[00:00]: Introduction.

[0:14] Alec: Hello and welcome to the SME Business Show with me, Alec Drew. Each show focuses on one particular topic and so we invite an expert, or in this case, experts to share their knowledge, insights and tips to help you get the most out of your business challenges. Today’s topic is all about the Enterprise Europe Network and I’m delighted to be joined by Maria Deady and Miriam Tuomey from Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Hi Miriam and Maria.

 

[0:37] Miriam: Hi Alec.

 

[0:37] Maria: Hi Alec.

 

[0:38] Alec: Let me start with you, Maria. What is the EEN?

 

[0:41] Maria: The Enterprise Europe Network is a free EU support for SMEs to help them internationalise their business. It is across the EU 27, plus an additional 29 countries globally.

 

[0:53] Alec: And what is its main function?

 

[0:55] Maria: Its main function is to help SMEs to internationalise and grow business abroad.

 

[1:00] Alec: All right. And Miriam, what is a small and medium-sized enterprise?

 

[1:04] Miriam: We use the EU definition of a small or medium enterprise, which is a company that has less than 250 employees. which is quite large within Ireland. So mainly we deal with companies that have less than 50 employees, but also a lot of our clients are micro enterprises that have less than 10 employees.

 

[1:22] Alec: And I suppose there’s a key focus on internationalisation.

 

[1:25] Miriam: It is all about companies who are ready to take those first few steps into internationalising their business.

 

[1:32] Alec: And what is the objective of the EEN?

 

[1:34] Miriam: The objective is to create business partnerships to make companies more robust and sustainable, both to increase the resilience and to help them become better companies.

 

[1:44] Alec: And it’s a free service?

 

[1:46] Miriam: It is completely free service.

 

[1:47] Alec: That’s a very important part of that.

 

[1:48] Miriam: It is, and it’s good to keep mentioning it because companies don’t understand there is this.

 

[1:52] Alec: So if we look at who’s involved here in this country in it?

 

[1:55] Miriam: Within Ireland, we have what is called our Irish Consortium. It’s led by Enterprise Ireland. We also have local enterprise offices. We have Cork Chamber, and we have ourselves in Dublin Chamber.

 

[2:06] Alec: So what sort of assistance is available, Maria?

 

[2:10] Maria: There’s many types of assistance available. This can include business intelligence, company matchmaking, and it can also include access to finance, such as grants, and also just additional service around sustainability.

 

[2:23] Alec: Miriam, maybe you might talk about the business intelligence side of this. What is that all about?

 

[2:27] Miriam: Business intelligence is getting you that first step of information you need. So if you’re an Irish company going to another country, you’ll need to know about what their tax laws, what revenue, what HR laws, different laws that you need to set up a company and where you go, where their company registration office is. And also companies coming from abroad, coming to Ireland, we will give them the kind of who they need to talk to and how they need to set up their company.

 

[2:52] Alec: Can you give me an example of something like that?

 

[2:55] Miriam: Yes, actually, I had a company quite recently and they’re a successful SME in Ireland and they were looking to internationalise and they picked Portugal as a country that was a good match for their services. So I contacted my EEN partner in Portugal and they gave me a document that would initially help them. And then they were there on hand when they had more specific questions.

 

[3:18] Alec: So in other words, you source suitors for mutual cooperation.

 

[3:22] Miriam: Yes, we can source suitors as well. And what we do with companies, if they’re interested in selling their product abroad, we develop a product or service abroad. We develop a profile for them, telling them what the product is and its key benefits and who are they looking to deal with within Europe or beyond the EU27. But also if they were looking to buy a product, we will go, they are an Irish company, they’re looking to buy this product and what they need from the supplier.

 

[3:53] Alec: So in other words, it works both ways.

 

[3:54] Miriam: It does. It’s always working both ways.

 

[3:57] Alec: And have you another example of something like that?

 

[3:59] Miriam: I had an Irish gift company who were looking to source some ceramics. We were able to put up their profile and they wanted sustainability behind all of their choices. So we set up a profile for them and we were able to source their gifting products from Poland, from my EEN colleague in Poland. And what they found was it gave them great comfort. They weren’t going in cold and the company had some background.

 

[4:23] Alec: And so in terms of companies that want to export into Europe, do you advise on compliance and regulation for them?

 

[4:30] Maria: So we also assist with any queries with regards to certification or legalisation or certain criteria that companies may need to meet if they’re exporting certain products or services abroad. For example, CE markings, UKCA markings, or even more recently, GPS or labelling.

 

[4:48] Alec: Let’s take something like GPS or explain that in more detail and why it’s important.

 

[4:53] Maria: So GPS or labelling came into effect as of December. It’s just new labelling requirements for products and services, excluding food products. What it is, it requires a registered, reliable person to have their name, their address, their email address available on the labelling along with any safety standards.

 

[5:15] Alec: I know you’ve worked with companies doing this. Would you like to give an example of how it works in effect?

 

[5:19] Maria: Yes. So in December, I was working with an artist and she wanted to ensure compliance just when she was selling her artworks. So as of now, due to these legal requirements on her label, she now has to have her own name, her company address, her email address and contact details, along with the health and safety labelling, which is that all paint is used as non-toxic. However, it is not edible and not suitable for children under the age of 36 months.

