For institutions and SME support programmes
For institutions, chambers and SME support programmes
See where firms systematically overestimate readiness, before support is committed.
AFT Global helps institutions test EU market readiness before resources are committed, turning firm-level assessments into cohort-level programme intelligence.
The entry point is the Institutional Licence: a structured reading of a defined SME cohort, showing where firms systematically overestimate readiness and what support should come first.
Where AFT sits in SME internationalisation programmes
Most SME support systems already provide
- Export promotion and trade missions
- Matchmaking, grants and advisory
- Institutional bilateral channels
- Multilateral and donor-funded programmes
Yet one question often remains unanswered
Is this specific firm ready to enter, operate and prove itself in the European Union market, before support is committed?
Pivot
Readiness needs to be tested, not assumed.
From firm assessment to cohort intelligence
The same architecture produces two outputs: a decision signal for the firm, and programme intelligence for the institution.
Entity level, Decision Pack output
- Readiness verdict: Go, Conditional Go, or Hold
- Capability profile across seven independent capabilities
- Priority blockers and evidence roadmap
- Next-step sequence for remediation
Cohort level, the Programme Intelligence Report
- Readiness distribution across the group
- Recurring gaps by prevalence and severity
- Programme design priorities
- Sponsor-ready reporting
The Institutional Licence
One licence, producing three outputs.
Every programme starts with the Institutional Licence. Your institution enrols a cohort of companies; each company completes its Baseline Assessment on the AFT platform: a structured measurement across the seven capability domains of the framework. Results are interpreted at capability level, rather than collapsed into a single overall score.
The licence produces three outputs:
- Baseline Assessment. Each company's structured, measured starting point for the European market.
- Decision Pack. An automatically generated, company-level reading: where the company stands, what is missing, what evidence the EU market will expect. It belongs to the company.
- Programme Intelligence Report. The cohort-level analysis your institution can present to boards, ministries and partners: readiness distribution, three key findings, recurring gaps across the seven capability domains, and the priorities for support.
Licences scale from a first cohort to a national programme, from the Foundation Licence to the Professional, Strategic and Flagship tiers, corresponding to progressively larger cohort sizes and programme scope.
Institutional Licence
- Cohort size
- From 10 companies. Thirty or more is the operational recommendation, the point at which the cohort reading becomes solid
- Focus
- One country, one sector, or a mixed strategic cohort
- Assessment
- A Baseline Assessment per company, across the seven capability domains
- Company output
- A Decision Pack: readiness verdict, priority blockers, evidence roadmap
- Institution output
- The Programme Intelligence Report: readiness distribution, recurring gaps, programme priorities
- Licence term
- Twelve months from the agreed cohort launch date
- Timeline
- An agreed window of 4 to 6 weeks for companies to complete the assessment. The Programme Intelligence Report is normally delivered within approximately two to three weeks after that window closes
- Delivery
- Fully online
Scope, reporting format, confidentiality and pricing are agreed per programme before kick-off.
Build your programme
Six components, combined around one Institutional Licence.
These are modular components, not fixed packages. The licence is the base; the rest is selected when the programme is designed, or added once the first results are in. A programme can stop after the initial reading, or run the full loop.
- Initial Reading. The licence alone. Measure the cohort, equip each company, read the whole.
- Insight. The Executive Debrief. A live, senior-level presentation of your Programme Intelligence Report, ninety minutes: what the results mean, and what your institution should do with them. It is also where the next components are chosen.
- Development. Capability Building Sessions. Interactive online sessions built on the gaps your cohort actually shows, in any of the seven domains. Structured expert input, interpretation of your cohort's findings, practical examples, discussion. Not generic training.
- Guidance. Advisory support, in two forms. Individual Strategic Advisory for selected companies: a review of the company's Decision Pack and three individual sessions on its priority blockers and the sequencing of its roadmap. Office Hours for your own team: dedicated advisory time, by the hour or as a package.
- Impact. The Programme Impact Assessment. Commissioned after an implementation period, when the institution is ready to measure what has changed: a second reading of the cohort, an updated Programme Intelligence Report showing changes across the seven capability domains, and a final Executive Debrief of what moved and what did not. Measurement is how a programme proves itself.
And, optionally, an Institutional Readiness and Programme Integration Roadmap. A written plan setting your cohort's findings against the support you already offer: where your existing services already answer the measured gaps, where something is missing, and how to sequence support across different groups of companies. The objective is to strengthen your programmes, not to replace them or to build a parallel structure beside them.
Where the programme proves useful, the engagement can extend: structured capacity building for your own support teams, drawing on a decade of institutional capacity-building practice, and over time a standing readiness layer the institution can draw on. Each step is proposed only when the previous one has shown its value.
You can judge the method before committing a cohort: run the free Entry Check on a firm you know well, and compare its signal with your own reading. Where the two diverge is where the conversation starts.
Each programme is scoped and priced on request, using the same pricing framework across countries.
What the framework does not do
The methodology is bounded by deliberate distinctions.
Boundary
- It does not predict commercial success or post-entry performance.
- It does not replace legal, tax, regulatory or commercial advice.
- It does not rank companies publicly or produce statistical league tables.
- It does not disclose calibration parameters, which remain protected.
Where the framework fits in your programmes
Five use cases across the programme cycle.
How the engagement works
Institution, Agency, Chamber, Embassy
- Identifies the relevant SME cohort
- Provides legitimacy, access and programme context
- Uses findings for programme design
AFT Global, readiness measurement layer
- Runs individual firm assessments
- Produces firm-level and cohort-level outputs
- Supports sequencing recommendations
Methodological standing
The methodology is documented in a public working paper and supported by a dedicated framework explainer.
Documented, citable and deliberately bounded.
Working paper
Read the methodology paperFull description of the readiness construct and capability architecture.