite entreprise, tant au niveau des prestataires que des petitesentreprises. Néanmoins, une étude européenne de faisabilité conduite en 1996 par la FFCGEAavec 9 organisations européennes partenaires, a montré leur convergence d’analyse sur lethème de l’accompagnement des petites entreprises.

Afin d’approfondir ces réflexions européennes, la FFCGEA a organisé un échange de bonnespratiques. Un processus de normalisation, d’abord envisagé mais trop délicat et prématuré àmettre en oeuvre, a laissé place à une démarche souple, basée sur le volontariat. Considérantque la richesse des travaux résidait dans l’implication des acteurs et dans la variété dessituations, les promoteurs de cette initiative ont proposé, avec les organisations intéressées, lacréation d’un atelier du CEN.

Qu’est-ce qu’un accord d’atelier du CEN ?Le Comité Européen de Normalisation a créé les CWA (CEN Workshop Agreement) afin decombler le vide existant entre les accords de consortium et les normes européennes.L’originalité des CWA développés dans des groupes de travail au niveau européen, est deréunir les participants directement intéressés et volontaires pour clarifier dans des documents,le résultat du partage de leur savoir-faire.Cet accord n’a pas pour vocation de traduire un consensus général de tous les acteursconcernés : il n’est pas validé par le processus d’enquête des normes et n’entre donc pas dansla collection des normes européennes.

2

Un CWA consacré au conseil et à l’accompagnement des petites entreprisesLa FFCGEA en étroite collaboration avec l’AFNOR (Association Française deNormalisation) a œuvré pour la création d’un atelier CEN baptisé « description des types deconseil et d’accompagnement des petites entreprises en Europe ». Elle a pour ce fairebénéficié de la coopération des membres du CESCE, Comité Européen des Services deSoutien aux Entreprises.Officiellement mis en place le 20 Mars 2000 à Bruxelles, cet atelier a regroupé plus de 20structures européennes (fournisseurs de conseil et organismes de normalisation) originaires de12 nationalités différentes (Union européenne et autres pays).

Un forum électronique sur Internet a permis à chacun des participants de l’atelier de suivrel’avancement des travaux, d’apporter des contributions et de valider ou amender lesdocuments intermédiaires.

Les travaux ont abouti à l’élaboration d’un document mis à la disposition des organisations deconseil et des petites entreprises, qui doit servir d’outil pour clarifier leur relation.Ce document, rédigé à partir des contributions des différents partenaires de l’atelier, présentedes constats et propose des orientations centrées sur 5 thèmes principaux :

- le conseil à la petite entreprise : pourquoi y avoir recours - l’accès des très petites entreprises au conseil- qu’est ce que l’accompagnement de la très petite entreprise- les fondamentaux de la prestation de conseil- le rôle du conseiller dans sa relation avec la très petite entreprise

Les principales conclusions du CWA

I.) Le champ d’étude de l’atelier du CEN concerne les TPE (très petites entreprises) définiespar les participants comme des entités dans lesquelles le dirigeant assume toutes les fonctions,sans pouvoir s‘appuyer sur l’assistance d’un encadrement intermédiaire. En terme d’effectif,elles représentent en général des entreprises de moins de 20 salariés. Cette cible d’étude a étéchoisie pour différentes raisons :

- quel que soit le pays de l’Union européenne considéré, les TPE représentent la grandemajorité du tissu économique et jouent donc un rôle primordial dans le développementdes activités ;

- ce sont des entités spécifiques rencontrant un grand nombre de problématiquesauxquelles il faut apporter une réponse adaptée, différente de celle proposée auxgrandes entreprises ;

- les TPE ne font que très rarement appel au conseil ou aux servicesd’accompagnement ; or, le conseil permet de rompre l’isolement du dirigeant de laTPE et constitue une occasion de bénéficier d’une analyse et aide extérieures.

Le conseil est un facteur essentiel de pérennité de l’entreprise et de développement de seschances de succès.

II.) Le contexte des TPE posé, les participants de l’atelier ont formalisé une premièredifficulté : comment aider les TPE à accéder au conseil ?Un échange d’informations et d’expériences entre les différents participants a montré que,dans la plupart des cas, les TPE avaient recours à une prestation de conseil dans le cadred’une obligation réglementaire : tenue de compte, respects de normes, mesures fiscales,etc.…L’enjeu est donc de les amener à élargir leur vision du conseil et à y recourir dansd’autres cas, pour faire face à des situations plus stratégiques.

3

Les TPE nécessitent de bénéficier d’une assistance pour formuler et exprimercorrectement leurs besoins de conseil et leurs attentes : c’est le rôle dévolu à un conseillergénéraliste.Des initiatives sont également à mener en faveur de la promotion du conseil : parexemple, inciter le développement de réseaux locaux d’interlocuteurs permettant une plusgrande lisibilité et accessibilité aux services de conseil, considérer les nouvellestechnologies et particulièrement Internet, comme des outils facilitateurs.

III.) Partant de ces premiers constats et propositions, les membres de l’atelier se sontaccordés sur une définition de l’accompagnement de la TPE, marquée par 2caractéristiques : la globalité et la permanence

2 l’analyse globale et systémique de l’entreprise doit permettre au dirigeant demieux maîtriser son environnement et de répondre aux questions quotidiennes auxquellesil est confronté dans ses multiples fonctions

2 la prestation gagnera en intensité et en efficacité dans le cadre d’une relationproche et inscrite dans la durée entre le dirigeant et un interlocuteur privilégié.

IV.) L’étape suivante des travaux a consisté à dégager 6 caractéristiques etincontournables de la prestation de conseil:

2 une prestation nécessairement centrée sur le client : le conseil ne s’avère efficaceque s’il répond à un besoin réel de l’entreprise, clairement identifié et définiconjointement par le conseiller et le client.

2 une offre de prestation claire et transparente : cette offre doit mentionner desd’informations essentielles (nature, objectifs et limites de l’intervention, ressources etmoyens engagés tant par le prestataire que par le client, conditions financières…) et fairel’objet d’un accord mutuel entre les 2 parties concernées.

2 une prestation cohérente : elle doit correspondre aux réalités et aux besoins del’entreprise et donc tenir compte par exemple, de son cycle de vie, de son environnementet des mutations à venir.

2 un juste coût : le coût de la prestation doit être fixé en fonction du contenu del’intervention et de sa valeur ajoutée. Les méthodes de tarification et la facturation doiventêtre transparentes et lisibles.

2 un engagement réciproque des parties : c’est une condition sine qua non pourassurer la qualité de la prestation. L’accord entre fournisseur et client sur une prestationimplique pour chacun d’eux le respect de droits et obligations, fondements à toute relationde confiance.

2 une amélioration continue de la prestation : la prestation de conseil n’estcomplète que si elle prévoit un système d’évaluation. Le client, d’une part, doit pouvoirvérifier la conformité du déroulement de la prestation aux prévisions. Le conseiller,d’autre part, dispose ainsi d’éléments lui permettant d’améliorer sa prestation. Un teldispositif offre aux 2 parties des gains en efficacité.

V.) Bien que la volonté des membres de l’atelier fut de se concentrer tout au long destravaux sur l’étude de la prestation de conseil, en dehors de toute considération destructure (les diversités entre pays sont si importantes qu’elles auraient mené le débat dansune impasse), il était néanmoins difficile de ne pas aborder les questions du prestataire etde son rôle. Ont donc été définis des comportements professionnels permettant auxconseillers de mener à bien la relation avec la TPE cliente :- rester proche des préoccupations des clients- établir une relation de confiance

4

- assurer le relais avec d’autres structures de conseil- impliquer le client dans le processus de conseil- capitaliser ses expériences au travers d’une continuité de prestation et d’un suivi.Le respect de ces comportements met en jeu des qualifications et des valeurs intrinsèquesdes conseillers.

Les suites à donner aux travaux du CWALe document CWA a été rédigé avec l’objectif d’être utilisable tant par des prestataire deconseil que par des clients, petites entreprises. Le but est donc de le diffuser largementauprès de ces 2 catégories d’utilisateurs (conseillers et TPE) comme le serait une charte de« bonne conduite ». Cette diffusion est à assurer au niveau européen mais également auniveau national, par le biais de chacun des membres de l’atelier.

Mais ce C.W.A. apparaît comme le point de départ d’une démarche plus complète enfaveur de la qualité des services fournis aux entreprises. L’idée serait maintenantd’approfondir les idées force mentionnées dans l’accord (notamment en reprenant les 6points identifiés comme 6 fondamentaux de la prestation) et d’élaborer un cahier descharges européen, permettant d’assurer le développement des services de soutien dequalité.



WORKSHOP 2


Jose Sousa Rego

National Vocational Training Institute (IEEP)

April 2002, Vienna

REDE PORTUGAL1/10

Worksop 2TYPES OF SUPPORT SERVICES PROVIDED AND DEMANDED

Speaker 4José Sousa RegoIEFP – Institute of Employment and Vocational TrainingPORTUGAL

REDE – PORTUGAL

A national public programme of IEFP - Institute of Employment and VocationalTraining prepared from 1993 and launched in 1996 through public-private partnershipsis being developed, already in its maturity phase, for services of consultancy, vocationaltraining and management support to small enterprises mainly at work place.

Accompanying the conclusions of the European Council held in Santa Maria da Feira in19th-20th June 2000 it has consolidated the model and tools of intervention, it haswidened the network of services suppliers (Vocational Training Centres,Entrepreneurial Associations and Unions) with correspondent Consultants-Trainers andopened a new support services line, flexible and friendly, to entrepreneurs and smallbusiness promoters.

The approach to small enterprises gives preference to the relationship with associativeentities by sector of activity and/or territory giving way for future external supportservices in closer conditions, progressively, to the ones of the market.

IEFP’s REDE programme maintains with similar programmes in other EuropeanCountries bilateral relations of reciprocal exchange considering stimulant and of thebest interest the seminar in Viena to go deepening in the adjusting process between theoffer and the demand of support services by small enterprises.

http://rede.iefp.pt [email protected]

REDE PORTUGAL2/10

1. THE STRATEGY AND THE POLICY LIFE-CYCLE

1.1 THE STRATEGY

1.2 LAUNCH PHASE

1.3 DEVELOPMENT PHASE

1.4 BEGINING OF MATURITY

2. CLIENT ORIENTATION AND SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS

2.1 METHODOLOGY REDE

2.2 TO PILOT THE NETWORK

2.3 INTERVENTION INSTRUMENTS AND PEDAGOGIC MATERIALS

3. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PURPOSES

3.1 FIGURES

3.2 PURPOSES

4. ANNEX – LIST OF PARTICIPANT ENTITIES

REDE PORTUGAL3/10

1. THE STRATEGY AND THE POLICY LIFE-CYCLE

A national public programme of IEFP - Institute of Employment and VocationalTraining prepared from 1993 and launched in 1996 through public-privatepartnerships is being developed, already in its maturity phase, for services ofconsultancy, vocational training and management support to small enterprises.

1.1 THE STRATEGY

In the starting point, in 1996, the analysis revealed a great distance between the smallenterprise from the vocational training public offer, a very critical opinion regardingits contents and an extremely low rate of use of external services by the enterpriseswith less than 50 people.The people working in small enterprises represented 50% of the Portuguese workingforce, a figure that was increasing. The education level of the national populationwere characterised by very low levels of skills and qualifications as a result of anaccumulated deficit of schooling and training specially when compared with otherEuropean countries.

The strategy consisted in activating IEFP, within a public-private partnership, tolaunch a network (REDE) of Consultants, oriented to the delivery of support servicesto the existing small enterprises.This network (REDE) of Consultants would be based in public Training Centres,which share its management with Entrepreneurial Associations (23) and Unions (3),and other Entrepreneurial Associations in order to ensure a permanent andorganizational mobilization of the small enterprise, which would generate acontinuous demand and multiplying effect.

Then, the aim was organizing a system that would assure an integrated and promptresponse to meet the needs of the small enterprises, with such a quality andconsistency that would work as demonstration to the others of strengthening thecompetitive profile.

1.2 LAUNCH PHASE

REDE Programme was launched at a national level through a pilot phase in 1996,together with two other similar programmes of the responsibility of two of thelargest entrepreneurial associations in the country.In 1998, it was the purpose of an independent external evaluation, which concludedthat “...presents positive results in every area of objectives, having produced aspecific result ENTERPRISE QUALIFICATION THROUGH PROFESSIONALINSERTION OF YOUNG GRADUATES, and contributed in a significant way tothe global achievements on the domains related to the development ofENTREPRENEUR’s MANAGEMENT AND STRATEGY SKILLS, OFINFORMATION SYSTEMATIZATION AND DIFFUSION, OF INTERVENTIONDEVICES WITHIN THE ENTERPRISES, and of MOBILIZATION OF A GROUPOF SECTORAL ENTITIES... to support the small enterprises.”

