Polish companies are investing in digitization.
As many as 696 projects were recommended for co-financing in the competition of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development “Vouchers for digitization”, financed by the Intelligent Development Operational Program (OP IR). Each of them can receive an average of 215,000 zloty.
Most initiatives came from the Mazowieckie voivodship, and the least from Opolskie. All projects concerned solutions related to digitization.
– There is no doubt that the transformation of the economy towards Industry 4.0, achieving the goals of sustainable development depends largely on the automation of the industry, digitization of enterprises, and investments in advanced technologies. Firms should invest in innovation. This is confirmed by the popularity of the project- said Jacek Żalek, secretary of state at the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy.
The greatest number of initiatives – as many as 121 – recommended for co-financing, were from the Mazowiecki voivodship, next best at 103 was Małopolski. The smallest number came from the Opolskie Voivodeship, from which 6 projects were recommended for co-financing. – In the field of digitization, we still have a lot to do. Poland is taking intensive measures to increase the use of IT in enterprises, which differs from the level of other EU countries – commented Dariusz Budrowski, president of PARP and added: “Vouchers for digitization” is a competition for SMEs aimed at mitigating the effects of COVID-19 and reducing economic and social risks caused by a pandemic through the digital transformation of the economy. Co-financing in the maximum amount of 255,000 PLN should be spent on the purchase of software, programming services, as well as covering the costs of consulting and training services accompanying the implementation of new digital solutions.
The competition organizers received 6,108 applications worth over PLN 1.2 billion.
As many as 696 of them were recommended for co-financing, most of which were micro-enterprise projects. 209 initiatives, recommended by the project evaluation committee, concerned information technology, 113 business management, and 110 education. These were the fields most frequently indicated in the projects. Additional points in the assessment of the obligatory criteria were awarded to 474 enterprises representing industries particularly affected by the pandemic, such as: extracurricular education, hotel industry, gastronomy, architecture, physiotherapy, organization of tourism and events such as fairs, exhibitions, congresses.
The value of applications recommended for co-financing was PLN 149,386,741. Apart from PARP employees, 165 external industry experts participated in the evaluation of applications submitted to PARP, in total the evaluators conducted over 11600 substantive evaluations.
Entrepreneurs most often applied for support for projects related to remote work, online training, electronic document flow, remote customer service, and the ERP system. Among the interesting process innovations there was, among others organization of trips, thanks to the creation of a platform aggregating virtual tours, with the functionality of an easy service using VR goggles.
Another interesting project is the implementation of industrial customers’ orders for specialized production machines, assuming the implementation of software for remote machine supervision processes and remote execution of the initial activities of the servicing process, supporting the maintenance and repair of machines.
Noteworthy is also the implementation of software in the field of laboratory tests, thanks to which it will be possible to monitor the temperature in refrigerators in which biological material is transported on an ongoing basis. Previously, the temperature was measured manually.
The competition was organized under the Smart Growth Operational Program 2014-2020, priority axis VI Increasing the potential of enterprises and preparing for digital transformation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Measure 6.2 Support for SMEs in the area of digitization – Vouchers for digitization. Originally, the competition budget amounted to PLN 110 million, however, with the consent of the SG OP Managing Authority, it was increased by nearly PLN 40 million. The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development is responsible for the coordination of the project.
List of projects selected for co-financing.