With the Co-Design project, SACE listens and designs the solutions of the future together with its business partners

Ever closer to SMEs, with dedicated support, services that are increasingly accessible and digital, to understand the context and respond to new market challenges, targeted help to integrate the solutions offered by the whole system. Building on last year's results and the first responses already implemented, the second edition of the Co-Design Workshop of SACE - the Italian insurance-financial group specialising in supporting the sustainable growth of enterprises in Italy and around the world - once again opens the doors of its Rome headquarters to business partners.

Following the success of the pilot project launched last year, and in line with the strategy and objectives of the 2025 Business Plan, SACE continues to develop, together with the leading companies and professionals, the most effective solutions to support projects for the growth of SMEs and the Italian business fabric.

A pathway of listening and discussion that this year extends to brokers, accountants, consultants and credit brokers, fundamental partners and local points of reference for companies, especially SMEs, with the skills and experience required to understand their real needs and any gaps to be filled together with the solutions offered by the SACE Group. More than thirty companies from all over Italy were involved in this first workshop, which in the last quarter of this year will be followed by a new event with regional priorities, concerning the Made in Italy supply chain and sectors.

"We opened the doors of SACE to our partners with whom we work every day, to listen to their needs, understand their requirements and design innovative proposals for Italian SMEs together. In 2022 this Co-Design pathway already resulted in various products and services", said Antonio Frezza, Chief of SME Marketing & Sales of SACE. "In line with the INSIEME 2025 Business Plan, it is precisely with our partners and customers that we want to create concrete responses - through effective and efficient solutions and services - to the new needs arising from the macroeconomic and geopolitical context that we are experiencing."

The Co-Design project, which creates products tailored to the needs of the customer, makes SACE one of the first state-controlled companies to adopt this innovative business strategy, which is developed along five main axes: digitalisation, with the continuous improvement of the offer and online experience dedicated to businesses; the business network, which is increasingly enriched by figures able to ensure proximity and skills to companies; the Made in Italy supply chains as the fulcrum of the Italian entrepreneurial system; Education thanks to a training and skills development programme for companies; business matching, practical support to facilitate encounters between Italian SMEs and leading foreign buyers.

Among the main solutions and services that the SACE Group has already activated as a result of this initiative is the development of a new service and relationship model with companies that is more focused on support. This approach calls for the development of services that are increasingly accessible and digital, to understand the context and respond to the new challenges, and targeted help to integrate the solutions offered throughout the system. Consistent with this approach is the development of a group offer dedicated to addressing soaring energy prices, the enhancement of the Business Promotion programme with a browsable database on counterparties, and the online publication of the digital ‘Sanctions Risk Map’ to guide companies in the different markets.