1. Policy rationale and policy targets
The policy rationale is the justification for the design of policies and policy instruments and is often translated into more concrete policy objectives. The policy rationale reflects the state of the art of the policy background. An important aspect is also the coherency with national and European policy rationales.
Furthermore, regional e-business policies have to be viewed and assessed from a more broader and systemic perspective. Cross-sectional in nature e-business policy is strongly interrelated with other policies.
It can have positive impacts on other policies (e.g. regional cluster policy via promotion of regional clusters between ICT service providers and SMEs or research policy via leverage of research results)but might also have negative impacts which at the planning period was not taken into consideration (rural policy vs. e-business policies / innovation vs. infrastructure: what is more relevant and needs more resources?
2. The Policy design process
When designing the e-business policy it should be clear what the strategic goals of the e-business initiative are. The development of e-Business initiative at regional level are often driven by public authorities wishing to inform on the potentials of e-Business uptake. The approach can range from simple services such as the provision of information to enabling measures depending on the e-Business readiness of enterprises in the region.
Furthermore, it should be analysed what the concrete needs and gaps and who the beneficiaries of the measures and activities (target groups) are. Here quantitative (surveys and questionnaires) and qualitative (face to face talks with target groups like SMEs) data analysis are helpful. Within this context, the e-business support should ensure that objectives and targets relate to SMEs/society need.
Often forgotten when designing concrete e-business measures is the question of sustainability. Towards the phasing out of public funding - recommendable at the launching of an e-business support measure - the funding and further implementation/ development(follow up) should be planned.
3. The implementation plan
Part of the design process is also the development of an implementation plan which is similar to a project management plan. The implementation plan focuses on the question to which extent any resources and competences are available in the region to plan and implement a regional ICT/e-business strategy.
The implementation plan structures the implementation of an e-business support with regard to time schedule, resources, actions, tasks and responsibilities. Besides the responsibilities of the coordinating actor, duties and responsibilities among the partners of an e-business support measure should also be clearly defined to avoid misunderstandings and to assure the effectiveness of the implementation. The ideas is that transparent and comprehensible responsibilities lead to concerted actions.
During the policy design stage it is already important to define the roles and tasks of the future coordinator / project manager as well as the required resources and competences. This coordinator should have excellent project management and networking management competencies as well good contacts to all regional key actors in the field of e-business support.
4. Continuous proof of concept
A policy rationale changes due to changing environment and needs. Therefore the concept of the regional e-business initiative should be kept flexible and the continuous proof of concept should be always part of the monitoring and evaluation measures.
In addition, the continuous and broad consultation with the stakeholders - SMEs and their associations – in the context of the agenda setting and through feedback loops is also part of the policy development. Social, political, technical and market conditions change from time to time due to the development of a region. But needs not only differ from time to time but also at horizontal level:
Specific e-business policies should not be further continued if the needs have changed for example due to the successful implementation of this specific policy.
"Ten Commandments"
The following overview shows in brief which aspects have to be taken into consideration when designing regional e-business policy strategy:
Source: E-Business Policy Group (2002)