E-Business Best practices: Learning from Peers "E-Business ...

DRAFT – Communication & Dissemination Plan 18/01/09 MAJ MD

Paris January 19 th

E-Business Best practices: Learning from Peers

“E-Business cases”

Communication & Dissemination Plan DRAFT

1. Foreword

1.1. Context The Commission DG enterprise and Industry includes an eBusiness unit which main goal is to improve the effectiveness of public SME policies by promoting the innovative use of ICT and the exchange of good practices in European SMEs. In that perspective it maintains a e-Business Support Network for SMEs (eBSN)1 and has launch a tender n°ENTR/2008/016 about “Best eBusiness practices among European SMEs: “Learning from Peers”, the realization of it has been given to French specialist companies: Adetef and Periscope2. The corresponding program, under the Entrepreneurship and Innovation work programme for 2008, includes a compendium of minimum of 200 eBusiness case collection with real stories about SMEs achieved concrete benefits, by innovating through ICTs. As the final goal is to develop competitiveness of European SMEs through ICT, the dissemination of such a compendium is of principal importance. That is the reason why communication and dissemination plan of this program is a very important priority. So the 19 December contract signed between Adetef, Periscope and the European Commission includes an article asking Adetef and Periscope to provide: “A detailed communication and dissemination plan (in English) setting clearly all the actions to be taken by the project team in order to promote the compendium all over Europe. Awareness campaigns should target key stakeholders, such as Chambers of Commerce, SMEs associations and related multiplier organisations, ICT associations, technology and service providers. A draft plan that shall be submitted no later than 1 month after the signature of the contract for comments by the Commission and the Steering Group.

1 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/e-bsn/index_en.html

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/e-bus-snfsme/e-bus-snfsme_en.htm 2 www.adetef.fr ; www.periscope.fr


Managed by the dissemination manager, Alain Ducass, in close relationship with the case collection manager, Michel Declunder, the present draft document “detailed communication & dissemination plan “is directly inspired by

• our 4 July 2008 offer, agreed by the Commission

• the communication and dissemination strategy, written in the roadmap

• further works conducted by the contractors. If the Commission agrees, it seems of great interest that the present draft or a slightly modified version could be sent quickly to the EBSN steering group members in order than they can bring their remarks and contribute as soon as possible to the success of the program.

1.2. Table of contents

1. Foreword ........................................................................................................ 1

1.1. Context ......................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Table of contents....................................................................................... 2 1.1. Appropriation is the key........................................................................... 2

2. Organisation ................................................................................................. 3

2.1. Coordinators ............................................................................................... 3 2.2. Geographical coordinators with national networks: ........................ 4 2.3. Sector coordinators with thematic and sector networks ................ 5

3. Dissemination material............................................................................. 6 3.1. Web site and e-flyer ................................................................................. 6 3.2. Material for physical events ................................................................... 8

3.3. Books ............................................................................................................ 9 1.1. Targeted number of books ....................................................................... 10

4. The dissemination campaign: a dual channel strategy............ 11 4.1. E marketing campaign........................................................................... 11 4.2. Physical events ........................................................................................ 11

5. Conclusion: next step for dissemination......................................... 12

1.1. Appropriation is the key The final goal of the program is to contribute to more competitiveness in European SME, and as Europe is a large territory, the success key of this program is appropriation of eBusiness practices. As targeted European SMEs are more than one million, it is impossible to get in touch directly with each of them so it is necessary to convince a maximum of public and private intermediaries that are in contact with European.


Among those intermediaries, we can thing of:

• European ministries of industries and services,

• Chambers of Commerce,

• Innovation centers,

• Public accountants,

• EBusiness associations

• Professional associations

• ICT companies

• …/… With the “idea in mind” that “a project fails not because of opponents but due to a lack of allies”, this remark confirms the fact that “appropriation is the key”. For this reason, we want to “Put on board” and involve in the early stages of the project a maximum of partners, starting with the eBSN steering group members and eBSN members. We will start to contact these members in the very beginning of 2009, after a mail from EBSN manager explaining members the importance of this project for the eBSN network.

