Press release
New portal will help businesses to further embrace digitalisation
From Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Published on
Last updated on
Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary, today launched Grow Digital, a new website that allows businesses to assess their digital capability and then advise on the supports available to improve their offering through digital technologies.
The portal provides bespoke advice and recommendations and highlights supports available from government through agencies such as the Local Enterprise Offices, Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta and IDA Ireland, alongside additional training and funding options.
Speaking about the portal, Minister Calleary said:
"I am delighted to announce the launch of Grow Digital, a digital toolkit for all businesses, to help them to embrace the opportunities that digital technologies and tools can offer. This is a free service that has been funded under the Digital Transition Fund.
"Grow Digital can help businesses at any stage of their digital journey, but especially for those who are just starting out. They can use the tool to assess where they are now, what they can do moving forward, and where they can go to get help. An essential feature of the portal is the Grow Digital Scorecard which provides bespoke advice alongside information on potential supports and funding options.
"It is a priority for government to drive a step change in digital adoption in all enterprises. The launch of Grow Digital is a key deliverable under Harnessing Digital, our National Digital Strategy, and will help us to achieve our targets of 90% of SMEs having at least basic digital intensity, and at least 75% take-up of AI, Cloud, and Data Analytics by 2030."
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Peter Burke, said:
"Digitalisation can unlock new opportunities and the focus of this portal is to identify these opportunities and enable businesses to pursue them. We know that there is no once size fits all approach for digitalisation, and the portal has been developed with this in mind.
"Businesses can also use the portal to learn more about the benefits of digitalisation and identify what steps and digital tools they can consider to become more competitive and efficient, and to enhance their customer service.
"Grow Digital has a case study catalogue with digital success stories from a range of businesses, showcasing how they have embraced digital solutions to boost their operations. Over time this catalogue will grow to include more businesses across a range of sectors, and from every county."
Visit Grow Digital.
Grow Digital has been developed in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland, with detailed input from the Local Enterprise Offices, Údarás na Gaeltachta, and IDA Ireland.
This project has been funded by the Digital Transition Fund under Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
In response to the crisis caused by COVID-19, the European Commission brought forward the recovery instrument NextGenerationEU. The centrepiece of NextGenerationEU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) - an instrument that offers grants and loans to support reforms and investments in the EU Member States. RRF funds are being provided to Member States in line with their National Recovery and Resilience plans (NRRP) – the roadmaps to reforms and investments aimed to make EU economies greener, digital and more resilient.
As part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the Digital Transition Fund will drive transformative digitalisation of enterprise in Ireland, particularly amongst SMEs. The Digital Transition Fund has been allocated funding of €85 million during the period to 2026.
The programme will help companies at all stages of their digitalisation journey - from the early days of simply going online to digitalisation of products and business processes, to facilitating exporting and to using digital technologies to develop new markets and business models. This will bring about productivity gains, access to new markets, increased innovation, and improved competitiveness.