REDE PORTUGAL4/10

1.3 DEVELOPMENT PHASE

The evaluation made to the pilot phase has already allowed the introduction of someadjustments that has widened the range and consistency to the services offeravailable to the enterprisesThus, it was already possible to annul some resistance to training and introduce,from 1999, an in room Training Cycle to entrepreneurs, with three two-day seminars(Friday and Saturday) within the menu Annual REDE: one on StrategicManagement, other on Entrepreneurial Finances, and the third concerning Markets.The dominant characteristic of REDE Programme of intangible investment for theentrepreneurial development was underlined, its agents started to be calledConsultants-Trainers, and the respective pedagogic certified was demanded.The number of enterprises comprised in the basic pack of services provided wasenlarged.

Responding to another segment, the management support to promoters of smallentrepreneurial initiatives that were receiving financial incentives from IEFP startedequally to be assured. A distinct service offer was created, Short-Term REDE, basedon the same model of intervention, with adjustments in tools and differentConsultants-Trainers, meanwhile prepared.

1.4 BEGINIG OF MATURITY

In 2001, a development chart of REDE Programme was set until the end of 2003,that may be prorogued until 2006, which permitted a growth in the number ofInstitutional Partners, Training Centres and Entrepreneurial Associations, in order toobtain a better covering of the territory, namely the areas with a less favourableentrepreneurial surrounding.

From the acquired experience, from the existing relationship of the Training Centresand Entrepreneurial Associations with the small enterprises of the respective sectorof activity or area of influence, and accompanying the conclusions of the EuropeanCouncil held in Santa Maria da Feira in 19th-20th June 2000, two more supportservices were launched:Express REDE, brief, friendly and flexible, for specialized answers to theenterprises; andREDE PREAMP, for a specific and complementary response to a regional publicintervention.

2. CLIENT ORIENTATION AND SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS

2.1 REDE METHODOLOGY

It consists of an integrated approach, oriented to the strengthening of the enterprise’scompetitiveness, mainly supporting problems solution (consultancy) and continuousinvestment in new competencies and necessary knowledge to entrepreneurialdevelopment (vocational training).

REDE PORTUGAL5/10

The support services are designed on tailor made solutions and to run at the workplace.Based on a Strategic Analysis and a short-term Action Plan, elaborated with theentrepreneur, the Consultant-Trainer will support the accomplishment usingpedagogic material prepared to small enterprises.The Consultant-Trainer will also train the entrepreneur and collaborators in theprocurement of other external service providers needed to perform the Action Plan.

Within the Annual REDE basic service, the recruitment of a young graduate isactively promoted, being defined the personal and professional profile by theentrepreneur. He will support the accomplishment of the Action Plan. Therecruitment is done through the Professional Internship Programme (9-12 months),available in the country to enterprises of every dimension, with 50% shared costsfrom the State and the enterprise itself.Complementary to the support services delivered at work place the methodologyexpects the organization, by Centres and Associations, of two Professional ThematicMeetings each year, oriented to entrepreneurs and aimed to the discussion ofcommon problems.

2.2 TO PILOT THE NETWORK

The organization of this network (REDE) of external support services is based ondistinct profiles for Centres and Associations.Thus, in accordance with the statutory assignments and the Executive Boardsguidance for the sector of activity, Centres and Associations have competencies to:Recruit the external Consultant-Trainer, obeying to previously set generic profile;Promote the offer of support services through the most appropriate means to theacknowledgement of the small enterprise of the sector of activity, category or area ofinfluence (regional press, local radios, mails to associates, fairs, face to face visits);Determine and publicize annually the priorities and the criteria for acceptance of thesupport demands of the enterprises;

Put in action the demanded Specialists;Promote the Professional Thematic Meetings having in mind the known expectanciesof the entrepreneurs.

The IEFP pilots the network (REDE) through the Management Structure REDE,intentionally created:

Elaborating the methodology; Supplying the intervention tools;

Being in charge of the pedagogic materials with the collaboration of Centres andAssociations;Defining the Rules, including fixed and variable index of remunerations andenterprises’ contributions;Co-ordinating, following-up and controlling the activities;Managing the Website, both for information and for getting data regarding theadministrative process through particular access codes;Assuring the evaluation system;Assuring public financing from the Budget’s State and the EU (FSE);Promoting the dissemination of the results.

REDE PORTUGAL6/10

2.3 INTERVENTION TOOLS AND PEDAGOGIC MATERIALS

Each one of the support services, Annual REDE, Express REDE, Short-Term REDEand REDE PREAMP, has own intervention tools.In Annual REDE, the Strategic Analysis form exists in two versions, one of whichintended to micro enterprises.

Since the very beginning it was defined that pedagogic materials would be producedonly if they would effectively support the transmission of practices and examples getfrom the Consultants-Trainers’ experience in small enterprises.There was thus the development of PEDAGOGIC PRACTICAL CASES, CD ROM,VIDEOTAPES, SHORT THEMATIC PUBLICATIONS and SHORTENTERPRENEURIAL STUDIES.

The Director of the REDE Management Structure joined in the meantime theEditorial Council of IEFP’s DIRIGIR review (10,000 subscribers, bimestrial) wherea permanent section VOZ ÀS EMPRESAS, giving voice to small businesses, waslaunched presenting structured cases of REDE, and exemplifying the selected themein each issue.

3. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PURPOSES

3.1 FIGURES

1 993 Definition of the principles of institutional co-operation for the support to the small enterprise inorder to allow its effective access to employment and training measures.

1 996 Launch of the pilot phase of REDE Programme in the framework of a public-private partnershipIEFP - Institute of Employment and Vocational TrainingAIP, AEP - two of the largest entrepreneurial associations

1 999 REDE Programme selected, joint with AIP e AEP Programmes, as one of 10 best practices bythe European Commission's DG V in the scope of the National Employment Plans

REDE PORTUGAL7/10

from 1996 to 2001

1 200 Enterprises with a maximum of 49 people, Annual REDE

1 342 Young graduates recruited by enterprises, Annual REDE

73 Consultants – Trainers, Annual REDE

823 Micro enterprises with start-up supported by IEFP, Short-Term REDE

8 Consultants – Trainers, Short-term REDE

36 Training Centres and Entrepreneurial Associations, Annual REDE

in 2000 - 2001 Annual REDE

31% Micro enterprises

41% Family enterprises

8% Net variation of employment

28% Employees of the enterprises involved with vocational training opportunities in that year

78% Young graduates recruited by enterprises employability

16% Female entrepreneurs/managers

8% Higher Education qualifications of entrepreneurs/managers

44% Secondary Education qualifications of entrepreneurs/managers

48% Below Secondary Education qualifications of entrepreneurs/managers

49 Medium age of Consultants-Trainers

REDE PORTUGAL8/10

Entrepreneur’s evaluation, Annual REDE 2000-2001

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS Important and very important 92%

ACTION PLAN Important and very important 87%

CONCLUDED ACTIONS OF THE ACTION PLAN 82%

YOUNG GRADUATES PERFORMANCE Good and very good 72%

EMPLOYEES VOCATIONAL TRAINING Considerable and decisive influence 72%

ACCOMPLISHMENT OF EXPECTANCIES Accomplished and exceeded 84%

WOULD YOU RECOMMEND REDE TOOTHER ENTREPRENEURS? Yes 94%

IN THE FUTURE, EVEN IF PAYING? Yes 97%

3.2 PURPOSES

In accordance with the STRATEGY OF LISBON and the EUROPEAN CHARTERFOR SMALL ENTERPRISES the purposes for guidance of the delivery of services’network for small enterprises are as follows:- To define the levels of adjustment between the demand of services and the offer,allowing the regulation of its delivery in progressively closer conditions to the onesof the market; - To develop intervention tools that strengthen learning by doing at workplace;- To provide ICT solutions for enterprises’ problems improving their aptitude for theuse of those means, including e-learning;- To promote a true innovation culture as a way to beat the structural delay and toreach higher levels of performance.

4. ANNEX – LIST OF PARTICIPANT ENTITIES

Viena, Abril 2002

REDE PORTUGAL9/10

List of Institutional Partners 47 Centres and Associations 2002

ACBRAGA – TRADE ASSOCIATION OF BRAGA

ACCOAVC – TRADE ASSOCIATION OF MUNICIPALITIES OF OLIVEIRA DE

AZEMEIS AND VALE DE CAMBRA

ACIF – TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION OF FAFE, CABECEIRAS DE

BASTO AND CELORICO DE BASTO

ACISAT – TRADE, INDUSTRIAL, SERVICES AND AGRICULTURAL

ASSOCIATION OF ALTO TAMEGA

ACISE –TRADE, INDUSTRY AND SERVICES ASSOCIATION OF ELVAS

ADRAL – ALENTEJO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

ALIENDE – LOCAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOC IATION

ANE – NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

ANJE – NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

ANTRAM – NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC ROAD TRANSPORTATION

OF GOODS

APEMETA - PORTUGUESE ASSOCIATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

TECHNOLOGIES’ ENTERPRISES

APIP – PORTUGUESE ASSOCIATION OF PLASTICS INDUSTRY

APIRAC – PORTUGUESE ASSOCIATION OF REFRIGERATION AND

CONDITIONED AIR INDUSTRY

APME – PORTUGUESE ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

ASSIMAGRA – PORTUGUESE ASSOCIATION OF ORNAMENTAL ROCKS

INDUSTRY

ASSOFT – PORTUGUESE ASSOCIATION OF SOFTWARE

CEARTE - HANDICRAFT TRAINING CENTER

CECOA – TRADE TRAINING CENTER

CEFOSAP – UNION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING

CENTER

CENCAL – CERAMICS INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CENFIC –CIVIL ARCHITETURE AND PUBLIC WORKS INDUSTRY SOUTH

TRAINING CENTER

REDE PORTUGAL10/10

CENFIM – METALLURGY AND METALWORKING INDUSTRY TRAINING

CENTER

CEPRA – AUTO REPAIRING TRAINING CENTER

CEQUAL – QUALITY TRAINING CENTER

CFPIC – FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CFPIMM – WOOD AND FURNITURE INDUSTRIES TRAINING CENTER

CFPSA – FOOD INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CICCOPN –CIVIL ARCHITETURE AND PUBLIC WORKS INDUSTRY NORTH

TRAINING CENTER

CILAN – CLOTHING INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CINKORK – CORK INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CINDOR – JEWELRY AND WATCHMAKING INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CINEL – ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CINFU – FOUNDRY INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CINTERBEI – BEIRA SERRA ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAINING CENTER

CITEFORMA – OFFICE, TRADE AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES TRAINING

CENTER

CITEX – TEXTILE INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CIVEC – GARMENT AND CLOTHING INDUSTRY TRAINING CENTER

CONFAGRI – NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE CO-

OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

CPINAL – INNOVATION AND BUSINESS CENTER OF ALGARVE

CRISFORM – CRYSTALWARE TRAINING CENTER

FORPESCAS – FISHERY TRAINING CENTER

IN LOCO – IN LOCO DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (Algarve)

INOVINTER – TRAINING AND TECHNOLOGIC INNOVATION CENTER

NIT – BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGIES

ODIANA – SOUTH GUADIANA DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

TECMINHO – UNIVERSITY-ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATION FOR

DEVELOPMENT

UERN – NORTH ENTREPRENEURIAL ORGANIZATION

……………………………..



WORKSHOP 2


Birgit Arens

Eurochambre

April 2002, Vienna

www.eurochambres.be

+15.000.000Enterprises

THETHENETWORKNETWORK +1.500

Chambers of Commerce

36National Chambers Organisations

OUR OUR NETWORK

www.eurochambres.be

in the interest of

business

the

EuropeanEuropeanChamber NetworkChamber Network

provides services

to

representsbusinessthrough

EuropeanChamber Network

OUR MISSION

www.eurochambres.be

Content

n Active lobbying tool of CCIs surveying enterpreneurs and providing inputinto the European legislative process

Budget

n Own funds and sponsorship - Costs estimation: € 500,000 (manpower, survey software,printing and promotion material)

Timeframe

n Set-up phase: July-Oct. 2001; 1st Survey: Nov. 2001, 2nd: March 2002Future Activities Foreseen

n Extend the EBP to all European CCIsn 3-4 business-relevant surveys in 2002

CCIs involved:

n 605 Chambers from 24 countriesResponsible

Andreas Grof, [email protected], tel: 0032-2-2820865Julie Hertsens, [email protected], tel: 0032-2-2820881

European Business Panel

www.eurochambres.be

Content

n EU funded export promotion campaign to facilitate the access of Europeangoods/services into the Japanese market

Budget (forecast)

n 11 million for 2002-2005 (11.5 million for 1997-2001)Timeframe

n 4 years after Gateway 1 (1994-1996) & Gateway 2 (1997-2001)Work in Progress

n Preparation of offer to the European Commission for the third phase(1400 EU enterprises introduced to the Japanese market since 1994 in GTJ1- 2).

