6. Enabling new business models for SMEs, the skilled craft sector and services Our goal is to get our small and mid-size companies to actively engage in the digitisation process so they can strengthen their market positions in the future and conquer new markets. There is still a lot to do in order to make this possible, in particular in the area of raising awareness for digital development possibilities. While 88% of all companies understand the connection between digitisation and commercial success, 51% of the SMEs surveyed said that digitisation is not (yet) part of their business strategy. 23 In the context of our already existing Digitising SMEs initiative (MittelstandDigital) we provide assistance to these companies in the form of user-friendly guidelines, case examples and events. 24 Involved in this initiative are: • numerous centres of excellence – one dedicated to skilled crafts in particular – that we are creating under the initiative SMEs 4.0 : Digital Production and Work Processes (Mittelstand 4.0 - Digitale Produktions- und Arbeitsprozesse); • four Mittelstand 4.0 agencies that delve into the topics of digital communication, cloud computing, process management and commerce, and provide support services; • the Go-Digital project with which we offer SMEs and skilled craft businesses financing for external advisory services in the three modules IT security, Internet marketing and digitised business processes (currently in the Ruhr area, Saxony and the Halle region); • and the go-Inno programme, for which we created the Innovation Management funding facility (Förderlinie Innovationsmanagement) that provides financing for 50% of consultancy services fees for enhancing innovation management in companies with less than 100 employees. 23 Source: DZ-Bank, Umfrage Digitalisierung: Bedeutung für den Mittelstand 2014 (2014 survey on digitisation and its significance for SMEs). 24 https://www.mittelstand-digital.de www.de.digital 37