The objective of this study is to assess the relevance, implementation and results of the EU initiative on “Stimulating innovation for European enterprises through smart use of ICT”. This initiative, managed by the European Commission’s “e-Business Support Network” (eBSN), was launched in 2007 in response to the challenge that there are still significant inefficiencies in the value chain management of most sectors of the economy, in spite of the technological progress of the underlying technologies. The initiative aimed to promote the integration of SMEs in digital value chains by encouraging stakeholders to agree on a common framework architecture for e-business and to test this architecture in pilot projects. The evaluation study assesses the effectiveness of this approach and makes recommendations for future policy in this domain. Evidence is collected through personal interviews with project participants and domain experts and an online survey among stakeholders.