Launched in February 2022 by Skillnet Ireland in partnership with Furthr (formerly Dublin BIC) and supported by IDA Ireland, the Innovation Exchange helps innovative Irish SMEs to win new business from large companies by providing a structured matchmaking service along with training to equip the smaller companies with the skills and capabilities required to pitch successfully to major corporates and build a qualified sales pipeline.
“The Innovation Exchange helps large companies find the innovative solutions they need to address the challenges they face in relation to digital transformation and other areas,” explains Skillnet Ireland head of strategic projects Liz Thomas. “It does this by helping them access solutions being developed by innovative, agile Irish SMEs. It’s an innovation marketplace.”
The programme is responding to clear needs, she adds. “The pace of innovation is accelerating. We are seeing new technologies coming along all the time to disrupt the market. At the same time, customer expectations are rising in terms of new products, speed of delivery, quality of service and so on. Companies need to respond to these challenges but many of them simply don’t have the resources to do that while focusing on keeping the business running. On the other hand, there are huge numbers of SMEs out there with innovative solutions to those challenges. Innovation Exchange brings them together. It helps large companies improve their products and processes and it helps the Irish economy at the same time.”
Interest in the programme has been exceptionally strong, with more than 300 small businesses and 26 corporates, including Ryanair, Glanbia and Musgrave, becoming involved.
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Thomas explains that the programme is in line with Skillnet Ireland’s expanded mandate. “Talent development is about so much more than training and upskilling,” she notes. “The Innovation Exchange is a curated pathway for SMEs to collaborate with major corporates and win new business from them.”
The journey along that pathway allows the SMEs gain new capabilities in a range of areas. “We help them develop the capability to be able to pitch to big corporates,” she adds.
A tangible offer to SMEs
The Innovation Exchange process begins with a large company publishing a challenge via a webinar which is attended by SME members. SMEs can then engage in a question-and-answer session with the company to establish how they might be able to provide a solution. Innovation Exchange staff then collate proposals from the SMEs and present them to the company. The next steps see the company selecting the proposals it would like to hear more about and then possibly engaging with individual SMEs on pilot or proof-of-concept projects before hopefully doing a deal.
“We are offering something very valuable and tangible to SMEs,” says programme director Conor Carmody. “The opportunity to pitch to over 20 major corporates and participate in their challenges. How often would SMEs get the opportunity to pitch to companies like Ryanair or Glanbia? How do you understand those needs? How do you prepare a pitch? How do you deliver the pitch when you have never done it before? We run a series of masterclasses to help with all those areas from sales discovery through to pitching and beyond.”
The programme has recently extended its regional reach. “The Innovation Exchange has always been a nationwide programme but much of our work has been in the Dublin region up until now,” says Thomas. “We have now brought on board a number of regional partners.”
Those regional partners are the Galway Technology Centre, RDI in Killorglin, and the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen. “These enterprise hubs are adding real value to the Innovation Exchange,” says Carmody. “It’s quite exciting. They will help us access areas and SMEs that we haven’t been able to reach before. They will also give those SMEs access to potential corporate customers they couldn’t get to before this.”
“The impact these new partners are having is already very significant,” Thomas adds. “We will bring in another three regional partners during the year.”
Unforeseen benefits emerging
The success of the programme to date is evidence of the latent demand for it. “We are addressing a problem people have been trying to solve for years,” Thomas notes. “I am often asked if it really works, and I am able to say that we have proven that it does. Last year, the corporate partners presented 20 challenges which 290 SMEs expressed an interest in solving; 40 of them went on to make competitive pitches. There are now 20 demonstration and proof of concept projects in operation with five signed deals already. Skillnet Ireland is committed to funding the programme for five years and we aim to have 1,000 companies involved eventually.”
And the benefits don’t stop there. “Some of the SMEs are also using the skills they have acquired from participating in the Innovation Exchange to pitch and win business from corporates which are not involved in it. And we are seeing corporates successfully solving real world problems. The answer is yes, it does work, and the message to companies is to get in there and get involved in the Innovation Exchange.”
Carmody points out that the programme is delivering other unforeseen benefits. “We are seeing new collaboration models that we hadn’t considered starting to emerge. We are seeing corporates talking to each other about potential collaborations. SMEs are also talking to each other about helping to solve each other’s challenges or working together to solve problems for large companies. We are seeing the innovation marketplace evolve in both formal and informal ways.”
Getting involved in the Innovation Exchange is very straightforward, he concludes. “Just go to our website and you can join there. We hold regular events, masterclasses and meet-ups for people to chat and collaborate. The energy in the room at those events is quite staggering. Once SMEs join, our team of account managers is there to help them along the pathway to participate in any corporate challenges that are coming up.” theinnovationexchange.ie