What is the Digital Development Loan?
There is no doubt that the global coronavirus pandemic has impacted businesses and industries across the world. With a sense of urgency for businesses to adopt digital technologies, in order to keep providing their customers with their products and services, digital support and access to new technologies has never been in such high demand.
And so, the Scottish Government have introduced The Digital Development Loan to help support small to medium businesses to drive their digital capabilities.
What is the Digital Development Loan?
The main purpose of the loan is to improve digital skills within your workforce and develop your digital capabilities; by implementing new digital processes, integration, security, software, hardware, and other costs.With the opportunity to borrow between £5,000-£100,000 interest-free, with repayment terms of up to 5 years, this loan will be hugely beneficial for businesses in all industry sectors who have struggled during this period. If you are a limited business, charity, or third sector organisation and are registered in Scotland, then you will be eligible to apply for the Digital Development Loan. Other eligibility criteria include:
Applicants must be over 18
Have been trading for at least 6 months
Can provide a 12-month finances forecast; including a profit and loss account, balance sheet, and cash flow predictions.
For more information on the loan, check out this website.
How can I use this loan to benefit my business?
Essentially, this loan will give you the cash resources to be able to implement digital change across your organisation. This is when we can step in and help! After Digital has years of experience working with organisations creating digital transformation roadmaps that will introduce new ways of using digital to better connect with customers and engage your workforce.
What is a digital transformation roadmap?
Digital transformation involves changing the nature of how an organisation uses digital technologies to enhance business operations and productivity. Where consumer behaviour and technology is changing every day, we are in a time of digital disruption where there has never been such a high demand for digital transformation strategy to help businesses adjust and cope with the current climate.In our digital transformation workshops, we challenge existing thinking across senior leadership teams and encourage innovation through new business models and daily work processes to build a roadmap for change. By using the Digital Development Loan and working with us, you can work to create a new transformational roadmap that will help you better connect with your customers and improve digital skills across your workforce.We have worked with several great clients on their digital transformation projects. In fact, our most recent work with the University of Buckingham resulted in our team delivering a 2-year digital roadmap to the team, alongside a supporting business case and a range of detailed appendices covering various topics and recommendations. We separated the core recommendations into 3 key areas that we saw as being critical to success over the next 2 years:
Organisation and training
Systems and infrastructure
Website and digital marketing channels
Overall, their 2-year roadmap gave them a clear route for development, integrates previous investments into a more coherent plan, ensuring that the relevant skills are in place and that their students are at the centre of any decision; allowing them to scale with care. You can read the full case study here.
If our work with the University of Buckingham interests you or you're keen in finding out more about Digital Transformation or beginning your own digital evolution, but aren't sure where to start, we can help! Get in touch today.