DigitalEES by DW. Digital technology at the service of the region's social economy companies!

DigitalEES by DW is a pilot program aimed at Walloon social economy companies wishing to use digital technology to serve their social purpose. The program is supported by the Walloon Government and coordinated by AdN in close collaboration with UNIPSO and ConcertES.

• To make life easier for patients, there's a programmable electronic pill dispenser that automatically delivers medication to the patient.
• Pour venir en aide aux personnes sans domicile fixe, une mobile application lists essential services.
• Or the delivery of eco-responsible products is now made easier by a logiciel.

And yes, digital technology serving the social purpose of business is already a reality, encouraged and supported by the Walloon Government through its Digital Wallonia strategy. With the help of the Walloon Government, AdN, in collaboration with UNIPSO and ConcertES launch the Digital EES.

DigitalEES by DW est une nouvelle opportunité pour les entreprises d'économie sociale wallonnes pour se réinventer et mettre le digital au service de leur finalité sociale.

The DigitalEES by DW program aims to 6 key objectives :

• Making social economy enterprises (SEEs) aware of digital opportunities;
• Provide an online digital maturity self-diagnostic tool;
• Help fifteen pilot companies draw up a digital transformation plan;
• Develop a methodology for supporting digital transformation;
• Provide financial support for the digital transformation of social enterprises through "digitalization grants";
• Share experiences and digitalization, and create a Walloon network on the subject.

DigitalEES by DW is aimed at managers and executives of 6,600 SEEs, including social profit companies., Social Economy all levels of digital maturity, which are characterized by a community services.  They produce goods and services in a wide range of activities : health, social action, education and training, early childhood, socio-cultural, youth support, etc., and represents more than 150,000 jobs in Wallonia !

A study conducted by the King Baudouin Foundation in 2019 on the digital maturity of the associative sector reveals that there is a large difference in maturity levels between players in the associative sector, although 87% of associations perceive the relevance and necessity of embarking on the path to digitalization. The associative sector interprets digitalization as a means of increasing the internal processes, impact and efficiency of their activities..

The study concludes that it is important to make associations aware of the existence of reliable and affordable digital tools, to raise awareness of the advantages and rapid possibilities of digitalization (quick-win), to provide appropriate tools, to designate a reference person (coach), to share success stories, to help develop a digital strategy (coaching), to support the technical transition to harmonize tools, to build bridges between associations, universities and private companies (networking).

At the same time, in 2019 the Walloon Region financed a project on the’impact of digital transformation in the personal services sector. This study highlighted a series of recommendations to which the DigitalEES by DW wishes to respond to: awareness-raising, financing, consultation, training, simplification.

The aim of this project is to test a support methodology social economy companies in their digital transformation. Indeed, this methodology, inspired by that developed by "Made Different" combine accompagnement technologique et humain.

This experimental and innovative methodology consists of :

1. Informing and raising awareness among social economy enterprise (SEE) managers on the benefits and opportunities of digitalization;
2. Assessing digital maturity of its business. To this end, an initial self-diagnosis test tool specially designed for SEEs has been made available. From 2022, companies with a social purpose will have the opportunity to evaluate themselves in the same way as all Walloon companies, and to compare their results with other companies in the same sector of activity;
3. Supporting the digital transformation of HEIs. 15 social economy enterprises (SEEs) that have expressed an interest will be supported for one year to draw up an action plan for one or two digital transformations - Link to get started page. These SEEs will contribute to the co-construction of a support methodology which will be made available to all HEIs;
4. Financial support for the digital transformation of HEIs. A call for projects entitled "Bourse digitalisation en économie sociale" will be sent to SEEs: both those that have received support in drawing up a digital transformation action plan, and those with a sufficiently high level of maturity that have not received support;
5. Promoting digitized SEAs. The project also aims to promote those HEIs that have made progress in this area, and those that have received assistance and support in implementing their digitalization process.

To disseminate best practices and transferable lessons, five deliverables will be made available to all social economy enterprises (SEEs):

• A digitization guide for SEEs to prepare them for a digitization process, with key stages in digitization, best practices, pitfalls to avoid, conditions for success, levers and obstacles, and the development of an action plan.
• An online tool for self-assessment of SEEs' digital maturity.
• Training content on the digital transition of social enterprises (conditions for success, points of attention, experience sharing, mentoring, etc.) for sector federations and HEI management.
• An online guide to resources for financing the digitization process in HEIs.
• An evaluation report on the pilot project, presenting the overall approach, the results obtained and testimonials from digitized SEAs.

The richness of the project lies in the Digital Agency's collaboration with two major players in the UNIPSO social profit sector and the ConcertES social economy. These two organizations are leveraging their knowledge of Wallonia's social economy businesses, as well as their network of companies, to promote, raise awareness and inform stakeholders of the opportunities offered by digitalization, and in particular, by this pilot project. This project would not exist without the support and confidence of the Walloon Government and the methodological contribution of the consortium Lentic, IDEA and CES.