The company for which the husband of Vice President Nadia Calviño, Ignacio Manrique de Lara, works as a senior manager, has avoided answering most of the questions that ABC asked him, in writing, to clarify key aspects about the crossed interests that appear between government functions and directives that coincide in the marriage. He is in charge of the Ministry of Economy, through which the European funds of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism are negotiated. And her husband is the third director of Bee Digital, he is the head of Marketing for this company that works with the regional authorities to develop digitization and connectivity projects in rural areas, which are nourished by these European funds.
ABC went to Bee Digital to ask about their version of the matter. The company requested a questionnaire of the questions, to answer them in writing. However, there was not an answer for each question raised, instead the company chose to send a statement as a global answer. Generalities abound in it, but most of the data requested by ABC does not appear. Continuing with the reproduction, one by one, of the questions raised, as well as the statement that the company sent in response to all of them.
ABC's questions to Bee Digital
Bee Digital offers its services to regional governments, according to the email. What commercial relationship do you establish between Bee and the regional governments with which you are starting to work together?
–Which are the two regional governments with which Bee already works, according to the email itself? [The email referred to in this question is the one sent by the company to regional authorities, explaining its services in relation to projects financed with European funds]
–What specific services does the company provide to the two regional governments with which, according to the email, the company already works? What compensation, economic or otherwise, do they obtain from these regional governments or from other administrations (state or local)?
– What exactly does the work of Bee Digital consist of in the management of these projects financed with European funds?
–Is Bee Digital or its parent company a beneficiary of European funds of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism/Plan?
–In addition, if applicable, to the compensation obtained from public administrations in this line of business, what commercial income does Bee Digital obtain with these services, and for what specific services?
–What is the exact position and competencies of Ignacio Manrique in the company? We have had access to the fact that his position covers both Business Development and Marketing. Is that correct?
–Ignacio Manrique de Lara, also in the managerial position that he holds as an employee, is he a shareholder of Bee Digital (Páginas Amarillas Soluciones Digitales SAU) or of its parent company Carracosta SL?
The comprehensive and textual response of Bee Digital
“BeeDIGITAL is a company specialized in digitization technology solutions for SMEs and freelancers. Its fundamental activity consists of defining and improving the Internet presence of SMEs and freelancers. BeeDIGITAL's services help them provide clients with probable and mediocre results. Digital marketing services are essential today, especially after the pandemic, for the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs.
It has a history of more than 50 years helping Spanish SMEs to develop their business, first as Yellow Pages and today as BeeDIGITAL. After more than 10 years working to promote the digitization of small businesses and has more than 250 employees. Currently, they work with 60.000 SMEs on their way to digitization.
In fact, BeeDIGITAL will be in talks with all the Autonomous Communities, because of its activity and the type of services it offers in relation to the digitization of SMEs, it can inform them to stimulate digitization in rural areas. Thus, the CCAA will value launching the calls addressed to SMEs. Currently, BeeDIGITAL has not signed any contract with the CCAA. His last collaboration was in February 2020 with the Autonomous Community of Madrid for the 'SOS companies' program.
Spanish SMEs are still at an early stage in this process. According to DESI, Spain occupies the new position in how many countries are digitized most of the EU. According to the ONTSI, the smallest businesses still have great digital deficiencies. Only 28,8% of microenterprises have access to the Internet and have a website, and 9,5% sell online. The objective of the Digital Kit is to boost the competitiveness of small businesses, offering the opportunity to accelerate their digitization.
SMEs are the beneficiaries of European Funds and can freely choose and test based on the offer that best suits their needs.
BeeDIGITAL, in line with its mission to accelerate the digitization of Spanish SMEs, has submitted its application, as more than 4.670 companies have requested according to data from Red.es. to the call that Acelera pyme has opened to be a digitizing agent within the Digital Kit program.
In addition, BeeDIGITAL, after consolidating its leadership position in the SME and autonomous business ecosystem, is working on a strategy to internationalize its business to other European and Latin American countries. The objective is to transfer its solutions to SMEs in other markets.
Ignacio Manrique de Lara is a professional with a career spanning more than 30 years in the digitalization sector for SMEs. He has held different positions in national and international companies, including Panda Security, LeaseWeb Technologies and Woorank, among others. In all of them they have held positions of responsibility in areas dedicated to the development of digital solutions for small businesses in areas such as Cloud, Marketing or Security. Since September 2018, he has been an employee of BeeDIGITAL, currently serving as Director of Marketing”.
