Serive design vouchers 2017

Service Design Vouchers are part of a Dutch government subsidy scheme for SME businesses in the manufacturing industry that want to develop services which are related to their products. Many SME companies in the manufacturing industry are keen to provide extra services to their customers in addition to the products or technology they supply. They do this as a way of setting themselves apart in the market or to capitalise on the latest trends.

In other words, it is service-based innovation with a suitable revenue model. One ever-increasing trend is to reduce the burden on the customer, such as by offering maintenance or insight into product usage based on data analytics. When combined with new technologies such as the Internet of Things and virtual reality, this approach offers endless possibilities.

Subsidy scheme

In this context, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs offers a subsidy scheme to help SME companies in the manufacturing industry. From 1 March 2017, such companies can make use of a Service Design Voucher, which can be used for a particular project. This enables the companies to ‘buy’ support in various areas – e.g. context mapping, service blueprinting, drawing up personas/profiles and prototyping. The voucher can be spent with knowledge institutes or consultancy firms that will help the SME companies with their issues.

For more information, see the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) website or www.servicedesignvoucher.nl (in Dutch only).