(Extracts of Dana Eleftheriadou 2009 wishes)

The project team wish to work closely with the eBSN members right from the beginning of the project in order to associate a national partner for all countries, and if possible, and achieve as broad as possible geographic coverage and sectoral diversity.

The project team will contact you very soon for that purpose...

2. Organisation

2.1. Coordinators Managed by the dissemination manager, Alain Ducass, the dissemination organization will rely upon the same “core coordinators” “sector coordinators” and “country coordinators” than for the case collection, but with a slightly different approach. They still are searched from the very beginning of the project, among eBSN members or others experienced and motivated people, owing experience in their field on a geographical or thematic sector. They will be selected as soon as possible.

• Core coordinators are high motivated and e-Business experienced people, like Martin King Turner, director of the National B2B Centre. We will work closely with these people to manage the project, share ideas and decide on case selection or dissemination events and partners. This “network of excellence” should not exceed 5 to 6 people.


• Country and sector coordinators are slightly more focused on sector or country e-Business actors, members of networks in contact with a maximum of SMEs or intermediaries in relation with them. They could be issued from ICT associations, Chambers of Commerce, Public bodies, Professional SME networks …

Apart from case collection, those coordinators will also be of great help in order to disseminate the program toward a maximum of SMEs through a maximum of intermediaries and finally through a maximum of networks At this stage of a draft dissemination plan, we have to find such coordinators with a vision of the networks they are involved in, in order to disseminate the European Compendium of eBusiness cases in those networks. After a single month of program and before the specific call of contribution that will be launched to detect sector and country coordinators, here is the first vision we have got upon those coordinators according to the networks they are involved in. The final dissemination plan will be much more exhaustive and the remarks of the EBSN steering group will be of great value.

2.2. Geographical coordinators with national networks:

Countries Geographical coordinators Status

Belgium Damien JACOB, AWT, OK

Denmark Biz Center Approached

France Michel Declunder, Galaxie OK

Hungary Anna Szegvary (Adetef) OK

Lithuania Mauricette Gaduy Laumonier (Adetef) OK

Luxembourg Bruno CORNETTE (Centre Henri TUDOR) OK

Netherland Ronald Batenburg (Dialogic) OK

Poland Marcjiej Murmilo (Adetef) OK

Portugal Manuel Suza (Inovamais) OK

Romania EU-University & IPA SA ROMANIA Detected

Slovakia Dusan SOLTES, Comenius University, Bratislava OK

United Kingdom

Martin King Turner (National B2B Center) OK

Approached

Other countries To be found


2.3. Sector coordinators with thematic and sector networks

Networks Core coordinators and networks coordinators

Status

Chambers of Commerce Georges Fischer (Euro chambers) OK

EBusiness Watch Ronald Battenburg (Dialogic) OK

Ministries EBSN steering group OK

ICT big companies (IBM..) Michel Declunder OK

Netshare Miguel Suza (Inovamais) OK

Ebusiness association Confederation of European Business Detected

Ebusiness association Michel Declunder for PanEuropean ICT and eBusiness Network for SMEs (PIN SME)

OK

Chartered Accountants Network in Europe

Federation of European Accountants 500.000 professional

OK

Public procurement on line

Alain Ducass (PEPPOL Network) OK

Other professional networks

To be found

Innovation intermediaries networks

European Enterprise Network

To be found

Etc.

Some other European partners will be researched to complement the geographical and eBusiness expertise network.

This network, selected through cooptation, will exchange by phone and mail, and will hold a physical meeting during SME Week in Prague, in May. He will get a chance to interact and exchange with the eBSN steering Committee (if the event is confirmed, not later than 15th of February)


Up there, the very first meeting of the Core coordinators in Autrans During the French Internet society annual symposium

Among participants: Alain Ducass (Adetef), Erik Jonquiere (Afnet), Martin Turner King (B2B Center Warwick), Pierre Lelong (Techno FuturTIC Belgium), and Michel Declunder (Periscope)

But also the governing board of Galaxie, the French program of eBusiness best practices with Hélène Ribaudeau (Cybermassif), Jean Philippe Vigne (ARDI Numérique)

3. Dissemination material Once we have detected partners for dissemination, we have to focus on the material for dissemination that will consist of physical and digital components:

• web site and e-flyer

• flyers and material for physical events, including books Let us give some more details about them.