Future Activities Foreseen

n EC to appoint contractors in spring 2002CCIs involved

n All EU countries + Chambers abroad in Japan Responsible

Marie-Elisabeth Rusling, [email protected], tel: 0032-2-2820874

Gateway to Japan

www.eurochambres.be

Content

n Development of an online dispute resolution serviceBudget

n € 4.8 million (50% EC + 50% CCIs)Timeframe

n 1st January 2001 ð 30 June 2002Work in Progress

n Work well underway on defining legal issues, code of conduct, processes ofmediation/conciliation. Prototype technical solution developed. Agreement with BBBand FEDMA on a global trust alliance.


n Further development, then market testing, refining, plus roll-out to CCIs. Aim to be opetational by Q3, 2002

CCIs involved:

n Stockholm, FCCIB, Consejo Superior, DIHK, Unioncamere, InfoCamereResponsible

Vincent Tilman, [email protected], tel: 0032-2-2820867

www.eurochambres.be

Content

n On-line portal providing companies worldwide with access to various Chamberservices

Budget

n Initial budget € 600,000 (50% EC + 50% CCIs), now self-fundingTimeframe

n OngoingWork in Progress

n Site operational and bug-free; launched to business community; electronic reportingof statistics available to member Chambers; active promotion with the businesscommunity


n Increase number or participating Chambers to 200 by the end of 2002; sell banner adsto generate additional income; continue promotion to business community

CCIs involved:

n 93 CCIs in 18 countriesResponsible

Birgit Arens, [email protected], tel: 0032-2-2820857

www.eurochambres.be

Content

n Promote the Commission’s Market Access Database (M.A.D.) towards theEuropean business community through the Chambers, to increase awareness anduse of the M.A.D.

Budget

n € 219.090 EC fundingTimeframe

n 1 year project (January 2002 - January 2003) / renewable for 1 year Work in Progress

n Set-up of the project, planning CCIs’ promotional events to present the database &collect feedback from business throughout Europe. Kick off date is 15 February 2002.


n Extension in 2003 to create user groups (CCIs & member enterprises) &involve Chambers abroad.

CCIs involved

n CCIs from all 15 EU countries.Responsible Marie-Elisabeth Rusling, [email protected], tel: 0032-2-2820874Ester Hernández Coffey, [email protected], tel: 0032-2-2820859

Market AccessMarket Access Database Database

www.eurochambres.be

Rue Archimède, 5-1000 Brussels Belgium

tel.: +32(0)2-282 08 50

fax: +32(0)2-230 00 38+32(0)2-280 01 91

e-mail: [email protected]

For any more information

www.eurochambres.be




DELIVERY MECHANISMS OF SUPPORT SERVICES

Rob van der Horst

EIM Small Business Research and Consultancy

April 2002, Vienna

EIM Business & Policy Research

Sonja Sheikh (IfGH, Austria)

• Quality of the services

• Pricing policy

• Communication with service provider


Quality

• 2/3 apply quality assurance mechanism

• Should be highly visible and recognised bythe enterprises

• 80% is quite satisfied

• Mainly satisfied about communication,professionalism and quality of service


Pricing

• No coherent pricing policy in the MS

• Most support services free of charge

• Clients prefer given price lists


Communication

• 62% prefer face-to-face contacts

• 25% rely on modern ICT (although manydifferences between MS)


Conclusions

• Distinctive professional culture

• Human and material resources

• Client-orientation as fundamental principle

• More coherent pricing policies


Prof. Nicola Bellini (SSS, Pisa)

• Perceived Quality in the Delivery ofBusiness Support Services: a ConceptualFramework– The 4 components of quality– Quality gaps– The dynamics of expectations


The 4 components of quality

• Structural quality of the supplier

• Technical quality of the outcome

• Functional quality of the process

• Image of the provider


Quality gaps

• Definition of service quality: therelationship between the expectations aboutthe service and the quality perceived by thecustomer

• There is a whole series of other gapsbehind the basic gap


Dynamics of expectations

• Expectations are often confused

• Satisfaction depends heavily on the qualityof the dialogue between user and provider

• Expectations may be biased

• Expectations evolve


Conclusions

• Client orientation

• Quality assurance systems with cleardefinitions

• Evaluations can improve quality


Petri Lintula (Media Tampere)

• Private local development company• Integrated business support• Case studies

– eTampere: regional framework programme– Craftnet: electronic business– Intelpolis: regional company networks


Conclusions

• Large-scale regional programmes creategood visibility for support services

• Services should be provided to businessesin integrated manner: one-stop-shop

• Role of ICT is important, but face-to-facecontacts remain essential


Lisa Vaughan (Enterprise Ireland)

• Enterprise agency: 10 regional offices, 100staff

• Supporting the growth of locally controlledindustry

• Role of Development Advisor• 35 Enterprise Boards: local support


Discussion (I)

• Visibility: may be problematic whenexpectations are high

• Geographical levels:– National level: supervising, stetting standards,

developing quality control mechanisms– Local level: implementation, quality assurance,

pricing (what about “coherent pricing”?)


Discussion (II)

• Professionalism: creating a real professionof business advisors. “On the long run wecannot sustain the learning-on-the-jobapproach”

• Public versus private sector services: it mustbe clear that it costs anyway

• Networking: exchange of information!



WORKSHOP 3



“Support Services for Micro, Small and sole Proprietor’s Businesses”


Sonja Sheikh


A – 1040 ViennaTel.: ++43 1 505 97 61Fax.: ++43 1 503 46 60


April 2002, Vienna


I

CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. THREE ASPECTS OF SERVICE DELIVERY

2.1 QUALITY OF SERVICES

2.2 PRICING POLICY

2.3 COMMUNICATION WITH THE SERVICE PROVIDER

3. CONCLUSIONS


1

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the main findings of the study ‘Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’sBusinesses’, related to the issue of delivery mechanisms and quality of support services. Findings presentedare based on an inventory of 335 support services targeted at micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses inthe Member States of the European Union and Norway as well as on a telephone survey among more then1,200 micro, small, and sole proprietor’s businesses in all Member States and Norway. More detailed informa-tion on the methodology applied can be obtained from the Draft Final Report of the study. (1)

In particular this paper deals with three issues of service delivery

• the quality of services offered and

• the pricing policy

• the communication with the service provider

It is believed, that in order to increase the take-up of support services by micro, small and sole proprietor’sbusinesses, creating awareness of the availability of support and offering suitable or relevant types of servicesmight not be sufficient if enterprises are not convinced of their real value and quality. As outlined in the DraftFinal Report of this study, for almost one quarter of European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses it isthe conditions of service delivery that pose the main difficulty when using support services. This credibility gapneeds to be overcome in order not to lose potential participants who are generally convinced of the usefulnessof external help and are likely to use support services regularly if these are offered under appropriate conditions.Thus, it is the aim of this paper to further elaborate on the issue of delivery of support services by providing dataon the satisfaction rates of enterprises with regard to support services offered, on enterprises’ preferencesconcerning the forms of payment preferred and on the means of communication with the service provider pre-ferred by enterprises.


behalf of the European Commission, DG Enterprise. Vienna 2002.


2

2 THREE ASPECTS OF SERVICE DELIVERY

2.1 QUALITY OF SERVICES

In addition to increasing the visibility of support services, assuring enterprises of the quality of services providedis an important aim with regard to encouraging the take-up of business support services by entrepreneurs. Thiscan only be achieved if service suppliers implement effective mechanisms to constantly assess and improve thequality of their services provided to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses. The decision on the appro-priate tool depends on several factors. In some cases, the type of the support service requires the application ofspecific methods. For instance, the more detailed and specific a service is, the more self-developed standardsmight have to be applied in order to ensure constant quality. On the other hand, quality control might depend onregulations within a country or on the status of the service provider. Often semi-public or private providers, whoreceive public funding, are obliged to grant a certain standard of their service offered, by having a specific typeof certification (e.g. ISO 9000 certificate) or providing regular evaluations of their services, for example. Never-theless, it seems that regular quality control has not become part of the state of the art in support service provi-sion in many countries of the European Union plus Norway, yet, as can be seen from Graph 1.

Graph 1: Existence of quality assurance mechanisms

020406080

100120140160180200

yes no

number of services


Almost two thirds of the support services offered to micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in the MemberStates of the European Union and Norway that have been analysed in the course of this study apply some kindof mechanisms for assuring the quality of the services delivered. The most popular methods used for qualityassurance, thereby, seem to be regular evaluations, self developed standards as well as regular follow-ups withthe customers (Graph 2).

Graph 2: Types of quality assurance mechanisms

0

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application of general standards, e.g. certificates application of self developed standards

occasional follow-up with the customers others

regular evaluations of the service provided regular follow-up of the service provided with the customers





3

However, for individual enterprises it is often difficult to assess the quality of services provided. Particularlysmaller businesses with more limited resources face difficulties in judging, whether a support service actuallymatches their needs. Thus, in order to increase enterprises’ trust in the reliability of the respective providers, itmay be advisable to apply quality assurance measures that are, besides being indispensable in order to guaran-tee high quality service provision, also highly visible and recognised by the enterprises. Choosing the right mea-sures - the ones enterprises trust most - and making them visible to the enterprises might be crucial in order tostrengthen enterprises’ belief in the usefulness of support services and therefore their demand for support ofthis kind. Therefore, the question of which criteria enterprises apply to judge the quality of a service has beendealt with in the scope of the study. The respective findings for Europe are presented in Graph 3.

Graph 3: Criteria that indicate high quality to enterprises

3.1

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application of self developed quality standards

registered trade marks

application of EU-quality standards

regular evaluations

application of general quality standards

regular follow ups with the customer

rating from 1 = does not indicate to 4 = strongly indicates


When micro, small or sole proprietor’s businesses try to assess the quality of a service provider, the criteria theytrust most include regular follow-ups with the customer and the application of general quality standards. Itseems to be comparatively less important to enterprises whether support service providers use registered trademarks or apply self developed quality standards (see Graph 3). When compared to the quality assurancemechanisms actually deployed by providers in Europe, it can be seen that (occasional or regular) follow-ups areindeed used by a wide range of support service providers (see Graph 2). Furthermore, providers often applyself-developed quality standards or/and conduct regular evaluations in order to assure the high quality of theservices they offer.

However, what is considered a sign for high quality service provision for enterprises differs from country tocountry: Regular follow-ups, for example, are considered important by enterprises of almost all countries withGreece, Italy and Luxembourg being the only exceptions. Strong trust in evaluation is expressed from enter-prises located in the Nordic countries as well as in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. Irishand Italian enterprises, on the other hand, do not seem to have a similar trust in evaluations. Also, there arecountries in which enterprises highly trust in EU-quality standards, like for example, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg,and Portugal, while others have quite some reservations against EU-quality standards such as Austria, Belgium,Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and United Kingdom, for example.


4

Graph 4: Satisfaction rate of enterprises*)

80%

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satisfied dissatisfied


*) only enterprises that have made use of support services within the last five yearsSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

In general, it can be said, that most (80 %) of the European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses thathave made use of support services within the last five years are quite satisfied with their latest experience in thisrespect (Graph 4). Dissatisfaction might occur for various reasons, among others, support services might belinked to the achievement of certain goals that later prove to be difficult to reach for enterprises or administrativeprocedures might be too time-consuming. (2) One reasons might be the fact that enterprises often use toosimple criteria to search for external advice or that they do not have a clear idea of what they are looking for.Also an unclear communication of needs and expectations by enterprises might lead to dissatisfaction. (3)

Accordingly, the share of enterprises that are satisfied varies by different facets of support service delivery:More than 80 % of the enterprises that have made use of support services during the past five years expresssatisfaction with the communication with the service provider, the professionalism of the staff as well as with thequality of the service. Comparatively less satisfied are enterprises with the understanding of their business bythe provider and with the effect the service had on the enterprise, although still three quarters of enterprisesexpress satisfaction with these aspects of service delivery as can be seen from Graph 5.

Graph 5: Satisfaction with the use of support services, by different aspects*)

73%

75%

77%

78%

84%

86%

86%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

understanding of business by provider

effect service had on enterprise

access to the service

pricing policy of provider

quality of service

professionalism of staff

communication with the provider


*) only enterprises that have made use of support services within the last five yearsSource: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001

2 Guzmán Cuevas, J.: Aspectos estructurales de las PYMES, las microempresas y los empresarios en Espana. (Structural features of

Spanish SMEs, microenterprises and businessmen), in: Economía Industrial, no. 300. Madrid, 1994.3 Kailer, Norbert/Scheff, Josef: Beratung als Dienstleistung: Die Zusammenarbeit von kleineren und mittleren Unternehmen und

Unternehmensberatern. (Consultancy as Service: The Co-operation between SMEs and Business Consultants.) In: Kailer Norbert/Walger Gerd (Hrsg.): Perspektiven der Unternehmensberatung für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen. Vienna: Linde Verlag, 2000.


5

It is hardly possible to interpret variations at country level from the average value for the European UnionMember States and Norway with regard to the satisfaction rate due to comparatively high sample errors. Still, itmight be assumed that Ireland and Portugal are at the upper end while Luxembourg and Denmark are at thelower end of satisfaction with respect to support services used. Due to the high variation of the correspondingvalues some countries are not included in the country ranking presented.

