Асоціація підприємств інформаційних технологій України

By the end of the 1990s, the Romanian IT companies had reached a development stage that allowed them to become more and more interested in exporting ICT services and solutions. Even though initially companies were trying to promote themselves as individual companies to attract clients from abroad, the soon became aware that a certain level of collaboration is needed to gain access to regional and global markets.

In the early stages, when business leaders promoted their specific firm in industry fairs the often encountered “the country-of-origin problem” – i.e. in order to seal a contract, the company had first to explain that Romania as a country is a worthwhile business destination, then it had to present the advantages of the ICT sector, and finally it could promote it own services or products. Romanian companies perceived this as additional costs and feared that the “country of origin problem” would drastically reduce their competitive edge.

In 2000 members brought this issue to the attention of their ICT associations, who agreed to try to help them to solve this issue under the umbrella of the Tech 21 Coalition. The very first step was that the associations agreed on how they would like to raise the profile of the Romania ICT sector abroad and how they could work together to make the sector more competitive.

First steps

The first idea was to create clusters, i.e. forming geographical conglomerates of certain ICT competencies that can then be promoted on the international market. Even though the idea of promoting clusters had certain merits and could produce benefits for the sector, building the clusters proved to be difficult, especially when the associations had to define their respective areas of competence and conceive a cohesive promotion plan.  Moreover, companies were already part of different clusters, so neither the associations, nor the firms could finalise such an effort.

Around the same time, at the beginning of the year 2000, the Ministry of Economy and Trade (responsible for promoting Romanian exports on international markets) became that having strong industry identity might make the Ministry’s task of promoting Romania’s industry much easier.

The first discussions about a potential cohesive promotion message of the ICT sector were initiated between representatives of the public and private sector. The initial stage, organized with the support of an advertising agency, consisted of workshops and debates among ICT associations on the how an industry logo could look like and how a visual identity could be created that would represent all Romanian producers of services and software. The debates were focused on the need to create a united message, at either the country or the sector level. The first attempts to create a logo (“Auro IT”, “Romania – IT Harbor of the Black Sea Region”, “Romanian Tiger”, “.Ro”, ”IT Avenue”) were rather superficial, focusing on the visual identity, without defining the brand and the brand values. The multitude of logos proposed in rapid succession is a proof of the association’s difficulties to identify the brand’s essence.

From visual identity to a sector brand
 
Despite the fact that these attempts were not successful, something very important was accomplished in these pioneering years (2000-2005): all stakeholders (companies, associations, as well as public authorities) became aware of the need for a collective brand. Moreover companies started for the first time to participate in international fairs with a national booth, under a national logo.

Representatives of both the private and the public sector understood that an effective promotion and positioning of the ICT sector requires a joint and well planned effort. Both parties reached the conclusion that they needed a functional public-private partnership and that the entire branding strategy for the ICT field should be conceived as an integral part of the national export strategy. Over time the ICT industry was also able to convince the Ministry of Economics and Trade of its importance, thereby gaining more support from the Ministry.

In the following years (2004-2005) important steps were taken to better brand the ICT sector as well as to promote the sector on foreign markets. This success can especially be contributed to the formation of the private-public partnership. Both sides were committed to enhance the sector’s competitiveness and were thus able to achieve results within a short timeframe.

One result of this partnership was the creation of the Export Council, a structure holding no legal personality and functioning as an affiliate of the Ministry of SMEs, Tourism and Liberal Professions. This council was created for the purpose of harmonizing the sector, inter-sector and regional strategies with the National Export Strategy; and to establish the objectives and priorities for Romanian exports.

The council, consisting of representatives of various industries and the respective ministries is the decision-making body regarding Romania’s Export Strategy as determined by the sector and inter-sector committees, under the co-ordination of experts’ teams from the International Trade Center UNCAD/WTO (ICT).

Excerpts from the National Export Strategy can be found at the web address below:
RO: http://www.dce.gov.ro/sne/Sinteza_SNE.html
ENG: http://www.dce.gov.ro/sne/Pledoarie_pt_SNE.html

This council designates the sectors with the greatest export potential, makes decisions regarding the most suitable ways to promote the exports and proposes the promotion related activities to be financed from the state budget.

