SMEs

Amongst the different types of company involved in the automotive sector supply chains, the most important in terms of economic impact are Small and Medium Enterprises (in auto-gration terms, these are defined as companies with less than 1000 employees) as they form two-thirds of the industry. These organisations typically have fewer resources and therefore any standardisation effort that reduces operational costs will have a significant impact on their competitiveness and, by extension, on that of the whole European automotive sector. For this reason SMEs are the main target of the auto-gration initiative, and their participation is paramount to its success.

 What does a SME gain by participating?

• Given that auto-gration is a large project with a focus on SMEs, funded by the European Commission and led by key automotive stakeholders and facilitators, it is destined to be successful so supporting it will bring long-term benefits to the SME

• Obtains access to eBusiness networks that the SME couldn’t otherwise reach without large investments, and does so without having to change its installed infrastructure

• Through the feedback it provides, the SME can shape the solution that is being developed to fit its needs

• To reach many partners the SME will need to support only one interface system instead of several, greatly reducing costs and easing business expansion

• The SME gains visibility by participating in an initiative officially supported by the European Business Associations and the European Commission

• The SME gains advance experience of the new auto-gration Architecture, preparing it for earlier  improved business efficiency