1. Background

The Directorate General for Modernisation (DGM), affiliated to the Regional Ministry for Justice and Public Administration Valencia region set up Avantic, an initiative of the Generalitat destined to further develop the information and knowledge society in Valencia (www.avantic.es). From 2004 to 2010 Avantic, consolidates the Valencian Government’s public action in the telecommunications area, given shape in two plans: the Valencian Strategic Plan for Advanced Telecommunications (PEVTA) and the Strategic Plan for Technological and Knowledge Society consolidation in the Valencian Community (PETIC).

DGM is particularly involved in the promotion of e-learning and the digital literacy of the Valencia citizens, SMEs and Public Administrations, in order to reduce the digital divide and to promote an iSociety (intelligent, interoperable, innovative, inclusive). DGM has a strong European vision. For that interacts with other regions in the field of eLearning, e.g. DGM is an active member of the eLearning working group of the European project IANIS+ (Innovative Actions Programme) which Secretariat is managed by eris@ (European Region for Information Society Association).

In order to push it the Valencia Government launched the programme CompeTIC on April 2006. compeTIC is an initiative of the Valencia regional government to promote the use of ICT by SMEs, self-employees, business associations and federations as well as other communities in the Valencia region. It was specifically designed to facilitate their universal access to the Internet and improve innovation and competition both in individual productive sectors and in the Valencian economy as a whole.

compeTIC is part of the Strategic Plan to Consolidate the Technological and Knowledge Society in the Valencia Region (PETIC) in the framework of the Avantic 2004-2010 initiative and was developed by the Association for the Promotion of e-Business (Anetcom), http://www.anetcom.es.

2. Conditions for e-Business

• Legal conditions are based on central (national) legal framework
• All related national laws are in acordance with EU law
• 90% SMEs: 94% are micro-SMEs (under 10 employees) + self-employees and single enterprises without any employee. Most of them have broadband connection to Internet. Only half of them have a website and only a reduced part of them use it to buy and sell on-line. The insecurity perception is still very high in these kind of commercial transactions.

3. Strategies

Overall aims

compeTIC is an integral programme in the ICT field focusing on the improvement of the accessibility by the Valencia SMEs, in order to allow them

• to incorporate ICT in their productive and business proceedings and, particularly,
• to reach the presence of the SMEs, their products and services in the Net, taking advantage of the international showcase that Internet represents

Objectives

• Reduce digital divide
• Increase visibility:
• Improve competitiveness
• Improve services
• Increase benefits
• Improve internal management
• Improving productivity and competitiveness
• Endowing SMEs with a wide range of future IST-based concepts

Methodology

compeTIC offers personalised and free support for SMEs, analysing their specific needs.

Training and awareness:

• Informal lectures with a sectoral focus. For instance, "Technological breakfasts" where a successful case is presented and entrepreneurs of that sector can share their experiences and questions. In theses events it is important to facilitate the interaction between SMES and ICT local providers, offering for instance, a list of these providers.
• In person training sessions about technological skills linked to ICT for those users aiming to create their own website in an easy way
• Online training addressed to the development of specific skills. Some sessions have been created to let know to all the users the operation of the tools that compeTIC offers. Thanks to these sessions the users know, prove and check every issue related to compeTIC

Technological advising:

• Replying concrete questions and informing about public grants addressed to SMEs.
• Integral technological consulting (individual assessment with competitiveness improvement solutions)
• Call Center offers support and advising.
• website that serves as support to SMEs and as a communication tool between them and ICT providers. This website offers:
• News and information
• Download zone: Programmes and open source solutions that can be download with Internet; Demo of commercial programmes; Utilities, antivirus, etc.
• Technical support
• Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Chaired debate forums about current ICT issues

Internet connectivity:
compeTIC participants are presented with offers for Internet connectivity from different providers and are subsequently able to choose from various financing programmes.

Solutions and Services:
Companies subscribing to compeTIC additionally benefit from a set of solutions and services designed to improve the services for their clients.

Subsidies and Financing Programme:
compeTIC beneficiaries can take advantage of the following subsidies and personalised financing services available to their companies.