The eligible activities are negotiated yearly at the Council’s level. Tech 21 Coalition convinced the Council’s members to finance (partially or totally) the following activities:

1. participation in fairs and exhibitions with a national booth; in 2008 the Government of Romania provided financial support for the participation of t Romanian companies to 78 international fairs, out of which 8 are ICT related  (about 10.24% of the total budget shall be at the disposal of the ICT sector).
2. organizing economic trade missions abroad and  promotion activities;
3. funding market and product related surveys, advertising materials, etc.

This public-private partnership at industry level turned out to be a model of best practices in the region.

Costin Lianu, General Manager of the Department of Foreign Trade within the Ministry of SMEs, Tourism and Liberal Professions states: “The public-private partnership within the Export Council is a new approach, even at the regional level, and brings high added value to the work we do.”

Supporting the exports: participating in fairs and exhibitions

The support and promotion of exports with funds from the state budget has been defined and approved by Government Ordinance no. 120/2002. According to this Ordinance, the following export promotion tools will receive total or partial funding from the state budget:

• participating to international fairs and exhibitions;
• organizing economic trade missions abroad and exports promotion activities abroad;
• covering 50% of the establishment and operational expenses encompassed by Romanian commercial bureaus that were created as a public-private partnership focused on markets of high potential for the Romanian exports;
• drafting marketing and products surveys;
• drafting, on a competitive basis, newsletters about the exports offer and distributing them abroad and to the foreign embassies in Romania.
• general advertising and promotion activities, i.e. on products and group of products on markets of interest for Romanian exports.

Since 2002, these instruments have been periodically updated to fit the companies’ and associations’ needs and to ensure the program functions properly.

The table below lists the budgetary allocations for Exports Promoting Program, starting with 2003 and up to date.

Branding strategy for the IT sector

A second outcome of this public-private partnership was The IT Branding Strategy, drafted and managed by a task-force consisting of representatives of the public and private sector. 90,000 Euros were allocated to drafting the branding strategy: 40.000 Euros from the Ministry of Communications and IT and 50,000 Euros from the Ministry of Economy and Trade.

The task force overcame the psychological barrier of designing a plain logo that would be similar to a “label” for exports. Together with professional consultants, and the associations and major companies in the sector, the task force worked to identify the brand values, creating a cohesive message and a promotion plan.

The focal point of the strategy is the industry’s brand: romaniaIT. Creative talent. Technical excellence. To create this brand, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the representatives of the public and private sectors. This official document is based on a strong commitment of the two parties in managing the romaniaIT brand.

This brand was used for the first time at CEBIT (Hanover, Germany) in March 2007, and on the American market at the fairs Gartner Itxpo (San Francisco, California) in April 2007 and Itxpo (Orlando, Florida) in October 2007. The Tech 21 Coalition hired an internationally renowned PR company to manage the PR campaign on the American market. The financial support from the state budget up to date has been of approximately one million Euros.

Valerica Dragomir, Executive Director- Employers’ Association of Software and Services Industry states: “Creating the romaniaIT brand has been a long process. The initial problems were related to the positioning and the recognition of the Romanian expertise and industry. The goal of this brand is to offer an information platform about the Romanian IT industry. Consequently, the individual efforts of the companies may focus just on attracting the customers.  

With the support from partner organizations and of course with the financial support from the state budget, we succeeded in taking the first steps in this project. We organized a national brand launching event, as well as an international one, at CEBIT 2007. During 2007, the participation with a national booth at events and at economic trade missions included in the exports promotion program occurred under the new brand. Nevertheless, the initial effort to create and launch the brand should be continued even more intensely with an effort to promote the brand. The preparations for the promotion campaign took longer than anticipated. The delay was caused also by the lack of constant allocation of resources.  

The ICT associations – ANIS included - do not have sufficient resources (money or personnel) to allocate to this project For this very reason, the project still depends on the financial support from the state budget. This February we have succeeded in finalizing the documentation needed to disburse public funds for promoting the romaniaIT brand. As the tender closed in May, by the second part of the year, the activities listed in the promotion program will begin. Our hope for next year is to finalize these procedures sooner, so as to also include them in the events organized in the first half of the year.”

The branding process of the Romanian ICT sector is ongoing. The next step is to draft regional export strategies, and in the same time to support individual corporate brands that have a good chance to succeed in the foreign markets.
http://www.romaniaIT.com