Table 1: Satisfaction rate of enterprises, by country

country satisfaction rate*)

Ireland 90 %Portugal 90 %Spain 85 %Belgium 82 %United Kingdom 81 %EU (15) and Norway on average 80 %Finland 80 %France 79 %Netherlands 76 %Germany 76 %Luxembourg 69 %Denmark 67 %

Austria 51 %**)

Greece 68 %**)

Italy 82 %**)

Norway 64 %**)

Sweden 22 %**)

*) enterprises very or rather satisfied with the latest use of support services, maximum sample error at country level: +/- 15 %**) due to small number of observations sample error may amount up to +/- 25 %Source: IfGH/ENSR Small Business Survey, 2001


6

The hypothesis that countries with a relatively high share of enterprises satisfied with their latest use of supportservices would also show above-average participation rates in support services cannot be hold. As illustrated inGraph 6, among the countries with exceptionally high satisfaction rates, namely Ireland, Spain and Portugal, it isonly Ireland where participation is comparably high. Spain and Portugal, on the other hand, show only averageparticipation rates among micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses. Thus, it can be assumed that In Irelandword of mouth concerning the quality and merits of support services plays an important role, i.e. enterpriseshaving made use of support services and having experienced satisfaction with their latest use seem toencourage other enterprises to participate in support services. This is supported by the fact that, whilstthroughout the European Union and Norway only about 45 % of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businessesgenerally consider it vital to receive information on support services through recommendations from otherpeople, this share amounts to as much as 62 % in Ireland.

On the other hand, in Portugal, for example, enterprises are mainly satisfied with the providers’ staff and theirunderstanding of the business, whilst the access to the service receives least appreciation. This in combinationwith the low information rate among Portuguese micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses may explain thathigh satisfaction does not necessarily result in increased participation.

Comparatively high participation in combination with comparably low satisfaction is found in the Netherlandsand in Denmark which can be explained by the fact that enterprises having made use of support services inthese countries are particularly satisfied (92 % and 89 % of enterprises, respectively) with the access to theservice, which might be less bureaucratic than in other countries.

Graph 6: Satisfaction and participation rates of enterprises with regard to support services, by country*)

15%

20%

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65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95%

Satisfaction rate

Netherlands

Ireland

Germany

Denmark

Belgium

Finland

United Kingdom

Portugal

France


Spain


EU-average

*) Austria, Italy, Greece, Norway and Sweden are not included as the respective figures show high sample errors at country level.



7

2.2 Pricing Policy

Micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses are quite price sensitive as far as the use of external support isconcerned. They often lack financial resources and usually the owner him/herself carefully decides where andhow to spend the money available. Even if support services are offered free of charge, time has to be spent onthe utilisation of the service, which results in opportunity costs for small enterprises. A coherent pricing policy fordifferent types of support services could facilitate enterprises’ decision on the utilisation of support services.Although some types of support services, such as basic information services, for example, are more likely to beoffered free of charge, while incubation units, for instance, are more likely to be charged according to givenprice lists, a coherent pricing policy does not yet seem to exist in the Member States of the European Union andNorway.

Graph 7: Determination of prices of services identified

0

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different prices for different types of enterprises free of chargelump sum settlement per hourprice list for different types of services others




As can be seen from Graph 7, a substantial number of support services provided to micro, small and soleproprietor’s businesses in the European Union and Norway is offered free of charge (e.g. basic informationservices). On the other hand, services that provide external advice and consultancy, premises and environment,or SME-specific training are usually charged to some extent. The most common tool applied in the pricing policyof service providers is price lists for different types of services.

As far as the demand side is concerned, the following Graph 8 provides information on the form of paymentpreferred by enterprises.


8

Graph 8: Form of payment preferred by enterprises

16%

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lump sum price list settlement per hour others



Micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses seem to prefer paying prices according to given price lists toarranging settlements per hour with the service provider or to paying lump sums (see Graph 8). The latter formsof payment are also rarely used by the service providers, which in connection to the fact that most of theservices offered are actually free of charge (see Graph 7), might explain the comparatively high satisfaction withthe pricing policy of service providers (see Graph 5).

However, as far as the generally high level of satisfaction among European micro, small and sole proprietor’sbusinesses is concerned, a link between the price of a support service and the perception of its quality by anenterprise has been found by several authors: Free services often also imply that the receiver has lowerexpectations and therefore might be less critical when judging the quality of a service.(4)

4 Boter, H./Hjalmarsson, D./Lundström, A.: Outline of a Contemporary Small Business Policy. Stiftelsen Forum för

Småföretagsforskning - FSF (Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research). Örebro, 1999. Enterprise Ireland: Support Services toSMEs in Ireland. Sponsored by the European Commission within the framework of the Concerted Action Working Group on the Visibilityand Quality of Support Services. Dublin, 2000. Unioncamere/Ministerio della Industria , Commercio e Artigianato, Italia: SupportServices to SMEs in Italy. Sponsored by the European Commission within the Framework of the Concerted Action Working Group onthe Visibility and Quality of Support Services, 2000a.


9

2.3 COMMUNICATION

The fluency of the relationship respectively the communication with the service provider has among others beenidentified as one of the most important factors for enterprises when using external support. (5) Accordingly,Graph 9 presents information on which forms of communication are preferred most by micro, small and soleproprietor’s businesses in the European Union and Norway.

Graph 9: Form of communication with the service provider preferred by enterprises*)

62%

26%

42%

26%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

face-to-face at enterprise modern technologies,internet, e-mail

telephone or fax face-to-face at serviceprovider's location



As can be seen from Graph 9, European micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses clearly prefer services tobe delivered at their enterprises location when communicating face-to-face with the support service provider.Only one quarter of all enterprises appreciate the possibility to travel to the provider’s location. Furthermore,many enterprises (42 %) like to use telephone or fax to get in contact with the service provider. In contrast,relatively few enterprises (26 %) like to rely on modern information technologies (e.g. e-mail). However, theprominence of the Internet or e-mail varies by country with Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg,Norway and the Netherlands being the countries with an above average share of enterprises willing to use theInternet when communicating with the support service provider. British, Italian and Portuguese enterprises, oncontrast, are comparatively unlikely to appreciate modern information technologies.

5 Soy, A.: Servicos a las Empresas Desarollo Regional y Urbano: el caso de Catalunya. (Services to enterprises and regional and urban

development: Evidence from Catalonia), in: Economía Industrial, no. 313, pages 105-114. Madrid, 1997.


10

3 CONCLUSIONS

The development of a distinctive professional culture needs to be further encouraged

Most support service providers in Europe apply some kind of quality assurance mechanism, whereby the mostpopular methods used are regular evaluations, self developed standards and follow-ups with the customers.Still, the development of a distinctive professional culture needs to be further encouraged among supportservice staff by the active process of competence management and the implementation of demanding recruit-ment, training and staff development policies.

Support organisations should have access to the necessary human and material resources they need

Although the vast majority of micro, small and sole proprietor’s businesses in the European Union and Norwaythat have made use of support services within the last five years seem quite satisfied with their latest exper-ience, comparatively low levels of satisfaction are achieved with regard to the understanding of the business bythe provider and the effect the service had on the enterprise. In this respect public authorities responsible forsupport service provision should ensure that support organisations have access to the necessary human andmaterial resources they need to provide top class services. It is of high importance that organisations employstaff with the skills and competencies as well as with the practical experience needed to understand small busi-nesses and to deliver the full range of services they need.

Client-orientation has to be a fundamental principle of support service provision

Quality assurance systems need to be routinely implemented, with reference to formal definitions of servicestandards, where appropriate. Furthermore, regular evaluations of the effectiveness and efficiency of supportservices have to become an integral part of the culture of support service provision. Service providers and policymakers should continuously use evaluation tools in order to improve the quality, design and cost effectivenessof support services.

More coherent pricing policies should be developed by service providers

As far as the pricing policy of the service providers is concerned, micro, small and sole proprietor’s businessesprefer paying prices according to given price lists. Paying lump sums or arranging settlement per hour is far lesspopular. These preferences seem to be more or less met by service providers. A substantial part of services(mainly basic information services) is offered free of charge, other types of support, such as advise or trainingservices, are often charged according to given price lists. However, more coherent pricing policies should bedeveloped by service providers for the various categories of support services in order to promote their take-up.



WORKSHOP 3


Perceived Quality in the Delivery of Business Support Services:A conceptual framework (with practical implications)

Prof. Nicola Bellini

Sant` Anna School of Advanced Studies

April 2002, Vienna

Bellini, “Perceived quality in the delivery of business support services” - page 2

The aim of this paper is to present - in a very schematic way - three conceptual tools derived from the literature on service management that seem particularly appropriate to a discussion of quality management and quality evaluation in the case of business support services. Firstly, we propose a model of the components of quality in business support services. Secondly, we present a “gap analysis model”. Thirdly, we discuss a model concerning the dynamics of expectations concerning service quality.

The four components of quality

Quality in business support services is the result of four components (that are summarized in figure 1):

- the structural quality of the supplier;

- the technical quality of the outcome;

- the functional quality of the process;

- the (corporate and/or local) image of the provider (Grönroos, 2000; Homburg and Garbe, 1999).

Figure 1 – A model of service quality1

Total qualityTotal quality

Image (corporate/local)

Technical quality of the outcome:

what

Functional quality of the process:

how

Structural quality of the provider:

who

Although management (and evaluation) of service quality may tend to concentrate on only one aspect or just a few of them, it is important to remember that the total perceived quality is in fact the result of the interaction of all these dimensions.

1 This model is an extension of the Grönroos model of service quality.


The structural quality of the supplier “refers to the relatively stable characteristics of the providers of services, of the tools and resources they have at their disposal, and of the physical and organizational settings in which they work” (Homburg and Garbe, 1999, 46). It may be measured “objectively” by identifying key features of the providing organization, which may be also used as standards to select “quality providers”.

The technical quality of the outcome is “what the customer is left with, when the service production process and its buyer-seller interactions are over” (Grönroos, 2000, 63). This dimension may also (although not always) be measured objectively. It may be defined ex ante and, most importantly, it may be monitored in itinere.

The third dimension of the quality (the functional quality of the process) derives from the way the service is delivered. It is typically evaluated ex post, although it can (and should) be monitored also in itinere. Functional quality is critical especially in those business support services with a strong emphasis on technology. In those cases, possibly because of the overwhelmingly technological concern and the poor customer orientation of the provider’s staff, technical quality may be good, but not recognized and even neutralized by badly-managed interactions between customer and provider.

In the case of business support services, a good functional quality depends on a number of factors:

- depending on the attitude and behavior of the provider’s personnel, customer may feel that the staff is sincerely concerned with solving their problems and does it in a “friendly” and considerate way;

- physical accessibility may matter, in terms of both geographical location of the provider’s facilities (close to the customer) and appropriate logistics and “serviscape” that make contacts easy (by overcoming psychological barriers: the “rude” small manufacturing entrepreneur vs. the “sophisticated”, educated consultant; by regulating access to the facilities, thereby allowing a certain degree of confidentiality in the provision of the service; by appropriate “opening times” of the facilities);

- satisfaction may depend on the quality and intensity of the user’s involvement in the production of the service, as the customer will probably feel to have a better opportunity to influence service delivery and to adapt to his needs. Moreover, depending on the kind of co-production, satisfaction may differ among individuals within the user firm (e.g. may be greater for technicians than for managers);

- specific quality attributes of the service may have a different impact on the total perceived quality (cf. Mohr, 2001, 131). Only for some of them (“one-dimensional quality”) there will be a linear relationship between functionality and customer satisfaction. “Attractive” attributes may have an important, exponential impact on customer satisfaction, although poor performance below a certain limit is accepted and does not dissatisfies the customers: e.g. friendliness in face-to-face interactions increases the


overall quality perception, but the lack of it may not surprise negatively customers. Other “must-be” attributes, e.g. reliability, cause negative reactions below a certain limit, but their increase beyond an ordinary level does not influence the customer’s judgment;

- perceived quality may depend on the flexibility and ability to solve emerging problems even unforeseen, outside the scope of the provider’s original mission or requiring skills that are not immediately available to the provider;

- reliability, trust and readiness to recovery2 make that customers can count on service delivery.

The (corporate and/or local) image of the provider can affect the final perception of the quality in various and important ways, filtering the evaluation of the actual (technical and functional) results: “if the provider is good in the minds of the customers; that is, if it has a favorable image, minor mistakes will probably be forgiven. If mistakes often occur, the image will be damaged. If the image is negative, the impact of any mistake will often be considerably grater than it otherwise would be” (Grönroos, 2000, 64).

Several factors contribute to the creation of image of the providers of business support services. Some factors pertain to the general context. The culture of users is a function of the industry or market segment to which they belong and is influenced by socio-economic features of the region, starting with the level and quality of social capital.

On the provider’s individual level, although marketing is heavily engaged in constructing images, the most powerful of these factors are those corresponding to the actual, perceived features of the service provider. They are, firstly, the product itself and, secondly, the key persons in the management and staff (especially in the front line). Notwithstanding all the intricacies in the formation of expectations, it would be wrong to assume that customers are unable to “sense” quality even if they cannot appreciate fully the contents of the service. Small entrepreneurs may be rough in dealing with technical or managerial sophistication, but are ready to distinguish a competent approach from bureaucratic or amateurish attitudes. This is a (sometimes overlooked, but compelling) requirement for service providers in the selection of personnel, especially for front line roles. Furthermore, the image of the business support service provider is heavily influenced by the image of its shareholders. This is especially relevant when the provider depends on non- corporate subjects, like associations, universities, local and regional governments, development agencies.

