In this discussion draft, I focus on what is effective in an initial stage of establishing an ICT business and what are assets for running the daily business on new markets. Governmental agencies are helpful in the initial stage when the company enter a new market. Software solutions and ethnic diversity can be competitive assets for ICT companies because they can be used in company’s daily business in order to increase your business contacts, to create brand awareness and to increase sales and help support.

1. Jan Softa CEO of Somerco Research Date: 2013-08-28
Enhance EC member states competitiveness in R & D-
Part 4: Going abroad – competitive assets
Abstract
In this discussion draft, I focus on what is effective in an initial stage of establishing an ICT business and what
are assets for running the daily business on new markets. Governmental agencies are helpful in the initial stage
when the company enter a new market. Software solutions and ethnic diversity can be competitive assets for
ICT companies because they can be used in company’s daily business in order to increase your business
contacts, to create brand awareness and to increase sales and help support.
Background
Helping geniuses! Our slogan sums up who Somerco aims to help. Somerco are a company
that target to help researchers and innovators so that these geniuses can create prosperity and
jobs in society. The competition on the market in ICT is international and sometimes also
global. Due to this fact, I discuss the importance for European SMEs in the ICT sector to go
abroad into new markets to remain competitive.
Introduction
There are traditional channels to gain access to markets abroad in order to increase companies
profit, market-share and competitiveness. National and international governmental agencies
such as Chambers of Commerce are representatives of these. In this discussion draft, I focus
on how software solutions and ethnic diversity1
can be competitive assets for ICT companies.
These two have in common that they can be used in your daily business in order to increase
your business contacts, to create brand awareness and to increase sales and help support.
Market-share
European ICT companies should target markets in different parts of the world where they can
become competitive. Companies need to look on the costs to enter a new market, what
competences they need to gain before they enter and where they can gain best ROI in both
the short term and the long term. There might be a difference between what markets they
want to enter and what markets that is most beneficial to enter at a certain point in time.
Normally, large international companies such as Alcatel-Lucent and Telefonica consider all
the factors mentioned above. However, when it concern SMEs I believe they need to open up
and dare to think in these terms. The list of countries with more mature ICT markets is
increasing in different parts of the world. These markets almost automatically become chosen
by SMEs as a priority to enter. This also means the competition is fiercer. Therefore, I
believe it is beneficial to also investigate less mature markets that have growth. To obtain a
good market share there is easier and you can grow with these countries general ICT growth.
There are markets in all parts of the world that would be interesting for ICT companies to
enter. It can be a daunting task to collect information from remote parts of the world but if a
company find one or two markets where they can gain a steady grow - the financial rewards
are worth the extra efforts. I believe European SMEs in ICT should focus on a few African
countries and grow with these countries general growth.2
Perhaps, also to a larger extent the
large ICT companies should have a larger interest in these countries. So far we are behind
especially US companies but also Chinese and Indian companies are investing in these parts
1
In discussion draft three I present how you can work to increase women in ICT which is necessary because the
EU-zone will miss 1 million computer programmers in a few years and most likely more in the future. I find it
important to also embrace these actions in order to increase ethnic diversity in your software company in order
to fill the gap and become competitive.
2
According to the World Banks report…

2. Jan Softa CEO of Somerco Research Date: 2013-08-28
of the world. A Chinese ICT company that are establishing themselves in Africa are the third
largest search engine Baidu. This coincides with my idea about focusing on gaining a large
market share and growing with these countries growing ICT sector, rather than battle with
more competitors on more mature markets.
Competitive assets – how
What is effective in an initial stage of establishing your business and what are assets for
running your daily business on new markets? As mentioned before, I focus on how ethnic
diversity and software solutions are an asset to SMEs expansion into new markets.
Both are to be used as tools to find and build new business contacts, to create brand
awareness and increase sales and support. These two competitive assets also have in common
that they are effective in company’s daily business on new markets. Compare this to
governmental agencies that are effective in the initial stage when companies need to be
informed about new markets and introduced to key people that could be helpful for running
your business on the new market. I briefly start with governmental agencies, while I focus on
ethnic diversity as a competitive asset before I move on to discuss how companies can use
software solutions as a tool to build up and maintain a customer base in a new market.
Competitive assets – Governmental agencies
Governmental agencies such as Chambers of Commerce are helpful in the initial stage when
the company enter a new market, but their task is not to help companies run their daily
business. They help them to get information and to meet key people for establishing their
business on the new market.
The figure below shows where the strength is in each competitive asset when companies plan
to enter a new market.
Figure 1. Enter new market
Initial Daily
Governmental agencies
Ethnic diversity
Software solution
X
X
X
Competitive assets – Ethnic diversity
To embrace ethnic diversity in a company comes with benefits such as knowledge (a) in
languages, (b) in business customs that make it easy to develop and maintain business
contacts, (c) knowledge of present competitors on new markets and (d) some have valuable
contacts for the company’s business.
It is important to support the ICT sector because it is a growth sector globally. When it
concerns supporting ethnic diversity in ICT companies there are two objectives to consider.
To support companies who have owners with different ethnical backgrounds in your country
and to increase ethnical diversity in all ICT companies.
European companies with ethnic diversity have a good chance to compete with other ICT
companies from other parts of the world. It is because they have knowledge about business
customs on other countries markets, whether it is in business 2 business (B2B) or business 2
consumer (B2C) contacts.

