Partnering

The Enterprise Europe Network here in Scotland has great experience of helping local companies to grow their business through finding partners abroad. One of our core services is promoting partnership profiles across our Network, be it of a technical, commercial or collaborative R&D nature. In this blog entry, Anna Chomicka tells us more about EEN partnering in practice.

As a fairly new member of a team I am really impressed how effectively Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) helps companies to develop their business and build partnerships across Europe.

If you are interested in finding international partners we can help you do that in a number of ways. 

We have access to the on-line European-wide database through which you can advertise your company’s collaboration profile and it can also be used as a way of seeking potential partners within Europe and beyond.

You would need to create a unique and anonymous profile, which would include things such as a description of your company’s activity, co-operation you are interested in, requirements and the characteristics of what you are looking for in a partner. The profile is then loaded on to a centralised database and will be disseminated to our EEN partners across Europe. Currently we have 49 Network partners.

Another way of looking for business partners would be through direct contact with our Network colleagues in other European countries. We can ask them to explore their local business community and source for instance potential distributors of a specific product and as a result of their regional market expertise they will provide us with relevant information.

As an example of a successful partnership process I can refer to my latest company engagement where I have successfully helped a Scottish Company to source a business partner in Portugal. 

Thanks to contacts made via the EEN, the Scottish company has decided to work with a Portuguese partner on their project, which is centred on link building for a car manufacturer. The role of the Portuguese company in this project is to act as a subcontractor for the Scottish company in carrying out this piece of work.

I met the Director of the Online Marketing Company to discuss how EEN can be of assistance in their European Business Development and after carrying out detailed research of the potential markets for the business, the company then decided to work with us to further investigate the opportunities.

One of the identified potential target countries was Portugal. In order to source suitable partner I got in touch with my Portuguese EEN colleague to find out if he was working with any companies that had the expertise in the relevant area and could be interested in the possible partnership. My colleague came back with a list of potential partners and my client made contact with suitable companies.

The result of that was that two companies opened discussions and negotiations in relation to the possible agreement between them. In the end companies agreed to work together on the project where a Scottish company was a main contractor.

The above is an example of Enterprise Europe Network involvement in the successful partner search. If you are a Scottish Company and looking to grow your business and find partners in Europe and beyond please get in touch. We will be more than happy to help you!

Get in touch with me via email - Anna.Chomicka@scotent.co.uk or 0141 242 8201