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Bulgarian Software Industry

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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

It is my pleasure to present this unique catalogue of Bulgarian’s Software Industry which is dedicated to give a brief overview of the history, strong competitive advantages, state policy, and different collaboration in our ICT sector.

Following the issue of the transformation towards knowledge-based economy and EU accession, the Bulgarian government considers ICT as a major driver of competitiveness. Today when the globalization has created more opportunities for development and cooperation, the global market is becoming more and more sophisticated, looking for technologies and know-how which Bulgaria’s ICT industry can provide.

The Bulgarian software industry truly symbolizes Bulgaria’s strength in the knowledge based economy. Highly skilled Bulgarian ICT specialists mark an important milestone which have transformed Bulgaria into one of the best locations for software services and solutions sectors.

Bulgaria is a country of highly educated and motivated experts, acknowledged around the world. Here high-tech investors find high quality, loyalty and trust, which draw leading global companies to Bulgaria – leaders in the field of information technologies as partners of the Bulgarian high-tech companies.

When Bulgaria joins the European Union many more ICT market opportunities will open up. This will be a huge step for Bulgaria and I think it will make the future of our country even brighter based on numerous forms of collaboration in the ICT area.

We believe that the strong traditions in the ICT development and the high level of education are still valid and that Bulgaria demonstrates a number of competitive advantages in the ICT sector. We all witness a tendency towards increasing economic growth, based on implementation and development of ICT.

Sincerely,Plamen VatchkovCharmainState Agency for Information Technology and Communications

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History Bulgarian ICT industry today Software industry in facts and figures

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History

John Atanasoff, the father of the computer, was a prominent American inventor who took pride in his Bulgarian heritage.

The history of the Bulgarian computer industry probably begins with the invention of the first computer. It is not wide–known fact that the father of the computer, John Atanasoff, has Bulgarian origin. And also that for a long time he was not recognized for his accomplishment.

As all stories about discoveries this also contains series of events, leading to the initiation of computer revolution which we witness nowadays. In addition it involves a long time of injustice and a happy end.

The essence of the story is that in December 1939, working with his graduate student Clifford Berry, John Atanasoff developed and built the prototype of the first electronic digital computer, which would be fully completed in 1942. This prototype of the first computer included four significant and entirely novel operating principles:

l the binary systeml regenerative data storagel logic circuits as elements of a programl electronic elements as data carrying media

„After the prototype had started working, we were convinced we could build a computer capable of calculating whatever we would like to“, wrote Atanasoff.

In their history of the ENIAC computer, Alice R. Burks and Arthur W. Burks summarize Atanasoff achievement as follows: “He invented a new type of a serial storage module, applicable to digital electronic computing. He formulated, developed and proved the major principles involved in electronic circuits for digital computing, principles that included arithmetical operations, control, transition from one to another number base systems, transfer and storage of data, and synchronized clocking of the operations. Having applied that data storage and those principles, he constructed a well-balanced electronic computer with centralized architecture, including storage, and arithmetically controlled input/output devices. He had invented the first-ever specialized electronic computer with such a degree of multi-aspect applicability.”

John Atanasoff

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Bulgarian computer industry during communist times

Bulgarians may be proud to be half countrymen of Atanasoff, but there is no evidence that there is any connection of this pride to the further development of the computer industry in Bulgaria. There is another interesting issue in the history of Bulgarian ICT and particularly in Software Industry which is worth mentioning. We can divide historically Bulgarian computer industry in two stages: during the communist regime and after the change to free market. Although during the communist ruling Bulgaria was not able to develop competitive information industry, it had the good chance to develop traditions in the generations of computer professionals. The reason behind this is the specialization in computer industry which Bulgaria had in the common market (COMECOM) of all former socialist countries. This meant R&D infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and education. Of course this is a long story and we will not expand on it here, save for the following facts as a proof:

l As for export, Bulgaria has the leading position in COMECOMl In the research and development activities, Bulgaria had 4675 scientists

Bulgaria exported millions of computers from its Pravec line (8, 8C, 16) to the Soviet Union, to former socialist countries from Central and East Europe, Asia and others. A member of the Indian official delegation visiting Bulgaria in the beginning of 2006 said the Indian boom in IT started with usage of Bulgarian Pravec computers.

Total Bulgaria Hungary GDR Cuba Poland Romania Czecho-slovakia

Soviet Union

Export, Mln RUB 3174 1653 245 472 14.6 404 36 197 153

In % 100 52 7.7 14.9 0.46 12.7 1.13 6.21 4.81

The 8C had the same capabilities as the Apple IIc. Its

mainboard offered 64 KB of RAM expandable to 128 KB,

only 3 expansion slots, but had built-in 80-column card,

floppy drive controller, parallel printer port and, depending

on the mainboard version, RGB, RS232, Joystick interfaces,

and real time clock as well.

This computer was widely used by Bulgarian schools

and also by numerous teenagers who wrote and sent

to Western countries one of the first and famous Apple

II viruses, called Dark Avenger.

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Bulgarian computer industry after the transition to free market

The inception of democracy in Bulgaria was in 1989. Since then the computer industry has passed a long path to modern days and has had its ups and dawns. However the main tendencies have been almost identical to those undergone by the developed computer markets.

The first five years of the transformation were marked by the structuring of the computer industry in the new conditions. In the beginning the hardware market underwent fast development because the technological infrastructure of the state organizations and companies (almost 100% of the economy) was far behind that of the developed countries. The state companies were privatized step by step. Many new private Bulgarian and foreign companies were established and thus a strong push was given to hardware sales. The PCs were mainly assembled locally or imported from the Far East.

Sales of world leaders such as IBM, Compaq (before its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard) and HP also went up, their products preferred mainly by State organizations and multinational corporations.

The software market has been developing step by step together with the decrease of the software piracy, which was almost 100% in the beginning. The software market was led by world leaders like Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk etc. The local market was led by the companies selling accounting software. Then companies such as Oracle, Informix (now belonging to IBM), and SAP started activities on the Bulgarian market establishing local representative offices and partnerships with local distribution and development companies. The adoption of databases, data warehouses, ERP applications, etc. also began.

Some head hunter companies also made a good business for a year but soon it became obvious that there are more possibilities in outsourcing because of the lower salaries the companies were able to pay. Naturally, at first, only the code was written in the country, but very soon big projects started to come, generally to those companies which succeeded not only to hire good programmers, but also to implement modern management of their companies including project management, certifications under ISO and other standards. Case studies of successful projects from all over the world are available later in this book.

Development of software companies was called forth also by local state and market requirements. Along with the IT market, all other segments underwent privatization and the free market forced them to implement high technologies to become competitive. State institutions also became a big client; in fact between 1990–2004 the state was responsible for more than 50% of the total IT market.

The dotcom crisis, the development of the Internet, and the mobile revolution in the most recent years did not have much different impact on Bulgarian market and society than in other European countries, but still the penetration of the Internet and computer usage per capita are lagging in Bulgaria. With the development of the economy and accession of Bulgaria in European Union, the delay will be compensated for.

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Bulgarian ICT industry today

The first figures here are some statistical data about Bulgaria. At the end of this book one can find some more information about the country, its nature, history, and landmarks. Here we present only the basic facts and then focus on the computer and communication industry with more extensive review of Bulgarian software industry.

Bulgaria - Some Statisticsl Latest Population Estimate: 7,717,187 for 2006, according to www.world-gazeteer.com.l Gross National Income per capita is US$ 2,740 (‘05) according to World Bank.l Gross Domestic Product per capita on a purchasing power parity basis: US$ 9,000 (’05)

according to CIA – The World Factbookl Country Size (Area): Bulgaria has 110,994 sq km - Population density is 70 persons per sq km.l Internet Usage Statistics: above 2,400,000 Internet users at the end of 2006 or around 31%

of the population, according to e-Bulgaria reportl Access to the computers: 27.9% at the October 2005 according to e-Bulgaria report

After the transition to free market the first thing foreign companies noticed were the excellent skills of Bulgarian computer specialists. Many former scientist, foreign traders, engineers, and programmers established their own firms, became partners of worldwide IT companies and started competing in the new environment. One by one the big IT corporations also started opening their own representative offices – IBM, HP, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Cisco, 3COM, LG, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, etc. This way the small Bulgarian market became very competitive and to the moment more than 1000 IT companies are operating in the country.

Bulgarian IT Industry, �00�l Over 1,100 small and medium sized IT enterprisesl Over 100 ICT companies certified under the ISO 9000l 15 companies certified under the ISO 14000l 80% of Bulgarian software companies’ revenues result from contracts with European and US

partnersl Bulgarian IT companies successfully complete EU projects in consortiums with European IT

companies

Bulgarian ICT market is a small market as the country itself. Еxpectations are it will reach 2,327,000,000 Euro in 2006 where the IT part is 389 million Euro (source EITO 2006). 554 million Euro will be the IT market in 2010 according to а prediction of Datamonitor. But all sources give very substantial growth, expressed by two digit number over almost the whole period, given in the table (see page 9).

The Internet is also penetrating very quickly both in business and home. Home Internet access is still not so wide-spread as in the developed countries, because of the still low buying capacity

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of the population, but the Internet is widely used in the business in all its aspects. Technologically it follows the trends of European markets and, as it is shown on the figure,

broadband has the same growth as in these markets. Still, the late start makes significant difference when comparing to EU members.

Telecommunications are one of the fastest developing areas in Bulgaria, both from the point of view of foreign investments and from the point of view of implementation of new technologies and variety of services. Bulgaria is not falling behind anymore from the developed countries. The privatization of the national fixed telephone network, owned by Bulgarian

Bulgaria, ICT market value, € million (source EITO �00�)

�00� �00� �00� �00� �00�

Computer hardware 124 148 201 200 224

Office equipment 13 14 15 16 16

End-user communications equipment

137 238 277 269 311

Datacom and network equipment

196 211 224 238 253

Total ICT equipment 470 610 716 724 804

Software products 35 40 45 51 57

IT services 42 51 59 63 69

Carrier services 829 1,056 1,225 1,325 1,396

Total ICT 1,375 1,757 2,046 2,164 2,327

Total IT 251 298 373 389 431

Total telecommunications 1,124 1,458 1,674 1,775 1,896

Bulgaria ICT market value (2003-2007)

YEAR Internet Users Population % Pop.

�000 430,000 7,932,984 5.4 %

�00� 1,545,100 7,521,066 20.3 %

�00� 2,200,000 7,717,187 28.5 %

Broadband Market Dynamics

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20EUBG

2008F2006F20052004

�0

Telecom Company (BTC), was an important part of the liberalization of the telecom market in the country. This allows other operators to use the infrastructure of the privatized carrier and to offer voice services, broadband DSL Internet access, etc. The regulations in the area also are harmonized with the European frame. Forthcoming is a new law which will contain the term “electronic messages” and in its essence will be the beginning of the convergence between the telecommunications and information technologies and electronic media.

The telecommunication market was liberalized in 2004 with the privatization of Bulgarian national carrier Bulgarian Telecommunication Company (BTC). Yet the first mobile operator was established 10 years ago. The mobile revolution is a fact in Bulgaria as in the developed markets, still limited by the low income of the population on one hand, and the economy lagging behind the modern markets on the other.

Fixed Telecommunications Marketl Incumbent BTC privatized in June 2004l 15 new operators of fixed voice service licensedl Fixed segment already yields to the mobile one, volume of fixed voice services keeps on

falling downl Broadband picking up

Optical infrastructure in Bulgarial „BULGARGAZ” has optical network with total length of 651 km (2003), which passes along the

gas-pipelines, delivering international connectivity with Romania and Turkey. l „OVERGAZ” will invest 4 million BGNs in creating optical cable line to Greece with length of

223 km.l NEK (NATIONAL ELECTRICAL COMPANY) plans to have 1000 km countrywide optical ring. l BULGARIAN RAILWAYS has been working on a project for the building of high speed network

for data transmission with 1100 km length since 1998. It is still not clear when the project will be completed.

l The Cable Operator „CableTel” together with Mobiltel have 1800 km optical cable countrywide.

l Up to 2001 the Bulgarian Government has invested 50 million BGN in the building of National ATM network for the State Administration. The project is not still finalized.

Despite the potential competitors coming into the market, BTC is still the company with the most developed infrastructure. Bulgaria is lagging behind in the process of digitalization of phone lines in comparison with the countries in the first wave of EU expansion. In the big cities the process is almost finalized, but in the other areas the process is going slow. One of the reasons is that Bulgaria started from very high density of analogue lines in comparison to Romania for example. But the expectations are that the obligation of Bulgaria to reach 75-81% digitalization in 2007 will be fulfilled.

The low rate of digital phones penetration was one of the barriers to mass implementation of ISDN in 2000-2005, and since 2004 to DSL technologies.

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Digital Phones Penetration

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90Penetration of digital phones at the end of the year,%

2007F2006F2005F20042003200220012000

14.50% 15.12%

19.70%

27.26%

35%

55%

71%

80%

Penetration of ISDN in Bulgaria

�000 �00� �00� �00� �00� �00�

Basic Rate ISDN phone lines 1 146 4 932 8 514 13 400 17 360 27 600

Share of ISDN 0.04 % 0.19 % 0.32 % 0.47 % 0.62 % 1%

Source: National Statistical Institute

Fixed versus mobile phone lines in households

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Mobile communications

Fixed communications

200720062005200420032002

17.80

85.80

26.70

79.20

43.50

77.00

48.00

75.00

62.00

70.00 68.00 68.00

The licensed telecom operators of fixed phones grow from 5 in 2003 to 15 in 2006. About 240 enterprises in Bulgaria have general license for data transmission, but small part can be used for offering fixed telephony access to the end user.

Mobile Telecommunications Marketl Third GSM operator launched service in 2005l Two GSM operators (M-Tel and GloBul) have introduced GPRSl All GSM operators provide MMS servicesl Three operators were granted UMTS licenses, one of them has already started the service

Source: Vitosha Research. Data for 2005 is until February.Base: National Study of the population above 15 years.

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Software IndustryThe case of the software industry has often being cited as an industry offering a lot of

opportunities for latecomer countries. The availability of skilled human capital creates a solid base for development of an IT industry by those countries. The software industry is, in principle, low-capital but knowledge and skill-intensive industry, and the international market for software is big and growing. The software industry also possesses a potential to generate growth and economic development for the countries.

Statistics shows that the number of IT scientists and engineers in the countries of Central and East Europe (CEE) is higher than the EU average, especially in Bulgaria. In the early 1990’s, when the changes in the region started, it has been noticed that high potential exists for development of local software industries in CEE, due to outstanding skills in fundamental research and mathematics.

