E-skills are crucial to boost competitiveness, productivity and innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). In Europe there has been the need to ensure that knowledge, skills and competences of IT managers and IT practitioners meet the highest global standards. Since the 1980s larger companies started to use IT service management (ITSM) methods to run their IT departments effectively and to align their IT to their business strategy. But for European SMEs especially in the Danube Region it was very difficult to implement ITSM frameworks like ITIL, TOGAF or CoBIT in their companies. Most of the IT managers didn't have the necessary ITSM skills for the introduction. This led to the situation that SMEs of the Danube Region had – in comparison with larger and international operating companies – skill based structural disadvantages: they couldn’t realize efficiency effects (up to 20-40 %) and were less innovative with regard to their IT management. The consortium identified the aforementioned lack of skills of IT managers as a main barrier. Hence, a main reason of the project ITSM4SME was to tackle this barrier for efficiency and innovation in the Danube Region. The main aim of the project was the improvement of the VET (vocational education and training) in the addressed regions. Based on the former project INNOTRAIN IT, innovative ITSM trainings and services for learning and information have been transferred and adapted according to the qualification needs of IT managers and IT staff of SMEs in Bulgaria (greater Sofia), Romania (greater Tirgu-Mures) and Slovenia (greater Ljubljana). This has improved the regional situation in the fields of innovation, employment and competitiveness and support the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.