With an investment of 845,593 euros, the Regional Ministry of Employment, Enterprise and Self-Employment is promoting the digitalisation of 192 self-employed workers and cooperatives in Almeria. This was stated today by the territorial delegate for Employment, Amós García Hueso, who wanted to meet in situ the beneficiaries of this programme of the Andalusian Regional Government which «improves the competitiveness and sustainability of the businesses of self-employed workers, including agricultural workers, social economy companies and mutualists through projects which allow them to take advantage of the benefits of digitalisation».
Amós García pointed out that «it is necessary for our SMEs and self-employed to carry out the digital transformation and modernisation of their businesses, not only to increase their productivity, but also because they will gain in agility and resistance to the changes that are occurring globally in the market, as has already been demonstrated by the most advanced companies in the digital context, which have adapted better».
In this sense, he indicated that in recent years more and more SMEs and the self-employed are taking this step «but there is still room for progress, especially if we compare the degree of implementation of digitisation with that of companies with more than 250 workers, which is 82%, while in SMEs it is 56%». According to data from the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia (IECA), in the case of companies with high or very high digital intensity, this proportion is 54% in companies with more than 250 employees, but in SMEs it is less than half, 21.6%.
García Hueso recalled that the incentives for the digital modernisation of the self-employed and social economy companies «have been processed quickly, eliminating the need to provide documentation to the application», that they cover one hundred percent of the costs to develop the projects and that payments of 100% of the maximum amount have been advanced without the need to justify an initial investment, «so that the self-employed and companies can start them up as soon as possible, without having to wait».
This programme includes two lines of subsidies: the first is aimed at self-employed or freelance workers, agricultural self-employed workers and mutual funds, and the second at cooperatives and worker-owned companies. Within the first line, 157 digitalisation projects have been approved for the self-employed in the province of Almeria with an amount of 629,463 euros, and in the second, 35 social economy companies have benefited, with a total of 153,131 euros.
The amounts range from 1,000 to 6,000 euros to encourage both the implementation and development of digital transformation solutions in management and the incorporation of digital marketing strategies.
Sensors in agriculture and online positioning of training services
Amós García has seen first-hand two of the 192 projects by Almeria’s self-employed and cooperatives supported by this line of incentives for digitalisation. This is the Ejido farmer Juan Martín Sánchez, whose project, which he visited together with the Councillor for Agriculture of El Ejido, Manuel Martínez, has been funded by the Junta with a grant of 6,000 euros. It consists of the installation of a system of sensors that are placed in the cultivated land and send information in real time to an app installed on his mobile phone, which allows him to know parameters such as soil moisture, the amount of fertiliser to use or conductivity, which allows him to make the right decisions to save water and fertiliser while improving the productivity of his crop.
The Employment delegate also visited the training centre of Alejandro Rodríguez Castillo in the capital of Almeria, who has received an incentive of 6,000 euros which has helped him to improve the online positioning of his business. Alejandro Rodríguez is a personal trainer specialising in rehabilitation and injury prevention and improving people’s health through sport, providing personalised advice or in small groups with similar objectives.
Eligible expenditure
Eligible expenses, for the modality focused on digital transformation development projects, include the purchase of computer equipment or information and communication technology infrastructure when necessary for the installation of business management software; the purchase of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or similar business management software; the purchase of applications for the development and implementation of digitisation solutions; consultancy costs; the costs of contracting cloud services for a period of one year; the purchase of any other digital solution; the purchase of any other digital solution for a period of one year; the purchase of any other digital solution for a period of one year; the acquisition of applications for the development and implementation of digitalisation solutions; consultancy costs; the costs of contracting cloud services for a period of one year; the acquisition of any other digital solution or new robotisation technology that introduces improvements in management or production.
Furthermore, in this modality, when the eligible expenditure consists of the joint digitisation solution of computer equipment and business management software, this concept is subsidised, as well as the first year’s registrations and licences, including those of anti-virus programmes, and the training necessary for their optimal use, including the licence for the chosen operating system.
In the modality of incorporation of marketing strategies, subsidies are granted for professional expenses for the creation, design and implementation of digital marketing plans and campaigns, online positioning, email, marketing, social media, remarketing, communication in social networks and Internet advertising; consultancy costs for the analysis of processes and definition of digital strategies and their implementation.
Also financed are the consultancy costs for the supervision of compliance with the legal aspects of the website such as the current regulations on data protection, cookies policy, regulations applicable to e-commerce, in particular those relating to the defence of consumers and users and the European regulations relating to the application of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) in electronic payments, consultancy costs for staff training and the migration or uploading of significant data to make the website operational, professional costs for the design, creation or implementation of websites with or without a sales portal, and the costs of web platform providers; and the costs of web providers of Content Management System (CMS) platforms, the costs of contracting the services of web providers of open source CMS platforms and Managed Services Providers (MSP) for a period of one year.