Factors that foster the successful development of the software industries in the countries like Bulgaria include the establishment of National Software-Related Infrastructure, comprising of skilful human resources, technological base, finance, R&D, etc. The efforts need to go beyond these, and to include development of a common national base. This involves development of a national software industry on the base of parks, competition, and collaboration among companies, which is based and backed up by national software policy, shared and supported both by the government and the industry. Once the national base is established on the strength of these three national elements, the success of the industry depends on its links with the international markets and achieved credibility.

Governments in all three successful “I” countries (i.e. India, Ireland and Israel) have acted to stimulate the supply of working and venture capital to software firms, and have used tax breaks, marketing subsidies, grants, loans, legislative updates, and removed red tape by a combination of both liberalization (less government) and promotional intervention (more government). Establishment of high-tech incubators (Israel) and high-tech parks (India) have helped to boost industry development. (More about Bulgarian government policy in the area of software industry is available later in the book.)

But building capabilities is the milestone in developing a latecomer software industry. Capabilities for software development are difficult to accumulate for two main reasons. First, accumulating technological knowledge is a complex process, which requires not only acquisition of codified knowledge, but also, and more so, development of tacit expertise, i.e. deeper understanding about technologies. Second, in order to build capabilities to compete in international markets, the latecomers need to develop expertise over an array of highly complex skills and abilities. These are capabilities for: software design, software programming, high quality assurance, prompt delivery, capabilities to develop specialized expertise in a particular domain and capabilities to diversify the products and services offered.

Bulgarian software companiesTotal 275

Offshoring 105

Solution providers of multinational packages for Bulgarian market 60

Solution providers on the base of own products for Bulgarian market 70

Companies offering own products abroad 15

Local R & D centres of foreign companies 25

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As we said earlier Bulgaria was among the former socialist countries selected to develop an ICT industry within their economical organization. The enrolment ratio in science and engineering is above the EU and CEE average and Bulgaria ranked significantly higher than the international average in the International Mathematics and Science Study. Bulgaria’s secondary education is among the best in the world: 5th in the world in sciences, 11th in mathematics (World Bank and The Economist rankings). Further, Bulgarian students regularly win Olympiads in Mathematics and Bulgarians are among the top university students worldwide (2nd in the world in SAT scores). These education potentials have been channeled into IT professional certificates. The Global IT IQ Report in 2002 by Brainbench Inc. ranks Bulgaria (with 8,844 Certified Professionals) eighth in a ranking of the top 10 countries based on number of certified IT professionals. Bulgaria ranks third worldwide for the number of certified professionals as a percentage of the population.

Despite skills recognition of the Bulgarian computer engineers many years were needed for Bulgaria to meet the challenges of building modern software industry.

In the domestic market the local software companies provide the whole range of software activities, like system integration, computer system software, networking software, web-design, application software, firmware. The high segment of domestic-oriented software activities involves creation of ERP systems, B2B and B2C solutions, document flow and project management solutions, GIS, CAD/CAM/CAE software, embedded software, intermediate telecommunications and wireless development software, customized services, etc.

In the international markets the Bulgarian companies undertake also wide range of software activities, including almost all above mentioned. The projects implemented by Bulgarian companies all over the world include almost the whole spectrum of areas, such as e-government, e-learning, manufacturing, services, trade, telecommunications, electronics, artificial intelligence, entertainment (including some games famous all over the world) to mention the main ones. Even software for the needs of Hollywood is created here. Geographically they span from Japan through Europe to USA, and also go far north and far south.

Other segment of Bulgarian software industry is defined by the investments made by the big multinationals and smaller software players on world market in R&D software centers. It is not possible to count foreign companies with local software development branches, groups or sometimes even individuals. We will describe the biggest ones such as SAP, Tumbleweed and others but there are many more and statistics show that two to three software companies are coming to Bulgaria monthly. Such centers are opened by companies as SAP, Joneson Controls, AMI Semiconducturs, Nokia, Thumbleweed, Melexis and others. Siemens also outsource operations in Bulgaria in its Graphical Software Center which designs building automation and has clients in 12 countries. Hewlett-Packard opened the Global Delivery EMEA Center in Sofia in 2006 and will have 1000 employees in a two-year period. Microsoft has also announced that the company will open two centers in Bulgaria: call center and innovation center. Oracle, Google and Cisco are also discussing options for Bulgaria.

The revenue of the software industry in Bulgaria reveals a stable increase. The expextations are software market to reach 88 mln USD and IT services and 103 mln USD in 2009. All well-established software companies boast annual increase of 25 to 100%. Their business also forms

Revenue from software development (million EURO) Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Revenue 26.00 36.00 34.00 40.00 47.00 57.00*

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very good profit giving them the possibility to reinvest and open new services. This growth is due to capabilities the companies have been able to master and to meet the requirements of the international markets. Case studies illustrating the capabilities of Bulgarian software companies are available in the next chapter.

The development of Bulgarian software Industry didn’t remain unnoticed by the market researching and consulting companies. In 2006 for the first time Bulgaria was included in A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index, 2005 and was ranked on 15 place. The study included 40 countries selected on the basis of corporate input, current remote services activity, and government initiatives to promote the sector. The 40 countries that emerged as finalists were evaluated against 40 measurements across three major categories: financial attractiveness, people and skills availability, and business environment. The metrics used to evaluate location attractiveness were determined from responses to A.T. Kearney and other industry surveys, and knowledge obtained in client engagements over the past five years. In response to client questions over the past 12 months, in this year’s Index the following two metrics were added: Information security and Labor flexibility.

Shown here are all metrics followed by the ranking itself together with the findings of A.T. Kearney regarding Bulgaria as a location for global services.

Category Sub-categories MetricsFinancial attractiveness (�0%)

Compensation costs • Average wages • Median compensation costs for relevant positions (call-center represent-atives, IT programmers and local operations managers), as reported in the Mercer Human Resource Consulting Global Pay Summary

Infrastructure costs • Rental costs • Commercial electricity rates • International telecom costs • Travel to major customer destinations

Tax and regulatory costs

• Relative tax burden • Costs of corruption • Currency appreciation or depreciation

People skills and availability (�0%)

Remote services sector experience and quality ratings

• Size of existing IT and BPO sectors • Contact center and IT center quality certifications • Quality ratings of management schools and IT training

Laborforce availability • Total workforce • University-educated workforce • Workforce flexibility

Education and language

• Scores on standardized education and language tests

Attrition risk • Relative IT and BPO sector growth and unemployment ratesBusiness environment (�0%)

Country environment • Investor and analyst rating of overall business and political environment • AT. Kearney Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index™ • Security risk • Regulatory burden and employment rigidity • Government support for the information and communications technology (ICT) sector

Infrastructure • Overall infrastructure quality • Quality of telecom, internet, and electricity infrastructure

Cultural exposure • Personal interaction score from A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Globalization Index™

Security of intellectual property(IP)

• Investor ratings of IP protection and ICT laws • Software piracy rates • Information security certifications

Especially for this book A.T. Kearny were kind to provide closer look to Bulgaria and Bulgarian ICT, which is available on page 52.

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Rank Country Financial Structure

People and skills availability

Business environment

Total score

1 India 3.47 2.14 1.26 6.872 China 3.21 1.76 1.17 6.143 Malaysia 2.95 1.12 2.00 6.074 Philippines 3.58 1.16 1.05 5.785 Singapore 1.62 1.44 2.67 5.736 Thailand 3.27 0.94 1.51 5.727 Czech Republic 2.57 1.12 1.90 5.588 Chile 2.73 0.97 1.87 5.589 Canada 1.10 2.03 2.40 5.5210 Brazil 2.91 1.36 1.23 5.5011 United States 0.54 2.74 2.22 5.4912 Egypt 3.55 0.95 0.98 5.4713 Indonesia 3.51 1.06 0.89 5.4714 Jordan 3.02 0.91 0.43 5.3515 Bulgaria 3.29 0.86 0.11 5.2716 Slovakia 2.72 0.96 0.55 5.2417 Mexico 2.87 1.16 0.19 5.2218 Poland 2.67 1.06 0.44 5.1619 Hungary 2.61 0.88 0.63 5.1320 United Arab Emirates 2.66 0.61 0.85 5.1221 Costa Rica 2.96 0.79 0.34 5.0922 Ghana 3.57 0.58 0.93 5.0823 Argentina 3.14 0.93 0.98 5.0524 Romania 3.07 0.92 1.05 5.0325 Jamaica 2.92 1.01 1.10 5.0326 Vietnam 3.55 0.69 0.76 5.0027 Russia 2.83 1.31 0.85 4.9928 United Kingdom 0.46 2.12 2.41 4.9929 Australia 0.97 1.66 2.29 4.9130 Tunisia 2.97 0.69 1.20 4.8631 Germany 0.50 2.10 2.23 4.8432 South Africa 2.76 0.81 1.24 4.8133 Israel 1.86 1.22 1.67 4.7534 New Zealand 1.28 1.19 2.28 4.7435 France 0.40 2.24 2.05 4.6936 Panama 2.90 0.65 1.10 4.6537 Portugal 1.60 0.88 1.80 4.2838 Spain 0.96 1.50 1.67 4.1239 Ireland 0.42 1.41 2.25 4.0740 Turkey 2.14 0.91 0.92 3.97

A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index, 2005

Note: The weight distribution for the three categories is 40:30:30. The financial structure is rated on a scale of 0 to 4, and the categories for people and skills availability, and business environment are on a scale of 0 to 3. Source: A. T. Kearney

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Trends

The expectations, with certainty, are for further stable development of all aspects of Bulgarian software industry. Bulgarian companies with own products and long term clients will get more and more attractive in the global trend of acquisitions, mergers, and buying. Niche vendors could have a good future. For example there are companies creating embedded software, software for handling TV programs, for mobile services, etc. In hands of the appropriate company with big marketing engine they can generate good business for themselves and for the foreign company, too.

There are also possibilities for mergers between Bulgarian companies which will give them better positioning to compete on European market after accession of Bulgaria in European Union.

After some years of oblivion, the software industry and ICT as a whole are now a priority of the Bulgarian government policy. Strong investments in IT education are already a reality. They include equipment, LANs, fast Internet and educational programs for the schools. With the establishment of a special authority, the State Agency for Information Technology and Communications, in 2005, the political priority is turning in actions which will support the growth and recognition of the Bulgarian software industry. The action plan includes establishment of public-private partnerships, software parks, strengthening of the research activities even in areas such as nanotechnologies, etc. (More information about the state policy is supplied further in the book.) The future of the Bulgarian software industry will be as bright as it promises only if the problem with the limited supply of IT cadres is resolved.

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Advantages of the Bulgarian software industry

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Achievements of Bulgaria in the ICT sector could be summarized as follow:• Bulgaria – one of the best locations for high-tech investments in Europe in R&D, software

development, telecom services• Telecommunications sector – liberalized, modernized, competitive• ICT industry – skilled and competitive• All Bulgarian universities and institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are connected to

the Pan-European Research Network• Constantly improved business environment• Member of European Union from January 1, 2007.

These achievements are the factors leading to fast development of Bulgarian software Industry. In fact its two digit growth is narrowed only by the limitation of the number of the software specialists. The fast development of Bulgarian software companies and increased number of R&D centers of the global and European players require more specialists than universities are able to produce every year. This fact could lead to slowdown of the growth of the industry. To avoid such development the Bulgarian Government and non-governmental organizations, as well as Bulgarian companies, are undertaking many different approaches to solve the problem they already face. They even think about an import of specialists mainly from Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and even some African countries.

The achievements of Bulgarian software industry could be divided into three main groups:• Investments by the foreign companies in local developing branches• Bulgarian companies in the outsourcing sector – from code writing to most sophisticated

projects • Bulgarian companies with own, internationally recognized products

Here we intentionally do not describe the big number of entirely local smaller players with own products in different segments, developed and implemented only for the Bulgarian market, because the goal of the book is to present Bulgarian software industry with its capabilities to serve global market requirements. However many of these companies have capacity to be developed as international players with appropriate investments and management.

In this part of the book we will present plenty of case studies which illustrate to great extend the capabilities and capacity of the Bulgarian software industry in the above mentioned three aspects and in the variety of industries and governmental projects. The distributors of software packages and consulting and implementing companies of foreign solutions as ERP, CRM, PLM, CAD/CAM etc., are not a subject of this book.

Investments by the foreign companies in local branches

The described developments of Bulgarian software industry in the previous part of the book were noticed and investigated by many companies looking for skilled labor on smaller wages in the offshoring and outsourcing segment. Many of them found a fertile ground for their activities and started investing in the country, opening own branches and R&D centers. Maybe the flagship of such investors is the company SAP.

Achievements of Bulgaria

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Case studies

SAP Labs Bulgaria EOODYear of establishment: 2000Number of employees: 315

SAP Labs represents a dynamic community within SAP’s Global Research and Development organization, sharing insights and promoting creativity on a worldwide basis. The main purpose of SAP Labs is to discover and understand new technology trends around the world. It integrates ideas and cutting-edge technologies that address the needs of specific industries and geographic regions. SAP Labs have taken a trendsetting role in many areas, especially concerning strategic topics like xApps, voice technology, double-byte language, mobile business, collaborative CRM, and Java skills.

SAP continuously evaluates more options for extending the global research and development network. In 2000 SAP increased its Java competencies by setting up SAP Labs Bulgaria in Sofia.

The company’s work is globally focused – SAP Labs Bulgaria develops cutting-edge technologies, which serve as a development basis for a wide range of applications. Taking advantage of the 30-year experience and the leading position of SAP AG in the market for end-user solutions, the Bulgarian branch aims at the establishment of a rapidly developing and unexploited market – the Java technologies market.

SAP Labs Bulgaria is focused on developing key components of the SAP NetWeaver Platform like SAP J2EE Engine – an integral part of SAP’s application platform - SAP Web Application Server, Enterprise Service Infrastructure - the technology to service-enable SAP products, Guided Procedures and Composite Application Framework- the framework for building SAP xApps.

The SAP J2EE Engine is an easy to use, to configure, and to manage application server, having a stable performance and a variety of functions. SAP J2EE Engine is a unified, widely

applicable server platform, which entirely supports the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) standards from Sun Microsystems.

Bulgaria is one of the key locations in the SAP Labs network. By building the core of SAP NetWeaver, the young, competent, and dedicated colleagues in Sofia are laying the foundations for the success of the SAP platform.

