Introduction
During the SME's life cycle it will interact with several functions of governmental and non-governmental entities.
As for governmental functions that the SME will interact with during several stages of its life cycle, these are usually classified under COFOG group code 0.4.1: General economic, commercial and labour affairs (url: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regcs.asp?Cl=4&Lg=1&Co=04.1 ).
To structure information for SMEs, Your Europe - Business uses the below list of SME life cycle elements:
1/ Starting a business url
2/ Managing a business url
3/ Doing business responsibly url
4/ Profiting from the EU market url
5/ Expanding a business (including outside the EU) url
6/ Competing through innovation url
7/ Deciding to stop url
(8) Access to finance url
(9) Business support url
Function Model
From an SME centric viewpoint, the public authorities and support networks have these functions:
| Function nr. | brief description |
|---|---|
| F1 | supporting the setting up of a new business |
| F2 | provide a framework of obligations (rights, responsibilities and restrictions) that management must obey |
| F3 | provide a framework supporting businesses in dealing with their legal obligations towards the environment, employees, their social environment |
| F4 | ensuring the free movement of goods and fair competition |
| F5 | supporting business expansion |
| F6 | ensuring an environment that is conducive to innovation |
| F7 | ensuring suitable end-of-life options for businesses |
| F8 | ensuring access to finance |
| F9 | providing business support services |
The proposition to each SME is that adopting eBusiness standards will support its expansion (F5) and viability.
eBusiness adoption by European SMEs will directly involve a number of these functions, in particular F2, F3 and F6.
Equal access to such services is required for ensuring fair competition and free movement of goods (F4). By using a web-based platform in all EU languages, equal access to support services can be facilitated.
Business Model: AS-IS
The focus of this baseline is related to F9: make available support services more visible and effective.
The prevailing business model includes (support service) gap identification, the selection of a suitable actor to fill the gap, and a mandate and project to fill the gap.
There are some weaknesses in this approach:
- there is no shared consensus map of actors and support services;
- there are not strict principles to decide which is the best actor for providing a new service (should it be a public or private sector actor?) on which market;
- awareness of each other's services is limited;
- increasingly, cross-linking of resources occurs, but it is not systematic yet;
- coming to implementation there is no policy to prevent fragmentation in the service offer, and bundling towards the intended beneficiaries.
Processes
The processes in which SMEs interact with the entities that provide the above functions are described (partially) at the Your Europe - Business site. We don't go into the details of these processes.
Decision-making Operations
The processes and agencies that provide the above functions have been determined in regulations that are specific per EU member state. EU membership implies a commitment to harmonize these regulations, and to make them cost-effective and performant.
The section Operational Measures lists per function (and for a few additional functions) the measures that The World Bank uses to compare ease of doing business in (nearly) all economies of the world (http://www.doingbusiness.org/ .)
These measures provide an instrument for comparing the various EU member states, mutually, and with other economies. Such comparisons (bench-marking) may suggest functions that need extra attention.
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