One of our company's current initiatives is expansion. Closely connected with that broad concept is another: internationalization. The two are linked, and in fact the latter follows from the former.
Sounds a little complicated, right? Let me explain. To grow our organization with the help of entrepreneurial, well-educated and, most importantly, courageous people, we decided to expand beyond Poland — hence expansion. We set our sights not on one market, but several: Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, as well as the United States and Canada — hence internationalization. Our strategy is focused on promoting our flagship software, Business Zone. B-Zone is a powerful business platform that can replace many applications used to support different company operations (learn more about B-Zone). Confident in our capabilities and the competitive advantage of the solution, we moved into planning. The first obvious challenge was financing such an ambitious initiative across so many developed markets at once.
Fortunately, the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development launched an attractive initiative that could help finance our efforts to win foreign clients, enter global markets and build international alliances. We applied for funding aimed at covering the costs of introducing products or services from Eastern Poland to new foreign markets.
Summer was not exactly the ideal time to spend long hours in front of a computer, but this project mattered too much to us to let that stop us. We submitted the application on time and waited until the end of September for the results. And then we found out: we won! SKILL & CHILL was recommended for funding under the “SME Internationalization” competition organized by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. We ranked first with the maximum score of 18 points. The project is titled “Business Zone — internationalization of an innovative platform automating, optimizing and digitizing the entire procure-to-pay process.” Its total value is PLN 1,119,881.30, of which SKILL & CHILL received PLN 900,000.00 in European funding.
With the funding secured, the next step was to plan the strategy and activities needed to promote and sell Business Zone abroad. First came preparation of professional marketing materials. Then we identified events and conferences where we could present B-Zone. Our strategy includes participating in major trade fairs focused on automation, digitization and the wider IT industry in the countries selected for the internationalization project. We plan to visit the United States and Canada as well as closer target markets such as France, the United Kingdom and Germany. At these events we will distribute promotional materials, increase awareness of our software and expand our network of partners and clients. The project also includes business missions focused primarily on acquiring new Business Zone users.
And that's not all. We also decided to use specialist legal support to overcome legal barriers related to entering into contracts and preparing agreements. In addition, the website dedicated to our software will be translated into English, German, French and Italian.
A huge challenge lies ahead, but also remarkable experiences and opportunities for personal and professional growth, as well as the chance to strengthen our company's position both in Poland and internationally. The project will run throughout 2023, while our other responsibilities continue as usual.
Through the internationalization project, we plan to keep developing in our target markets. That will mean increasing our capacity by hiring excellent specialists, strengthening our position not only in Poland but around the world, building new strategic alliances, and above all raising awareness of our software and demonstrating its value internationally. How will it work in practice? We'll know in a year's time ;)