The success factors for foreign investment in Bulgaria were the very well educated, talented, and committed workforce and the talent pool available in the country. Next followed the European culture and the good English skills of the population. The very competitive local cost structure was a key point too.

In purely geographical respect - the short flight times and the fact that there is almost no time difference from Western Europe are an advantage. EU-membership in 2007, guaranteeing the stability of local economy makes the country even more attractive to foreign investors.

SAP serves as reference for European and US companies: the positive Mc Kinsey study on Bulgaria was based on input from the company. The fact that SAP has major customers in Bulgaria (Bulgarian government, IBM, Alianz, Coca Cola, Metro, Vidima, M-Tel, OMV, etc.) was a definite sign of the company’s success. Moreover, SAP has not only been successful in Bulgaria, but it has communicated its success in the country in an open and public manner, thus enabling other foreign investors to discover Bulgaria as an attractive location for outsourcing.

Over six years of continuous growth, a team of more than 300 employees was successfully built up – the employee base consists of Java developers, quality assurance specialists, information developers, development support, and a training center. As the company is expanding, it will retain its focus on the Java technology. New highly qualified employees are being hired continuously.

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Melexis BulgariaYear of establishment: 2000Number of employees: 180, to be doubled in 2008

Melexis is a Belgium company which for over a decade has been designing and manufacturing products for the automotive sector, for which it offers a multitude of sensor ICs, ASSPs, and ASICs. Melexis devices reliably live up to the highest standards of quality required in a demanding automotive environment. Melexis’ customers are successful businesses in many other areas than just automobiles as in the consumer products, industrial, and wireless areas. Technology development in RF and RFID components has enabled Melexis’ customers to achieve their product development goals on time, in budget, and with sustainable profit margins. Integrated Hall effect fan drivers allow Melexis’ customers to win business in the latest computer, gaming, and entertainment systems worldwide. Cell phones, handheld remote controls, battery charging controllers are a few demanding mixed signal and sensing applications currently benefiting from Melexis’ semiconductor expertise and advanced manufacturing capabilities.

Melexis operates in business units each covering a product line. The corporate headquarters are located in

Belgium. R&D centers are in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. In Bulgaria, the company also has manufacturing facilities. It plans to increase its capacity mainly in Sofia, Bulgaria. A lot of specialized software is needed for the Melexis’ high-end products and software engineers are one of the core specialists in the Bulgarian branch of the company.

Here is part of a news report about Melexis’ investments in the country:

„08/10/2006. Melexis raises Bulgarian investmentBelgian automotive chip maker Melexis NV, has

increased its investment budget for its Bulgaria plant to more than 30 million euro (about $38 million) from 22 million euro (about $28 million). The increased budget has come as Melexis plans to open a second plant in Sofia, Bulgaria.“

Nonetheless, Melexis sees Sofia production plants as a driver of growth for the whole company. Melexis Bulgaria, which currently employs about 200 people, is now set to add another 150 to 200.

AMI Semiconductor BulgariaYear of establishment: 2004Number of employees: 23

The Bulgarian Design Center of AMI Semiconductor is a dynamic, young team with a fast growth and ambitious projects. The level of education is very high, 5 PhD’s and 18 Masters degrees with an average age of 31 year. The development focus is on special systems for sensor interface applications in the automotive, medical and mobile electronics. The technical capability improvement and the people satisfaction are main focuses of the Human Resource Planning. With an average of 20 hours monthly training, presentations on various conferences and internal engineering forums, the engineers develop their talents and satisfy their need for improvement and variation of work.

The teams have full Project Leading responsibility and are in direct contact with our customers in Japan, Korea, Germany and France. The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and allows complex technical evaluation of our products. Innovation, variation and challenge in a supportive environment is our philosophy.

Currently AMI Semiconductor Bulgaria has 10 active projects for Embedded system on a chip for air-conditioning, motor drivers; sensor interfaces for

automotive and GPS; RF chip for remote information transfer in medical area.

For its activities the company needs engineers in electronics, microelectronics and computer science. They work with Cadence, Mentor, C++, LabView.

On the question why Bulgaria, Anelia Pergoot, Design Center Manager, AMIS Bulgaria is short: “Availability of trained people on the low labor cost.” On the opening of the Sofia Design Center she stated: “The expansion of AMI Semiconductor’s mixed-signal engineering capabilities further supports the growth that we are experiencing in worldwide mixed-signal ASIC and ASSP markets. The combination of existing and proven local expertise, the excellent academic facilities, and the strength of the Bulgarian economy, made Sofia an ideal choice for further investment in our global mixed-signal engineering capabilities.”

For some more than two years of existence the design center looks as very successful unit by the point of view of the mother company and it will grow to 40 specialists in 2 years, involved in test development, marketing and other.

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Tumbleweed Communications BulgariaYear of establishment: 2003Year of establishment: 140

The activity of the company is software engineering - email security solutions and managed file transfer solution.

Tumbleweed Communications Corp. was founded in 1993. In 1999 the company went public. Tumbleweed Communications is headquartered in Redwood City, California and has offices in Australia, Bulgaria, Singapore, UK, and throughout USA.

The Bulgarian office was established in 2003 with 29 employees. In 2006 the number of employees in Sofia office exceeded 140.

Tumbleweed Communications is now the recognized leader in providing secure Internet communication solutions for enterprises and government customers of all sizes. Tumbleweed provides security solutions for email protection, file transfers, and identity validation that allow organizations to safely conduct business over the Internet.

Tumbleweed offers these security solutions in three comprehensive product suites: MailGate, SecureTransport and Valicert Validation Authority. MailGate provides protection against spam, viruses and attacks, and enables policy-based message filtering, encryption and routing. SecureTransport enables business to safely exchange large files and transactions without proprietary software. Valicert Validation Authority is the world-leading solution for determining the validity of digital certificates. The result: organizations using Tumbleweed security solutions can safely and securely use the Internet for business, significantly reducing their costs. Founded in 1993, Tumbleweed is trusted by over 1,000 customers, including 8 of 10 top US banks, over 40% of Blue Cross/Blue Shield organizations, and all four branches

The list of case studies of foreign investments is not complete. It could be extended with companies such as Microsoft, which announced it will open a call center, as well as an innovation center in Bulgaria, HP, which already opened it support center in Sofia with planed employment of 1000 specialists, Jonson Controls, which has an R&D center with 400 employees developing automotive software in Sofia, Siemens, which announced it will export its hi-tech manufacturing in Bulgaria, Nokia Enterprise Solutions Division with 36 developers and many smaller companies from USA, UK, France, Germany, Greece, etc.

of the US Armed Forces. Tumbleweed’s patent portfolio includes 23 U.S.

utility patents and multiple pending U.S. patent applications. Tumbleweed has licensed its patents to 29 companies such as eBay, Enthrust, Kana Software, CipherTrust, NetIQ, Ironport Systems, and Yahoo!.

The Sofia office provides a full software development life cycle of core Tumbleweed products. This requires a blend of IT professionals – system architects, software engineers with C++ or Java, Quality Assurance specialists, technical writers, support engineers, IT engineers. With the growth of the operations in Bulgaria sales and marketing professionals joined the team.

Tumbleweed has chosen Bulgaria because it has a pool of well educated and skilled IT specialists. Software developers are far beyond just coders. They are creative, innovative and capable to contribute to architecture and algorithms development. The cost of development in Bulgaria is relatively low, but this is a temporary advantage. Much more important is the high quality of the created products. Bulgarian IT professionals are committed, full of enthusiasm and look for continuous learning and training. Bulgarian time zone is much more convenient for US and EU companies in comparison with some Asian destinations. It is not difficult to find professionals speaking English and/or other European languages.

The growth of Tumbleweed’s office in Sofia in the last 3 years is a proof of a successful investment of the company in Bulgaria. Tumbleweed plans to continue the expansion of the Sofia operations.

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Software Projects and Product of Bulgarian companies

Many Bulgarian companies succeed to develop strong structure and capabilities for serving the world market. They are not contracted anymore for the cheap labor cost but for their professionalism, reliability and accuracy, proved in practice. Many of them are already part of international groups and work on the global arena. They have implemented projects or own product almost in every place on the world and in areas as government, education, environment, healthcare, manufacturing, trade, services, etc. Others are domestically oriented but they proved themselves in large projects for governmental and multinational organizations and companies. Examples for such companies are also given.

Some of the Bulgarian companies succeeded to develop their own high level products well-received on the domestic market, as well as abroad. For example, the human resource and payroll system HeRMeS developed by Technologica; B2C retail application and development of billing and customer support solution for telecoms EyeBill Interactive by Sirma; INSIS - Insurance information system by Fadata, ERP systems of LClass, KontoBenz, a software product for complex service for gas-station activities by dWare, Caddie 10, architectural CAD Solution by Interconsult Bulgaria, SANDRA, a Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) Designer by Pointe L, Software Business Platform R5 by ORAK Engineering just to mention a few.

Company: Rila SolutionsName of the project: „ChatPC3“Place in the world: USA, UK, Spain, GermanyField of industry: Medical, Recreation, MobileYear of implementation: 2006Name of the client: „Saltillo Corporation”

ChatPC 3 is an embedded solution that has a goal to substitute the natural speech of people experiencing disability problems.

Key features:• Client device (Pocket PC, Windows CE, ELF3

prototype board (CE.NET), Win32)• Multi-platform (StrongARM, XScale, Bulverde,

MIPS, SH3, x86 processors)• DecTalk text to speech API• Microsoft Voices Speech API (SAPI)• Hardware switch scanning• Self-contained file system w/ compression and

encryption• Prediction and completion dictionaries (both

dynamic and static)

• Synchronization over ActiveSync transport• Desktop library editor• Dictionary compilerChatPC3 is a set of software packages that make it

possible for people experiencing disability problems to communicate naturally. The client that runs on a Windows Mobile device consists of a page browser that is used to navigate between different pages each one of them consisting of a number of buttons. Buttons are used to activate an action (such as navigate to another page, record a sound etc) or to select a word, a sentence or a part of a sentence to be spoken directly or inserted into the speech display bar. Thus, users of the software can compose their own sentences by clicking on different buttons and then speak them

Case studies

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using the device. Internally the device uses Phonix DecTalk ™ text-to-speech to synthesize the speech. Two different word prediction/completion dictionaries are used to further speed up the entry of individual texts. The static dictionary is compiled from a given textual corpus and cannot be changed while the dynamic dictionary monitors the individual speaking patterns of the user and adapts to that style dynamically. Libraries are used to store the pages, buttons, pictures and other resources.

Libraries can be transferred between the mobile device and the desktop client. The Library Editor is used to create the master libraries and edit them. Commonly a clinician is creating the library files based on the individual parameters of the person who will be using the communication device such as age, interests, level of disability etc.

ChatPC3 was built using Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools 3 and 4, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, DecTalk SDK in Visual C++.

Company: Sirma Group Corp.Name of the project: Elections Canada Support Network (ECSN)Place in the world: CanadaField of industry: GovernmentYear of implementation: ECSN1 – 2000; ECSN2 - 2004 Company: Elections Canada

Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to Canada’s Parliament. Its ongoing concern is to fulfill its responsibility to ensure Canadians can exercise their choices in elections and referendums in an open and impartial process.

http://www.elections.ca

WorkLogic, a division of Sirma Group Corp., performed the Helpvision-ECSN project for Elections Canada Support Network (ECSN). The Helpvisiion-ECSN system was used by Elections Canada during Canadian Federal Elections in 2000 to manage and track questions and requests from Returning Officers, their staff, and the general public. Elections Canada chose WorkLogic’s Helpvisiion (a Sirma Group Company) product in favor of Remedy’s ARS, and funded enhancements and development of custom features.

The following services were provided:• Business analysis, JAD sessions, requirements

specification, definition of project scope, effort estimation, project plan and schedule, project management.

• Data model, database schema creation and migration scripts, implemented and tested incremental deliveries.

• Functional test plan, automatic test suite,

manual testing, load-testing plan and test suite, performance optimization. WorkLogic load tested the system to prove that it can handle at least 500 concurrent users, 200 000 requests and 150 000 clients recorded in the system, and 500 new requests per minute at peak usage.

• Server sizing, installation, configuration and deployment, user documentation.

• On-site support for 18h/d non-stop operation, annual maintenance and support.

In 2000, the system was used by 350 concurrent users at Elections Canada HQ to serve 4,000 staff in electoral districts across Canada, as well as at least 10,000 users from the general public.

Elections Canada funded further enhancement project, named ECSN2 to implement features that are especially useful in the federal election context. The enhanced version of the system was used in the 2004 federal elections to service 6,000 staff in electoral offices across Canada, as well as 10,000 users from the general public.

Elections Canada continues to use the system for post-election activities and reporting.

Technologies: IIS, Active Server Pages (VBScript), WorkLogic’s Helpvisiion Product, Oracle 8.

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Company: dWareName of the project: Lukoil Place in the world: MacedoniaField of industry: Gas Year of implementation: 2006

dWare Ltd. was established on November 10th 1989. dWare specializes in software development and services - software applications for the automation of financial and accounting procedures, management of business procedures (ERP), integral management of gas and petrol stations and management of in-house tasks and procedures. The software applications work in Bulgarian, English, Serbian, Macedonian and other languages.

dWare is ISO 9001:2000 certified, member of The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and member of The Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies. The company has offices and representatives in more than 15 cities across Bulgaria, with more than 15,000 sold licenses.

dWare provides training for its customers and 24/7 technical support. The company is a member of the Oracle partner network and Microsoft registered partner.

Some of dWare’s customers are: The President’s Administration, Ministry of Justice, Customs agency, Information Services PLC, Bulgarian national television, Bulgarian national radio, University for National and World Economy, Technical University of Sofia, American University in Bulgaria, Office 1 Superstore, Filkab JSC, Militzer & Munh, Wavin Bulgaria, Saint Gobain Weber, Lukoil, Opet/Aygaz, Rompetrol Bulgaria, Mila Market Ltd. and many others.

Due to dWare’s good reputation and brand recognition Lukoil Macedonia has recently chosen it to be its partner. dWare’s system for full-scale business management – Konto MS (Business processor, BP) has been properly evaluated and trusted to be implemented in all petrol stations of Lukoil Macedonia. The first petrol station operating with Konto MS (Business processor) started working on September 2nd 2006.

BP is the system that provides complete centralized control over all business events happening in company. It generates all primary document types and authorizes document mergers. Its easy-to-use interface allows to obtain all the necessary information as detailed and clear as preferred. One can easily track the company’s transactions and funds variable periods of time.