3. Jan Softa CEO of Somerco Research Date: 2013-08-28
Ethnic diversity is also helpful if an ICT company are going to establish a branch in a new
country because they can work efficiently on place or towards the people that are based there.
It is also easy for them to find out what licenses that might be necessary to obtain and
translate governmental and business documents. To create brand awareness are something the
vast majority of companies do. It can be to increase the profile of a company or to promote
the company’s products or services. Whether it is to create brand awareness in B2B or B2C it
is best done by people who have the necessary skills for efficient communication on the
market. A company who starts with a trustworthy communication with potential customers
on a new market can turn this into an increasing market share. In order to be trustworthy,
people with knowledge in cultural differences and in other countries business customs are
going to help a company establish themselves as they want to be perceived and help them
avoid so called cultural pitfalls. To be able to communicate with new customers on a daily
basis on their native language will more easily build up a company’s brand awareness. In
conclusion, to support companies with owners who have different ethnic diversity and to
have ethnic diversity in ICT companies is beneficial for creating brand awareness which
helps the companies increase their future incomes.
It leads into the next topic for how ethnic diversity benefits companies – namely increase in
sales and help in support. To gain a sustainable market-share for companies products and
services you need two fundamental components functioning– effective sale and support. To
be able to offer customer support in the same language as on the new markets will benefit
ICT companies. There are basically two options to achieve this. It is either by in house
knowledge in languages or by outsourcing customer service to another company who can
provide the same service. For companies who have short production cycles and quickly want
to offer their products and services on the new market it is beneficial to have the competence
in house. The outsource option is more efficient for companies to use when there is time to
educate them in these products and services that will be offered for long periods.
Competitive assets – Software solution
I focus on how software solutions can be used in company’s daily business for building up
business contacts, creating brand awareness and sales and customer support. There are
different options for how companies use software solutions to promote their ICT companies
and products on new markets. It can be by buying ads search engines easily can find or by
using traditional websites or social media.
To sell products and services on the company website or on Amazon, Alibaba or Ebay is not
new. However, new more interactive websites creates new opportunities also for ICT
companies to establish themselves on new markets. There is a difference in how traditional
websites operates vs. social media in their communication between seller and customer. A
traditional website is part of the first generation of information technology where companies
display their products with images and more static compared to social network sites that are
more interactive where both customers and companies can communicate with each other in
real-time. Examples of these are Xing, Viadeo and LikedIN. These three are part of the
second generation of information technology and are developing into a fantastic
complementary tool for running a successful business.
It is obvious that social networking sites like Xing.com, Viadeo and LinkedIn is focusing on
helping business professionals building up their business contacts. When an ICT company
choose what social networking sites to use depends on what market the company target. To

