Digital Adoption program for SME’s in Romania

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Digital Adoption program for
SME’s in Romania

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Digital Adoption program for SME’s in Romania

Grants up to 100,000 EUR

ROMANIAN DIGITAL ADOPTION PROGRAM FOR SME’s
Daniel Vranceanu Managing Director  at Valenta

The Objective of the Program

Supporting the digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which could  subsequently contribute to increasing competitiveness, fostering innovation in  these enterprises and facilitating new working arrangements. This subcomponent will address  one of the main challenges facing  SMEs: the pressure to adapt their business models to  digital realities.
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indicative-timetable

Indicative timetable for the call for proposals

  • Guide publication date: 15.12.2022.
  • Start date and time of submission of projects: 15.02.2023, 10.00.
  • Closing date and time of the submission of projects: 30.06.2023, 24:00.
  • Project evaluation phase period: 03.07.2023 – 16.08.2023.
  • Estimated period for signing contracts: 15.09.2023-15.11.2023.
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Financial allocation of the call for proposals

The total value allocated to this call is EUR 327,500,000 divided into the following intervention fields:

 € 32.75 million

for component 012 IT services and applications
dedicated to digital skills and inclusion.

€ 294.75 million

for the strand: 010 Digitisation of SMEs.

This budget will be allocated by development regions, for the Center area the allocation being of 38,873,699.65 EUR (11.87% of the total budget).

Applicants must comply with the de minimis ceiling. The maximum total amount of de minimis aid that the single enterprise can benefit from for a period of 3 consecutive years (last 2 fiscal years before the date of granting the de minimis aid and the year of granting the de minimis aid), cumulated with the value of the financial allocation granted in accordance with the provisions of this call, will not exceed the equivalent in lei of EUR 200,000.

The value of the non-reimbursable financial assistance

The amount of non-reimbursable financial assistance of a project is between:

01

EUR 20,000 and EUR 30,000 for the microenterprise.

02

EUR 20,000 and EUR 50,000 for small business.

03

EUR 20,000 and EUR 100,000 for medium-sized enterprise.

Validity of the aid scheme

The project implementation period is 12 months and cannot exceed June 30, 2025.

Eligible applicants cumulatively meet the following conditions

ELIGIBLE
  • Small, Medium-sized or Micro-enterprises (SMEs)
  • Established no later than 31.12.2021
  • Did not have their activity interrupted / suspended in 2022
  • Recorded operating profit in 2022
  • Undertakes to bear from its own resources the co-financing provided for in the terms of this Guide
  • Does not carry out activities with erotic or obscene products, activities in the field of gambling, as well as those that contravene public order and / or legal provisions in force
  • Do not own web pages containing obscene acts or materials
  • Do not fall into the category of "enterprises in difficulty" in 2022, as defined in the guide
  • Is not in a state of insolvency, bankruptcy, judicial reorganization, dissolution, liquidation or temporary suspension of business or is not in similar situations following a procedure of the same nature as provided for by national legislation or regulations
  • Are not the subject of a recovery order, following a decision declaring State aid illegal and/or incompatible with the common market
  • Are not related to the tobacco industry (production, distribution, processing and trade)
  • Do not provide for cloning for reproductive purposes
  • Does not carry out gambling activities (production, construction, distribution, processing, trade or related software)
  • Does not engage in sexual trade
  • Does not involve live animals for experimental and scientific purposes in so far as compliance with the 'Council of Europe Convention for the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental and other purposes scientific 'cannot be guaranteed
  • Does not carry out real estate, financial development activities, such as purchasing or trading in financial instruments
  • Does not carry out activities related to the exploitation/extraction, processing, distribution, storage or combustion of solid fossil fuels and oil, as well as investments related to gas extraction
  • Request de minimis aid the amount of which falls within the limits set out in this Guide
  • Undertakes that at the end of the project implementation to reach at least 6 of the digital intensity criteria, According to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), Respectively to become an enterprise:
  • In which more than 50% of the employed persons use computers with Internet access for business purposes (one different user for each employee who uses the computer
  • Using an ERP software package to share information between different commercial functional areas
  • Having the maximum contracted download speed of the fastest fixed-line internet connection of at least 30 Mb/s
  • Where online sales accounted for more than 1% of total turnover and web sales to private consumers (B2C) more than 10% of web sales (relative to the project submission period)
  • Use IoT
  • Use at least one social network (enterprises using the networks are considered to be those that have a user profile, account or user license depending on the requirements, and type of social media; businesses that pay exclusively for posting ads (banner ads) either directly to the owner of the social network (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or indirectly through businesses that offer online services for posting automatic social media advertising messages (e.g. SoKule, etc.) are excluded for this criterion)
  • Utilizează CRM
  • Buy sophisticated or intermediate cloud computing services (it is a model that allows anytime, convenient and/or on-demand network access to a shared group of configurable computing resources – e.g. networks, servers, storage, applications, and services — that can be quickly provided and launched with minimal management effort or interaction from a service provider. There are three models of cloud computing services: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS))
  • Use AI technology
  • Buys cloud computing services used on the internet
  • Achieves e-commerce sales of at least 1% of total sales (in sales of goods or services through e-commerce, the order is placed through websites, applications or messages of type EDI1 by methods specially designed to receive orders. Payment can be made online or offline. E-commerce does not include orders written by e-mail
  • Use two or more social networks *The 6 DESI criteria are related to the digitization project (associated with the cost elements from the project budget), regardless of the number of DESI criteria that the company meets when submitting the project.
  • At the date of signing the financing contract, the applicant has no net payment obligations unpaid in time to the state budget and the local budget in the last calendar year and has no facts registered in the tax record.

