EDI Confcommercio

EDI (Ecosistema Digitale per l’Innovazione), the Digital Innovation Hub of Confcommercio, plays a pivotal role in supporting businesses through the challenges of digital and sustainable transformation. The DIH is part of the national and European network of organizations designed to foster the integration of digital technologies into businesses. Following a detailed overview of the main activities: 1. Awareness and Cultural Diffusion EDI is committed to spreading digital culture and innovation among businesses, especially focusing on SMEs in sectors like tourism, commerce, logistics and transportation, professional services, advanced tertiary services, and business to consumer services. It conducts workshops, seminars, meetings, and conferences led by innovation experts. 2. Business Assessment EDI provides tools for self-assessment and expert evaluations of digital, technological, financial, and sustainability maturity. This includes analyzing the technologies adopted, management systems, financial and technical capabilities. The aim is to diagnose needs and guide businesses towards the most appropriate digital and innovative solutions, ranging from training to project design and digital services. 3. Training EDI provides modular training pathways on key themes of digital transformation, innovation, and enabling technologies. These training programs are tailored to the needs of target businesses and include video lessons, webinars, seminars, project work, and courses that cover a broad spectrum of topics from digital literacy to specialized technology use. EDI also conducts "Train-the-Trainer" activities to ensure the information and assistance provided to businesses are up-to-date and highly qualified. 4. Research & Innovation Projects EDI participates in research and innovation projects with a special focus on digital transformation, key enabling technologies, and sustainability. It promotes projects at both national and international levels that facilitate business aggregations and partnerships, focusing on industrial research, experimental development, innovation, training, and technology transfer across a range of sectors. 5. Funding and Investment Search EDI assists businesses in accessing private, public, local, national, and European financial tools for investments in digital transformation. Additionally, EDI offers a catalog of project ideas to support SMEs innovation projects. 6. Specialized Consulting Through personalized support, EDI offers consultancy in adopting new digital and enabling technologies, drafting business plans and models, and supports businesses with acceleration services and business clinics. EDI's marketplace aggregates qualified technology partners to provide digital and innovative solutions, facilitating the match between supply and demand in innovation. 7. Networking and Ecosystems EDI fosters a network of collaborations and interactions among key stakeholders in the digitalization process, including SMEs, startups, entrepreneurs, competence centers, universities, research centers, technology parks, investors, and local authorities. This ecosystem facilitates the flow of information and resources among innovation actors and promotes the transfer of skills and knowledge, connecting networks across the national territory. 8. Open Innovation EDI organizes contests and challenges to stimulate competition of startups in generating innovative ideasfor traditional SMEs. It supports businesses in validating and prototyping innovative project ideas and products through scouting, testing, and mentorship activities. EDI actively engages in regional, national, and European policy initiatives aimed at digitizing the industry. At the EU level, EDI is involved in the Digital Europe Programme within the European Digital Innovation Hubs initiative to fostering digital innovation across Europe. It is also part of the network recognized by the National Enterprise 4.0 Plan and at national level it is acknowledged as the leader of EDI 5.0, a new Digital Innovation Hub funded by the Italian Ministry of Made in Italy. EDI has also been actively involved in the national government programme "Repubblica Digitale" through its programs SpintaDigitale and EDITraining, which focus on digital literacy and skills development. EDI through its local network collaborates also with regional partners to promote digital transformation at the territorial level, contributing significantly to the educational and skill development efforts of policy initiatives.