The importance of image cannot be underestimated:

2 Service recovery is often the real test of the quality and customer orientation of the service provider. “Service recovery is a service-oriented approach to managing the same situations that, in an administrative way, are managed by complaints handling routines” (Grönroos, 2000, 113).


- it creates in the customers the sense of community, i.e. the perception that they are members of a club centered around the service provider: this decreases drastically the costs and efforts required by other aspects of marketing, strengthens the relationship, eases the innovation and upgrading of service contents;

- image has snowball effects, i.e. has the tendency to reinforce itself and, once it has become established, to become self-fulfilling;

- the provider’s image is important not only for users. Image has an influence also on the (present and prospective) staff, by contributing to increase (or frustrate) motivation, and on stake-holders.

The provider’s image is extremely important for customers:

- to present customers: image filters, at least temporarily, experiences and impacts on the perception of the provider’s performance;

- to the market (present customers + potential customers + lost customers): image reflects experience and communicates expectations.

Quality gaps

A very useful conceptual tool to analyze the quality management problem in business support services is provided by the “gap analysis model” (Zeithaml et al., 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1990; Grönroos, 2000, 100 ff.), that we have modified as shown in figure 2. This model is based on a definition of service quality as the relationship between the expectations about the service and the quality perceived by the customer.

Figure 2 - The gap analysis model for business support services Cu

stom

erCu

stom

erP

rovi

der

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vide

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ExpectedService

ExpectedService

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PolicyGuidelines

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olic

yP

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(Gap 2)

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(Gap 6) (Gap 7)

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Communicationwith CustomersCommunicationwith Customers


This model allows to emphasize that a whole series of other gaps are behind (and impact on) the basic gap between perceived service and expected service (gap 1).

Gaps 2, 3 and 4 pertain to political and strategic choices:

- gap 2 occurs between policy guidelines and the expected service and is due to the policy’s scarce understanding of the companies’ expectations, including both explicit expectations and “hidden needs”. This gap is caused by failures and deficiencies in the policy-making process, by cultural biases, by biases induced through the influence of lobbies, by the inability to build and manage consensus etc;

- gap 3 occurs between policy guidelines and management perceptions and concerns the translation of the former into the provider’s strategies, especially when the latter concern “politically sensitive” aspects (e.g. market segmentation and targeting);

- gap 4 emerges when the provider’s management has inadequate perceptions of the user’s expectations concerning the service. Normally this depends on wrong or distorted or badly interpreted information, deriving from market research and other communication channels (formal or informal; direct or mediated by brokers, entrepreneurial associations).

Gaps 5, 6 and 7 pertain to the management and marketing of the service:

- gap 5 emerges when service quality specifications do not correspond to the management’s perceptions of users’ expectations concerning the service. In other words, the interpretation may be correct, but this is not translated into an appropriate design of the service package;

- gap 6 concerns the actual delivery of the service, whose technical and/or functional quality may be inconsistent with the original service design. Many factors may cause this gap: scarce quality of human or technical resources involved in the service provision; ineffective internal marketing, creating a divergence between management and staff, between corporate culture and service specifications; excessively rigid specifications, that are not adjusted according to the feedback from the front-line;

- gap 7 occurs between service delivery and the promises that are communicated to customers and that can be unrealistic because biased for political reasons or because of based on wrong planning.

The dynamics of expectations

The hypothesis that consumers evaluate a service according to their own expectations, based on past experiences, both direct and indirect, gives a realistic picture of the wide majority of business support situations (cf. Priest, 1998). However, expectations are often confused: the more innovative is the service, the less likely is that past experiences can contribute to realistic expectations. As business support services are difficult to evaluate also after


consumption, satisfaction is likely to depend to a large extent on the ability to attune the customer’s expectations to the provider’s perception of what the customer’s reasonable expectations should be: in other words, satisfaction depends heavily on the quality of the dialogue between user and provider, especially in the “moments of truth”.

Expectations may be biased by several factors. In some cases unrealistically high expectations can be nurtured by generic policy statements or by the fact that the company perceives the business support service as a last resort in order to solve extra-ordinary problems. This may be reinforced by marketing strategies that emphasize social relationships more than the substantial qualities of the core service. As a consequence, it is likely that uncertainties emerging even at early stages trigger a negative spiral of disappointment and distrust.

Customers’ expectations evolve. Figure 3 describes a useful model of the dynamics of expectations, by distinguishing three types:

- “fuzzy expectations exist when customers expect a service provider to solve a problem but do not have a clear understanding of what should be done;

- explicit expectations are clear in the customers’ minds in advance of the service processes. They can be divided into realistic and unrealistic expectations;

- implicit expectations refer to elements of a service which are so obvious to customers that they do not consciously think about them but take them for granted” (Grönroos, 2000, 89 f.).

Figure 3 - A dynamic model of expectations

Source: Grönroos, 2000, 90

Fuzzyexpectations

Explicit expectations

unrealistic realistic

Implicitexpectations

Intentional dynamics Unintentional dynamics


In the case of business support services:

- fuzzy expectations may easily prevail and run a high risk of being disappointed. Customers with fuzzy expectations must be helped by the provider to make their expectations explicit. This may happen also without the provider’s intervention, as a result of the user’s learning process, but this may lead the user to quit the relationship or to substitute unrealistic for fuzzy expectations;

- explicit expectations are likely to be unrealistic, due to their innovative or experimental character or to the vague promises made by manager and politicians: these expectations must be rapidly brought to realism. Again this may happen autonomously, as the company learns about the service, but what the user understands now as realistic may be felt as insufficient and disappointing;

- implicit expectations may become relevant when they are not fulfilled: e.g. the user may incorrectly expect that the support service is free of charge. Implicit expectations should therefore made explicit and it must be clarified whether they are realistic or not;

- over time expectations, that were once explicit, may become implicit and out of control: e.g. a certain level of quality and empathy is given for granted, but may decline as a consequence of the routinization of the service (cf. Grönroos, 2000, 89 ff.).

Bibliographical references

Grönroos, C. (2000), Service Management and Marketing. A Customer Relationship Management Approach, 2nd edition, Chichester: Wiley

Homburg, C., Garbe, B. (1999), Towards an Improved Understanding of Industrial Services: Quality Dimensions and Their Impact on Buyer-Seller Relationships, “Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing”, 6 (2), 39-71

Mohr, J. (2001), Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Priest, S. J. (1998), Business Link: a method for examining customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and comlalining behaviour, “Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behaviour”, 11, 186-197

Zeithaml, V., Berry, L., Parasuraman, A. (1988), Communication and Control Processes in the Delivery of Service Quality, “Journal of Marketing”, 52 (April), 35-48

Zeithaml, V., Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. (1990), Delivering Quality Service. Balancing Customer Perception and Expectations, New York: The Free Press



WORKSHOP 3


Regional integration of business support services as an efficient way ofdelivering services for small businesses: case studies from Finland

Petri Lintula

Media Tampare Ltd

April 2002, Vienna

Petri LintulaMedia Tampere Ltd

European Seminar on Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor’s BusinessesVienna 11-12 April 2002

Regional integration of business support services as an efficient way of deliveringservices for small businesses: case studies from Finland

1. Introduction

Finnish business support service market is strongly dominated by public service providers. Atregional level key players are municipalities and Employment and Economic Development Centres.The private service production is concentrated in the urban regions and also there is mainlytargeting larger businesses. For small businesses natural place to seek support service has been andstill is the local administration. Other important address to seek support is neighbouring enterprises.

Local authorities have been strongly outsourcing business support in last couple of decades. Mainlythis has happened by setting up development companies which have specialised in the provision ofthese services. Media Tampere Ltd is one of these companies but in a very special way, because theCity of Tampere owns only less than 20% of the shares. Company has also very broad developmentrole, which exceeds regional level. Company has been acknowledged by the Finnish Governmentwith a National Centre of Expertise statute. Company operates mainly with small businesses frommedia and IT sector but not solely. Integrated business support is provided in forms of developmentprojects, consultancy and incubator activities.

2. Case studies

case 1: eTampere

eTampere is a regional framework programme to develop Tampere region to a leading IS region inthe world. Business development is in the core of the programme. Main business developmentinstrument is eAccelerator. This accelerator works in chronologically advancing stages:

• Marketing and training stage• Company evaluation• Pre-incubation stage• Incubation stage• Stage of global growth

For each stage of development, the incubator will provide sufficient know-how and suitablefinancial instruments. Visibility for the services of this Accelerator is created through nation-widebusiness idea competition. All the participating companies get full evaluation of their business planand the best ones are selected to the development programme. In the first round over 80 businessplans were evaluated.

case 2: Craftnet

Craftnet is a national project to prepare craft enterprises way to electronic business. Projectcomprises on-line business training project for craft entrepreneurs and craft enterprise marketing

and work site development. Craftnet project offers craft enterprises tailored training and coaching inon-line business activities. The project makes use of different guiding methods, such as classroomteaching, business-specific instruction and virtual craft workshops on the Internet. Project servicesare for the main parts mobile. They go to the entrepreneurs at their working places. This is enabledby the web service which hosts all guiding materials and company profiles. 150 craft enterprises sofar joined the project.

case 3: Intelpolis

Intelpolis project aims to develop a competency centre based on company networks in Siikalatvaregion (Objective 1 region in the middle of Finland). Sector groups of enterprises have beengathered together with educational establishments and public authorities to commonly plan regionalsupport mechanisms. Main source of support is in company networks and project develops serviceproduction schemes for these networks. Project has put together three company networks havingover 80 participants. Networks operate autonomously and get technical support from the regionaldevelopment agency who is co-ordinating the competency centre.

3. Key findings

Creating visibility through large-scale framework programmes

Integrating business support at local level in concrete service cases – mobile one-stop-shops

Promoting networking of enterprises and service production inside networks



WORKSHOP 3


Win-win co-operation for managers

Peter Van Cleef

International PLATO Coordinator

April 2002, Vienna

.Win-win co-operation for managers

Peter van Cleef and Björn Dryselius

Managers in especially small and medium sized enterprises often lack a possibility to reflect theirideas and problems with other people. The Plato programme is designed for them to shareexperiences and form networks. Strict ban on the use of others’ business ideas or the like, andconfidentiality is a condition for fruitful co-operation. The benefits for all parties are great whenthe rules are respected.

PLATO is a two-year business development programme targeted at small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs). Owners/ managers enhance and exchange a broader range of management experiences andstrategic visions necessary to develop their companies and broadening their own views. It also providesits participants with a base for trustworthy business to business opportunities and links. The PLATOapproach is based on

• an Owner-Manager focus;• a Bottom up and group learning approach;• Sustained involvement;• Networking and collaboration.• a locally based and business led approach.

The PLATO intensive counselling programme was developed in 1988 by the Strategic Planning Team forKempen, Belgium. In this programme big companies from the Kempen area (northeast of Belgium,Turnhout) counsel SMEs in Kempen in all aspects of management. This counselling could be collectiveand/ or individual. An SME is a company with from three to a hundred employees. A big company is acompany with an elaborated staff of specialists. In general this kind of staff is found in companies with aminimum of 300 employees. More than 800 SMEs in Kempen have entered the PLATO project since1988 and they have been enthusiastic about the results. After projects PLATO-100 to PLATO-700 (1988-1997), and four projects for starting-up companies (1993-1997), projects PLATO-800 and SOCRATES Vwere launched in the spring of 1999.

Why this counselling programme?Many SMEs want to expand, but are blocked by critical factors during the growth path. These factorstend to be similar in most SMEs. SME entrepreneurs often feel themselves “isolated at the top”, althoughcolleagues are facing the same problems. They also often have a technical but not a managerialbackground. In big companies there is a supply of expertise on a range of management topics. Thisexpertise could be very useful for SMEs, but it is normally not used.

A solution to these problems could be that the SME entrepreneurs are brought together so that theisolation is broken and that they can exchange experiences as well as continuously tap into the expertiseof a big company through the counsellors / moderators who

� co-ordinate the exchange of experiences between the SMEs;� act as an individual adviser and a link between the SME and the whole organisation of the big

company;� invite specialists to talk about important topics;� introduce new views and approaches based on a more covering view of large organisations, and if

necessary, explain management terminology and methods;� become confidantes for the SME.

Through the professionalisation and the choice for growth of the SMEs, there is probably a long termeffect on employment in the region.

Goals and methods of PLATOPLATO has four major goals:

1. to provide a platform for long-term sustainable and trustworthy exchange of experiences between itsparticipants, i.e. the SME managers/ owners including the counsellors / moderators;

2. to stimulate transfer of management know-how from big companies’ chief executive officers (CEOs)and staff members to SMEs;

3. to make an exchange of experiences possible between SMEs in the different PLATO-groups;4. to create a network of small and big companies where information, contacts and business

opportunities are the issue.

Only managers and/or owners may take part in the network so that all participants have the sameposition and formal responsibilities.

The PLATO Process The process is centred on the PLATO groups with 10-15 SME owners/ managers and two moderatorsfrom big companies per group. Each group meets once a month to address a wide range of managementissues and to consult with each other. Guest speakers provide information and enhanced insight.

Group meetings are complemented by counselling on an individual basis by the moderators and or theircolleagues. Periodically, seminars are arranged, involving participants from all PLATO groups.