BP can manage business operations of various types of units – shops, warehouses, restaurants,

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petrol stations…Real business operations require various types of

documents – some of which are quite specific and are in use just in a particular business structure. Commodities have different variables as well.

BP is the system that allows to specify: Documents types; Documents contents; Documents sequence; Documents templates; Documents status; Warehouses related documents.

BP generates various reports presenting: • detailed information for transactions

• detailed information for quantities and movements in the warehouse

• detailed information for funds activityThere are reports tracking: transactions histories;

commodities histories.Reports for transactions which are to be

completed – with all the mandatory documents.Successful transactions require relevant

infrastructure, organization, warehouse, staff… dWare offers software applications for all areas of business.

Company: DATECS Ltd.Name of Project: www.stadtplandienst.de Place in the world: GermanyName of Purchaser: Euro-Cities AGPurchaser Address: Bismarckallee 41, 14193 Berlin, GermanyContract role: Prime supplierYear of Implementation: 2001-2006

www.stadtplandienst.de (SPD) is one of the best nationwide (worldwide) online mapping portals of Germany. This service is giving a web-based access to complex registers of more than 3.5 Mil. streets with attributes and more than 20 Mil. addresses with attributes and millions of cartographic maps of Germany at different scales including aerial ortho-photo images. The Information System has hierarchical structure which supports more than 110 customers as 3-rd party integrators via XML and URL interfaces. More than 30 of them have and maintain their own registers of objects with attributes within www.stadtplandient.de (SPD) database. The service has more than 600,000 requests per day by more than 100,000 unique users per day currently.

This Information System works in 3 locations:1. Production and development level - database

servers and web farm based in DATECS Ltd. of-fice in Sofia for the software development and data production.

2. Public service (www.stadtplandienst.de) level - database servers and web farm application based in Berlin. Data and software are transfer-ring here on regular basis from the production and development level, Sofia.

3. Marketing level – restricted database servers and web farm application for registered customers and partners for the evaluation of new features and 3rd party development. Located at Berlin.

The public service (www.stadtplandienst.de) have hierarchical structure with 3 main user levels:

Level_0:Users_A – These users include the staff from SPD and from DATECS which support all data

registers of streets, addresses, maps and basic objects. They do:

• Operating system support;• RDBMS support;• Database content support;• Monitoring and statistics;• Customers support;• Level_1:Users_C customers support;Level_�:Users_A – This kind of users implement

the data and functionality from SPD using virtual template customized for them and at the same time they have a register of objects with attributes within the SPD database.

Level_�:Users_B – This kind of users is implementing the data and functionality from SPD using virtual template customized for them combined with objects data within their web-site.

Level_�:Users_C - This kind of users is collecting the data for SPD and with the help from DATECS is entering and support the information for basic objects in the SPD database. They have a restrictive access only to their part of objects.

Level_�:Users_D - This kind of users is collecting the data for SPD and is responsible for entering and support the information for basic objects in the SPD database through web-

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forms interface. They have a restrictive access only to their part of objects.

Level_�:Users_A - This kind of users are all Internet users. They use free www.stadtplandienst.de and/or our customer’s web-sites. The detailed session information for every user is recorded in the SPD database during user activity. Users performs:• Search of city, address or object;• As a result they receive city, address or object with

detailed information located on the map;• They can work interactively with many different

kinds of maps and view all database objects separated in categories;

• They can print different layouts of visible infor-mation;

• They can find optimal route between different locations;

• They can register for paid services (thus becom-ing Level_2:Users_B)

Level_2:Users_B – This kind of users are registered Internet users for paid online services from SPD. They have a personal profile in the SDP database. In this profile SPD collects the general information about each company or individual and a list of his services. After his registration a personal contract in PDF format is generated and sends to the user via e-mail. After conformation for registration he enters a procedure for payment of purchased services. We implemented 4 different mechanisms for payments:

• Online credit card payment• Online phone payment• Offline Wire transfer payment• Offline Payment in cash

Special technical skills:• Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Linux administration

and support; • RDBMS MySQL / Microsoft SQL Server 2000: Instal-

lation and support; Backup and replication mecha-nism; Database design and programming; Remote monitoring;

• Web farm ASP applications development, implemen-tation and support;

• AJAX and XML technologies• Microsoft COM Objects development for: Multilan-

guage support; Batch data entry and processing in RDBMS; GIS and Mapping functionality; Optimal routes finding;

• Development and support of customized web-based templates library for 3rd party solutions

• Development and implementation of web-based online purchase, contracting and payment func-tionality

• Development of desktop database utilities for data production process

• Production and maintenance of register database of streets records and city addresses records for Germany

• Productions and support of high-quality raster data-base containing millions of maps for all Germany

Project team: project managers – 1; software development project managers – 1; DB administrators – 2; application developers – 5; technical writer – 1; maps and registers database managers – 2; group leaders – 6; data-entry and data maintenance operators – from 36 to 82 during the projects; data quality control staff – 4.

Company: InterComponentWare SP Ltd. (ICW)Name of the project: Field test for electronic health cardPlace in the world: Walldorf, GermanyField of industry: eHealthYear of implementation: �00�

ICW is a leading international eHealth specialist with locations in Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Switzerland, and the USA. Among other things, ICW develops and markets software and hardware components for the healthcare IT infrastructure of the electronic health card, the personal health record LifeSensor, and networking solutions for clinics and surgeries. ICW has provided consulting services to the German government for the implementation of the electronic health card and is involved in the Austrian eCard project.

Description of the project:In 2003, the German federal government resolved to introduce an electronic health card (eHC) in 2006. The card and its healthcare IT infrastructure is to enable the digital exchange of data between all health professionals, to improve the quality of healthcare while, at the same time, reducing costs. Following the introduction of the eHC, paper-based prescriptions will be reproduced electronically. This enables an automatic drug interaction and contraindication check, significantly increasing drug safety. In addition, every

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citizen is to receive a personal emergency record and an electronic health record, which will store copies of the person’s medical data. Thus, treating physicians are provided with a detailed picture of their patient’s state of health and can adapt their treatment to the patient’s pre-existing

conditions and current therapies. The introduction of the eHC in Germany is considered one of the largest IT projects worldwide. Political differences between the individual associations within German healthcare have delayed the project, however, since the foundation of a central operating company for the introduction of the eHC (Gematik) the project is gradually moving ahead. The start of eight official test regions, in which approximately 10,000 citizens each are to receive an eHC, is scheduled for the end of 2006. The tests and the subsequent introduction of the card are to be effected in several stages, while the administrative functions and the electronic prescription will be the first features to be introduced. The medical functions of the card, i.e. emergency data, drug history and the electronic health record are to follow in further stages. In anticipation of the official test regions, InterComponentWare (ICW) started its own field test for its eHC system as early as June 2005. In the small town of Walldorf, all four pharmacies and four surgeries have been fitted with the system. The health card system used in Walldorf offers not only the basic administrative functions but already offers the relevant features that are considered to be the actual benefits of the card and its infrastructure. Physicians and pharmacists can already view data on their patients in their personal health record LifeSensor and transfer their own information to the record. An automatic drug interaction and

contraindication check is possible, which can also include OTC drugs and dietary supplements. ICW’s eHC system already integrates three pharmacy information systems and a practice management system. Thus, physicians and pharmacists can utilize the functions of the new card from their usual software and e.g. write ePrescriptions or copy data from the electronic health record directly to their local system. ICW has developed a software development kit (SDK) to easily connect such primary medical systems.The participating surgeries and pharmacies in Walldorf were enabled for the eHC by means of the ICW connector Medical NTBA. The Medical NTBA ensures a highly secure, comfortable and reliable connection of the local systems to the healthcare IT infrastructure. It controls the entire confidential communication with the healthcare network, the surgery or pharmacy software and the card readers. It, for example, enables the electronic mapping of the entire life cycle of a prescription. In the Walldorf field test, the entire process - starting with the physician issuing the prescription, the viewing of the prescription at the patient terminal and the filling of the prescription at the pharmacy through to the transmission of the prescription to a pharmacy computer center – proceeds fully electronically.As early as 2006, ICW plans to extend the field test from Walldorf to the so-called Rhine-Neckar metropolis region. This region comprises cities such as Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg with a total of approx. 2.3 million citizens, 70 hospitals, 1,200 physicians and 250 pharmacies. In the privately initiated healthcare initiative the medical functions of the eHC, in particular, are to be introduced and further improved on. After all, it is only these functions that offer opportunities for a sustained improvement of medical care, while at the same time realising cost savings. And this was in fact government’s intention behind introducing the eHC.The components of ICW’s eHC system and its network solutions are created for international use and can easily be adapted to the standards of different countries.

Company: TechnologicaName of Project: BULCOD – National Codification InstrumentPlace in the world: Armed forces of the Republic of Bulgaria Year of Implementation: 2005

BULCOD is developed for the Ministry of defense of the Republic of Bulgaria by TechnoLogica Ltd. during 2004 and is in use since the beginning of 2005.

Main purpose of ‘National Codification Instrument’ information system is to automate National Codification

Bureau’s activity to the Ministry of Defense, which includes:• Description of the item according to the Codifi-

cation System used in NATO and allocation of a commodity number in NATO, both in information

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and descriptive methods; • Building of a .NET interface for Windows and a

web part for public access;• Building of procedures for initial loading of data

and for periodical updates of data through up-dated files – TDP, received form NAMSA;

• Realization of a specialized application server of the system;

• Realization of standard forms for data exchange according to the ACodP1 NATO manual;

• Realization of statistical and periodical reports; • System for access control;• Means of control and generation of transactions

for international data exchange.The system works in Intranet and Internet

environment with the use of MS Internet Information Server.

TechnoLogica’s activities included: Business analysis of the activities in “National Codification Bureau” department of Ministry of Defense; Database design and meta-description of the activities and the operations in the department; Project and implementation with the environment for development of MS Visual Studio; Implementation; Testing – working together with French, Spanish, Check Republic and USA codification departments; Training and maintenance of the system.

Functional CharacteristicsThe functions of BULCOD meet all the requirements

of ACodP-1 related with codification of items, as well as with the international transactions of the Codification Bureau. In addition, functions for statistics of the activity of the Bureau are made as well as a periodical actualization of data of NAMSA, US NCB, translation into local language of the changes in NATO Codification System and so on.

Item CodificationBULCOD enables the codifier to develop and

manage various codification actions:• Classification and identification of items accord-

ing all 7 types of identification (reference and descriptive);

• Modification of items codification;• Cancellation of codified items;• Reinstatement of cancelled codified items;• Process of validation and approval of codifica-

tion actions;• Management of internal request for codifica-

tion.ScreeningThe system gives to the user wide range of

capabilities to locate needed information trough screening process: • Group and Classes Screening; • Item Names Screening; • NCAGE Screening; • NSN

Screening; • NSN Screening by characteristics.Communications

• Export & import of transmission in encapsulated format;

• Support of transmission and transaction history.System functions

• Periodical actualization of H2, H6, MRD through im-porting DB2 tables;

• Periodical actualization of H4 – data for manufac-turers through importing data provided by NAMSA (NMCRL);

• Support of basic tables with data from ACodP-1, ACodP-2, ACodP-3, CodSP and so on in three lan-guages – domestic, English and French;

• Statistics of the activity of the National Codification Bureau.System CharacteristicsBULCOD is a three-tier application. Client and

Application tier are developed using Microsoft .NET Framework. The database is Oracle 9i. The application is made in two parts. An application with the full system functionality is made with Windows Forms Interface. For access to the database a specific Application Server is developed. The server can be installed on one or more machines. The Application Server is developed as Windows Service.

For the needs of organizational units of the Ministry of Defense a Web Application is developed. With this application users perform searching (screening) for the codified items by codes and characteristics, as well as for the classes, groups, item names and manufacturers/suppliers. The Web Application is hosted by Internet Information Server.

BULCOD has a multi language user interface. The user can switch between three languages: domestic, English and French.

The certification of the Bulgarian high tech product as a “NATO Compatible” was made by the NATO Group of National Codification Directors and NATO Agency for Maintenance and Supply (NAMSA). Bulgarian codification system is sixth in the world and an interest to it is already shown by Romania, Macedonia and Albania. A further recognition for the Bulgarian system is the fact that examples of it will be included in the NATO reference book for building codification systems.

Denis Lampron from NAMSA stated: “I and my colleagues are impressed of Bulgarian codification system, which has the full functionality, logical connection and convenient interface. Congratulations to Technologica for developing the product in record-breaking time limits.”

Project started on: 23.12.2003Project ended on: 23.11.2004

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Company: MicroinvestName of the project: Microinvest Warehouse ProPlace in the world: BulgariaField of industry: Retail and POS SystemsYear of implementation: �00�

Microinvest Warehouse Pro presents a system for tracking of warehouse availabilities in unlimited number of warehouses in real time. The program’s architecture enables the processes definition and work flexibility. All main principles of modern business are grounded in the design of the application – remote work, mobile working places, system for defining the operators’ rights and data edition at each step. A visual interface that could be adapted to each user and could considerably expedite the work of the operators has been built. The program offers a set of 6 document styles and adaptive interface. Product’s key characteristics:• Work in client-server mode• Maintenance of huge loading, nomenclatures and

operations• Tree structures of all nomenclatures• Possibility for graphic presentation of the informa-

tion• Allocated net technology, remote access and syn-

chronization• Global definition of the access control of each

user• WEB interface and administration• Data import from MS Excel as well as from other

products of Microinvest• Connection to mobile Palm OS and Pocket PC de-

vices• Expedition of work and operations effectiveness• Possibility for work with different databases types:

Access, Microsoft Desktop Engine, MySQL and Mi-crosoft SQL.

Main modules of the system:Sales. The sales are the most frequently used

operation. Each sale reduces the quantities of the selected goods and transfers them to the partner. The operation completes with issuing a document for payment.

Deliveries. The deliveries present replenishing of new quantities of goods in the warehouse. At each delivery the quantity of the available goods in the warehouse is increased and prices of the goods are formed.

Transfer. The transfer presents moving of goods from one warehouse to another.

Reject. This operation is used for discharging of the quantities of unfit goods and reduces the quantities

of the selected goods in the relevant warehouse.Discharge. The discharge is used for removing

goods from the warehouse for one’s own needs without generating financial income for the warehouse.

Invoicing. The invoicing is used for turning a selected document into an invoice in line with the Bulgarian legislation.

Cash-book. The cash-book presents a chronological log of the company’s money. Through the cash-book the user is able to track the cash flow and to see the current state of the financial resources.

