STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE AND CLUSTER BUILDING

1. STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE AND CLUSTER BUILDING Questionnaire performed onICT Sector inRegion of Central Macedonia

2. Survey Details • 30 Small to medium Enterprises in RCM • 3 Academic personnel performed the interviews on behalf RCM – URENIO • Average time of interviews 1 1/2 hour

3. STRATINCHuman Resource for RCM • Local Steering Committee • RCM Panos Georgopoulos • SEPVE Spyros Ignatiadis • AUTH – URENIO Nikos Komninos • Local Working Group • Elena Sefertzi • Isidoros Passas • Lina Kyriafini • Panos Georgopoulos

4. Activities • The main activities that have been identified are • 1st System Integrators • 2nd Software Development • 3rd ITC Services to enterprises

5. Number of employees • From 3 up to 125

6. Subcontracting • is not in the main scope of the enterprises

7. Exports • only one (1) company is exporting up to 50 countries and exports value is up to 40% of global turnover • Has not been identified interest for sub contractors of which clients are original equipment manufacturer (OEM)

8. Company Management(1) • Industrial properties • Although industrial properties are considered as very important, up to now very few of the companies do have any of them registered • A trend have been identified that they will start registering their industrial properties mainly in Hellenic Industrial Property Organization

9. Company Management(2) • Management indicators • Quality Appears to be the most important indicator • Planning Although it have been stated as important, appears to be only in short term • Customer satisfaction The second most important indicator, quite a few of them have monitoring systems • Dashboards The do exist but only for short term planning and monitoring • Organization • The sample mainly consisted of SMEs therefore the budget (% turnover) could not be answered by most of the enterprises • Administration Exist in most of the enterprises • Engineering and design department Software development department is included in most of them • Information management department 2 out of the 20 do have Information management department • Marketing department Mainly is outsourced • R&D Is performed by most of the SMEs but not by an organized department

10. Company Management(3) • Long life training • Considered as a very important issue but because mainly is performed internally only few the SMEs gave values for Budget (% Wage bill), No days / year / employee • Domains : Operating Systems, Hardware, Networking, Marketing, Business processes • Training subcontractors or organisms Microsoft, SISCO, HP, Intel • Employees education • PHDs <1% • Masters 5% • University Degrees 30% • Technological Institutes Degrees 50%

11. Company Strategy • Orientation • Detection and conquest of new markets: Interested • Improvement of the products quality: The only way to advance their business goals • Export : Not considered as of great interest • Development of new products: Very interesting • Diversification: Interesting but Vertically • Specialization: Very interesting

12. Company Strategy (2) • Market • None of the companies answered the field of their status in Europe, neither the field of Growth in Europe • Impulsion • The targets appear to by only short term for the next year up to maximum 3 years from very few of the enterprises • The main reason that have been stated is that the ICT sector is very volatile therefore very difficult for them to set goals or targets. • Mainly they are market followers • Competitors • Very few of them stated competitors in Europe or worldwide • The competitors that were mentioned were mainly either local or in Greece. • The general sense is that they do know quite well their competitors • Constraints • The main local constraint that have been mentioned by most of the SMEs is telecommunication Infrastructure (very difficult to get fast Internet ADSL) • The Social constraint that was mentioned is that the graduates from Academic institutes are not qualified for the real business world • Most of the companies stated the general commercial constraint is the financial situation of the Greek market (cashflow problems)

13. INFORMATION SYSTEM

14. Electronic networks All of them do have and use Local Area Network

15. Applications that are used by the companies • How many personal computers? At least one for each employ • How many personal electronic mailboxes? At least one for each employ

16. Press Subscriptions • The main informative mean is considered to be INTERNET • Scientific and technical Publications Very few of them considered themselves diligent readers • Business press Subscribers mainly to one • Regional Daily Press Diligent reader to at least one of them • National Daily Press Diligent reader to at least one of them • International Daily Press Diligent reader to at least one of them • Professional and Specialized Magazines

17. INNOVATION and WATCH • Product: Quite few of the SMEs mentioned examples of new products that have produced during the 5 last years • Processes: The most innovative change was the implementation of ISO 9000/2000 quality manual

18. Fields of survey

19. Sources of information

20. Watch practice • In strict terms of watch very few of the SMEs questioned do have a watch methodology • Most of them although they are applying not formalized or documented watch methodologies • Which tools of search for information uses the company? Internet and meetings • Which tools of management for information uses the company? ERP - CRM • Which tools of diffusion for information uses the company? E-mails and internal meetings

21. Satisfaction degree with outsourcing

22. Nature of the problems: No problems have been stated Kinds of watch

23. NETWORKS • Participation of the company in organizations • SEPVE • Chamber of Commerce and Industry

24. CLUSTER QUESTIONNAIRE • Only two of the companies are participating a cluster • 3. Potentials, ambitions to build a new network: • Most of the companies expressed the willingness to participate in a cluster oriented to sales advancement