Apart from the "formal" PLATO activities, complementary activities and initiatives often take place, e.g.company visits, open hearings where all members are invited.

Within the PLATO network, SME managers have thus an opportunity to share experiences and learnfrom one another, have access to advice and assistance from specialists in big companies, and broadentheir views through invited speakers and by participating in the seminars. As the relationships grow in thePLATO network, so does the range of commercial opportunities that arise from business linkages. Thereare many opportunities for the participants to share e.g. information, resources, premises or equipmentand to acquire new customers and suppliers or pursue joint ventures. As a result, many PLATOcompanies have developed new business relationships through the network.

Also the big companies and their counsellors have experienced benefits from their participation. Theyhave outstanding opportunities over a fairly long time to gain insight into the SMEs more entrepreneurialpatterns and their organisational structures, and thereby acquire an entrepreneurial experience withwhich they may contribute more effectively to the development of their own big organisation.

In the programme, the evolution from the transfer of know-how by experts and staff from largecompanies to the mature groups learning from each other is important. More and more the oldergeneration, founders of companies, often with less formal education, are disappearing and the newmanagers in SMEs have often a university degree, sometimes with an additional Masters degree inbusiness administration and in a few cases a year of experience abroad. More and more SME managersspeak several languages and the openness towards other cultures, other ways of management, etc.,increases. By consequence they are more open-minded and facilitate the communication between them.

Group sessions In a period of two years a fixed group of ten to fifteen SME entrepreneurs and two staff members/counsellors/ moderators from large enterprises have monthly meetings. The participants are carefullyselected, no competitors are to be in the same group.

From time to time at these group sessions a specialist is invited to introduce a specific matter in the firstpart of a PLATO-evening. In the second part the participants can discuss the topic and exchangeexperiences on it. It’s up to the counsellors to invite a speaker and to moderate the exchange ofexperiences between the SMEs.

From recent research we know that the group dynamics are an important element in the transfer ofknowledge. From the same study we found the important role of the coaches to create an environment inwhich the transfer of knowledge is stimulated. The discussions and dialogues allow group members tocompare experiences and jointly consider individual problems and to start to counsel each other.

As examples of the topics discussed in the group meetings could be mentioned strategic planning andanalysis, econometrics, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, business development, negotiations,delegation and motivation, the process of change, and internet as a business tool. As can be seen fromthis list, the topics cover quite a range of problems managers today face in businesses.

Individual counsellingEach participant in a PLATO-group has an opportunity to get individual counselling on all possible topics(e.g. recruitment procedures, preparing a budget, a phone number, etc.) through the counsellors /moderators or their colleagues in the big company. This service is for natural reasons limited to somefew hours from time to time. If necessary a more thorough counselling can take place via an audit of thewhole company in the so-called PLATO-Flash.

Seminars With the seminars arranged for all participants in a PLATO network (comprising several groups of 10-15participants), certain topics can be treated thoroughly and from different points of view. Because allexisting PLATO-groups are invited, the seminars also give an excellent opportunity for networking.Depending on the theme, in some seminars other employees and colleagues may participate as well.

Informal activitiesThe project management and/or individual participants organise company visits, a PLATO-pub,barbecues and other informal events to bring entrepreneurs together over the whole network and to givethem opportunities to discuss and to inform. Each group often forms its own pattern, e.g. to meet fromtime to time for a dinner.

What about the results?By word of mouth, the PLATO concept has since 1988 been spread and adopted in 8 Europeancountries, comprising at the end of 2000 some 7000 SMEs and some 500 large companyrepresentatives as counsellors/ moderators. This is a very significant critical mass for a multinationalnetwork, quite unique by international comparison. In each country, one party is appointed National Co-ordinators, their main task is to see that the quality and merits of the PLATO concept are not underminedand to provide access to know-how in setting up and running PLATO networks. It must be noted thatthere is no formal overall PLATO organisation setting up and running network projects, but rather localinitiatives that through insight and concern modify the general PLATO concept to fit local means andconditions. Every PLATO network is evaluated by independent sources.

Some of the Belgian evaluations have shown that in Belgium, since 1988 more than 800 SMEs, 150counsellors, 55 large companies and a network of 300 other speakers and specialists have beeninvolved in different PLATO projects in the area Kempen.

A survey of the first project by Professor Donckels from the Catholic University of Brussels showedremarkable results. In turnover, the SMEs have an average increase of 15 to 20 per cent. Also jobsincreased by 20 per cent! Similar results have been reached in projects that started later. A number ofbusiness opportunities otherwise not exploited were developed, as well as a more mature and bird’s eye-view of the company and its business. After the completion of the programme, growth rates havecontinued indicating the success of PLATO's long-term integrated development approach. A follow-upsurvey after five years of the first two projects (200 SMEs) showed an increase of 1,400 new jobs. Half ofthe participants account this result entirely on the PLATO project. All of them would participate again orwill advise other entrepreneurs to participate.

Qualitative benefits for the participantsThe big companies have definite benefits from participating in the PLATO programme. They get a goodopportunity for networking with other companies. They have an excellent position to acquire know-howon how to do business with SMEs. General training in management and better comprehension of theirown big company for high potential counsellors are by-products of counselling SMEs. The counsellors /moderators become more entrepreneurial in their own company when they return to the basics of theproblems of SMEs. Through their input, others in the companies become aware of SME related viewsand way of doing business. It is also very rewarding and inspiring for the big companies to be membersin successful initiatives. This kind of local activity also breeds commitment to the region.

For the counsellors, the activities in the PLATO programme are rewarding because by working with theSMEs they get practical insight and experience in how general management is handled in a smallorganisation with usually marginal resources. They also benefit from networking with colleagues/counsellors in different specialist areas. By counselling others, they get a better understanding of thefunctioning of their own company. Working alongside specialists, they refresh their own basics by sharingit with non-specialists. They can acquire a career move by showing new qualifications in counselling. Andagain, they can acquire a new commitment to the local region.

For the SMEs, the practical gains are great. First of all, they gain experience from others and they alsogain an awareness of how they manage their company in comparison to how other SMEs manage theirs.These two benefits are extremely rewarding for a “lonely SME manager with usually an under-dimensioned board. They can also acquire expertise they themselves as SMEs cannot afford, like morestrategic thinking and long-term planning; permanent stimulus for the SME entrepreneur to improve themanagement of his company. They become more professional in marketing, human resources, finance,more interested in exchanging experiences with colleagues in other SMEs and aware that they are notisolated and can learn a lot from each other. They become part of a network of contacts and co-operation.

The PLATO concept has attracted several regions outside Kempen.

In a permanent programme, new local project leaders were trained and counselled in the transfer of the concept totheir region by the Strategic Planning Team in Kempen. More than 4000 SMEs and 250 parenthood companies areinvolved in PLATO projects elsewhere in Belgium.

PLATO-INTERNATIONAL

PLATO has also received international attention, it has now by word of mouth been spread andestablished in eight countries covering 33 regions. Since 1992 projects have been launched in Denmark,Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Poland and France. In other countries such as Spain andCanada contacts are promising. Just as in Flanders, the Strategic Planning Team trained the new localproject leaders and took care of the follow-up during the two years project..

When transfering to other countries, the PLATO programme has been adjusted / modified to national andlocal conditions in the different countries. As a first step in international networking was undertaken in1997. Visists with Irish and Flemish PLATO entrepreneurs were organised in Ireland and in Flanders.From the 30 participants 50 % came to business relations. A similar exchange will be organised in the fall2001.

The collaboration between all the local project leaders in the different countries opens enormousperspectives for the SMEs in these regions. The local project leaders know their own network very welland can act as perfect intermediaries between other PLATO regions. PLATO therefore can be a practicalway to Europe for SMEs.

The rapidly expanding European PLATO network offers the SMEs exciting transnational opportunities forbusiness development. The vitality of the PLATO concept is evidenced by the fantastic number ofenterprises that participate in one form or another in the programme. Some 7000 SMEs and some 500large company representatives have so far experiences from PLATO network participation.

The transfer of the PLATO concept depends on three major aspects: an interested partner, the chosenregion and the local executor of the project. These three factors must meet certain criteria, but localcircumstances will be taken in account as well.

If there is a real interest in the PLATO-programme, a meeting with the Strategic Planning Team or theappropriate National Co-ordinator can be organised where the PLATO-idea can be clarified and thecriteria for a transfer explained.

The text is based on an invited presentation in the Third LLinE Conference Local Learning Partnerships and Adult Learning April 13- 15, 2000 in Helsinki. Revised jan 2001The text is a combination of separate texts by the given authors. It was compiled by the staff of LLinE.

More information

Peter van Cleef, project leaderStrategic Planning Team for KempenCampus Blairon,Steenweg op Gierle 100 box 714B-2300 TurnhoutBelgiumTel.: (+)(32)(14)711 121 Fax: (+)(32)(14)428 941Mobile: + 32 475 657 622 E-mail: [email protected]



WORKSHOP 3


Lisa Vaughan

Enterprise Ireland

April 2002, Vienna

Enterprise Ireland

£ Established in 1998

£ The agency with responsibility forsupporting the growth of locallycontrolled industry

Who are our clients?

£ Manufacturing and internationally-tradedservices companies employing ten or more

£ High-growth start-ups£ new businesses that are likely to see sales grow

to around €1.27m and employment to between 10and 20 people in early years

£ Overseas companies in the food, drink andtimber sectors that seek assistance to locatein Ireland

Enterprise Ireland’s strategy

£ Bring knowledge and expertise to clients

£ Build relationships with key partners

£ Share financial risks to make changepossible

What clients want

£ “Customise your responses£ solutions, not schemes”

£ “Challenge us in our plans£ offer creative suggestions”

£ “Give us one central contact or champion who canhelp us get the most from EI”

£ “Eliminate the information black hole”

The Business Development Model(BDM)

Delivery Mechanisms of SupportServices in Ireland

BDM : Six interactive elements

£ Business strategy

£ Research, development and design

£ Production and operations

£ Marketing

£ Human Resources Development

£ Finance for growth

Characteristics of theStructured Approach

£ A holistic integrated approach to working with a client

£ Matches the allocationof EI resources(financial andnon financial ) to the achievement of impact on sales,exports and employment of client companies

£ Sets uniform acceptable standards for client interaction

Development Advisor

£ Development Advisor:ØOne stop shop /account managerØCatalyst for change

£ Provides Access to Specialist Supports and NetworksØ Overseas networkØTechnology expertiseØHuman resource developmentØMarket and sectoral expertiseØEffective broker of solutionsØLinkages

Office Network

£ Over 100 staff in 10 regional offices£ 30 overseas offices£Trade Consultants

£ All staff have sectoral expertise and businessdevelopment skills

£ Work pro-actively to find opportunities andbuild useful links

£ Feed local knowledge into Irish companies

The Mentor Network

£ Experienced business people adviseclient companies

£ 468 Mentor assignments undertaken in2000

How clients benefit

£ “… the agenda forced us to consider some key issues.”

£ “The BDM approach encourages us to discuss all aspects of ourbusiness so that there are no gaps”

£ “The DA is particularly good at recommending actions”

£ “It’s great to meet with the DA – we just wish it could be moreoften”

Enterprise Support Structure

State Supports

Idustrial PolicyCo-ordination

Research

Forfas

Inward Investment

IDA

Indiginous SME's

Enterprise Ireland

Micro Enterprise

Enterprise Boards

Department Of Enterprise Trade and Employment


State Supports


Research

Forfas

Inward Investment

IDA

Indiginous SME's

Enterprise Ireland

Micro Enterprise

Enterprise Boards


Enterprise Boards

£ Established in 1993£ Part of National Development Plan£ Based on Local Government Boundaries£ Independent Board£ Chartered by Department£ Board Directors from wide social

Partnership


State Supports


Research

Forfas

Inward Investment

IDA

Indiginous SME's

Enterprise Ireland

Micro Enterprise

Enterprise Boards



State Supports


Research

Forfas

Inward Investment

IDA

Indiginous SME's

Enterprise Ireland

Micro Enterprise

Enterprise Boards


Enterprise Board Structures

Evaluation Committee

Audit CommitteeInternal Auditor

Executive Supports

Chief Executive

Board of Directors

Enterprise Boards


Partnership

Enterprise Boards


Partnership




Executive Supports Administration

Chief Executive

Board of Directors

Enterprise Boards


Partnership





Chief Executive

Board of Directors

Supports Provided

£ Hard Supports£Financial Aid

• Capital• Employment• Equity• Feasability

£ Soft Supports• Information• Counselling• Training• Mentoring

Enterprise Boards


Partnership





Chief Executive

Board of Directors

Supports Provided

£ Hard Supports£Financial Aid

• Capital• Employment• Equity• Feasability

£ Soft Supports• Information• Counselling• Training• Mentoring

Information Technology andMicro Enterprise

£ Additional Programme delivered throughEnterprise Boards from 2001

£ Enablement of Micro Enterprises toengage in E-Commerce£Finance£Training£Strategic£Mentoring



KEYNOTE SPEECH

Alberto Meconcelli

Société Financière et dÌnvestissement pour la Renaissance de la Sardaigne

April 2002, Vienna

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR MICRO, SMALL AND SOLEPROPRIETOR'S BUSINESSES

Support services in Sardinia:brief summary of the main research findinas

.

