Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to share with you information about the digital technology adoption pilot program.
My name is Bogdan Ciobanu. I am the Vice President of the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, more commonly known as IRAP. With me today are my colleagues Jason Charron and Drew De Kergommeaux.
For those of you who are not familiar with our organization, IRAP provides direct services to innovative businesses in all industry sectors and communities across Canada. We work with small and medium-sized businesses to help them develop, adopt, and adapt technologies and incorporate them into competitive products and services to be commercialized in the global marketplace.
Through an extensive network of field staff, IRAP is providing SMEs with a comprehensive suite of innovation-related services and funding. The thousands of clients IRAP serves every year interact directly with our field staff of over 200 industrial technology advisers.
Through IRAP, clients can also access the innovation expertise and infrastructure available in Canadian universities and colleges, research labs, business accelerators, and other organizations active in the innovation system. In addition, clients can receive funding to help them undertake R and D projects with a clear commercial outcome.
IRAP's business model has been considered a successful one by different studies and reports. The most recent evaluation, covering the period from 2007 to 2012, found that IRAP's clients spend more in R and D and grow faster than non-IRAP clients. For every IRAP dollar invested, the clients generated on average $10 in revenue.
Let me now refer more specifically to IRAP's role to support the adoption by SMEs of digital technologies. The digital technology adoption pilot program, DTAPP, was launched in November 2011, with the mandate to increase the productivity and competitiveness of SMEs through the accelerated adoption of digital technologies. In line with IRAP's business model, DTAPP clients receive not only funding, but also advisory services to help them clarify needs, identify solutions, and select the most appropriate technologies and implement them successfully in their businesses.
A few weeks ago an evaluation of DTAPP's first year of activity was finalized. I am very pleased to inform you that the implementation of the program and its capacity to meet objectives were positively reported, and the program is demonstrating a significant and positive impact on firms.
Client firms report that with DTAPP's support they have been able to lower production costs, increase productivity, improve and fully integrate management systems, and improve the quality of products and services. More specifically, 90% of firms report having achieved success with their DTAPP projects, with 71 % meeting or exceeding their expectations. Fully 92% indicate that the project had a positive impact on productivity, and 89% of firms have increased their technical capabilities through their DTAPP engagement.
Since the beginning of the program, 731 firms have been participating in DTAPP, 511 of which have received funding. As of today, 118 SMEs have completed the digital adoption project and because of DTAPP, 87% of those firms are more likely to undertake another digital technology adoption project.
We are finding that firms need to adopt digital technologies in order to maintain or increase competitiveness in existing markets, to enter new markets, and because of customer pressure, to improve product quality or price. The biggest challenges they face are the availability of expertise, inadequate business processes, lack of leadership, resistance to change, and the high costs associated with digital technology integration.
In conclusion, DTAPP works with clients and the best experts in the field to identify solutions that are best suited to their productivity issues. If the best solutions include the adoption of a digital technology, the program will help them to select the most appropriate technology and integrate it into their activities.
This concludes my remarks. Thank you very much for your attention. I am happy to take any questions you may have.