CONTEXTCHALLENGES FACED BY THE FURNITURE SECTOR (NACE CODE 36)The furniture sector makes a significant contribution to the EU economy. It provides 1.08 million jobs, in close to 124.000 enterprises, mainly micro and small sized, with a turnover of €90 billion. The sector faces significant challenges as it was hit hard by the financial crisis and has not yet recovered. Since 2007 the number of companies dropped down notably, 280.000 job were lost and the turnover decreased by 34%. Also, imports, coupled with additional pressures form low wage economies, creates additional pressure.SOLUTION: Using the Internet as a sales channel to increase revenues from cross-border sales.OBJECTIVESBOSS4SMEs will develop the European Furniture Sector through development of the Online Sales Manager profile, a professional capable of devising e-Commerce strategies for increasing revenues from cross-border sales through utilisation of the Internet as a sales channel. The project targets SMEs from furniture and household sector (furniture and household manufacturers & retailers) as it is a dynamic sector in countries like Spain and Italy retaining a high number of jobs and needs to be supported and boosted. The profile and consequent competences in Europe are still underestimated, while the present e-Commerce environment can facilitate substantial growth. PARTICIPANTSThe partnership comprises 6 partners and an associate social partner:1. CENFIM, a furniture and household innovation and training centre will lead the project and guide the e-commerce contents preparation2. AMUEBLA, a furniture employers association –mainly upholstery furniture companies- will coordinate the pilot course and be in charge of dissemination to companies3. CCS, an educational software and content provider who will guide the partners in the preparation of the content, re-purpose the content and deliver it in a proven Learning Motivation Environment capable of engaging learners to the learning process (Project Output 3).4. Europea Merchant, an ECVET expert training organisation and consultancy with expertise also in quality assurance of E&T projects who will guide the activities for the methodological framework and supporting ECVET tools (Project Output 1).5. AMIC, a furniture companies association –mainly cabinet and bedroom furniture companies- will collaborate in pilot course and will be in charge of EU dissemination to stakeholders6. DANMAR, a vocational training organisation in the field of Information Technology and developer of e-learning and customised ICT solutions will guide activities for the implementation of a "Strategy Genie" (Project Output 2). Associate Partner: UEA - European Furniture Manufacturers AssociationMETHODOLOGYThe BOSS4SMEs will deliver a complete training program on cross-border e-Commerce for furniture sector SMEs. The project methodology can be summarized as follows:- Make a comparative analysis from a critical viewpoint of the current state of play in e-Commerce practices of furniture sector in the partner countries (analysed at proposal level initially) and identify the winning practices from furniture sector SMEs from countries topping the e-Commerce charts in terms of cross-border sales - Validate the needs of furniture SMEs from the partner countries in relation to knowledge and skills for implementing the winning practices and identify and describe the learning outcomes for the Online Sales Manager- Elaborate a training methodology and a set of e-Commerce strategies for the furniture sector SMEs- Devise the list of actions to be implemented by the SMEs for materialising each of the strategies- Design and develop the Online Sales Manager (OSM) course to support the implementation of the actions- Localise the strategies, actions and content- Implement the ECVET tools- Design the e-Commerce Genie to facilitate the personalisation of the e-Commerce strategies at individual SME level and deliver the actions for materialising each strategy- Deploy, set-up and configure the Learning Motivation Environment.- Re-purpose and integrate the content as interactive multimedia resources for skills retention- Train a number of appointed instructors/trainers to the methodology, course and delivery tools- Organise pilots- Process resultsRESULTS- Online Sales Manager Training Content- ECVET supporting tools- e-Commerce Strategy Genie- BOSS4SMEs Learning Motivation Environment- BOSS4SMEs AcademyLONG TERM BENEFITS- Improvement of VET providers offer for e-Commerce in furniture- Improvement of companies’ sales performances increasing their e-Commerce cross-border capabilities- Improvement of companies’ capacity to respond to new consumers trends- Increase in EU companies competitiveness in world markets and answering to competitive threats coming from low-costs countries producers- Stimulating high qualified profiles and helping the EU achieve a higher rate of active population in ICT economy.