Subsidies:
compeTIC is greatly supported PROP, IMPIVA plans and programmes, AVANZA subsidies and other initiatives of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce.

Financing:
compeTIC provides access to technology loans for SME through the AVANZA plan.

compeTIC cheques:
All compeTIC participants receive a compeTIC cheque worth €125.

compeTIC Training:
compeTIC helps users create websites easily and free of charge through participation in a compeTIC "Web creation seminar", where system developers show their company, association, federation or community how to set up a professional presence on the Internet.

todoCV.com
Todocv.com, another compeTIC module, is the Valencia region’s online directory. Its objective is to improve competition in the Valencian economy by introducing companies to new technologies. This is achieved in a variety of ways. One goal is to get all Valencia companies connected to the Internet. Special tools are provided for this purpose. todoCV.com is also the point of contact for each company and corporation registered with compeTIC that assures their presence in all the main Internet search engines.

Participation in compeTIC automatically includes a presence on todoCV.com, the digital directory of the Valencia region. By taking advantage of all the actions available through the todoCV.com directory and compeTIC, users can increase their attraction to clients. Subscribers to the digital directory of the Valencia region enjoy several benefits:

• Improved results with search engines
• More frequent web visits (number of visits matched to web performance)
• Free advertising (promotional actions on todoCV.com as well as directory promotions in other portals and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
• Easier differentiation from competitors
• Prefabricated tools

4. Target groups

• SMEs and particularly on the micro-SMEs (up to 10 employees)
• Self-employees
• Professionals
• Corporations
• Addressed to all sectors, but promoting strategies regarding the use of ICT focused on a concrete economic sector or to concrete business groups (relevance of the sector)

5. Stakeholders

• SMEs
• Self-employees
• Professionals Corporations
• Chambers of Commerce
• Local Administration

6. Business models

Public:

• Regional funding (AVANTIC)
• National funds (AVANZA)
• EU funds (RDEF)

Private:

• ANETCOM

7. Marketing and PR | Support measures of multipliers

Possible communication channels :

• Website: www.gva.es; www.competic.es; www.todoCV.com
• Seminars: "compeTIC workshops"
• Business fairs
• Leaflets
• Posters (public buildings)
• Press releases
• Specialised magazines "Desayunos ANETCOM"

Support measures of multipliers:

• Mailing Data Base
• Seminars
  • Web workshops: these workshops are useful to train about the use of creation and management of web tools. These activities has to be 1 or 2 in person sessions. The content has to be practice (not theoretic).
  • On-line directories, above all with a sectoral focus. This will allow SMEs to have more visibility in Internet, even if they have not a website.
• Individualised meetings
• News
• Dossiers
• Newsletters

8. Quality Assurance

Quantitative:

• Questionnaires
• Assessment and certification of the digitalisation level achieved by enterprises and business associations

Qualitative (August 2008):

• Digital directory of the Valencian enterprises users of the programme(www.todocv.com) : Over 5.080 registrations
• Website created (most of them had not presence in Internet): Over 2.296 websites created

9. Lessons learned

• The seminars for SMEs are focused on the training of certain skills. They do not take long (between 5-15 hours), with different levels and for users that at least surf without difficulty in Internet. They are very useful for managers of SMEs that have only little time for training.
• It is advisable to set up a debate forum for each course. It is also useful to be in touch with the learners and to encourage them.
• It is very important that learners are intensively coached by a tutor. The tutor is also in charge of the forum and the follow up of the personnel development. He/she has to encourage by sending some message and inviting learners to participate in the Virtual Campus in order to avoid that the learner gives up.
• At the end of every module (or stage) self-assessment test for learners are important who then can check what they have learnt until that moment.

10. Contact

Mrs. Carolina Marco-Bellver
General Directorate for Modernisation
Regional Vice Ministry for Public Administration
Regional Ministry for Justice and Public Administration
Generalitat de la Comunitat Valenciana
C/Colón 66 - 3º
46004 Valencia
SPAIN

Tel.:  +34 96 196 1043 
Fax: +34 96 196 1084
e-mail: marco_carbell(at)gva.es