ITIDA announced that it will begin to receive the Egyptian IT Companies registration applications for the Capacity Building Program - Grow it.

The program carried out in cooperation with Atos Origin, an international IT service firm, aims at raising the global competitive edge of Egyptian IT companies.

Atos Origin will lead an international consortium composed of Hewitt Associates, Arthur D. Little, the Indian QAI and Community and Institutional Development (CID) to offer consulting services to the selected companies.

The program comes as part of Egypt’s national strategy of increasing the country's exports of IT products and services as well as enabling Egyptian companies to compete worldwide.

Intensive efforts have been recently exerted by a committee to choose the consulting firm that will carry out the program through the bids offered by international companies.

Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) CEO Dr. Hazem Abdelazim said the program reflects ITIDA's awareness of the industry requirements and its realization of the necessity of developing the potentials of Egyptian companies.

He added that the purpose of the three-year program is to prop up the competitive capabilities of about 100 companies, which in turn helps improve their performance and increase their exports.

ITIDA offers direct support to the companies by covering all the expenses of the consultation services provided to the program beneficiaries.

The Egyptian ownership of the companies qualified to register for the program must be not less than 50%. The companies must be located in Egypt where the employees on the payroll represent at least 80% of the total workforce. Also a minimum of 10 employees at each company must be full timers.

According to Dr. Abdelazim, there are 11 criteria, in which every one of them include a number of grades. Companies will be listed based on the grades they acquire.

The selection criteria are: the employees' share of the total revenue of the company and that of exports, the company's revenue development rate over the past three years, the percentage of the Egyptian ownership in the company, last year's profit, patents the company acquired, any granted certificates and the authentication by multinational companies of these certificates, the total revenue of exports, the company's overall revenues and finally the years of experience acquired since the establishment of the company.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abdelazim confirmed that all the data and information the companies present to ITIDA are protected by a confidentiality law.
 
On her part, ITIDA Deputy President Ms. Zeinab Zaki noted that the program consists of three basic stages. The first phase is the selection and the registration of the company in the program.

The implementation phase begins in April 2009 and lasts till June 2011. This phase is divided into two parts; the first has to do with the evaluation of each company following international standards and best practices related to the company's field.

The evaluation aims to identify the relative size of the company and prepare a detailed report on it, specifying priorities to interfere in developing its potential and setting a complete plan for every company.

The second part of phase two focuses on the execution based on the plan set for each company conforming to the best practices and international standards.

The final stage is that of evaluation and the finalization of the program. The two-month stage encompasses a review of the program progress over its different phases and a follow up on the results with the companies enrolled in the program. 
  
Ms. Zeinab pointed out that the companies have to fill all the required details in the industry database on ITIDA's website to be eligible for the capacity building program and the other activities offered by the agency.


About Atos Origin
Atos Origin is an international company offering multiple IT and consulting services where 2500 employees work worldwide. Atos Origin's clients include mega companies like AirBus, IBM, Cisco Systems and France Telecom.

About ITIDA
Established in 2004, ITIDA aims at developing and promoting the IT industry in Egypt.  Relying on unequivocal governmental support, ITIDA utilizes a vast array of advantages and privileges bestowed on Egypt, synchronizing public and private efforts in order to place firmly establish the State on the global ICT market scale.