Purpose

This call aims to promote the participation of SMEs in the province of Alicante in the Digital SME Program by providing them with the support services detailed in section 6 “Budget and amount of aid” of this call.

The Program seeks the systematic incorporation of ICT into the regular activities of SMEs, integrating key competitive tools into their strategy and maximizing the opportunities they offer to improve productivity and competitiveness. To this end, it will encourage the adoption of methodologies that allow for the systematic integration of ICT into their usual business activity.

The Program is implemented through the following direct support actions:

Assisted ICT Diagnosis to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the company’s level of digitalization. This analysis allows for an understanding of the company's competitive positioning within its economic and market environment and helps identify its technological needs (aligned with its strategic and operational requirements). This diagnosis will result in a series of recommendations for implementing solutions within the three action lines of the Program:

  1. Use of ICT to improve competitiveness: productivity tools, ERP, CRM... with a clear focus on cloud computing.
  2. E-commerce.
  3. Digital Marketing: SEO, SEM, email marketing, web analytics, social media, online reputation, mobile applications, or any other tool, best practice, or technology trend available in the market.

Financial aid for implementation of the identified solutions and improvements, as detailed in the Personalized Implementation Plan. This Plan will include the characteristics of the projects to be implemented, the suppliers freely selected by the company to carry them out, and the committed funding. For each project, the eligible concepts and costs will be defined, as well as the deadlines for execution and justification of the investment made.

Beneficiary Requirements

  1. Have a minimum turnover of €100,000 in the last fiscal year.
  2. Be registered in the Economic Activities Tax Census (IAE) for the activity subject to the subsidy before January 1, 2022.
  3. Be a small or medium-sized enterprise, as defined in Annex 1 of Commission Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 of June 17, 2014 http://www.boe.es/doue/2014/187/L00001-00078.pdf.
  4. Be up to date with tax and Social Security obligations.
  5. Comply with the de minimis regulation, as set out in Commission Regulation (EU) No. 2023/2831 of December 13, 2023, regarding the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid (OJ L of December 15, 2023), under which the total amount of de minimis aid granted to a "single enterprise" shall not exceed €300,000 over the previous three years.
  6. Not be subject to any of the prohibitions referred to in Article 13 of Law 38/2003.
  7. Not be considered a company in crisis in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 18, of Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014.
  8. Companies that were beneficiaries in the 2023 TicCámaras call may not receive aid in the Implementation Phase.

Budget and Amount of Aid

The maximum execution budget of the Program under this call is €88,778.40.

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR ICT IMPLEMENTATION IN SMES

The budget allocated in this call for support services for ICT implementation in SMEs is €13,878.40. These services are free of charge for companies and are carried out as part of the public-administrative functions entrusted to the Chambers of Commerce by Basic Law 4/2014, aimed at strengthening the business network. Specifically, the services provided by Chamber Technology Advisors are:

  • Assisted ICT Diagnosis
  • Implementation Follow-up

These services will be co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Provincial Council of Alicante. The cost of these services will be fully pre-financed by the Chamber of Commerce, requiring no payment whatsoever from the beneficiary SME.

FINANCIAL AID FOR ICT IMPLEMENTATION IN SMES

The budget available under this call for the ICT implementation phase is €74,900. Therefore, the total amount of FINANCIAL AID to SMEs is €44,940, with an estimated participation of 10 companies. The maximum eligible budget per company for this phase is €7,000 in direct costs (excluding VAT), although higher-cost implementations are not excluded.

Therefore, the eligible cost associated with the implementation of the action plans will vary in each case, with a maximum of €7,490 per company (€7,000.00 in direct costs + 7% in associated indirect costs), which must be fully pre-financed by the beneficiary company. The maximum aid percentage to be received by each company will be 60% of the indicated eligible cost, meaning the maximum aid amount per company will be €4,494, provided the investment is justified under the established terms and deadlines.

Submission of Applications

Interested parties may only submit their application and supporting documentation through the form enabled for this purpose on the Electronic Office https://sede.camara.es/sede/alicante, under the terms set forth in this call.

Application Deadline

The deadline for submitting applications through the aforementioned Electronic Office will begin at 09:00 a.m. on May 30, 2024, and end at 2:00 p.m. on June 6, 2024.

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