1. Background

• TALEA is a sub-action of DIADI 2000.
• DIADI 2000 is a regional Project aimed at introducing innovation in SMEs located within areas in industrial decline, directly involving research centres.
• DIADI 2000 is a line of action foreseen in the Piedmont Objective 2 Programme 2000-2006 and it is a follow-up action of the same action line realised in the two years periods 1997-1999 and 1995-1999.

 
2. Conditions for eBusiness

• Legal conditions are based on central (national) legal framework.
• SMEs represent the majority within the regional industrial fabrics.
• There are different industrial clusters where business strategies are usually based on well-established and face-to-face practices.
• The ICT culture has solid foundations in Piemonte:
  • satisfactory spread of pc equipment and Internet connection among citizens and companies
  • Relevant manpower in ICT
  • territorial digital divide and "digital gap" between smaller companies and medium-large size enterprises.
• In Piemonte there are different regional initiative aimed at fostering ICT use:
• regional long-term programme, called Wi-pie, aimed at valorising broad band infrastructure through innovative services
• a regional action line aimed to promote e-business in regional SMEs

Nevertheless firms tend not to fully exploit web potential: the majority considers web as a showcase. In 2004, according to the "Baseline 2005" of Piemonte ICT Observatory, more than 80% of firms website were just a promotional media while only the 6% are really e-commerce tools.

3. Strategies

• TALEA aimed at
  • addressing micro-users involved in cooperation dynamics
  • promoting inter-firms networking
  • pushing local developers towards the implementation of new knowledge-intensive services (KIBS)
  • acting locally in order to support the growth of an ICT local demand.
• CSP developed a technological framework, called TALEA , to support the implementation of KIBS addressed to automate and favour B2B integration
• TALEA technological framework was released as open source
• 8 TALEA-based Pilot Projects were co-founded in order to further develop and customise TALEA framework and to experiment it with real market
• TALEA worked on 2 interconnected domains
• culture and business models (exploring new business models fostering ICT adoption and cooperation dynamic)
• technology (OS building blocks have been released).
• Moving from Pilot Project, TALEA promoted the creation of a network of local small/medium enterprises interested to open source. This informal network nowadays represents a reference point in giving continuousness to regional Open Source policies.

4. Target Groups

• TALEA presented a double approach
• an ICT sector specific approach (target group: SMEs ICT developers)
• a regional approach, aimed at spreading ICT opportunities (targer group: SMEs experimental users)
• TALEA was addressed both to the local Demand and to the Supply of ICT with the objective to spread efficiency in the productive system.

5. Stakeholders

• Region (Regional Government) and regional policy-makers
• IT providers and SW developers
• SMEs (mostly micro enterprises and self-employers) involved in pilot projects
• Regional actors aimed to promote ICT uptake and innovation
• Firms representatives (mainly local Chambers of Commerce or Employers’ Association) that supported TALEA communication

6. Business models

• Pilot project have been 50% co funded by TALEA project (TALEA project foreseen an investment of around 375.000 €) and 50% by ICT SMEs direct investment
• A Public call was launched in order to select pilot projects
• To be selected ICT developers and implementers had to demonstrated that their pilot project would be really tested and used by a SMEs users/customers (an SMEs using the developed application in their own business)

7. Marketing and PR | Support measures of multipliers

Communication channels used:

• Leaflets
• Press releases
• Articles in regional/national newspaper
• Workshops
• Face2face meetings (personal visits)
• Website talea.csp.it/it (in italian language)
• Newsletters
• Final Publication

8. Quality Assurance

• As TALEA was a small project financing a limited number of initiatives, it was possible for CSP to run a continued activity of control and monitoring
• CSP assured a continuous monitoring of the technological issues by arranging a number of meetings with every selected firms
• Furthermore CSP run a training/counsellor activity for the selected firms in order to help them in facing the management and the administrative issues

9. Lessons learned

• The small size of the project permits to create a network among involved SMEs, i.e. a starting point for a larger network
• Before starting an innovative project, it is important to understand the concrete SMEs technological needs, in order to match a research center proposal with the real target of the initiative
• It is important to foresee some mechanism able to assist and monitor the firm as concerns the project management activities
• It is important to have a large promotion and dissemination activities
• It is important to guarantee a shot time in answering firms production needs: the gap among firms requests and public actor responsiveness represent a strategically element in fostering a good collaboration

10. Contact

Ms. Michela Garbarini
CSP- Innovazione nelle ICT
Via Livorno 60, Torino, Italy

Phone:  +39 011 4815129 
E-Mail: michela.garbarinicsp.it
Web: www.csp.it