3.1. Web site and e-flyer Main channel for information, dissemination, case collection and case management, the work web site contain an editorial (signed by the Commission) to explain the core and objectives of the project, a private and a public section. As the address e-sme.eu


or esme.eu where already used, we had to use a national acronym (pme instead of sme): www.e-pme.eu or www.epme.eu Since the very beginning of the project, it allows any interested member of eBSN or any contact receiving an E-mail to get all the objectives of the project and see how he can participate, from coordination, case provider or dissemination. Web site will allow, later in 2009, brochure request for dissemination. A first version of the web site is presently on line at www.e-pme.eu The next version of the web site will take into account the remarks that will be formulated by the EBSN Steering group.

E-Flyer (a short marketing message) will be build relying on the essential communication elements of the project, and will be send using e-marketing campaigns trough qualified networks (SME multipliers, ICT associations, Chambers of Commerce...)


The public section will contain:

• eBSN objectives (+ network, events, guides...)

• Press review

• Partners

• Useful links

• Emphasis on SME week (objectives, events...)

• List of national coordinators It will also contain E Business case acquisition, allowing any contributor to propose a case. The private section will contain:

• Case collection search

• Case collection management

• Project management This case will be validated or completed only by coordinators or by the contractors

Version 1 of the web site will be available at the end of January. Version 2 will be available in March (after feedback and validation of communication plan) On the right: the planned frame of the website

3.2. Material for physical events As eBusiness is a key factor for SMEs competitiveness, there are plenty of ICT companies that are trying to sell advices, services, and files to European SMEs. So there are also plenty of eBusiness and ICT events to create relations between the solutions providers and their potential customers. An important element of the dissemination strategy is dedicated to those physical events including exhibitions, workshops and conferences by preparing some material to their organisers or to our own coordinators that will attempt to those events So the contractors will prepare:

• A one page flyer in English that will explain the program and that will invite the maximum of people to go on the web site


• written material for the event organisers in order than they can contribute to the dissemination,

• public notices that they can tagged on booths or walls in order than a maximum of visitors can see them,

• a concept of eBusiness best practices competition among the published ones in order than the organisers can select more exemplar companies and invite them to testimony in their events.

• Press material for the press. On the model of the e-Flyer, we will print a document explaining the way to develop SMEs competitiveness through ICT and the interest of EBSN network and of this particular program, with an invitation to visit our website and to pick up valuable information from it As the program is just beginning, those aspects will be developed in the final dissemination plan, including the remarks of the Commission and the EBSN Steering group.

3.3. Books

The books will be a very important vector for dissemination. We will try to make them clear and very readable according to the French experience Galaxie and to a book sample that will be sent to the Commission at the end of January.

Sample presentation of case within the initial proposal (to be improved, reducing picture to increase test space)


1.1. Targeted number of books The contact asks for 14 000 copies of books to be printed in any 23 European language. Now, the repartition of the books according to their language is a very touchy factor for dissemination. The repartition can be: • A calculated repartition according to the mother tongues repartition of the

European population, • A contractual repartition according to the Commission specifications: 500 for

smaller countries and 1000 for the bigger, • An adapted repartition with an emphasis on the less spoken languages as such

books may represent a major impact that in other countries • A final repartition taking into account the previous repartition and the results of the

dissemination call of contribution with real results from the disseminations partners about their needs concerning books.