Consignments. The consignment is a process by which a good is stricken off from the warehouse and is put on the list of a selected partner. When the partner sells the good he renders an account through a “Consignment Report” and the warehouse program increases the financial incomes. If the partner returns the good then the function “Consignment Restore” is used whereas the liability of the partner is reduced and warehouse availabilities are increased.

Tenders. The module “Tenders” is used for creation of representative price list of selected goods for a given partner. The tender can be automatically turned into a Sale or Quotation.

Quotations. The module “Quotations” is used for creation of exemplary sale of selected goods to a given partner. In general the quotation precedes the sale and it serves for precise determination of the parameters of the business transaction – goods, prices, quantities, amounts and bank accounts. The quotations do not change the quantities of goods in the warehouse. The quotation can be automatically turned into a Sale or Tender.

Delivery Orders. The delivery order is a document through which the company orders goods to the suppliers. The delivery orders do not change the quantities of goods in the warehouse. The delivery note can be automatically turned into a Delivery.

Orders. The order is an operation through which you receive a request from a client and note his interest in your goods and products. The order serves for planning future transaction with a client. It helps as well in the analysis of the state of the warehouse and gives information whether all goods are available to the moment or not. The order can

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be automatically turned into a Sale, Tender, Delivery Note or Quotation.

Trade Project. The Trade Project presents a highly specialized module. This module is completely analogous to Sales but here there is no requirement of filling data in the window in details which hastens the work process. This is of great importance for conveyor work (in a shop for instance). The quantities of goods in the warehouse are reduced whereas the financial incomes are increased after each completed operation.

Trade Screen. The Trade Screen presents a highly specialized module, operating without a keyboard, mouse or any additional controls. All operations are done through touching the screen and are quite simplified. The module is analogous to Sales but the work is expedited. This is of great

importance for conveyor work (in a shop for instance). The quantities of goods in the warehouse are reduced whereas the financial incomes are increased after each completed operation.

Documents Transformation. The window Document Transformation serves as a fast and easy transformation of documents from one kind to another. A typical example is when a client orders goods from your company. You create an Order. To attract the client’s attention you make a Tender. Instead of entering the Tender once again through the Documents Transformation the operator creates the Tender on the basis of the already existing Order. If the client approves the Tender on its basis the Quotation is created. When the client pays, the Quotation is transformed into a Sale. The peculiarity of the whole process is the fact that the document has been entered only once.

Company: INTERCONSULT Bulgaria Ltd.Name of the project: ENSIS, an Environmental Surveillance and Information SystemPlace in the world: Norway, ChinaField of industry: Government, Research, EnvironmentYear of implementation: ����-�00�

ENSIS is a modern environmental surveillance and information system implementing an integrated approach to environmental data analysis and the implied action planning routines.

The ENSIS group, consisting of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, the Norwegian Institute for Water Research and the IT companies Norgit and INTERCONSULT Bulgaria, has developed an Environmental Surveillance and Information System (ENSIS). INTERCONSULT Bulgaria’s main responsibility within the ENSIS project was the development of the system, all major software modules of ENSIS have been programmed by the Bulgarian team of software engineers.

In 1998 INTERCONSULT Bulgaria received the European ICT Prize for the development of ENSIS (http://www.ist-prize.org/). The air quality component of ENSIS was first demonstrated at the Winter Olympic Games at Lillehammer in 1994. Since then, the system has been further developed and has now been installed in several cities in Norway and Asia. ENSIS is used by several municipalities in Norway: Fredrikstad, Sarpsborg, Oslo, and Drammen. In China the system is implemented for surveillance of the water quality in Songhua river and for control of air and water quality in the Shandung province. In 2002-2004 ENSIS system was established at a national level as a standard system

for monitoring air and water quality in China. The initial development of the system was done with

funding from the EU research programs in the period 1997-2002. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) has sponsored the adjustment and implementation of ENSIS in China during 2002-2004.

ENSIS is a management and decision support system for the environmental protection of water and air resources. It exposes a special geographic information system interface (GIS) for the integration, display and monitoring water and air quality and for modeling results. The system can be used as a management tool for planners, an information tool for the public and an expert system for specialists.

Development of technical monitors and telemetric s y s t e m s h a s m a d e e n v i r o n m e n t a l d a t a more readily available to planners, authorities and to the public. In line with awareness and the strong focus on our environment, the modern environmental monitoring and surveillance systems h a v e a l s o b e c o m e information systems that

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can provide relevant information at different levels about the state of the environment, quickly and precisely.

Basic features of ENSIS are:• Map based user interface (GIS)• Storage, retrieval and presentation of air and water

quality data• Automatic and manual collection and quality control

of monitoring data• Statistical processing of data, and graphics for

presentation

• Air and water quality classification system and map presentation of classified air and water quality

• Domestic, industrial and agricultural pollution sources inventory

• Models showing pollution levels to which the public and the environment are exposed

• Inventory of water resources, including catch-ments, rivers, lakes and coastal areas

• Document handling system and Report genera-tor

Company: Haemimont Games ADName of the project: „Glory of the Roman Empire“Place in the world: Made in Bulgaria, distributed all over the world Field of industry: Electronic EntertainmentYear of implementation: Started April 2004, release date May, 2006

Glory of the Roman Empire is a city-builder computer game, which puts the player in the position of governor of an ancient Roman city during the Pax Romana period. The player must build the city from scratch managing its growing economy. In order to achieve this, the player must choose how to setup the layout of the city in the best possible way by personally placing each individual building.

Each building in the game has a specific function – houses provide living space for new citizens, farms grow wheat, theaters entertain people, etc. The player must carefully plan the city so that the homes of the citizens are close to their work and close to the different structures that provide food and recreation.

Each individual citizen in Glory of the Roman Empire follows his/her own daily agenda – goes to work, visits an altar, enjoys a drink at the local tavern and so on. Citizens work in farms and businesses, thus generating the resources necessary for the city’s economy. However, they also have needs and desires. If satisfied, the citizens are happy and will contribute more to the town’s economy. If their needs are ignored for too long the citizens become restless and even rebel.

As the player’s town grows, houses improve in appearance as the desirability of the area they are located increases. Citizens from better looking houses work harder but also have more sophisticated needs. The player must balance between better productivity and complicated needs.

Glory of the Roman Empire allows players to build a number of well known cities including Pompeii, Syracuse, Lion, Marseille, and London. In addition it allows players to test their city building skills through a series of challenges where specific objectives have to be achieved in the shortest possible time. The

player’s achievements are submitted online and can be compared with those of the other players around the world.

Our goal as a team was to create a game that everyone would enjoy playing even if they have no previous experience with computer games. We wanted a theme that is widely familiar and we wanted to make a game that follows the player’s pace instead of forcing its own. We think there is enough violence in the computer games today and we wanted to make a peaceful game.

Starting with these objectives we chose Rome during the Pax Romana period. Everyone has heard of the political and architectural achievements of the ancient Romans. During the Pax Romana the empire had total control of the entire Mediterranean. For 200 years most of the population in the empire lived in peace, which is an extremely rare event in human history. Both trade and crafts flourished and a number of towns were established.

The project started with a small core team of four people at the beginning - a producer, a lead designer, a lead artist and a lead programmer. The team gradually grew to over 40 people in the later stages of the development. Many skilled artists, animators, programmers and designers put a great deal of effort in the game for almost two years. In the later stages of the development a number of people from our publishers around the world joined the team and contributed as well. The game features Latin language text and voices and we had Latin translators and voice actors in addition to German, French, Spanish and other language translators and voice actors.

The marketing team organized a colorful event

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in Rome with a Gladiator fight and ancient Roman dishes where journalists from all over Europe were demonstrated a version of the game.

The final product is a game with excellent graphics, very clean interface, which plays very smoothly and is easy to enjoy. Glory of the Roman

Empire can be played using only the mouse and offers both seasoned players and newcomers an enjoyable experience watching and guiding the daily lives of the ancient Romans. This is a product of over 2 years of intense efforts and nearly 100 people from all over the world contributed to its success.

Company: AcsiorName of the project: Unified Information System for Counteraction Against Crime (UISCC)Place of the world: BulgariaField of industry: Government

UISCC is a supra-institutional automated system for provision of information to the judiciary, executive and legislative powers of the Republic of Bulgaria along the line of counteraction against crime. UISCC is developed and operates in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the country and in conformity with all applicable Bulgarian and European regulations and requirements.

The UISCC users who have legal functions on the Penalty Code realization and are entitled to exchange data are:• Ministry of Interior • Ministry of Defense (Military Police) • Ministry of Finance (Customs Preliminary Inves-

tigations)• Investigation services• Prosecution Office• Courts• Ministry of Justice (Imprisonment, Investigation

and Probation Premises).The users with controlling and management

functions are:• The Parliament; • The President of the Republic of Bulgaria;• The Council of Ministers;• Ministry of Justice; • Supreme Judiciary Council.

Key Strategic New Achievements The UISCC provides the following new information

possibilities in the counteraction against crime:• Gathering original data from the institutions

coming from their daily work• Analytical monitoring of the crime process as

a whole• Automatic signal information generation to-

wards the supervision institutions• Information exchange based on the standards,

accepted by the institutions• Efficient work of the system despite the different

level of the automation of the institutions.Concept and Purpose of the Project UISCC operates as a centralized database and user

services. Interaction among the institutions is based on automated data exchange between UISCC and their automated information systems via the government network. UISCC can operate locally (in a decentralized mode) in case an institution has not automated institutional systems satisfying the standard requirements. In this case a dedicated UISCC data entry module is placed in that institution. It operates as the missing automated system and interacts with the centralized UISCC. The access to the system is secured.

ArchitectureCollaboration with the institutions is as follows: AIS

of Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, General Prosecution office, Investigation offices, Courts. The UISCC’s central and communication components are developed as three-layer applications with powerful intermediate layer of standardized services and processing (“middleware framework”). The system provides a large set of solutions for integration with the systems of the law protecting and jurisdiction authorities – from automated message exchange to distributed processing and use of common components. Conceptually, architecturally and functionally the UISCC is ready for realization of distributed CORBA based effective services with institutional AISs in a real time mode.

The system is Web based. The access to the system resources and services is completely Intranet/Internet based.

Part of the UISCC components form general information and functional pool that presents ready solutions for integration at future development of institutional ISs.

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Technology The UISCC realization is based on leading concepts

and technologies. Tools used are:• Project development : Rational Unified Process (RUP)

implementation : Rational Suite;• Analysis and design : UML : Rational Suite ; J2EE;• Software development : Object oriented : Rational

Suite, J2EE, XML, Eclipse, IBM Web Sphere Studio Application Developer), EJB;

• System interoperability : IBM MQSeries;• Web security: TCP/IP based SSL, PKI.• Database : Informix, MS SQL Server, Oracle• OS : Unix (AIX).

Similar Information Projects Possible UsageThe UISCC provides new information possibilities

in the struggle with corruption. For the Penalty Procedure’s institutions the system is providing:• Transparency of the actions of the staff• Binding information for the actions of the penalty

procedure’s institutions with information for the actions of the previous and consecutive institutions;

• Monitoring and analysis of indications for eventual corruption actions as per the penalty procedure;

• Follow-up and analysis of the penalty procedure regarding corruption lawsuits.

The UISCC could be used as a frame for many other supra-institutional systems: unified information system in the struggle with corruption, e-government, civil law applications, etc. By the bid conditions it belongs to the Bulgarian Government and it can be easily implemented in other sectors of the State Management and will need very low investments.

Current StatusThe implementation of the system started 2004

due to lack of financing. The UISCC center was built in the Ministry of Justice and supplied with the necessary hardware and system software. The central component of the system was launched 2005 and the first two institutions – Ministry of Defence and Investivation Services - were connected to it in February, 2006. Next institutions in order of their readiness for connection are Ministry of Interior, Prosecutions and Prisons. Until end of 2007 UISCC should work as a complete system with all crime institutions

Company: SciantName of the project: Airline PortalPlace in the world: All over the worldField of industry: Logistics, AirlinesYear of implementation: 2003 - 2006

THE AIRLINE PORTAL is an Internet-based solution which addresses the critical crew communication/collaboration needs in an airline company.

It pays special attention to the needs of your crews and provides them with instant access to all the necessary information – stored in one place, accessible from anywhere in the world. It is about just a click to access information like Duty Plans, Notifications for changes in the schedule, Flight Briefing documents, access to company polices and documents.

Through integration with main products on the market (like Lufthansa NetLine, SAP, etc.), the Airline Portal will smoothly expand your current infrastructure by preserving your investments and increasing the flexibility and accuracy of your operations.

KEY BENEFITS• Optimal environment for collaboration between

crews• Facilitates crew operations• Provides crew members with outstanding flexibil-

ity;• Facilitates integration with other platforms and

solutions.

• Reduces airlines costsFUNCTIONALITIES�. CREW PLANNINGDuty Plan and Duty Plan Changes Notification

shows information as:• Block hours for each of your duties, as well as

Total block hours for the month;• Visualization of your duties according to differ-

ent time formats;• Instant access to Crew composition and person-

al information for any of the crew members;• Printer-friendly versions, and export to your

pocket assistant or Excel.Departure and Arrival Info allows your crew

members, ground operations, and even partners, to track the movements of the other aircrafts of your fleet. It is especially useful for remote/layover crews, as they can effectively plan their time.

The Wishes functionality allows users to make different types of wishes regarding their duties. It includes processing of requested wishes and integration of wishes with the base crew and flight-planning system.

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Buddies - the Airline Portal allows users to choose other users of Airline Portal as their buddies – thus allowing them to access their personal duty plan.

�. FLIGHT-PLANNINGFlight Briefing - brings together in one

standardized form all the information necessary for your crew to take off. This information gets automatically transferred to your backup server.

Additional Flight Info (BFI) – for effective exchange of additional information about flight, aerodrome, or other specifics of particular aircraft used in their duties.

�. COMMUNICATIONMessages - represents an internal secure

messaging systemNews - facilitates the distribution of important

company-wide notifications and updatesAlerts - aids in informing Airline Portal users

about important eventsSurveys - a complete solution for gathering and

analyzing feedback from your crewsQuick Links - a feature used to organize at one

place all external to the Airline Portal information.�. DOCUMENT MANAGEMENTThis system allows an unlimited number of

categories and documents to be stored and accessed from all around the world. This feature allows users to create categories, publish documents to the central repository and view documents according to predefined permissions. Document Management system supports a key search as well as full text search.

�. SOLUTION MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATIONUsers, Groups & Access permissions

A powerful administration interface which allows for user’s authentication and authorization, management of users & groups, management of feature permissions – granting permissions to specific functionalities on group levels, import of users and appropriate groups from base crew and flight-planning systems.