Ineligible applicants

The aid is intended for non-IT firms and that is why companies found to have carried out authorised activities in the last fiscal year (as shown in the certificate ) are excluded from financing. ONRC ascertainer) in the fields of the following NACE classes:
INELIGIBLE
  • 5829 – Editing activities of other software products
  • 6201 – Activities of custom software development (customer-oriented software)
  • 6202 – Information technology consultancy activities
  • 6203 – Management activities (management and exploitation) of the means of calculation
  • 6209 – Other information technology service activities
  • 6311 – Data processing, website administration and related activities
  • 6312 – Activities of web portals
  • 6399 – Other activities of information services n.e.c

Also excluded from financing are firms operating in:

  • Fisheries and aquaculture sectors, covered by Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 of 17 December 1999 on the common organisation of the market in fishery and aquaculture products
  • The field of primary production of agricultural productsThe sector of processing and marketing of agricultural products, in the following cases: where the amount of the aid is fixed on the basis of the price or quantity of the products concerned purchased from primary producers or placed on the market by the undertakings concerned, where the aid is subject to its transfer to primary producers in whole or in part.
  • Do NOT finance:Activities linked to exports to third countries or to Member States, i.e. aid directly linked to the quantities exported, aid intended for the establishment and operation of a distribution network or intended for the purpose of other current expenditure linked to the export activity
  • The purchase of goods road transport vehicles
  • Aid conditional on the preferential use of domestic over imported products
payroll-processing, expenditures

Eligible expenditures

  • Expenditure on advisory/analysis services to identify the technical solutions that the SME needs, provided that the technical solutions identified and described in the technical documentation performed, do the object of the investments within the project related to the application for financing
  • Expenses related to the purchase of ICT hardware, automation equipment and robotics integrated with digital solutions and other related devices and equipment, including for E-commerce, IoT (Internet of Things), blockchain technologies, etc., as well as expenses of installation, configuration and commissioning
  • Expenses related to the implementation of the LAN / WiFi network
  • Expenditure on administrative costs
  • Expenses related to the acquisition and/or development and/or adaptation of software applications/licenses, expenses for the configuration and implementation of databases, migration and integration of various data structures existing, for financial management, supplier management, human resources, logistics, expenses for the implementation of RPA (Robotic Process Automation), ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Mangement), for IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) systems, blockchain technologies, E-Commerce solutions, etc. and their integration into BTP (Business Technology Platform), where applicable;
  • Expenses related to the purchase of a company presentation website
  • Expenses related to the purchase / rental during the implementation and sustainability of the project, of a new domain name
  • Expenditure on services for transferring archives from analog/folders/paper to digital indexable
  • Expenses related to the procurement of Cloud Computing services during the implementation and sustainability of the project
  • Expenses related to the purchase of services to strengthen the cyber security applicable to software / hosting / networks, during the implementation and sustainability of the project
  • Expenses for services for IT technical auditing (elaboration of it technical report); Entities providing such services may not also be providers for other eligible expenditure under a project
  • Expenses for training the staff who will use the ICT equipment (compulsory expenditure up to a maximum of 10% of the financed value). Within this category of expenses, it will be mandatory to include courses in the IT field for the persons responsible for the management and control of the enterprise, courses that will have the role of help them to become aware of the role of digitalization in the growth of a business. Digital competence courses must be accredited by the National Authority for Qualifications or / and with national / international recognition, etc.
  • The expenses referred to in para. (1), points (a) and (j) may not exceed, cumulatively, 10 % of the eligible value of the project.
  • In order to justify the project budget, it is necessary to submit at least 2 price offers for each purchase of goods / services / works, documents that will be attached to the financing application
ineligible-expenditures

Ineligible expenditure

  • Expenditure on mandatory information and publicity activities, deriving exclusively from the Visual Identity Manual on operations financed from the Rerecovery and Resilience Mechanism
  • The amounts that will exceed the maximum value of the de minimis aid and the amount of the related VAT, being borne from the beneficiary's budget
  • Other expenditure which does not fall under the category of eligible expenditure described above
  • Expenditure on administrative costs
  • Second-hand equipment
  • Personnel costs
  • Financial expenses, i.e. insurance premiums, taxes, commissions, rate and interest on loans;
  • Contribution in kind; depreciation
  • Leasing purchases
  • The acquisition of land
  • Consultancy for drawing up the documentation in order to obtain funding under this Program and for the implementation of the project

 The amount of VAT related to eligible expenses, if they are not deductible expenses, is borne from the state budget (art. 13, paragraph b) of GEO no. 124/2021).

 *Presentation based on the final guide published on 15.12.2022 on the website of the Ministry of Investments and European Projects. (includes the changes made to the guide by order no. 71/11.01.2023 and order no.157/27.01.2023).

How we can help

As an approved digital advisor, Valenta can help you through the entire process.We can support your Digital Transformation Adoption plan by:
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  • Designing a comprehensive digital strategy to achieve your near and long-term transformation objectives
  • Identifying processes that a digital transformation solution can perform and implement Software BOTs
  • Replacing traditional contact centres with smart Conversational-AI solutions
  • Reviewing existing CRM's/ERP's and optimizing workflows, dashboards etc.
  • Implementing new CRM's/ERP's to meet your objectives
  • Creating powerful BI reports to make informed decisions
AI Chat Bot that Sources Resources

This is an automation Proof of Concept for the homecare nursing industry where new assignments are taken up once the request comes in by looking for a staff member.

Invoice Change it to Reconcile Bank Transfers on Quickbooks

This Valenta Proof of Concept shows an unattended BOT performing multiple actions on QuickBooks and ultimately emailing the accounting team with a generated report.

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