Language Population Calculated repartition

Contractual repartition

Draft repartition

English(*) EN 63,39 1 804 1 000 25003

German DE 88,22 2 510 1 000 1500

French FR 67,79 1 929 1 000 2000

Italian IT 59,62 1 697 1 000 1500

Spanish ES 45,28 1 288 1 000 1000

Polish PL 38,12 1 085 500 500

Romanian RO 21,53 613 500 700

Dutch NL 20,84 593 500 700

Greek EL 12,00 341 500 1000

Portuguese PT 10,62 302 500 300

Czech CS 10,38 295 500 300

Hungarian HU 10,05 286 500 300

Swedish SV 10,51 299 500 300

Bulgarian BG 7,64 217 500 250

Danish DA 5,48 156 500 200

Slovakian SK 5,40 154 500 200

Finnish FI, SV 3,98 113 500 150

Lithuanian LT 3,37 96 500 100

Latvian LV 2,27 65 500 100

Gaelic GA 2,21 63 500 100

Slovenian SL 2,03 58 500 100

Estonian ET 1,34 38 500 100

Maltese MT 0,41 12 500 100

492,47 14 013 14 000 14 000

3 as it is evident that English language is widely used, so we can take the opportunity of the Sweden event in October to launch the minimum of 1500 English books with the technical feasibility to print 1000 more later on.


At that stage an in depth exam of the repartition of books by the EBSN steering group and a clear answer from Commission is a key factor for the success of the dissemination program.

4. The dissemination campaign: a dual channel strategy As mentioned in the call and discussed within the Kick off meeting, we will rely on existing (physical) SME events complemented by an e-marketing (virtual) strategy to make the “case promotion «using these two communication and dissemination channels:

4.1. E marketing campaign An important marketing and referencing effort has to be done to make the website well known among eBusiness experts; SME multipliers and all kind of eBusiness networks:

• through mailings to all identified ICT actor

• through a referencing campaign

• through advertisement in specialised media including web.

• through e-Flyer ( EMarketing campaign) We will use our contact database (or why not qualified address files we can buy) and our network coordinators experience to achieve this objective. We also plan to use a specific e-Flyer and why not by Google adwords. We will finally try to get a maximum of crossed links with other websites and more generally speaking to get a maximum of websites that will reference our website or publish information from it through a widgets or white-label dissemination. Al partners that will help for disseminating books will be potential candidates to complement the book delivery by an on-line tool with the complete collection of cases.

4.2. Physical events Another way to promote the web site and the EU project will be the participation to national European events, in the SME field or E business field. It is a bit too early to define a precise calendar of all events, as a call of contribution will ask contributors to identify relevant events we can be part of. We will put an emphasis for the SME Week to support EU strategy and be part of this SME competitiveness ICT campaign.


Even if a detailed calendar of events will be provided with the final dissemination plan, here is a first look on it:

• 8-9 January 2009 www.autrans.net French internet society meeting

• 27-28 January www.forumemarketing.com, in PARIS

• 24 April RSI event in LILLE

• 27 April: Solutions Business event in Charleroi (Belgium)

• 8-14 May SME Week

• Paris and other French towns

• A maximum of other European towns such as Prague,

• 28 May: 3rd edition of the eBusiness exhibition at Geneva

• 16th and 17th September 2009. http://www.online-marketing-duesseldorf.de

• 15 September: eBusiness annual conference in Warwick University

• 29, 30 sept. and 1st October 2009 e-commerce Paris www.ecommerceparis.com (25 000 participants).

• October eBSN meeting in Stockholm with a steering group and selection committee.

The EBSN steering group members are pleased to propose existing events that could be of interest for eBusiness dissemination. If it is the case, Adetef and Periscope will contact them in order to propose an action dedicated to eBusiness dissemination.

5. Conclusion: next step for dissemination The present dissemination plan should fit with the specification of the European program that foresee:

1) a publication of the English books in October 2009 2) a publication of the other books at the end of November 2009 3) an end of the program on 19 December 2009

So the dissemination plan by the contractors should end when the books will be issued. It seems then of great importance that a second dissemination plan could begun at the publication of books for the years 2010 and furthermore. As the contractors will have got a great experience of the eBusiness dissemination, and even if this point is nor written in the specifications Adetef and Periscope will prepare for the May EBSN steering Committee a document for a next step of eBusiness dissemination toward European SMEs in 2010 and furthermore. Alain Ducass Michel Declunder [email protected] [email protected]

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