Reports - a user-friendly custom report generator. New reports can be easily build by using standard SQL and extensions allowing customizable filtering, ordering and grouping criteria.

Multi - Application Export (Including SAP) - a functionality allowing data regarding duties/absences, to be exported to external systems (like SAP, Excel, and other common systems). Export features allow for smooth integration with existing systems, protecting your IT investments and enhancing system-wide collaboration.

System Notifications - monitoring and detailed logging of all activities performed by the Airline Portal. Messages can be sent directly by SMS to your administrator.

Usage statistics - measuring the actual usage of the Airline Portal solution by your crew members. You can check what the usage was by various periods and filter the results for a particular group or user.

Multiple environments supportAirline Portal has a built-in support for multiple

environments, so you can have different instances of your solution running on both a production and staging environment.

CUSTOMERS: BELAIR AIRLINES, THOMAS COOK AIRLINES

TEAM: 1 Project Manager • 4 Software Engineers • 1 Lead QA Manager • 1 QA Engineer • 1 Usability expert

TOOLS: Java, J2EE, Eclipse, Struts, Oracle; Airline-specific planning and management systems

Company: Bianor JSCo and All Telecoms JSCoName of the project: Roam n RollPlace in the world: EuropeField of industry: Mobile telecommunicationsYear of implementation: 2006

Do you often travel abroad? Do you feel confused about how much your call may cost? Do you wonder how much you already spent in roaming? Do you wish to know what is happening to your phone bill and why? We have all the answers of those numerous questions you may ask. Roam-n-Roll is the solution that you have been looking for all this time!

What is Roam-n-RollRoam-n-Roll is a client/server based service,

installed on mobile phone. There are different customizable versions depending on your mobile

device model, your home network carrier and the tariff plan you are subscribed for. You will receive pricing updates depending on the schedule predefined by you. And most of all - Roam-n-Roll works as a standalone application while in roaming and do not need any GPRS or other connectivity to work properly. So we just SAVE YOUR MONEY, making sure you always pay the LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE for each call! We will guide you through the deep waters of telecommunication showing you the right way EVERY TIME!

What can Roam-n-Roll do for you?Roam-n-Roll will give you all the information you need

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about prices, time zones and some other little tricks to optimize your roaming bill. For instance did you know that calling back instead of receiving a call can be actually cheaper? That some networks have twice or more times higher prices than others? That you may be charged only for trying to reach somebody (for example if the number you dial is busy at the moment)? It is all about the details. They make difference!

How does it work?There are several features of the software that will

help you save money and plan your expenses while traveling abroad: the traffic manager, the info section, the callback manager, the live status, the call cost calculator, the statistics, the network manager and the simulation. With these little helpers you will be more confident and more satisfied while carrying your handset abroad with you.

Roam-n-Roll traffic manager – After you dial the desired number or send an SMS, Roam-n-Roll will automatically direct your traffic via the cheapest available operator that you are allowed to use! (You are allowed to use only those networks that have a roaming agreement with your home network carrier)!

Roam-n-Roll info section – Roam-n-Roll will inform you on your current call cost and time by showing you an info box on your device screen while your call is still in progress. Roam-n-Roll will also inform you if there are any important rules or information related

to the network carrier you are currently using. The information we provide will save your money!

Roam-n-Roll call back manager – Roam-n-Roll will inform you for cheaper call back options if available. Sometimes in roaming it is cheaper to make a call then to accept it. If this is the case Roam-n-Roll will suggest automatic call back option choosing the network offering the lowest price.

Roam-n-Roll live status – In this section you will find information about the currently used network, its tariffs and time zones.

Roam-n-Roll call cost calculator – Here you may calculate the cost of a call prior to make it by entering the call details such as: visited country, destination number, expected call duration, day and time of call. So that it makes the calculation easier for you, Roam-n-Roll will keep default statistical or current values for all the entries except of the desired destination number.

Roam-n-Roll statistics – This feature will allow you to see statistical information about your calls cost and savings achieved by using Roam-n-Roll. You will be amazed how much you could pay without us!

Roam-n-Roll networks manager – Here you may find current information and other important details about all the available networks that you may use in the country you are at the moment.

Company: Melon TechnologiesName of the project: www.golffriends.comPlace in the world: Europe Field of industry: portalsYear of implementation: 2006

With more than 6000 golf clubs, www.golffriends.com is about to become the most significant golf portal in the world. The web-portal belongs to the Swiss company Hole 1 GmbH and is designed and developed by the Bulgarian software company Melon Technologies (www.melontech.com). With its extensive functionality and content offering the site provides various golf-related services to players, golf clubs, professionals and companies alike.

The result of over a year development and design work, www.golfriends.com is the first initiative of this scale in Europe. It contains an unprecedented level of detail about all European golf clubs (rest of the world will be added beginning of 2007). Golf clubs are introduced with a short description of their history, location and terrain features, the facilities they offer, detailed course parameters (Par, Holes, Length, Slope, Admission conditions) as well as green fees and

equipment rental rates. Most golf club profiles offer also driving directions and a photo gallery. Further, if you are planning to visit a golf club for the first time you can find out what other players thing about it. The average rating of the golf club feature, enable golfers to evaluate a golf club according to various criteria such as gastronomy, logistics, pro-shop, practicing areas etc. Golf courses are rated according to their demanding playing level, optical condition and general condition. The rating results are summarized in the form of graphs.

Users can print out the golf club profile and use it as a travel and playing guide. The print golf club and course profile functionality, formats the golf club information in a print-friendly version.

By joining golfriends.com golf fans and professionals have the unique chance of becoming part of the European golf community. Members

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SituationdWare is a software developer. Since it was founded in Sofia in 1989 it

has proven to be one of the most competitive and trusted companies in the industry. dWare develops software applications for the automation of financial and accounting procedures, management of business procedures (ERP), integral management of gas and petrol stations, and management of in-house tasks and procedures. The software applications work in Bulgarian and English.

dWare is ISO 9001:2000 certified, member of The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and member of The Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies. The company has offices and representatives in more than 15 cities across Bulgaria, with more than 15,000 sold licences.

dWare provides training for its customers and 24/7 technical support. The company is a member of the Oracle partner network and Microsoft registered partner.

Some of dWare’s customers are: The President’s Administration, Ministry of Justice, Customs agency, Information Services PLC, Bulgarian national television, Bulgarian national radio, Sofia University “Kliment Ohridski”, University for National and World Economy, Technical University of Sofia, American University in Bulgaria, Office 1 Superstore, Filkab JSC, Militzer & Munh, Wavin Bulgaria, Saint Gobain Weber, Lukoil, Opet/Aygaz, Rompetrol Bulgaria, Mila Market Ltd.

The Moeller Group, which is based in Bonn, Germany, is one of the leading, globally active suppliers of systems and components concerned with power distribution and automation in industrial, infrastructure and residential building applications.

Founded in 1899, the company has an efficient sales network in all relevant target markets, being represented in over 90 countries of the world by 31 national sales subsidiaries and over 350 sales offices and distribution partners.

The Bulgarian branch of Moeller – Moeller Electric Bulgaria was established in the beginning of 2006 in Sofia.

IssuePrior to the creation of Moeller Electric Bulgaria Ltd. Moeller’s products

were sold in Bulgaria through a network of authorized resellers. The resellers purchased the products directly from the Moeller Group. Initially the office in Sofia provided only technical support for the resellers.

The aim of the management was to become the exclusive vendor in the country, purchase the products from the factories across Europe, supply the resellers and provide technical support and logistics.

Moeller was looking for an experienced partner who could provide reliable advice and software for the management of sales and accounting in Sofia. The software had to generate reports in line with the international standards of the Moeller Group. On the other hand, the team in Sofia had expectations regarding the functionality of the software, based on previous experience.

dWare was one of several software companies invited to propose integrated software solution for the needs of the office and the warehouse facility.

Moeller’s expectations regarding the functionality of the software included:

• capability to change prices (standard price, average price, production price, variable price), price lists, discounts for particular clients and groups of clients

• invoicing – invoices, draft invoices, notification, automatic transformation of invoices into other documents

• report for correction of financial results• user and administrator accounts• cash-flow forecasts• possibility to track the physical location of inventory in the

warehouse• reports and connectivity with SAP• reliable database• export and import from MS Excel and MS Word• capability to develop a web-based application in order to track reports

from any physical location• connectivity with barcode readers• reports for arbitrary periods, possibility to change the report structure

and content • automatic input of identical financial operations• tax and accounting amortisation plansThe trick was to link Moeller’s specific working procedures and standards

with the architecture of the software. Moeller’s price list includes 37000 items each with several discount plans.

dWare providedAfter diagnosing Moeller’s business needs and meeting the management

team dWare came up with a comprehensive solution including software for full-scale management of business operations, dedicated support, and timetable for implementation and training courses.

ResultThe final agreement between Moeller and dWare included the

implementation of the software, training of the team and subscription contract maintenance. dWare and Moeller implemented the software and performed the training within a 4-week timetable.

Konto MS has enabled Moeller Electric Bulgaria to:• manage the document turnover of orders, sales, inventories, assets,

warehouse reserves, negotiation and contracting procedures, requests and applications;

• allocate flexible discount strategies for customers and groups of customers;

• keep track of clients’ history, credit limits, different accountancy practices and store unlimited amount of data;

• create hierarchical structure of services and commodities;• perform document mergers; • keep track of inventory in the warehouse; • synchronize the business practices in the warehouse and the head

office;• authorize the exchanges of nomenclatures, documents and transactions

between the work stations and summarize the results;• fully automate accounting reports.Currently Moeller Electric Bulgaria Ltd. communicates seamlessly with

the resellers across the country, provides information about availability of products, manages orders and supplies the products on demand.

The partnership between Moeller Electric Bulgaria and dWare

��, Panayot Volov Str.���� SofiaPhone: (��� �) ��� �� �0www.dware.bgExecutive: Damian Ivanov

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ConclusionThe list of case studies given above is only an exemplary sample of Bulgarian products and

projects. It was constructed to show different areas and capabilities where the Bulgarian companies can provide solutions and services. There are more Bulgarian companies, products and projects deserving to be presented because of their excellent professionalism, know-how and accuracy.

One may look at the Versailles fountains or take his flight to Japan or check his mobile bill or look at some maps or drive his car and so on and so on without knowing that Bulgarian products or solutions are hidden behind. But this doesn’t matter if he is satisfied.

c a n f i n d e a s i l y information about any European golf club, exchange ideas with other players or book tee-times. The basic membership to this golf community is free of charge.

Members could look for golf clubs anywhere in Europe t h a n k s t o t h e website’s advanced

search capabilities: interactive map and a multi-tier search engine. On the interactive map visitors can find golf clubs in any geographic region. Its zoom-in feature, currently under development, displays a detailed road-map of the area and suggests possible approaches to the golf club. The search engine allows users to find golf clubs by name, country, state and tee times.

The golf portal offers visitors also information about golf tournaments. They have the option to make search for the forthcoming tournaments in a given state or country for a specified time period.

Another important service of golffriends.com is the online booking. Members can book tee-times or pro-lessons at discounted rates directly through the portal.

Within the website miles program players accumulate points to be used as payment methods for all services offered through the website. Members can also take part in golffriends sweepstakes and earn attractive discounts and prizes.

The member accounts functionality provide members with information about the current state of their account including the value of their account, the value of the miles program, number of invited and recruited members, number of personal scorecards and number of booked tee-times.

Another benefit that Golffriends offers to members is their personal mailbox so they can send or receive mails from other members without leaving the portal.

A specialized news section informs visitors about important events from the golf world as well as new services, promotions and initiative offered by Golffriends.com. In addition, members have the opportunity to subscribe to the website’s weekly newsletter which features latest special offers, sweepstakes and other relevant information.

To golf clubs golffriedns.com offers to the golf clubs the opportunity to move their business online. Golf clubs can create and update their profile, sell green fees, define promotions and discounts, publish news and manage their entire booking process. Special features such as the tee time manager and tee time synchronizer connect to the golf clubs in-house software and allow exchange of tee time information in real time.

To golf professionals, the portal offers an easy to use functionality that helps them manage their time table and student information. The professionals can also take advantage of work load and student statistics presented in the form of easy to understand graphs (e.g. the number of booked lessons for a specified time period, number of sold lessons to students from different countries).

The website is an ideal advertising place for any company offering a golf related service or product. The banner management system allows companies to purchase advertising space online. Golffriends.com also offers companies newsletter advertisement or e-mail campaign opportunities.

The website’s flexible content management system allows the continuous update of the existing database. Currently it is only available in English, German and French but there will be ten more languages coming soon.

Golffriends.com continues to improve and new online services are soon to be released. Currently Melon Technologies is developing a forum and a chat room that will further enhance the interactivity of the golf portal.

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State policy and legislation of Republic Bulgaria in ICT sector

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Bulgarian ICT Policy: Perspectives and Challenges

The policy in the sector has three main aspects: global, regional and local. Regional and global perspectives are driven mainly by the policy of European Union: • to raise the ICT skills of European citizens and encourage the use of e-services • to establish organized scientific community, which could be mobilized for execution of

big ICT projects • to strength the co-operation among businesses and between businesses and public

research/higher education institutions by supporting the creation of trans-regional clusters of excellence

• to develop joint infrastructure projects • to create valuable e-content in all social spheres and help European countries to promote

their cultural diversity and scientific achievements.

The state policy is also focused on encouraging the regional role (Balkan Peninsula) of the country in communication, software development, project implementation. For the Bulgaria also are important the connection with USA ICT business and the co-operation between Bulgarian and USA government could be seen in many mutual projects and events. Asia is also an important destination. Especially strong is the co-operation with Korea. Interest to Bulgaria show also Japan, India, and China.

The State sees perspectives for growth in the ICT sector in: • Development of secure ICT infrastructure for wide access to public electronic services;• Provision of integrated electronic services for the needs of citizens and industry;• Improvement in the IT skills of civil servants and citizens;• Promotion of investment in the ICT sector and development of R&D networks;• Creation of a competitive export oriented software industry; • Capitalisation on Bulgaria’s strong educational traditions; • Encouragement the small and medium enterprises in the ICT sector;• Encouragement young graduates to start their own business in Bulgaria;• Protection of the citizens’ personal data from unauthorized access through observance of

their rights as provided by law.

