The main activities of the Preparation Phase have been:
- carry out an audit and benchmark of the selected companies and produce a SWOT and GAP analysis;
- carry out a supply survey to identify the potential competitive advantage of the Egyptian ICT industry;
- conduct an Export market Demand audit;
- draft a Business and Capability Development Plan for each company in the areas of Human Resources, Quality, Technology, Product Development, Sales and Marketing, Management, and Finance;
- identify possible areas of cooperation among the participating companies that could lead to the establishment of specialised clusters.
The main activities of the Implementation Phase have been:
- delivery of direct business support services to participating companies (to support the actions included in each Individual Business Development Plans);
- implementation of specific actions aimed to small groups of companies and delivering of training on specific topics (main topics: software engineering concepts, marketing and business development, management, organisational development, project management, documentation, technical training and HR, dissemination of best practices);
- provision of guidance and mentoring to ensure long term benefits in the companies;
- ensure visibility and transparency in managing the programme.
The main activities of the Exit Phase have been:
- evaluation of the entire programme and provision of recommendations for future actions;
- identification of counterpart organisations (the two major ICT business associations) capable of handling the implementation after the end of the project and training for their management and staff during the hand-over phase;
- capacity building for the selected partner organisation (ITIDA) to carry forward the project activities beyond the duration of this project.