Tax Credits

Incentives 5.0, guidelines for software investments

AssoSoftware experts' document to guide companies

by Redaction Rome

13 December 2024

2' min read

Key points

Four categories
Measurable savings
Manufacturing processes

2' min read

The tax credit rules of the Transition 5.0 plan are a real headache. Companies investing in software are well aware of this, and are constantly seeking clarification from the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy. AssoSoftware, the Confindustria association representing management software companies, in collaboration with a number of universities, experts and with the support of the ministry itself, has published extensive guidelines. "We provide a series of practical examples and use cases," says Pierfrancesco Angeleri, president of AssoSoftware, "to overcome the criticalities that are holding back many companies, especially SMEs, and to support them in adopting enabling technologies to make them more digital and sustainable.

Four categories

The plan includes among the eligible technology investments for the benefit energy efficiency and consumption monitoring software, as well as business management software. The AssoSoftware expert guidelines identify four types.

Measurable savings

The first concerns software that leads to measurable energy savings through specific tools, thus not relying on indirect metrics such as the improvement of a production process. Nine cases are identified in this group: migration to the cloud; energy-efficient calculation algorithms; reduction of energy consumption through virtualisation; dynamic load in company networks; intelligent management of heating/ventilation/air-conditioning systems; software to optimise refrigeration systems; industrial ventilation optimisation systems; dynamic lighting management; advanced management of company fleets.

Production Processes

The second category concerns software that enables energy optimisations in production processes and includes ten sub-groups: optimisation of production lines; AI and energy optimisation; thermal management; optimisation of raw material use; simulation of production processes; automation of production changes; optimisation of maintenance processes; intelligent management of industrial fluids.

Monitoring

The third area includes software that improves the monitoring of energy consumption through more accurate analysis as a basis for implementing energy efficiency strategies, including through the use of artificial intelligence algorithms. Examples range from consumption anomaly management to energy load analysis; from digital energy audits to multi-site efficiency management.

Energy performance indices

Finally, there is the category of software that increases a company's production capacity and energy efficiency by 'normalising consumption'. It means that - if the increase in the company's production capacity is measurable and can be traced back to the use of a software - the incentive can be accessed even if consumption is equal, by defining energy performance indexes that allow consumption to be normalised, i.e. to make a comparison possible. AssoSoftware cites some examples of interested innovation projects, such as a commercial company that intends to acquire a Crm platform for a more efficient management of the customer base (the operational variable in this case is the number of communications to customers per year). The guidelines go on to mention a number of points on which Mimit is asked for clarification, with the formulation of a possible technical response: from eligibility for non-interconnected software to investments that lead to an increase in smart/remote working. One point that is still unclear, AssoSoftware points out, is how the energy efficiency that follows the purchase of software that guarantees continuous monitoring and visualisation of energy consumption can be considered achieved or measurable.