 

[5:50] Alec: Miriam, I understand that research is another part of the remit. Maybe you might talk about that in more detail.

 

[5:56] Miriam: There’s a lot of research programs within the wider EU context, and they’re aiming at making the EU more resilient and having the best levels of research. So we would talk to our partners within the different countries, talk to academics and companies and different consortiums who are looking to research, but they might not have the skill set. So we try to match that skill set within Ireland and then they can go forward and apply for a different project as a consortium.

 

[6:26] Alec: And you mentioned that you had an example of that, something you worked on quite recently.

 

[6:30] Miriam: Yeah, I have my EEN partner in Turkey. We got to know them through a different partnership, but they had an academic within their university or technical park who was looking to do a specific piece of research. and he had seen a research company within Ireland that had that level of research. So we were able to introduce them, match their skill set and then he was able to be part of their consortium and apply for that funding.

 

[6:57] Alec: And I suppose it has a lot more credibility, these sort of collaborations and then also the availability of larger grants that might be available throughout the network which others wouldn’t get access to.

 

[7:07] Miriam: Yeah, and it also gives them that level of comfort that we know the partner in Ireland and that we have vetted the partner in Turkey so they know that there’s people looking after them.

 

[7:17] Alec: Maria, can I just take you around to the area of grants? Let’s just talk about that for a moment.

 

[7:21] Maria: Yes, so we can help signpost to many of the enormous funds that are available through the EU. These funds can be to assist businesses with their accelerator funds or they might be around digitisation funds or even sustainability funds.

 

[7:38] Alec: Give me an example of one of those.

 

[7:40] Maria: So for, say, let’s say digitization. So there are funds available for SMEs to help them to can be as easy as updating their website or it can be to applying new technology such as cloud based computing or even AI chatbot software to kind of help them update and integrate these new technologies into their into their sales processes in order to allow them to have better sales or communication channels. as digitisation is one of the key priorities of the EU.

 

[8:11] Alec: So I suppose AI must be a fascinating area because again, people’s perspectives across Europe will be different.

 

[8:18] Miriam: Yes, indeed. So obviously it depends on what kind of AI you’re implementing. However, sometimes for some websites it is that easier chatbot route that companies are starting to go down.

 

[8:32] Alec: It would be remiss for me not to talk about sustainability in this day and age. I presume that’s part of what happens with the programme.

 

[8:38] Miriam: It’s a key pillar of what the Enterprise Europe Network does is sustainability. Within Ireland and the Irish Consortium, I am the sustainability advisor. And what that is, is we offer a service to companies so we can do a sustainability assessment on them, looking at their different pillars, environmental, social and governance.

 

[8:59] Alec: So ESG, tell me a bit more about that.

 

[9:02] Miriam: So when I’m doing the sustainability questionnaire with clients, I will look at what they’re doing around greening their business, CO2 emissions, things like this. I will also look at social sustainability, how they’re treating their staff, what diversity and inclusion measures they have in place. And then generally how they do business, how they source their products, how they source their suppliers and what they’re looking for in the supply chain.

 

[9:27] Alec: A lot of small businesses, we think to themselves, well, this is not really relevant to me, but it is.

 

[9:32] Miriam: It is. It’s very much relevant because the CSRD, which is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, was enacted within Ireland and Europe. Currently, it just affects larger companies. But when larger companies have to do this annual reporting on their ESG, they have to report what they’re doing annually. They look at their supply chain. They look down within their supply chain to see what they’re doing in terms of ESG. And what they’re going to do is if they have a supplier who is ESG compatible and one that isn’t, they’re going to pick the compatible one.

 

[10:09] Alec: It also has a knock-on effect for those wishing to raise finance.

 

[10:12] Miriam: Access to finance is one of the key questions we’re asked about, and it is a service we provide within Enterprise Europe Network. Accessing finance is very difficult for companies. So if they want to do a project within their business and they have an ESG strategy in place, they can access green financing options.

 

[10:31] Alec: All right. I suppose, Maria, just to kind of put it in a nutshell, maybe you might sum up the benefits of the EEN program.

 

[10:37] Maria: Yes, so the EEN has many benefits. It can help any business who is ready to take that international step. It can provide market access, business intelligence, company partnering. It can also provide different access to finance routes, and it can also provide additional information around compliance and supporting their green or digital journeys.

 

[10:59] Alec: And finally for you, Maureen, where can we find out more?

 

[11:02] Miriam: Well, we would love you to look at the Enterprise Europe Network website, and also you could contact myself and Maria. I’m mariam at dublinchamber.ie, or Maria is maria at dublinchamber.ie, and we would be delighted to talk to you about it.

 

[11:16] Alec: A special thanks to our guests today, Miriam Tuomey and Maria Deddy from Dublin Chamber of Commerce for coming into the studio and sharing all that valuable information about the Enterprise Europe network. If anything we discussed today resonated with you, why not reach out to us across any of the social media platforms, SME Business Show. Thank you for your company and we look forward to seeing you again soon.