Everything you need to know about CDAP  

Introduction  

The Canada Digital Adoption Program, also knows as CDAP, has been established by the Canadian government to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) realize their full potential by adopting digital technologies.

With the increasing number of businesses moving towards automating their operations, a large number of SMEs have experienced a decelerated growth rate due to lack of such resources. To bridge this increasing gap, CDAP has come up with two separate funding components:

1.  Grow your Business Online including micro-grants of up to $2,400
2.  Boost your Business Technology including higher grants of up to $15,000

The Grow your Business Online grant will help up to 90,000 small businesses take advantage of e-commerce opportunities. The Boost Your Business Technology grant will give small and medium Canadian-owned businesses (SMEs) the support they need to adopt new technologies. The grants are determined to offset the cost of retaining digital advisors who will develop digital adoption plans tailored to the businesses. This grant will help businesses increase their competitiveness in the digital economy.

What is a digital adoption plan?  

A digital adoption plan is a business plan that helps small and medium businesses to adopt new technologies. It’s an actionable plan that helps SMEs become digitally ready to meet their unique goals. A digital adoption plan can help you in the following ways:

• Build an internal structure for your organization’s future needs
• Identify problem areas in your company
• Providing you with a roadmap for your digital transformation journey to capitalize on new technologies

How does CDAP Grant support businesses?  

CDAP Grants are available to eligible small and medium Canadian-owned businesses. Grantees will receive 90% of the cost to develop a digital adoption plan, up to $15,000.

In order to receive a grant through this program:

• You must be eligible as a Canadian-owned for-profit business, with the number of employees ranging from 1-499. See here for more details on the eligibility criteria
• CDAP will determine the size of the grant payment on the basis of an invoice containing the final cost of the Digital Adoption Plan developed by a Digital Advisor listed on the Digital Advisor Marketplace

Note: Businesses enrolling can also secure a 0% interest loan up to $100,000 from Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)

The Digital Adoption Partner Program is an exciting new way for businesses to take advantage of digital transformation. Find more details here.