The Official State Gazette closes the year 2021 with the publication of the bases that regulate the granting of the aid of the 'Digital Kit' program , to boost the digitalization of SMEs and self -employed in Spain.
The 'digital kit' has a budget of 3,067 million euros aimed at facilitating that autonomous and SMEs access digitalization solutions such as; Promote electronic commerce, the presence on the Internet, the "Business Intelligence", the management of social networks, the electronic invoice, the virtual office tools and the cybersecurity.
The investment of more than 3,000 million euros for the digitalization of the period of 2021-2023, aims to facilitate and pay for autonomous and SMEs to access digital solutions, achieving a significant progress at the level of digital maturity of Spanish companies.
Once the call is opened to request aid, companies will be able to access economic amounts or 'Digital Bonus' , depending on their number of workers; 12,000 euros, with between 10 and 50 employees; 6,000 euros for companies between 9 and 3 employees; and 2,000 euros, for those of less than 3 and no employee.
To opt for these grants, applicants must comply with the regulations of the General Law of Subsidies and also have the evaluation of 'Digital Maturity' , that is, perform a digital self -diagnostic that evaluates the level of digitalization of the company or independent professional that request them. This test, of only ten minutes of time according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, can already be done on the accelera SME website.
The test consists of 13 very basic questions about ICT, some of them are; Do you have your organization of a profile on a social network? Do you have in your organization of ICT security measures? Or do you use a CRM that allows to organize and manage the processes related to your customers?, which evaluates aspects of the company such as: the speed of the Internet connection, its presence in social networks, the cybersecurity tools used, the level of digital knowledge of the workers, the electronic devices available or the percentage of turnover of their online sales.
From the answers obtained, the system differentiates the level of each company or autonomous on a four -degree scale: very low, low, high and very high. The administration thus obtains information on the level of need for aid in each case and the areas where you need to reinforce. A requesting for test as many times as you want but before you must register on the SME accelerate website.
Why allocate the 'Digital Bono'
Companies and freelancers may allocate the amount of the 'Digital Bonus' to one or more digital solutions within the following fields:
- Development and investment on website.
- Electronic commerce
- Process management.
- Electronic invoice.
- Social Network Management.
- Business and analytical intelligence.
- Virtual Office Services and Tools.
- Online cybersecurity.
- Safe communications.
How to request the 'Digital Bono'
- Those interested should register at www.acerapyme.es and complete the self -diagnosis test .
- Then, consult the website accelerates SME, the catalog of digital solutions offered by the adhered digitalizing agents and choosing one or several solutions that respond to the needs of their business.
- Enter the Electronic Red.es headquarters and make the request for digital kit aid ( headquarters.red.gob.es ).
- Once the digital solutions that the business needs, it must contact the digitizing agent and subscribe with it a 'Agreement for Digital Solutions' agreement'.
Requirements to opt for 'Digital Bono'
- Be a small company, microenterprise or autonomous.
- Comply with the financial and effective limits that define the categories of companies.
- Be in a high situation and have the minimum age established by call.
- Not having a company consideration in crisis.
- Be up to date with tax obligations and in front of Social Security.
- Do not be subject to a pending recovery order of the European Commission that has declared illegal help and incompatible with the common market.
- Do not incur any of the prohibitions provided for in article 13.2 of Law 38/2003, of November 17, General of Subsidies.
- Do not exceed the minimis aid limit (small amount).
REQUIREMENTS TO BE DIGITALIZING AGENT
- Have fiscal domicile in the European Union.
- A minimum age of 2 years in the development of its activity.
- Accredit an accumulated turnover of, in the case of companies, at least 100,000 euros in the previous two years from the moment of submitting the adhesion application, or 50,000 euros in the previous year, in similar projects. And in the case of self -employed, an accumulated turnover of 70,000 euros in the last two years or 35,000 euros in the previous year.
- Be up to date with tax obligations and in front of Social Security.
- Not having a company consideration in crisis.
- Have the status of company, according to the definition that appears in Annex I of Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 of the Commission, of June 17, 2014.
Deadlines to request the digital bonus
Once the request for application in the BOE is published, the interested parties will have the period of 3 months to submit the applications or until the budget credit is exhausted.
They will count a maximum period of 6 months since the granting of the "Digital Bonus" is notified , for the signing of the 'Digitalization Solutions Provision Agreements' between the beneficiary companies and the 'Adhered Digitizer Agents'.
When the aid is published
The first call for aid, which will have a budget of 500 million euros, will go to companies of between 10 and 49 workers and will see the light in early 2022 , together with different packages of aid for different SME ranges according to their number of workers.
The digitizing agent
These are entities attached to the 'Digital Kit' program that offer digitalization services and solutions for SMEs and freelancers. To be accredited as 'digitalizing agents', interested companies must make their application and subsequent accession through the Electronic Headquarters Red.es , an entity attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.
Likewise, the 'digitizer agent' may collaborate with SMEs and self -employed when presenting the necessary documentation, in order to facilitate the task for access to aid.
What is accelerating SME
It is an initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation developed by Red.es and aimed at developing a reference system of the digital transformation of small and medium enterprises. This program is part of the SME Digitization Plan 2021-2025 and has more than 4,000 million euros of budget.
