Boost your business technology to stay ahead of your competitors and accelerate your business growth in 2023. Would you agree that nowadays, SMEs find it exceptionally difficult to keep up with innovative technologies? They have limited funding and are under serious pressure from competing companies. This is why the Canadian Government has made the decision to allocate 4 billion CAD for CDAP – Canada Digital Adoption Program that will run over 4 years.
This step pursues two major goals:
- Provide support and assistance to all companies willing to offer their products and services online.
- Help businesses that want to significantly digitalize their operations.
Two main support channels were introduced. The first channel offers online grants to develop modern e-commerce businesses. 90,000 small businesses will receive microgrants up to $2,400 to take advantage of e-commerce opportunities.
The second channel covers larger workloads and requires working with a certified and experienced digital transformation expert. This channel is called ‘Boost Your Business Technology Grant’.
Who is eligible for the grant?
- Be incorporated federally or provincially, or be a Canadian resident sole proprietor
- Be a for-profit, privately owned business
- Have between 1 – 499 full-time equivalent employees
- Have at least CAD$500,000 of annual revenues in one of the previous three tax years.
The first step in funding your business with CDAP
First, you need to get acquainted with all the CDAP funding criteria. This official website has all the tools to guide you with the eligibility criteria, assessment tools, and more information about the CDAP application process. As a certified CDAP digital advisor, Customerization team can provide you with qualified assistance before submitting your application and help you define the success criteria.The ‘Boost Your Digital Technology’ program that the digital government Canada offers, applies to a specific list of services. These are aimed to boost a company’s digital maturity, its automation-driven business growth opportunities, and competitiveness. The grant is not meant for buying new equipment, software, or appliances for the company. This type of funding is intended for paying advisors for the strategic work to develop a thorough plan of digital technology evolution.
To summarize, the first big step is to get qualified for the grant and then to pass the digital readiness assessment to get accepted to the program. It is broken down into 4 main sub-steps (all in all should not take you more than a couple of hours):
- Canadian SMEs access the Stream assessment tool on the CDAP website.
- Eligible SMEs are directed to Stream 2.
- SMEs use the Digital Needs Assessment (DNA) tool to assess their digital maturity.
- SMEs accepted into Stream 2 are provided access to CDAP’s Digital Advisor Marketplace to find a Digital Advisor to work with. You can choose Customerization Inc. or any other verified advisor from the CDAP marketplace.
The second step in funding your business
After the owner of the company got the green light – the email they’ve been accepted to the program and got access to the Advisor Portal to choose the right advisor for their needs – it is now the digital advisor’s job to provide the following services:
- Assess all the requirements of every business, considering the area in which it is growing and wants to digitize OR close the biggest digital gaps;
- Come up with a number of optimal solutions, referencing the future budget and various business goals;
- Develop the required strategy.
When ready, reviewed, adjusted and approved by the grant recipient, the Digital Advisor’s plan alongside the invoice should be uploaded to the CDAP Portal by the business owner. As a result, upon the approval of the deliverables by the CDAP team, the Grow Your Business Online Grant recoups up to 90% of all advisor expenses (the cap for coverage is CAD$15,000)
Basic conditions for getting the grant
One of such conditions is the obligatory collaboration with a state-approved partner. In other words, qualified digital advisors whose job it is to assess the digital maturity of every grant applicant. Apart from that, the advisors evaluate all business opportunities of the company. The main question will be answered: How can a company utilize the opportunities offered by innovative technology platforms?
After the CDAP digital advisor has completing the in-depth evaluations, you get the following information and insights:
- The picture of the current state of the business (how we’re operating now across business processes; where we’re stuck and why; what solutions have we brainstormed already, etc.));
- A comprehensive report on the company’s opportunities after the digital transformation;
- A list of all proposed relevant digital solutions (the advisor (Customerization) conducts an analysis of expenses, benefits, a list of requirements for a company);
- A recommended short- and long term digital strategy for future growth;
- An implementation map of the project (lists the planned stages, opportunities, pricing and more).
So, don’t waste time on figuring out how digital adoption works in Canada – just go ahead and get qualified help funded by the Canadian Government.
Future digital transformation: what’s next?
Once you have all the aforementioned documents, you choose to pause and can say your process of getting the Boost Your Business Technology Grant has come to an end. That said, we don’t recommend that!! To fully accomplish the process you need to actually start your digital transformation and implement the recommended solutions.
To help with that, count on getting an interest-free loan via BDC.
Loan amounts
- Business revenues of $500,000 to $5 million: loans between $25,000 and $50,000
- Business revenues over $5 million: loans between $25,000 and $100,000
Terms
- The loan has a 5-year term with 12-month capital postponement (total of 6 years).
- There are no fees.
- You have 1 year from the completion of your approved plan to make a loan request.
- You must meet BDC creditworthiness requirements.
To learn more, you need to contact BDC or CDAP.
Amongst additional business opportunities, businesses can get subsidies to hire a post-secondary student or recent graduate through a subsidized work placement.
. You can hire talented students or recent graduates to help your business achieve its digital adoption goals. You will receive a wage subsidy of up to $7,300 to hire talent through a work placement.
As a result, you could hire a student or graduate with no experience, through your own initiative as part of the company’s digital transformation or adoption of digital technology.
Summary
To get maximum benefits from your digital investments, you will need to utilize expert help from specialists who genuinely understand how to launch digital transformation and develop a plan to adopt it successfully. Experienced professionals can guarantee you a comprehensive range of services and complete control at every stage of operation. Business owners can get an answer to the main question: their company benefit from a well-organized transformational funding opportunity from the Canadian government.
If you think you qualify and would like to advance this opportunity with Customerization, LET’S CHAT! Book a call to discuss HERE.
You can find more information about the grant and start your application HERE.