4. Jan Softa CEO of Somerco Research Date: 2013-08-28
use Xing.com in the German speaking part of the world and Viadeo on the French speaking
part of the world together with LinkedIn is a good combination to start with.
The huge benefit with social networks is that it offers interactivity between its members, it
can be done on a daily basis and it is easy to access the social networks from anywhere.
Therefore, it is a good place for an ICT company to start to ask for friendship from people
with profiles on the new markets and share knowledge with them in order to establish the
company and its products. If the purpose is to establish the company on a new market - dare
to focus on the business professionals who can become important for the company’s success
on the markets the company want to target. After all, they are professional networking sites.
To use social media to create brand awareness is by now nothing unordinary for companies. I
would say to create brand awareness about a company is social media’s strength with the
bonus it only costs time and effort. Basically, all professional networking sites can be used
for this purpose. Also micro blogging Twitter are an effective way to create brand awareness
of companies on new markets and its products and services. A simple feature is to use hash
tags to monitor what’s happening on Twitter and engage with the ones who follow those hash
tags. For instance, to use combinations of hash tags like #computerchip #kenya are of course
interesting to follow for producers of computer chips who are interested in the Kenyan
market. More advanced features for creating brand awareness on Twitter are already on the
market and plenty more are being developed for companies to be used.
To increase sales are common by using websites such as Ebay and Alibaba. You find many
ICT products here. Often companies use these websites to reach customers on new markets.
For instance, Ebay has a French version. These types of websites works best for products you
and I use. Also Apples iStore is a place to sell ICT products like apps. When it concern ICT
products sold in B2B it often requires a discussion about other topics than price of the
product. Here customer support has importance for whether another company will make a
purchase. Therefore, there is a need for more interactivity between buyer and seller.
Platforms like Xing, Viadeo, LikedIN and also Skype are built to be more interactive between
its members. Therefore, it has the potential to serve companies needs to be a sale channel
between the company and customers and also to provide for customer care on new markets.
To focus on sale and also promoting ICT companies the use of these platforms is essential in
order to increase sale on a new market. It also comes with the benefit it is economically cheap
for the company to use when they communicate with new customers.
Social media has sometimes been accused for its difficulty to measure ROI. However, it is
changing with platforms where you can follow how companies increase its sales. Salesforce
is an example. Their platform has less focus on networking features than social networking
sites and more features on providing help for sale and support between companies and their
customers. To my knowledge, no traditional websites allow other companies integrate their
customer care ticket systems on their website. It is often done on the company’s own website.
This could be done on Salesforce and be developed on social networks. When it concern
company usage of platforms like Skype and Rebtel these are very good tools for customer
support. A logic next step is to use Skype and Rebtel on social media platforms with
customized features for support.
Combined

5. Jan Softa CEO of Somerco Research Date: 2013-08-28
The low cost of using software solutions when companies seek to enter a new market is
appealing. It is obvious that this competitive asset morphed/used together with ethnic
diversity in companies is a great combination. Since these employees can communicate on
native languages on these platforms they can increase sales with customers on the new
market.
Governmental support
To support ICT companies with the most competitive assets will help create prosperity in
society and create new jobs to people. In my opinion, it is not just about the products or
services they can provide to customers on the new market. You also have to look on how
successful they have been on their home market, what demand is there for their products and
services and are there key people with influence on their company board. All these are
competitive assets that help in the evaluation of the future success of a company. Moreover, I
hope my contribution that concern how ethnic diversity and knowledge of how to use
software solutions helps with the evaluation of what competitive assets companies have in
order to succeed with the establishment on a new market. National and international
governmental organizations should consider these factors when evaluating companies,
supporting and promoting them.
Business support
Not all ICT companies take the path to growth by being backed by governmental support
when they enter a new market. Some use financial institutes to help them map out new
opportunities by listening to their advice when they enter a new market. Also financial
institutions should consider the same factors as a part of their evaluation of how ICT
companies can increase its chances of becoming successful.

6. Jan Softa CEO of Somerco Research Date: 2013-08-28
Draft proposals
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 1 - Designated tax to science
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 2 – Strategy to support the software industry
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 3 – Actions to support women in ICT
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 4 – Going abroad–Competitive assets
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 5 – Business incubators, financial recycling and
incentives into reward
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 6 – Standardization as a tool to increase competitiveness
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 7 – Different types of innovations
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 8 – Open source from science to society
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 9 – Crowd sourcing and crowd funding
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 10 – Green VAT for business
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 11 - Keep talents in Europe
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 12 - Research leftovers
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 13 - Science Parks-Specializations
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 14 - Patent trolls
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 15 – Science e- Parks
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 16 – Expansion options
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 17 – The locally developed infrastructure
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 18 – Treaty (Knowledge transfer)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 19 – Different types of infrastructure
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 20 – Build infrastructure (In progress)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 21 – Your small energy infrastructure (elsewhere) (In
progress)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 22 – Quick market entry (Medical)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Overview – Old and new key areas in order to increase the
competitiveness of the industry (In progress)
Input on threats against information society