Key factors for competitiveness of Bulgaria through ICT are:• Stable and predictable business environment

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• Productivity based on low cost and high quality of the labour force • Well-developed ICT Industry• Rapid and complete implementation of acquis in the Information Society area • Effective use of the European Structural and Cohesion Funds in 2007-2013• Active participation in the Community programs and initiatives• Investment in ICT R&D and wider ICT take-up in the public and private sector• Strengthening innovation in ICTs• Better coordination and cooperation between more and less developed EU regions• High quality educational system in electronics, telecommunications and computer sciences; • A combination of software and hardware skills;• Very competitive pricing for IT expert manpower; • Long traditions and experience in the IT sector; • Strategic manufacturing location – direct access to Eastern and Western European markets; • Highly entrepreneurial environment.

Legal framework The information technology and computing market is unregulated and is thriving on the basis

of experience acquired in computer technologies and production.The legal framework in the field of telecommunications has evolved and is expected complete

implementation of the EU electronic communications regulatory framework 2002 till the end of 2006.The transposition of the acquis in the Information Society area has been completed to a

great extent. With the adoption of Council of Ministers Decree No 165 of 14 July 2004 on the organization and coordination of the exchange of information in the field of technical standards and regulations for Information Society services, a full compliance with Directive 98/48/EC, supplementing Directive 98/34/EC has been achieved.

The Law on Electronic Commerce has been adopted by the National Assembly on June �, �00�. The Law on Electronic Commerce fully transposes Directive 2000/31/EC on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market.

The basic requirements of Directive 98/84/EC on the legal protection of services based on or consisting of conditional access have transposed with the Law on Ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the legal protection of services based on or consisting of conditional access (State Gazette issue 55 of 17.06.2003). Adequate measures against the infringement activities are included in the draft Law on Electronic Communications. The draft legal act provides for the transposition of the remaining provisions of Directive 98/84/EC. The Law is envisaged to enter into force on 1.01.2007.

Till the end of the 2006 the Draft Law for electronic governance will be voted by the Parliament.

With the amended legislative provisions in the Information Society area and the additional measures undertaken, the full implementation of the EC requirements will be achieved until 1 January 2007.

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InspectorateInformation Security Officer

General Administration• Administrative and Information Service,

and Human Resources Directorate• Finance, Economic Activities, and Crises

Management Directorate• Legal Directorate

Specialized Administration• European Integration and International

Activities Directorate• Communications Policy Directorate• Information Society and Information

Technologies Directorate• Innovations and Project Management

Directorate

Deputy Chairman Sector International relations and RadiocommunicationsMr. Dimitar Stanchev Engineer in Telecommunications Technology

Chief Secretary Mr. Oleg Zlatarski Engineer in Automation and Tele-mechanicsSpecialization in Automated Postal Desks – HanoverSpecialization in radio-communications – AT&T, USA

State Agency for Information Technology and Communications

In order to implement the priority of ICT, which is one of the main sections of the programs of the two political parties in the ruling coalition, the State Agency for Information Technology and Communications was established to the Council of Ministers in September, 2005. It pursues the state policy in the field of IT and communications aiming at of Information Society that will ensure enhanced social and economic development of the country.

Deputy Chairman Sector Information Society and Information TechnologiesMr. Tosho Nedialkov Master of Philosophy in PhysicsHigher Degree in PhysicsVice-President of the European Quality Organization – the software group

Deputy Chairman Sector Telecommunications and Posts Mr. Stoicho Stoikov Engineer in Telecommunications TechnologySpecialist in Telegraph TechnologySpecialization in Digital Commutation – Japan

ChairmanMr. Plamen VatchkovDoctor of Technical SciencesSenior Scientific AssociateMember of the Scientific Board of the Institute of Technical Cybernetics and Robotics Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, from 1985Member of the Balkan Academy of Science and Culture

Gen. Joseph Gurko” Str № �Sofia �000Phone: +��� � ��� �� ��fax: +��� � ��0 ���0info@daits.government.bg

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Non-governmental organizations in Bulgarian software industry

Bulgaria is well known for the pool of talents, innovative thinking, and proactive people. Building an industry out of these sources, however, is not a trivial task. Bulgarian software companies did it. BASSCOM (www.basscom.eu) member companies, currently 40, are well positioned on international markets, having more than 80% of their production for export. Although the capacity of resources is not unlimited, we compensate with a critical mass of highly-qualified, well educated professionals. They master both the practical understanding of business process models and high level theoretical and technical skills to deliver efficient, costeffective international solutions. Our software teams have proved their ability to deliver solutions where others faced dead-end. The projects vary from boutique type and short time-to-market pilots to solid and complex architectures.

Company and project management are the key factors to efficiently utilize the technical skills and creative capabilities. Bulgarian software companies have recognized the software process improvement as a roadmap for their maturity and competitiveness. In addition to well implemented ISO standards, they are committed to universally acknowledged methodologies and software engineering standards – CMM/CMM®I (SEI), SPICE. Their company excellence is based on the following perspectives:

customer perspective – satisfied customers typically become long-term partners financial aspect – yet cost/quality efficiency and value-added services work for usstable organization – process quality is our main warranty for quality productsknowledge management - learning and innovations are basis for our continuous improvement, industrial and service know-how and specialization

A driver to industry excellence is the established in 2004 regional Excellence center of the European Software Institute (ESI Center Bulgaria – www.esicenter.bg ) as a public-private initiative between Bulgarian Government, BASSCOM and ESI (Spain), supported by UNDP. The center supports ICT sector in Central and

Bulgarian software industry – brand for quality and innovations

George Sharkov, Chairman of BASSCOM (Bulgarian Association of Software Companies), Director of ESI Center Bulgaria

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Eastern European countries by promoting proven methodologies for establishing and improving adequate work processes. Several companies in Bulgaria and the region are implementing CMMI and target appraisals for next year. A tailored integrated model ITMark was introduced in 2005 and became a quality seal for SMEs. The assessment is based on CMMI model, IT Security standards (ISO 17799) and Business Maturity evaluation (10-squared).

Having quality and innovations as main competitive advantages, Bulgarian software companies are preferred and trusted supplier and partner in sectors like automotive and aerospace industries, civil construction and machine building, insurance and finances. The provocative innovations in mobile applications, learning and edutainment, fancy graphics design complete the cheerful palette. BASSCOM companies also form the basis of the regional brand of high-quality software hub.

Bulgarian Association of Software Companies - BASSCOMThe main goal of the Association is to establish the software industry as an essential part of the

Bulgarian economy. Its mission is to promote competitive advantages and long-term traditions in software development and to encourage acquisition of best practices to raise company excellence.

BASSCOM is a non-profit industry association of 40 advanced Bulgarian software development companies recognised for their high-quality services offering sophisticated information systems, IS reengineering, IT consulting, complex B2B solutions, e-business, e-learning and wireless applications for industries incl. Academics, Aerospace & Defence, CAD/CAM systems, Charity, Construction, Entertainment, Finance, Freight Forwarding, Healthcare, Insurance, Telecommunications, Tourism, large track record and reliability as professional business partners. They are well-organized with a focus on high morality of people involved, customer satisfaction and good project management and offer high flexibility, short time-to-market and professional development of complex and creative solutions, being the development of CMMI and ISO standards their business philosophy.

Main activities:- Company Excellence – raising software process excellence, project management and quality assurance

based on the newest quality standards. BASSCOM is cofounder of the regional excellence center of the European Software Institute (Spain) in Bulgaria, which has been set up as a milestone for raising company excellence and encourages companies to implement latest software engineering standards.

- Education, R&D and Innovation – BASSCOM Workgroup for Education, Research and Innovation promotes an ongoing collaboration with government and academic institutions representatives to raise the level of IT education and development.

- Marketing Software Business – BASSCOM works for branding of Bulgarian software & IT industry and promoting Eastern Europe as high-quality software hub. Export Promotion Work Group was set up to work for better exposure of the Bulgarian software industry abroad and establish Bulgaria as a recognized presence in the global software development market. BASSCOM organizes the Bulgarian participation at world expos & international fairs (as CeBIT, SYSTEMS, Outsource World).

- Business networking opportunities – BASSCOM organizes an International Annual Conference and participates in the networking projects European IST and SEE-Innovation, it is also the Bulgarian partner to the Best Practice IT initiative.

- National Strategy – BASSCOM is a key player in ICT Competitiveness Strategy for industry development and raising the level of competitiveness of the sector, endorsed by the Bulgarian Government. It acts for IT penetration in all industrial fields and building the information society in line with i2010 European Strategy.

www.basscom.orgwww.basscom.eu

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Bulgaria definitely has many talented people in the fields of Mathematics and Informatics. This is perhaps due to the decades of state investments and attention during the period of command market. Unfortunately, in recent years such attention is not available anymore and this is why we can already see a shortage of cadres. However, universities do not admit more students and therefore this shortage could further increase. BAIT recognizes this problem and sees the solution in the development of relationships between business and universities and even specialized schools. Actually, managers of software companies have already realized that it is not possible to recruit well-grounded programmers directly from college. Of course, students should acquire the fundamental knowledge there but universities are not able to train them on the latest technologies and products. Therefore there is a need for additional forms of education, which should find a realization in near future. BAIT expects an increase in the investments in additional forms of education and opening of many training centers.

BAIT sees the interaction between business and universities in several aspects. First, businesses should support universities in admitting more students in related disciplines. BAIT understands this support as the development of accurate forecasts based on professional studies for the type and number of specialists the business needs in short and long term. Also the business should send a clear message to the universities what exactly it expects from the education and what it is ready to take as its responsibility.

Other forms of relationships with the universities include step-by-step breaching the wall, behind which some old practices of education are still hiding. This wall is called university autonomy. BAIT sees this breaching not through blaming the low level of some lecturers or outdated classes, but through donations. What is meant here is not donations in the form of hardware and software, which are far from real needs now, but donations in the form of training of instructors, master classes for more inspired students, internships in certified companies. BAIT would also like to reach a point where the universities preparing their programs will accept advice from the business based on the real technologies used by the software companies and on the future trends.

All mentioned measures will help universities work on real business projects with interesting examples in the lectures, interesting courses, up-to-date senior thesis and PhD projects.

For the development of the software industry, it is very important how companies work with the human capital. This is why BAIT will organize events to educate Bulgarian companies in management practices of IT Human Resources.

On the positive side, the software industry is growing fast and most software companies report two-digit growth of about 25% and for the well-established companies it even reaches 100%. Also, the formation of good profit gives software companies the possibility of reinvestment in new products and services. BAIT sees the possibilities for further growth in the projects with public-private partnership, in the business processes outsourcing, in developing niche products.

BAIT also works with the state authorities, persuading them to understand the importance of the software industry and to undertake the proper steps for its further development. BAIT will continue to remind the

Ognian Trayanov, member of the board of directors of BAIT, responsible for the software industry.

The Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT)

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government how beneficial is the software industry for the country. This is the business without environmental pollutions; it doesn’t require heavy resources, except human resources, or big capital investments.

BAIT also defines some of the future trends. The first is the aggressive and increasing demand by foreign companies to purchase Bulgarian software companies. The companies of interest are the ones which have products with established market or clients on subscription base, companies with easily convertible knowledge and skills in implementation of some of the biggest software packages or with good niche solutions. There are many such companies in Bulgaria and a combination of the big marketing engine of some western investor with such a company will be beneficial for both the Bulgarian company and the investor bringing it to international market.

Some other trends are the processes of acquisition, buying, shareholding, risk investments and BAIT will make efforts to educate Bulgarian companies about interests, possibilities, and threats in these processes, about what they can expect from so-called business angels, etc. In short, BAIT will try to broaden the business culture of the entrepreneurs.

Our vision is that what will boost the name of Bulgarian software industry are companies that have succeeded to develop commercial products, well-accepted by the international market, in which they have implemented considerable know-how and have recieved references by their respected clients. They will be the flagship of the Bulgarian software industry.

The Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT) is the biggest non-governmental, democratic organization, representing 210 members, which have the major share of the IT market. It unifies information technology companies on a voluntarily, common-interest basis and thus works for the development of a modern, democratic state with a real market economy, functioning on the principles of free and loyal competition.

Mission: To define and defend the common interests of its members by winning a priority role for the information technology sector in the development of the national economy.

Bearing in mind the tendencies in the development of the world economy, BAIT believes that Information Technologies (IT) is the most advanced and prosperous branch, which should be developed with priority in Bulgaria.

The association defends the interests of its members and aids the development of the sector as a whole, using all legal and upright means: lobbying before the state and legislative organs, participating in the activities of various Bulgarian and international organs and organizations devoted to IT development, participating in the legislative processes related to IT, organizing exhibitions, public discussions and round-tables, using well-targeted media policy, etc.

This is why the main goal of BAIT is to constantly re-affirm its position of the most prestigious and influential non-governmental organization of the IT branch. Some of the other goals (in short) are:

Improving the business climate in Bulgaria to create a market economy meeting European standards; Stimulating the growth of the software industry; Improving the competitiveness of Bulgarian companies in the field of information technologies; Effective cooperation with the state administration and the public sector; Creating, developing, and preserving the human resource potential in Bulgaria

Partners of BAIT worldwide are: • BITKOM• World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA)• World Congress on IT 2004• EICTA• European project ISIS• Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA)• Union of Automatics and Informatics• 3rd Greek - Turkish Information Society Forumwww.bait.bg

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The Bulgarian ICT Cluster is organization of the Bulgarian ICT business, a policy maker and a know-how transfer center. As the information and communication technology companies in Bulgaria increase in number and become more mature, so does the nongovernmental sector that represents them and/or focuses on the ICT issues. There are many business associations of ICT sub sectors and ICT NGOs in Bulgaria, 15 of which have united in an open business form called the ICT Cluster Society.

The fundamental mechanism for policy creation are the working groups of the Bulgarian ICT cluster. They are flexible organisms, that form at ICT Cluster Society decisions and address a topic of current importance, usually in the realm of the four main strategic directions pursuant to the National ICT Strategy. As of September 2006 the active working groups are in the following areas: e-government, e-education, e-justice and legal framework, e-health, telecommunications and liberalization of market, investments and strategic development, public-private partnership, incubators and venture capital.

The steady growth in the figures in the sector will continue and so will the expertise of the professionals. One important tendency not shown in the figures is the specialization of the companies in Bulgaria. Only a few years ago teams were forming around tasks coming form the partners abroad, whereas the small companies now are growing, specializing, managing their own portfolios and even looking beyond Bulgaria’s borders for skilled labor, and for company growth. Not only have the managerial capabilities in the sector as a whole grown, but a state of the art quality standards have been introduced, such as CMMI, IT Mark and more from the European Software Institute – Regional Center in Bulgaria. The center’s location in Bulgaria is a clear sign for the maturity of the software industry.

