Following there is a list of FAQ concerning Business Development activities for US companies willing to expand to Italy. For any other question regarding International R&D projects, technology transfer actions, etc. please contact us by email or by phone.
2.
Can Italy be the first European target market?
3.
What is and why a need an International Business Development Partner?
4.
Why hire Ciaotech and not a single representative?
5.
What are the differences between Business Development Team and other
Consultancy companies?
6.
Does CiaoTech work on a pure Commission Based Fee?
7.
What the Start-Up-Fee is about?
8.
How can I keep track on the progress of my Italian expansion?
The Italian ITC market is growing very fast. In the last two years, the Telecommunication sector grew with a rate of the 14% per year. In the Mobile sector, with a 87% market penetration and 48 millions of cell Phone in use, Italy is the second largest European market after Germany.
In the Connectivity sector, Italy started later than other
countries, but is moving fast to fill the gap. In the next 5 years, more
than 20,000 Kilometers of fiber optic will be deployed; currently, ADSL
is available in the 250 largest cities. Great opportunities are
available for those high-tech companies working in the field of
high-speed connectivity, while for the application providers, entering
now in the Italian market means gaining an important market share
advantage which will turn into great profitability once the high-speed
infrastructure will guarantee high-speed connectivity at residential
users.
In the Software sector, all products targeting
Telecom operators have great opportunities as well as enterprise
software, specially the one targeting Small and Medium Enterprises. The
Italian market is composed by an incredible number of Small enterprises,
all willing to innovate and start using IT (and e-commerce) to improve
their processes and visibility.
Governmental and Finance markets are also large
opportunities in this period of changes (Lira-Euro and structural
innovation process in the Public Administration).
2.
Can Italy be the first European target market?
As market dimension, Italy is the fourth European
market, after Germany, U.K. and France. Targeting Italy as first market
can bring several advantages: first of all, in some sector the market is
still open and you can take advantage of te opportunities provided by
all the activities going on. Second, the commercial efforts in Italy
will certainly be less expensive than the first three European market.
Once you have first customers in Italy, you can then start targeting
more expensive markets but with European references in your pocket. Just
as very general comparison, running a small office in Italy (Rome or
Milan) with two people and/or hiring a consultancy company will cost you
the half with respect to doing the same in London, Paris or Munich.
Still, from Rome or Milan all other major cities of Europe are at
one-two hour of flight. That means establishing an office in Italy as
European branch could be a smart move.
3.
What are exactly the activities required for International Business
Development?
It is really difficult to define few activities and categorize them as
International Business development. Those activities should include
several different aspects that range from Strategic Planning to Funding,
from Creative Marketing to Sales, and many others too. As single
statement, we can say that International Business Development means to
create and establish business opportunities and profits in a new market,
through activities that can include:
o
Business Strategies (planning, identification of
potential revenue sources, etc).
o
Fundraising (private and public investors)
o
Marketing (creative marketing, telemarketing,
networking, etc)
o
Sales (direct sales, networking, meetings, etc)
o
Establishment of partnerships (commercial
partnerships, distributions, technical, financial, strategic, etc)
o
Customer management (contract renewals, pre and
post-sales management)
These activities, to be effectively carried out,
require local business experience. One of the most common mistakes
companies do while going global is that of thinking to be able of starting their
operation and selling their products in every country of the world
without local assistance. But you need contacts and ability to speak with people used to make business in a different
ways. And who is going to provide technical and customers support of your products
in the new market?
To expand globally you need to work locally!
4.
Why hire Ciaotech and not a single representative?
With Ciaotech you will have
several experienced professional putting their contacts, network and
experience at your services, on a risk-sharing model. Hiring
professionals specifically for the Italian market means doing a great
investment without any guarantees of success. Plus, you will have only
one professional using its contacts and not several.
But there are other advantages using the CiaoTech
services: if you already have EMEA representatives, you do not need a
full time employee in Italy,
you may want a contact point, someone who open you the doors, a service
provider that you will use when necessary: that is CiaoTech
And if you’re not in Europe yet, you may want
someone able to identify the strategy for your product, someone tat will
work before you may even think to hire somebody: again, this is CiaoTech.
Finally, CiaoTech is not a permanent alternative to
hiring somebody: once the market is proved and relationship with
customers are built, we will assist you in building your Italian branch,
and we will help also in the recruitment of experienced Italian
professional to run your operations.
5.
What are the differences between Business Development Team and other
Consultancy companies?
By
a Business Model point of view, the Business Development Team use to be
rewarded on a performance-based structure, acting as a real partner,
while Consultancy Companies use to be rewarded depending on the time
spent on the project.
By
an operational point of view, the real difference in few words is that
the Consultancy Company suggests what you should do to
open or improve your business in Italy, while the Business Development
Team (as CiaoTech) works on-the-ground, doing with you the
activities that will improve your Business, including marketing and
sales, establishing partnerships, negotiating deals, etc.
6.
Does CiaoTech work on a pure Commission Based Fee?
While we love to work on a performance based fee,
the Pure Commission Fee is applicable in very few cases for the
following major reasons: first of all, if your product is innovative and
you do not have commercial customers yet in Italy, it is very likely
that the process to get a commercial customer will take some time,
including the time for a trial process. During this time, CiaoTech will
carry out several activities and no sales is foreseeable in the short
time. We prefer to fix milestones with our clients (such as lead
generation, meetings, trial process, negotiations, etc) to measure our
performance and be rewarded on the basis of that performance together
with the final commission fee.
There is another reason why we do not want to work
on a pure commission fee: as for us, we want the client’s commitment
in pursuing the expansion to the Italian market. From our experience, we
know that only with a strong cooperation between us and the client good
results could be achieved, and before starting operation we need to see
the client’s commitment.
7. Why
do you need a Start-Up-Fee?
The start up fee has a double meaning: first, it is
a very basic fee with which we cover part of our expenses (travel,
phones, mail, etc) we’ll have while marketing your products. Second,
with the Start-Up-Fee we see the client’s commitment in working with
us to pursue the Italian market (see question number 6).
8.
How can I keep track on the progress of my Italian expansion?
The process of working with CiaoTech starts with a workshop and with a plan where the reporting procedures are defined. We will continuously inform you in the project update, milestone will be fixed and the achievement of these milestones will be your guarantee on the work we will carry out. Only by achieving those milestone we will be paid.
