How to use government grants to grow your business ? iSPRINT ...

By the myBusiness techblog team

Thriving businesses know how important it is to have a strong Information Technology (IT) system to support their business processes. But for some, the cost of implementing such a system is an issue. It could be due to tighter budgets compared to their larger counterparts, and this limits their adoption of IT. To help companies accelerate their growth, the Singapore government has initiated the iSPRINT (Increase SME Productivity with Infocomm Adoption & Transformation) scheme under the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (iDA).

Under iSPRINT, businesses can receive subsidies of up to 70% of an IT project?s qualifying costs. However, this is only applicable to companies that are first-time users of IT. There are three types of projects that new companies can qualify for, and three prerequisites to consider before applying for grants (summarised below).

Types of Projects that Qualify for Grants

Packaged solutions

Solutions that cover basic business functions in Finance, Accounting, Payroll, Point-of-Sales and Software-as-a-Service with respect to the software cost, subscription costs, consultancy services and training costs fall into this category. For further details on the packaged solutions, click here, and for a list of IT software eligible for grants, click here.

Customised solutions

These solutions include customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning solutions. Companies can use the grant to cover any associated consultancy service fees and training costs related to these software.

Customised solutions that require extensive development efforts and business re-engineering

This category includes supply chain management solutions. Companies can tap on this to cover manpower-related costs, consultancy services, hardware and software costs, and training costs.

How to Qualify

• Your business is registered or incorporated in Singapore.
• At least 30% of your shareholding is local AND

1. your company?s group annual sales turnover is less than S$100 million OR
2. you have less than 200 employees*.

• For customised solutions, the development must be for first time automation of business functions, carried out in Singapore and the project must not have started before the grant is approved.

* Group Tracing: All levels up for corporate shareholder(s) holding more than 50% of total shareholding of a company, and all levels down for subsidiary(s) where applicant holds more than 50% of total shareholding.

Six Noteworthy Tips

Before proceeding, do note that:

• On average, it takes about 2 to 6 months to obtain a grant approval from iDA. So, if your business needs to implement IT solutions on a more immediate basis, and has sufficient IT funds, you might want to consider skipping it first, and applying on the next project. The grant is available until 31 March 2016.
• Companies have to fill in and submit a 6-page business proposal.
• Companies have to submit quotations from three IT solution providers in their application to iDA.
• Companies have to submit the latest ACRA business profile of their company and the appointed IT solution provider.
• Companies have to submit audited financial statements from the past two years.
• Find out more by visiting the iSPRINT website or contact iDA directly at ida_ino@ida.gov.sg or +65 6211 1212 for a consultation.

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Tagged as: Apps, Business, Cloud Computing / SaaS, Small Medium Enterprises, Tips and Tricks

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