BOSS4SME - Boosting Online cross-border Sales for furniture and household SMEs CONTEXT The furniture sector is relevant for the European economy (120.000 companies, 1.000.000 jobs, 98% SMEs, 100 billion turnover). The crisis of 2007 caused a 35% drop in the turnover and the loss of 300.000 jobs. Digitization, in this case related to sales, represents a great opportunity for SMEs to increase their sales and create jobs. SUMMARY BOSS4SME (www.boss4sme.com) aims to improve the competitiveness of furniture and habitat companies by developing the "Online Sales Manager" professional profile. This professional will be able to implement e-Commerce strategies to increase transnational online sales. The project has lasted 2 years (2017-18) and has been financed by the SEPIE Spanish agency through the Erasmus+ program (Ref. 2016-1-ES01-KA202-025724). OBJECTIVES BOSS4SME targets furniture and habitat SMEs - manufacturers and retailers -. In Spain and Italy, it is a very dynamic sector and with a significant number of workers. The main objectives of the project were: 1.- Develop a complete online course for the "Online Sales Manager" occupational profile. 2.- Improve the training offer for the furniture and habitat sector in e-Commerce. 3.- Improve the skills of furniture and habitat SMEs in online sales. 4.- Increase sales of SMEs through transnational e-Commerce strategies. PARTNERSHIP The consortium involved 6 entities from 4 countries: Spain, Greece, Italy and Poland. CENFIM - Catalan Furnishings Cluster and Innovation Hub, as project coordinator; the furniture business associations AMIC and AMUEBLA; the educational software developer CRYSTAL CLEAR SOFT; the training quality expert EUROCREA MERCHANT and the e-learning developer DANMAR COMPUTERS. CENFIM - Coordinator and VET provider / Spain / www.cenfim.org AMIC - Furniture Business association / Spain / www.amicmoble.org AMUEBLA - Furniture Business association / Spain / www.amueblacooperacion.es CRYSTAL CLEAR SOFT - Expert in digital media / Greece / www.ccseducation.com EUROCREA MERCHANT - Expert in quality / Italy / www.eurocreamerchant.it DANMAR COMPUTERS - E-learning developer / Poland / www.danmar-computers.com.pl ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS Analysis of e-Commerce current practices in the participating countries (ES, IT, PL and GR) and comparison with the e-Commerce winning strategies in leading European countries. Identification of the knowledge, skills and competencies needed by the "Online Sales Manager" to successfully implement winning strategies in e-Commerce. Verification and validation of the competencies with 52 furniture and habitat SMEs. Preparation of the training contents to allow the "Online Sales Manager" acquiring the needed skills. Preparation of the 42 training pills, totally adapted to the furniture and habitat sector, in 5 languages - EN, ES, IT, GR, PL -. Design of the joint curriculum for the "Online Sales Manager" in accordance with ECVET system. Preparation and signing of a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) among partners. Implementation of the training material in an e-learning platform called "BOSS4SME Genie". The platform supports the "Online Sales Manager" to create a personalized e-Commerce strategy considering the specific characteristics of his/her business. Creation on the project web of the student support service: "ACADEMY". Dissemination of the results among the target groups. Organization of 7 multiplier events in the 4 partners countries to present and validate the project results (305 participants). IMPACT The main target group has been: "Furniture and habitat companies". Partners have 8.000 contacts in the sector and 4.000 in others. All these contacts have received the project results (through emailing, newsletters, videos, brochures, presentations, news, posts, etc.). In the validation phase, 52 SMEs were involved. Seven multiplier events were organized in 4 countries (ES, GR, IT, PL), with a total of 305 participants. Pilot course: 53 participants. Project results were sent to the 3 European federations of the sector (UEA, EFIC and EFBWW). These entities have disseminated the results among their national and regional members. BOSS4SME has appeared 50 times in the press. It has been presented in 33 events (3.160 participants). The web (www.boss4sme.com) is available in 5 languages - EN, ES, IT, GR, PL - and it contains the project public results, including the BOSS4SME Genie - "Online Sales Manager" course.