Austrian Institute for Small BusinessResearch (IfGH)

Societe Financiers etd'lnvestissement pour laRenaissance de la Sardaigne (SFIRS)

SpeakerAlberto MeconcelliPresident - SFIRS

Introduction

In order to illustrate the reasons for the participation of SFIRS in this research

project on support services for micro, small and sole proprietor's businesses, it is

useful to give you a few figures on Sardinia's productive system.

In our Island, excluding the Agriculture sector, there are 87.000 enterprises and

272.000 employees. This implies that there is an average of 3,1 employees per

enterprise, which reveals a high level of productive fragmentation. Moreover 99,6%

of Sardinian enterprises have less than 50 employees, which means that the field of

study of this research covers the whole regional productive system.

In consideration of the interesting implications in terms of political economy that the

analytical results of a so well tailored research could develop, we applied the

methodology elaborated by the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research in

record time.

The aim of this presentation is to summarise the main results of support services

analysis in Sardinia.

1. Support services in Sardinia: the supply side structure

The Sardinian market for support services is characterised by the relevant presence of two

semi-public institutions, BIC (Business Innovation Centre) and Consorzio 21, both of which

provide the major part (about 80-90%) of services offered in line with ED standards.

Moreover these are the only providers that show a high complexity in their organisational

structure and an elevated qualitative standard. From a different perspective Osservatorio

Industriale, a semi-public economic research centre established in 1991 to provide analytical

support to the Regional Government, also offers its research expertise and economic

databank information to small and medium sized enterprises.

The remaining market-share is represented on the one hand by individual private

consultants with little specialisation in different business areas. On the other hand there

are small consulting firms which are more specialised and which can be considered the

leaders in each business areas because of their higher experience and wider competence.

In other words in Sardinia there is no monopoly for offering support services, and

this market is considered very open because the provision of every kind of service is

not subject to licences or authorisations.

For this reason there aren't specific types of support services provided only by a

certain kind of provider. The only exception is offered by business plans tailored for

tax incentives and specifically commissioned to access soft financing, whose

provision is totally carried out by private consultants.

The Sardinian economic system is predominantly constituted by small and medium

sized enterprises, and for this reason all the providers specifically target their support

services towards small businesses.

2. Support services in Sardinia: types of services by provider

The first two institutions mentioned above (BIC and Consorzio 21) dominate the

market for support services.

BIC's institutional task, however, is not to offer support services. In fact BIC acts as

an intermediary between the enterprise that needs external help and its provider.

Initially BIC assigns a tutor to the firm in order to identify and analyse the problem in

general terms. Then it proposes the intervention of a more specialised private

consultant who operates together with the tutor's assistance.

Generally BIC restricts itself to the provision of support services that relate to the

establishment of new enterprises (business start-up services) or for firms in the early

phase of development. Moreover it focuses on export-oriented firms.

Consorzio 21 provides support services related to the introduction and promotion of

new technologies. These services are generally (but not exclusively) offered to

mature firms.

Consorzio 21 promoted and supported the constitution of Parco Scientifico e

Tecnologico (Science and Technology Park), a regional infrastructure centre

specialised in basic and applied research. Parco Scientifico e Tecnologico is in its

start-up phase and it should be active by September 2002.

Osservatorio Industriale, thanks to its economic databanks (statistical register of

enterprises, balance sheets, trade balance, industrial park facilities) and its staff of

analysts, provides economic information services based on CIS (Geographic Information

System) technology, in order to promote the industrial park system of Sardinia, and micro

and macro economic analysis of the local productive structure. Moreover a one-stop-shop

facility has been established in Cagliari since September 2001 for SMEs administrative

matters, but it actually offers services for international business promotion.

3. Support services in Sardinia: co-operation among public and semi-

public providers

BIC and Consorzio 21 don't co-operate as much as possible. Only recently have they

started a limited exchange of information, while Osservatorio Industriale has in the last

three years developed project partnerships with both institutions. Local Economic

chambers are rarely involved in the design of policy support for businesses, while better

results come from the co-operation with other SMEs intermediaries such as industry

associations (Associazione degli Industrial! di Cagliari) and small enterprises associations

^ssociazione Piccole Imprese Sarda), that are involved in the Consorzio21 annual planning.

As a matter of fact there isn't a network of service providers in Sardinia, although, thanks

to the regional project for the implementation of a Portal, designed to provide support

services via Internet, all the institutions involved (SFIRS, BIC, Consorzio 21 and

Osservatorio Industriale) are beginning to share expertise in order to harmonise the matter.

A prototypal release of the portal is scheduled before the end of 2002.

4. Support services and Sardinian enterprises: a summary of the interviews

results

Lets begin to illustrate the main analytical outcomes of the telephone interviews with 75

Sardinian enterprises selected according to the IfGH research methodology. Form a

structural point of view it is of some relevance to point out that 37% of enterprises

interviewed have a turnover under 50.000 Euro, while only 17 of them (23%) show a value

over 50.000 Euro.

Only 6 enterprises have declared a percentage of exports to total turnover in the year

2000. In other words the enterprises selected produce mainly for the regional market.

4.1 The use of support services

GRAPH 1

As the graph indicates, in the last five years a limited number of enterprises made

use of support services: 17 out of 75, a modest 22,7%.

The usage percentage is slightly higher among mature enterprises.

GRAPH 2

Among those enterprises which made use of support services there is a high level of

satisfaction with the quality of the last service used. The understanding of the service

provider of the enterprise's business is also positively considered.

It is worth noting there is a group of firms (18%) which is dissatisfied or very dissatisfied

with the service provided.

GRAPH 3

Among those who didn't make use of support services (77,3% of those interviewed), there

is a significant group of 53% that weren't aware of the existence of any support services.

This percentage is particularly higher among enterprises in the start up phase.

GRAPH 4

In support of this, enterprises show a low level of information on available services:

72% of those interviewed are not very well or not at all informed.

The lack of information is more relevant with start up enterprises (86%).

4.2 The content of support services

GRAPH 5

The services considered more necessary by enterprises are financial services

(guarantees, loans, grants), professional information services (specialised in

legislation, access to finance, market developments, etc), advice or consultancy in

specific business areas and training courses.

There is less need in provision of facilities such as incubator units or technology

parks and one-stop-shops.

GRAPHIC 6

According to a needs scale of support services by business area, the most important are

qualification of personnel, management, bookkeeping and accountancy, research and

innovation and legal matters.

Enterprises believe there is more need of external support in the start up phase (73%) and

in the phase of crisis (52%), only 17% in the transfer phase.

4.3 Delivery of support services

GRAPH 7

Among the criteria which qualify the service provision, enterprises consider of high

importance regular follow-ups with the customer.

Also the application of general quality standards and self developed quality standards

received a good rating.

GRAPHS

88% of enterprises interviewed favourably considered the usefulness of support

services.

4.4 The use of support services via the Internet

This part of the questionnaire developed by SFIRS refers to the enterprises' propensity

towards the use of the Internet and on line support services.

GRAPH 9

The first group of questions, based on the diffusion of Internet among Sardinian

enterprises, reveals a relatively high percentage (68%) of connections.

Further analyses have shown that those enterprises with a propensity to the use of the

Internet are those which are more open to the use of external support services in general.

GRAPH 10

The Internet is mainly used to get information (86,3% of enterprises), but about 40%

make a more advanced use of it, such as in relationships with suppliers and clients and for

administrative matters.

GRAPH 11

Sardinian enterprises believe in the potentialities provided by Internet.

In fact a high percentage of those interviewed (77%) affirmed that it would be

useful to centralise all available support services on an Internet Portal.

GRAPH 12

Despite their openness towards the use of support services via Internet, there still remains

a high reluctance to use e-commerce methods of payments. As indicated in the graph 12,

48% of enterprises were unwilling to use e-commerce, 36% in favour and the remainder

didn't express any opinion.

Enterprises were also asked to give their opinion on the usefulness of staff training

programs via the Internet. In this case it seems there is no clear position, although more

than 50% of enterprises are generally favourable.

GRAPH 13

Finally the enterprises were asked to express the business areas in which there is

most need of external services. There are three main areas: marketing (44%),

Regional, National and European incentives (43%) and financial matters (39%).

On the contrary productive and partner seeking areas were considered of less

importance.

Conclusions

In Sardinia there is a sound supply of support services but there is poor co-ordination

among public and semi-public providers. In fact these providers act in an

independent way, given the fact that there is at present no operating network which

can improve integration, communication and delivering of these services.

On the demand side, although the general usefulness of support services is

acknowledged, these are rarely used, mainly due to a problem of

information/awareness in relation to the availability of specific external support

services at non market conditions.

The fact that the limited use of services refers to an information/awareness problem

is confirmed by the positive opinion of enterprises concerning the quality of the

services provided, in terms of meeting their needs, costs and methods of provision.

In this general framework, where lack of communication between suppliers and clients

seems to affect negatively the service market, there are however some positive elements

worthy of consideration.

The favourable propensity of Sardinian enterprises to use support services via Internet

confirms and encourages the choices made by the Regional Administration regarding the

Portal of services. The Portal implies a network of service providers that co-operates and

share expertise, it also allows a more efficient communication

and delivering of all services, those already available in Sardinia and those yet to be

developed in the future.



KEYNOTE SPEECH

Patrick Fourguette

Polish Agency for Enterprise Development

April 2002, Vienna

Support Services Seminar 1

Summary of the introduction to the seminar / Patrick Fourguette

Support Policy for SMEs in the candidate countries: the PolishExample

With regard to the enlargement of the European Union and the conviction that thedevelopment of the economies in the candidate countries is strongly related to aprosperous development of SMEs in these countries, the conditions of theestablishment of support services for SMEs have to be analysed. As exampleserves Poland. It is believed that the major results of the analysis are valid for quiteall of the other candidates with similar characteristics. Two points have to beexamined:

• The conditions for the implementation of a support policy

• The actual situation of Poland.

Two pre-conditions to implement support services successfully can be mentioned:A reference list must exist to guarantee the high quality of the support and a strongpolitical will has to be expressed.

The actual situation is demonstrated as follows: With the accession of the countryimportant financial funds will be available, but there will be no structures to spreadthese funds. As well-functioning structures cannot be implemented ad hoc but haveto grow by taking the traditions of the specific country into account, rapid solutionshave to be found. The EU is questioned to help to create these structures. If not,the financial instruments will be available with the accession, but the SMEs will notuse these financial means. The importance of support of financial and non-financial kind in the forefront of the enlargement is therefore indicated.

It also has to be kept in mind that enterprises have a history and that the PolishSMEs had to adapt to the new open market environment recently. The historicalbackground for support provision in Poland therefore differs from the one in theEuropean Union, where SMEs have always operated in liberal markets.

As Poland is a big country, regional mediators will be necessary to have servicesas near as possible to the enterprises. Therefore a regional administration has tobe constituted and organised. This implicates that the important role of the SMEs inthe economy is recognised as well as the necessity of the administrative coverageof the regions. Furthermore the regional representatives of the agencies have toco-operate with the regional administrations to be able to act as mediator betweenadministration and enterprise. The tasks to be performed are the integration of theregional level, i.e. the regional agencies and the mobilisation and recruitment ofother consultants.

The public funds are very regimented which implicates that little financial aid islinked with high administrative burdens. Therefore mediators between enterprisesand consultants are requested to help the enterprises in the administrative jungle.These functions could be assumed by a professional organisation like an economicchamber. Unfortunately, at the moment, the Polish Economic Chamber lacksstructures and power to act as intermediate in support provision. Nevertheless, thisorganisation has the advantage to have a regional coverage, to represent theenterprises and to be legalised by elections. The creation of a powerful andstructured professional organisation has to be fostered but is dependant on thepolitical will to do so.

Support Services Seminar 2

To summarise the tasks to be performed to guarantee effective support of SMEs inthe candidate countries:

• To make a reference list for support services

• To foster the regional co-operation

• To foster the creation of a representation of the enterprises.

In either case rapid solutions are requested to build up functioning structuresbefore the accession of the candidate countries to minimise time lags concerningthe efficacy of financial support for SMEs.



KEYNOTE SPEECH

Daniel Giron

European Economic and Social Committee

April 2002, Vienna

Conférence sur les services de soutien aux petites entreprisesVienne – 11 et 12 Avril 2002?

Eléments d’intervention de Monsieur Daniel GIRON

Lors du sommet de Lisbonne, l’Union européenne s’est vu assigner l’objectif de devenir laplus compétitive et la plus dynamique des économies, fondée sur la connaissance, et pouvantassurer une croissance économique durable, des emplois en nombre et de qualité, unecohésion sociale accrue.

Le rôle primordial des petites entreprises et de l’artisanat dans l’atteinte de cet objectif n’estplus à démontrer. De même, leurs capacités à absorber les fluctuations du marché (niveaud’activités, emploi…) et ce, essentiellement grâce à la souplesse de leur structure.

