You may have heard that the Federal government launched the Canada Digital Adoption Program recently. It is a combination of a grant and an interest-free loan for the following activities:
1) Adoption of e-commerce tools by customer-facing businesses (e.g. retail, hospitality) up to $2,400 per applicant
2) Technology assessment for small-to-medium-sized businesses (1-499 employees) to complete advanced technology assessment by one of the approved consultants – up to $15K per applicant
3) Purchasing and implementation of the technology (e.g. software, hardware) recommended as a result of the assessment – interest-free loan up to $100K
As we learned more about the program last week, we wanted to share some technical nuances with you:
- You need to create a GCKey account for your business and complete a 41-question technology self-assessment before applying for the grant.
- The grant application form is very basic and there is not much to write, to be honest.
- You can’t choose an approved technology consultant unless your grant application is approved.
- You can’t apply for the interest-free loan unless the approved technology consultant completes the digital technology assessment.
- You can apply for the interest-free loan only to purchase the technology recommended by the approved consultant. Whatever you selected yourself doesn’t count.
- The program bans contingency fees (% of the funding).
Based on all the above, we will offer our clients a program walkthrough assistance to help them to go through every step of the CDAP program via screen share.
Fill out Eligibility Check form at http://www.fgwinc.ca/