Small Business Act Database of Good Practices. [ User's Guide ]

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Small Business Act

Database of Good Practices

[

User's Guide

]

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User Manual Contents • i

Welcome

1 How to...

2

Searching the Good Practice Database ... 2

Printing Good Practices ... 4

Sending Feedback about a Good Practice ... 5

Page Details

6

Good Practice List ... 6

Search ... 6

Search Results ... 7

Good Practice Details ... 8

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User Manual Welcome • 1

Welcome

Adopted in June 2008, the "Small Business Act" for Europe (SBA) reflects the Commission's political will to recognise the central role of SMEs in the EU economy and for the first time puts into place a comprehensive SME policy framework for the EU and its Member States.

It aims to improve the overall approach to entrepreneurship, to irreversibly anchor the "Think Small first" principle in policy making from regulation to public service, and to promote SMEs' growth by helping them tackle the remaining problems which hamper their development.

The Small Business Act for Europe applies to all companies which are independent and have fewer than 250 employees: 99% of all European businesses.

In many areas of SME policy, the European Commission works in partnership with the Member States by facilitating the identification and exchange of good practices. For many years, this process was rooted in the European Charter for Small Businesses, and this method has been continued and widened under the priorities of the Small Business Act for Europe.

A database of good practices identified in this manner is available. It consists of two interrelated web applications i.e.:

 Public database consultation tool:

Consultation tool open to the general public for consultation purposes  Restricted database maintenance tool:

Management tool requiring a login to edit the database

This Help explains how to use the

public database consultation

tool

.

What is a 'good practice'?

A "good practice" is generally accepted to illustrate an approach that deserves the attention and interest of other policy makers or practitioners. Their purpose is to inspire further change and "better practice" as practitioners look beyond their local circumstances and national boundaries.

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User Manual How To… • 2

How to...

Searching the Good Practice Database

Extended search options allow you to find published good practices that were submitted by Member States and published by the European Commission.

Good practices can be found based on any combination of the following information:  submitting country

 specific policy area

 some text in the title or description  year of submission

 source

♦ To find a good practice

1. Click the Access the database button at the bottom of the good practices database startup page.

Or,

Select Good Practice list on the left hand side menu bar. 2. Complete the Search section as follows:

Country The country that submitted the searched good practice.

SBA policy area The specific policy area to which the searched good practice relates. Text A meaningful word or other text contained in the title or description

of the searched good practice. Year of

submission

The year of submission of the searched good practice to the database.

Source The specific entity that served as the source for the searched good practice.

ID If you are looking for a specific good practice and you know its unique sequential ID, enter it here.

3. Click Search.

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Small Business Act – Database of Good Practices

4. To view the details of a good practice in the list, click on the hyperlink of its title in the list of found good practices:

Result: This will give summary information about the selected good practice:

5. To view the full details of the selected good practice, click at the bottom right of the page.

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Printing Good Practices

A Print feature is available from the Good Practice list as well as from good practice detail pages to print information about one or several published good practices.

♦ To print good practices

1. Click the Access the database button at the bottom of the good practices database startup page.

Or,

Select Good Practice list on the left hand side menu bar.

2. Complete the Search section to find the good practice(s) that you want to print and click Search.

Result: The list of good practices matching your search is displayed.

3. Select the check box(es) in front of the good practice(s) that you want to print. Or

Select the All hyperlink in the Country column heading to select them all.

4. Click the Print this list icon at the top left of the list:

Result: This will display a printer-friendly page with the details of the selected good

practice(s).

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Sending Feedback about a Good Practice

When consulting the details of a good practice from the database, you may wish to add comments or request additional details or clarifications. The 'feedback' feature is used for this purpose. It will open a blank email to be sent to the SBA Support Office.

♦ To send feedback about a good practice

1. Click the Access the database button at the bottom of the good practices database startup page

Or,

Select Good Practice list on the left hand side menu bar.

2. Complete the Search section to find the good practice(s) about which you want to send feedback, and click Search.

Result: The list of good practices matching your search is displayed.

3. Click on the Title hyperlink of the good practice about which you wish to send feedback:

Result: This will give summary information about the selected good practice.

4. Click the Send feedback about this good practice hyperlink at the bottom of the page.

Result: A blank message appears in your email program.

5. Type your request in the message body and send it.

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User Manual Page Details • 6

Page Details

Good Practice List

The Good Practice List appears when you select the Good Practice list hyperlink on the left hand-side menu bar:

The Good Practice List is divided into two sections:  Search

 Search Results

Search

The upper Search section is where you enter your search criteria:

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Country The country that submitted the searched good practice.

SBA policy area The specific policy area to which the searched good practice relates.

Text A meaningful word or other text contained in the title or description of

the searched good practice.

Year of submission The year of submission of the searched good practice to the database.

Source The specific entity that served as the source for the searched good

practice.

ID If you are looking for a specific good practice and you know its unique sequential ID, enter it here.

Search Results

The lower section is populated after performing a search. It lists all good practices matching the applied search criteria:

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Good Practice Details

The details of a good practice appear when you click the Title hyperlink or a language icon from the Translation column of a good practice from the Good Practice List page.

The default page displays a summary of the selected good practice:

To view the full details of the displayed good practice, click the Show all details button at the bottom right of the summary section.

You can further:

 View the details of the good practice translated in another language (if available): Click the appropriate language icon in the Translations section at the top of the page:

 Print the full details of the selected good practice: Click at the top right of the page.

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User Manual Reporting an Informatation Security Incident • 9

Reporting an Information

Security Incident

Should you have any concern regarding to the security, privacy or confidentiality of the information accessible on the Good Practice website, please report this online using the dedicated DG Growth incident report form available from the general Contact page.

♦ To report an information security incident

1. Click the Contact hyperlink at the top (or at the bottom) of any Good Practice page:

2. On the Growth Contact page, expand the Website security incidents reporting section, and then select the dedicated form hyperlink:

3. Complete the online form with all required information about the incident that you wish to report.

4. Click Submit the form at the bottom of the form.

What is an 'information security incident'?

The following can be considered as information security incidents:

– Unauthorised access attempts (hacking)

– Unauthorised scanning of networks or computers – Denial of service (DoS) attacks

– Defacement of websites

– Theft, or loss of critical data or IT equipment – Disclosure of private information

– Disclosure of passwords or other authentication credentials – Unmanaged virus or malware infections

– Any other suspicious events or queries.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THE ONLINE FORM FOR REPORTING ANY OTHER TYPE OF INCIDENT!