Néanmoins, toute médaille a son revers, et pour les petites entreprises, il s’agit de leurstructure. Souvent réduite à un dirigeant, parfois entouré de quelques salariés, ces petitesentreprises voient souvent la concentration de l’ensemble de leurs fonctions stratégiques dansles seules mains du dirigeant. Homme orchestre, celui-ci doit à la fois s’attacher aux aspectstechniques de son activité, son cœur de métier, mais aussi gérer son entreprise : c’est-à-direlui permettre d’évoluer de façon optimale dans son environnement économique, en interactionavec différents interlocuteurs extérieurs que sont les clients, les fournisseurs, lesadministrations, les concurrents…..

L’enjeu fondamental aujourd’hui est d’amener ces dirigeants d’entreprise à accéder à desservices extérieurs pour les aider à assumer l’ensemble de leurs fonctions : soit parexternalisation de certaines tâches, soit par une aide à la décision.

Preuve est faite du caractère indispensable des services de soutien : les chiffres disponiblescomparant les taux de survie des entreprises suivies par un conseil et celle non accompagnéene laissent aucun doute sur l’intérêt de ces prestations.

De nombreuses questions-clés émergent lorsque l’on se penche sur les services de soutien auxpetites entreprises, notamment sur la problématique de la qualité de ces services et sur leurimpact.

Des initiatives importantes relatives à ces thèmes ont vu le jour ces derniers mois au niveaueuropéen:

- charte des PE avec ses 10 points, dont un centré sur la qualité des services aux PE- programmes d’échanges de bonnes pratiques- conférence de Cardiff en Octobre 2001- et aujourd’hui les résultats de cette étude européenne sur les services

Assurer le plus haut niveau de qualité aux services de soutien est le plus sûr moyen deconvaincre les dirigeants des PE d’y avoir recours.Elaborer des outils, tant à destination des fournisseurs de services que des clients, les petitesentreprises, permettant :- de structurer l’offre de services,- d’assurer la qualité de ces services et de l’évaluer.

Favoriser ainsi la construction d’un terrain de reconnaissance commune (même concepts,même langage, transparence).

Car aujourd’hui, sont d’ores et déjà identifiées les principales entraves/difficultés pour les PEliées aux services de soutien :

- difficulté d’accès au conseil / manque de visibilité- défaut d’ajustement de l’offre de conseil aux besoins des entreprises (prise en compte

des spécificités)- manque d’expression des besoins de conseil par les TPE- défaut de dispositif d’évaluation de la prestation de services

L’approche de la thématique qualité des services peut se faire selon 2 axes : celui duprestataire et celui de la prestation, liés et interdépendants mais à traiter de façon distinctepour éviter les risques d’incompréhension dus au différence existant dans les structures.

Propositions allant dans ce sens (présentées dans l’avis du CES sur la Charte des PE) :- développer au niveau européen une véritable politique de réseau entre les

organisations fournissant des services de soutien ;- instaurer un cahier des charges européen des services de soutien définissant les

conditions minimales à remplir pour développer un tel service sur le territoireeuropéen ;

- créer au niveau européen une formation de conseiller d’entreprise répondant auxspécifications du cahier des charges ;

- aider les futurs pays candidats à l’adhésion à développer leur réseau de services desoutien selon les spécifications européennes.

Le terrain n’est pas tout à fait vierge en la matière. Différentes initiatives ont été menées :- par des organisations européennes volontaires, qui se sont regroupées pour réfléchir

ensemble à une approche commune du conseil aux entreprises (accord CWA présentédans l’atelier 2)

- par des expériences de définition de compétences et de cursus de formation spécialisépour des conseillers d’entreprise.

Et ces initiatives s’inscrivent dans le droit fil des préconisations inscrites dans le document detravail de la commission

Toutes ces actions, convergeant vers une plus grande qualité des services aux entreprises etune clarification des relations entre prestataires et clients ne peuvent qu’être encouragées etsoutenues, au niveau européen mais aussi au niveau de chacun des Etats membres.

Doivent être acteurs de ce mouvement :- les professionnels du conseil- les organisations représentants les PE- les institutionnels et autorités publiques

La Commission européenne a déjà engagé des initiatives très intéressantes dans ce sens, maisson travail en la matière n’est pas terminé. Il convient qu’elle poursuive et soutienne desactions portant sur les thèmes suivants :

- qualité des services de soutien aux entreprises- formation des conseillers d’entreprises

- développer le conseil et l’accompagnement dans les 5 secteurs prioritaires suivants :gestion-management, environnement, normalisation-qualité, recherche-développementet export.

En parallèle, elle devra se doter des moyens nécessaires lui permettant d’évaluer les progrèseffectués par les Etats membres, dans la mise en œuvre de toutes ces dispositions en faveurdes petites entreprises.



CLOSING REMARKS

Top class Business Support Services for Small Businesses

Conclusions

Timo Summa


April 2002, Vienna

Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: (32-2) 299 11 11.Office: SC27 4/35. Telephone: direct line (32-2) 299.67.54. Fax: (32-2) 295.45.90.


EUROPEAN COMMISSIONENTERPRISE DIRECTORATE-GENERAL

Promotion of entrepreneurship and SMEsDirector

Brussels,T.S. D(2002)

SPEAKING NOTE - CONCLUSIONS

“Top class Business Support Services for Small Businesses”Vienna Conference – 11/12 April 2002

j Thanks

Thank you very for all the very interesting and fruitful interventions.

My special thanks to the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research, toMs Sonja Sheikh and to her colleagues for their professional work anddedication to this important project.

j PARTICIPATION

1. Participation of small businesses in business support is much toolow considering the advantages of advice from an external professional.Business support should be seen as an asset for the company. I am pleasedto notice that point this has been very well understood by highly educatedand growth oriented entrepreneurs.

I can understand that some entrepreneurs, who are very independent andindividualistic by nature, are reluctant to use business support servicesbecause they see them as the sort of assistance that an independent andproud entrepreneur should not need. This is wrong, and women – asalways – women entrepreneurs prove it: 27% of them have used businesssupport services in the past 5 years against 17 % of male entrepreneurs.

The Commission is very well aware that small entrepreneurs can find itvery difficult to cope with the increasing complexity and competitioninduced by globalisation and with the administrative burden that is laid onthem. Although the European Commission is doing its utmost to reduceits administrative burden on enterprises and to simplify legislation,complexity will not go away and this is why there is a very strongargument in favour of more targeted and more specialised business supportservices.

j CONTENT

2

It is reassuring to notice that the needs of the smallest businesses withregard to content are rather effectively met but I am convinced that wecould do more to attract those 59% of small businesses whoacknowledge that Business Support Services are useful.

When meeting European and national organisations in Brussels, earlier thisyear and as rightly recalled by M. Giron, five main areas of support weredefined:

- Management

- Environment;

- Standardisation and quality

- Research and Innovation

- Internationalisation

These services must be provided in an integrated and coherent way and bebased on the approach that aims to build management capacity withinenterprises as the most effective way of addressing the whole range ofissues faced by modern enterprises. DG Enterprise will work in very closecollaboration with our colleagues from DG Research, who are here today,to promote together “top class business support services for smallbusiness in Research and Innovation”.

The Quality of services and the quality of the people providing theseservices are a key issue in dealing with small businesses and in showing tothem that we understand their business. The Commission is verysupportive of the work that has been initiated under the EuropeanCommittee for Normalisation and we look forward to receive concreteproposals from you on how to improve the training of advisers and thequality of services Europe-wide

j BETTER ACCESS AND DELIVERY MECHANISMS

We have in the course of these two days, discussed the best way to targetsmall businesses and to motivate them. We have heard about some veryimpressive experience and it seems to me that direct contact and face-to-face meetings are the most preferred way of dealing with smallentrepreneurs.

These needs are of course different depending of the location of thecompany. As a result public authorities need to ensure that enterprises canget convenient access to all the support services they need, irrespective oftheir geographical location.

This is why the Commission is particularly thankful to M. Meconcelli andhis organisation for taking our methodology and conclusions andapplying them in Sardinia. This is very helpful and we do hope thatother regions and other Member States will follow your example.

3

Naturally, our services will be ready to co-operate further in order to testthis methodology in a very practical situation. We do hope that thispioneering work will help us to convince other colleagues to take on boardour conclusions in their own policies and programmes and most notably,regional policy and enlargement.

The Commission will remain at your disposal to provide you with ourexpertise, our know-how and we will surely follow your progress.

j CONCLUSION

The Commission believes that it has done its fair share of the work byassessing the needs of small businesses, by identifying good practices inbusiness support provision, by providing professionals and policy makerswith a common set of principles as far as “top class business supportservices” are concerned.

It is now up to you to convince your government, your organisations,your small businesses that Top Class Business Support Services are thekey to success.

Thank you for your attention.



CONCLUSIONS

Top-class support services: a genuine necessity for European small businesses.

April 2002, Vienna

IP/02/

Brussels,

Top-class support services: a genuine necessity forEuropean small businesses.

The European Commission presented the results of its work on sup-port services for small businesses in Vienna on 11 and 12 April 2002.The survey of 1200 small businesses shows that only 20% of themhave made use of support services during the last five years. TimoSumma, the Commission's director and SME envoy, called upon serv-ice providers, public authorities and trade associations to use as aguide the good practices identified by the Commission and to intro-duce the measures needed for the creation of top-class support serv-ices.

“Small businesses are the rule in the European economy. They are an irreplaceablesource of employment and innovation and lead to greater economic and socialintegration in Europe. The Commission is committed to making progress in thestrategic field of quality support services for these businesses”, said Timo Summa.

‘Business Support Services’ refers to those services, originating in a public policyinitiative, that aim to assist enterprises or entrepreneurs to successfully developtheir business activity and to respond effectively to the challenges of their business,social and physical environment. Support services usually involve the provision ofinformation and advice and have traditionally been provided by public or privateorganizations, such as Craft Chambers, Chambers of Commerce and Industry,Regional Development Agencies or local authorities. In all cases though, thoseconcerned would be acting in pursuit of public policy objectives, usually as agentsfor the public authorities. It could involve relatively simple services such as theprovision of contact details or other uncomplicated pieces of information or ratherelaborate ones, involving the provision of premises and office facilities, tutoring,access to finance, to research and innovation and networks as well as the techni-cal, legal and bookkeeping support, that can be found in some business incuba-tors.

The study identified more than 350 services in the European Union and Norwayspecifically for small businesses. These support services for small businesses coverlaw, taxation, social and environmental considerations, business management,research and innovation. Although small businesses account for 98.9 % of Europeanbusinesses and 53% of employment in Europe, only 20% of them have used supportservices during the last five years. Given the proven effect of support services on thesurvival of small businesses and their increased competitiveness, it is surprising thatthe businesses and entrepreneurs most likely to be in need of these services do notmake use of them. The study on support services for small businesses hashighlighted the fact that the needs expressed by small businesses are not beingsufficiently met by the services currently available. This is especially the case withregard to the knowledge and visibility of support services, types of support servicesoffered and required and the means of providing these services.

2

Indeed, more than 75% of the businesses surveyed claim to be badly informed of thesupport services currently available. As a result, one of the challenges to be taken upby public authorities and service providers is the coherent and more targetedpromotion of support services for small businesses. Furthermore, a large majority ofentrepreneurs surveyed also stated a preference for support services which werebetter tailored to the size and stage of development of their business. Finally, thequality of the services and the business advisers was stressed as the basic principleunderlying support services and their use by small businesses. This requires asystematic policy for evaluating the effectiveness of services in terms of achievingtheir objectives, but also the emergence of a new culture with regard to the trainingof business advisers and the quality of the service.

In an economy that is essentially knowledge-driven and increasingly global andcompetitive, small businesses must be able to rely on quality services, which willenable entrepreneurs to be fully responsible for the strategic functions of theirbusiness. Mr Summa listened to the comments from the small businesses and urgedthe parties concerned to implement rapidly the conclusions on the creation of top-class support services and reap the benefit of the Commission's work on this subject.The Member States are called upon in particular to ensure greater coherence of theservices available, to encourage an approach that is more closely based on theneeds and characteristics of small businesses, to improve the quality of services andto facilitate the development of appropriate and adequate training for small businessadvisers.

More information on the seminar is available at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/craft/craft-studies/vienna-conference.htm

The European Charter for Small Enterprises is found at:http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/charter/index.htm

The Commission's work on high quality business support services is set out at:http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/support_measures/index.htm

The results of the study on support services for small businesses are presented at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/craft/craft-studies/studies.htm

Per HAUGAARD: 02-296.01.40

Ingeborg Gaspard: 02-295.22.10

European Seminar

Support Services for Micro, Smalland Sole Proprietor´s

Businesses

Vienna, 11-12 April 2002

Jointly organised by

For further information please contact

Austrian Institute for Small Business ResearchSonja Sheikh

Tel.: +43 1 505 97 61Fax: +43 1 503 46 60


European Commission, DG EnterprisesFrancesco IannielloTel: +32 2 295 51 55Fax: +32 2 295 45 90


European CommissionEnterprise

Directorate-General

Schönbrunn Castle,Vienna

WIRTSCHAFTSKAMMERNÖ S T E R R E I C H S


Documents

European Seminar Businesses - IfGH European Seminar Support Services for Micro, Small and Sole Proprietor´s Businesses 11-12 April 2002, Vienna, Austria WIRTSCHAFTSKAMMERN ÖSTERREICHS