Two governments already have pointed out ICT as a priority sector. This has not materialized so far in any concrete action on the government’s behalf, but at the same time the business community has really acted as a true leader: self-organizing the national strategy for development, elaborating messages and presenting Bulgarian ICT sector abroad, creating innovative organizations such as the ICT Cluster etc.

If we look at the direction for development that the Bulgarian ICT sector is having: from quickly reformulating its ex-comecon status to a trusted partner for outsourced tasks, then from pure outsourcing to more elaborate partnering and product development, and now to full-grown healthy market companies, one might wonder what’s next…

What we see is more and more regional collaboration, which will continue and even intensify in the future, hopefully unobstructed by Bulgaria’s EU entry. Another positive trend which will continue is the return of well-educated Bulgarians, a.k.a. brain-gain. Infrastructure is improving, not at the initially foreseen speed, but still the investment in broadband infrastructure for the schools and citizens is inevitable. Finally, on a not-so-positive note, the labor market constraints will continue to present themselves, but as mentioned before the business community is developing some possible remedies for this set of problems, again with the leading participation of the software business community.

If we need to characterize the priorities for development in the ICT area with one phrase that would be: Public-Private Partnership, PPP in all areas: from the qualitative dialogue during policy formation, through the joint policy implementation in a true extended PPP to even simple collaboration in the presentation of Bulgaria at international forums and events. PPP is not a simple task and although we’ve made some progress, where is still a lot to do. It’s a long process that requires constant investment of time and effort on behalf of the active members of the business community, but we believe that Bulgaria has firmly stepped on that road and hope to continue with a good pace on it.

www.ictalent.bg

Bulgarian ICT Cluster

Peter Statev, chairman of the Board of Bulgarian ICT Cluster

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ESI Center Bulgaria is the excellence center of European Software Institute (ESI) for Eastern Europe. Our mission is to implement leading strategic management and software engineering methodologies to increase industry capacity and productivity in the region. Our aim is the continuous improvement of your business and competitiveness. We support organizations to choose proper Software Process Improvement (SPI) roadmap and to achieve better Return on Investment and Innovation, through awareness, analysis, planning, training, implementation and certification.

ESI Center Bulgaria was established in 2003 by the European Software Institute, Spain (ESI), the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM) and the Bulgarian State Agency on ICT Development, supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). ESI Center Bulgaria is a founder of ESI Centers Alliance, integrating ESI Spain, ESI Center Brasilia, ESI Center Mexico and ESI Center Shanghai.

Current products and services: We provide services related to � leading methodologies:• CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) - defines routine practices to empower creativity and

innovations in software and systems engineering. Offers the latest product and service development, and maintenance models. Guarantees continuous process improvement. The world-recognized model is developed by SEI at the Carnegie Mellon University.

• IT Mark - assesses and certifies the quality of SMEs in three areas: Business Management, Information Security Management and Maturity of their IT Development Processes. The world-recognized models are followed.

• BITS™ (Balanced IT Scorecard) - an effective communication mechanism to formulate, transmit and agree on the strategy of an organization. Developed by European Software Institute Spain.

• PEPIT (Professional Engineering Process Improvement Training)- provides practicing software engineers with methods and techniques to improve their skills. Grounded on a process framework.

• IT Card – system for certification of basic Information Technology (IT) skills, which accredits a person’s knowledge and abilities in the use of computing tools and of the Internet

Achievements - in the region of Eastern Europe• Awareness on CMMI training, consulting and implementation was built in Armenia, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine;• Eleven CMMI related courses were organized in the region of Eastern Europe;• More than 80 software professionals from Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, and Hungary were trained

in “Introduction to CMMI” official course of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at the Carnegie Mellon University;

• A number of companies in Armenia, Bulgaria and Romania are supported in CMMI implementation and certification;

• A number of companies from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania have conducted ITMark appraisals.

European Software Institute - Center BulgariaSolution for Industry Maturity in Eastern Europe

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ARC Fund (www.arcfund.net) is a private non-profit organization established in Sofia in 1991. Today it is one of the leading Bulgarian NGOs working in the areas of Information Society, knowledge economy, innovation and transnational technology transfer.

ARC Fund’s projects and activities are aimed at:• Assisting the formulation and implementation of public policies in the above areas by conducting

applied research and providing policy and industry analyses;• Promoting public policy consensus by bringing together the key actors;• Building capacity in professional groups by providing specialized training and facilitating the transfer

of knowledge and international best practice;• Enhancing the capacity of Bulgarian enterprises to innovate by technology brokering and consulting.

INFORMATION SOCIETYARC Fund’s work in the area of Information Society (IS) touches on different aspects of the institutional

and policy frameworks for IS development on a national, regional and trans-border levels. ARC Fund regularly monitors and assesses the penetration and usage of new information and communication technologies, and their impact on Bulgarian society. This monitoring exercise is done by an inter-disciplinary IT Group involving experts in sociology, economics, business administration and management, software engineering, mass media, and law. The group’s main analytical product is the e-Bulgaria Report. This annual publication provides a comprehensive assessment of Bulgaria’s state of preparedness for the information society and covers such areas as e-infrastructure, e-society, e-education, e-business, e-government and e-policies.

Through its ICT policy analyses and studies ARC Fund informs and influences the national policy-making in the area of information society. It has been a strong advocate for reforms in the regulatory framework of telecommunications and information society by drafting legislation and organizing high-level forums. ARC Fund has published a number of books, analytical reports, educational brochures, and newsletters.

Since 2001 ARC Fund also operates the national e-Bulgaria Information Society Promotion Office (ISPO) which provides information, consulting and training services on the EU policies and research programs in the field of IST to local businesses, public administrations, NGOs, academic institutions, and citizens.

INNOVATION AND TRANSNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERARC Fund’s activities in the area of Innovation and Transnational Technology Transfer are focused on

developing the national innovation system on three levels: (i) at sectoral level, providing support to companies and clusters through technology brokering, technology counseling and international technology transfers; (ii) at meso-level, assisting the development of regional innovation strategies, institutions and networks for Bulgaria’s regions; and (iii) at macro-level, applying foresight methodologies to shape future national innovation policies.

Since 1997 ARC Fund hosts the Innovation Relay Center (IRC) in Bulgaria. Through this operation ARC Fund provides technology brokering, innovation counseling, training and information services to over 3,000 companies and research organizations in various industrial sectors, including ICT.

Every year ARC Fund publishes a comprehensive review of the level of innovativeness of the Bulgarian economy – i.e. the Innovation.Bg Report. ARC Fund also organizes a National Innovation Forum and annual competition of the most innovative Bulgarian enterprises.

Over the years ARC Fund has build up a strong reputation of being a reliable partner to government agencies, private businesses and associations, academic institutions and international development partners (incl. the European Commission, World Bank, UNDP, USAID and others).

ARC Fund’s successful track record of EU projects spans programs such as FP4, 5 and 6; STRATA, INCO; Leonardo; Safer Internet; PHARE, and others.

ARC Fund employs a team of young professionals with diverse backgrounds.

Applied Research and Communications Fund – Organizational Profile

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http://www.bwa.bg

Chairman:Janet Naidenova

Members of the Board:Justine Toms, Kiril Apostolov, Petko Karamochev, Plamen Vushev, Venera Alexandrova

Business Secretary:Evelina Zheleva

Bulgarian Web Association (BWA)Bulgarian Web Association (BWA) was established in 2004 as an independent, voluntary public organization, representing the interests of the web-professionals in Bulgaria. BWA is the only association which activities are directed to the benefit and defense of legal entities and natural bodies, working on design, arrangement, organization, realization and hosting of Internet sites, web-design and Internet marketing. The Web Association is open for everyone willing to become a member or to co-operate with it. Together with the TV World Foundation BWA organizes the International Media Awards for Web – Albena (www.albena.bwa.bg). Since 2004, BWA organizes the “Bulgarian Web Site of the Year” Competition (www.bgsite.org).

SloganDiscover New Opportunities

Aims n To be part of legislative and national initiatives in the field of web & Internet n To work for establishing professional standards among the members of the association for ethics, service and quality n To popularize Internet as communication channel in Bulgaria and the web as a type of media

Mission

To participate in the development of the web-technologies for ensuring a good environment

BULGARIAN WEB ASSOCIATION (BWA)

and standards for quality services and products. To promote the advantages of web and Internet among the business society, government and non-government organizations, present and future collaborates in EC and NATO.

Priorities

n Promoting Bulgaria as a market for creating innovative and quality web-applications. n Generating business for its members n Presenting BWA at different international forums, fairs, exhibitions n Promoting competitive advantages and expertise of member companies, BWA develops and keeps ongoing relations with partners in Europe and in the Balkan region. n Conducting researches and other marketing activities in the field of web development, Internet media and Internet marketing

Activities

n Expresses and defends statements of BWA upon normative documents and state decisions, related to the members` activities n Organizes business meetings, seminars, exhibitions, courses and qualification workshops and other events in the country and abroad n Contacts and assists for equal in rights attitude among members and regulatory bodies

Membership

There are full and associated members of the BWA. More than 2300 specialists work for BWA members. See who are the BWA members at: www.bwa.bg Bulgarian Web Association is a member of Bulgarian ICT Cluster Society.

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As it becomes clear in previous pages, Bulgaria has highly professional labor force in its software industry but the fast growth of this industry already leads to shortage of specialists. The fight for specialists is lead by foreign investors which provide the best salaries, following by Bulgarian software companies, corporate business, SMEs and State administration. Big multinational companies are also looking for software engineers in Bulgaria. For example at Microsoft Corp. in USA work more than 150 Bulgarians.

The educational system is still lagging behind and produces only about 3500 software engineers per year. Many companies take young boys and girls with some skills directly from the school and train them further. To produce more students the universities needs financing, buildings and more support from the government and business. The universities are also lagging behind with their programs but for the last several years some of them are very active in launching new modern disciplines. Here are some examples.

The Faculty of mathematics and informatics (FMI) of Sofia University is the main location for education in Computer Science. This year the university launched two new programs for bachelors (Information Systems and Software Engineering), meeting the international standards. More options this year are also available in master level in programs of Informatics, Robotics and Information Security. FMI is also active in co-operation with the business. The partnership includes establishment of laboratories and co-educational programs. FMI works with Cisco, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and with Bulgarian software companies.

Plovdiv University works on transformation of the e-Commerce Laboratory in international interuniversity center for e-learning and distant learning. German, UK and Ireland universities are partners of the project. They will provide co-developed courses. Every course will have firstly English version which will be next localized automatically. The course of Software engineering is already completed and it will be available in 15 universities.

In 2006 the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) celebrated its 15th anniversary. It is the best technology-equipped university. This year AUBG adds also a new program - along with Computer Science curriculum it provides courses in Management of Information Systems. The students of the university have the possibility to work in R&D projects, such as SEEArchWeb (classification and 3D visualization of archeological finds). Students are also very active and they helped in launching course in Robotics, as well as a GRID project.

In 1997 in Technical University the R&D Laboratory “Technologies for education” was established. The Laboratory is working on research and development of modern architectures for e-learning and distributed environment for mobile users on the basis of open professional standards.

Since 2005 Bulgarian government started a program for equipment of Bulgarian schools with PCs, servers, printers, scanners and Internet access. Already more than 27000 PCs and 3100 servers have been delivered; many LANs were established, also broadband Internet access was provided. The program will continue until all Bulgarian schools are equipped. It is complemented with training of the teachers and creation of e-lessons. The program of Microsoft “Partners in the knowledge”, devoted to popularization and promotion of usage of information technologies in the schools, is already available in Bulgaria. The Microsoft initiative will be implemented in 5 years in Bulgarian schools.

Many companies established training centers where they provide education in up-to-date technologies and products.

Cadres, education and training in ICT

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In general Bulgaria looks good for doing business. Growth of 5 % per year, inflation dropping, EU entry per 2008 seems secure, maybe even earlier.

Because of the EU ambitions the political direction is directed towards stability, being cautious with debts and focus on reforms.

EU entry in theory means that Bulgaria will enter the overall consolidation game. In each industry we see that at the end stage only a few big players on a global level remain. Even in very local services you see with a delay the same development. The negative view would be that ultimately all Bulgarian companies will be bought, a development we already see in the bank sector. The other view is that leading Bulgarian companies understand that they are now in a temporary regional niche situation. They should use the current ‘interbellum’ to prepare. Now is the time for the companies to put the right strategy in place to survive this merger endgame.

A.T. Kearney has developed a database with 662.000 companies out of which we distilled the 600 top performing niche players to learn from them. All of them started with a regional niche strategy, mostly together combined with a product niche.

These TPNs grow faster than the average industry (e.g. US GDP) and even faster than the best large corporations, analyzed in other growth studies (e.g. US).

They do not differ much by performance, size or strategy across industries and geographical regions. The combinations of selected niches differ across industries along the endgame curve. Therefore we provide industry specific strategy benchmarks to clients.

The identified TPNs indicate seven common key success factors across industries and countries.

Long-term strategy with focus on endgame niches:1. Long-term commitment to industry2. Combining product/regional niche strategies with other niche strategy options3. Adapting the selected niche strategies according to the industry endgame curve.

Growth management skills which enable the sustainable implementation of selected niche strategies:4. Balancing internal and external growth5. Sustaining healthy financial structure6. Sustaining asset productivity7. Keeping pressure on organizational productivity

What does this mean for A.T. Kearney management consultants?As management consultants, we see Bulgaria following the same pattern as other upcoming countries.

Bulgarian business outlook

Jan van der OordVice PresidentA.T. Kearney

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Employing consultants is first regarded as something vague or compared to counseling by individual grey-haired seniors or seen in a negative sense, as a weakness of the management. The market is crowded with many local, small, specialized consultants.

At the moment the company ownership structures become clear and stable, companies have to stand on their own feet, professional managers come in to grow the value of the company. These managers see the value of consultants to help them put a sound strategy in place, help establish new ways of approaching the market, launch new offerings, support the own organization to change more rapidly, introduce new ways of working, change the organization to become more market oriented, support the business use of IT systems, etc. This is the time when the demand for more international consultants increases.

The EU entry will increase competition, therefore companies want to understand what these competitors are doing, how they operate, what they can learn from this new competition. In Bulgaria consultancy is in the beginning stages, but the EU entry is speeding up the development. In short: good time for us to establish ourselves. We are dedicated to establish contacts with the business and university community, hire and train local consultants and grow our business base.

Zooming in on the IT industryLet us have a look at the Information Systems industry. The industry is internationally already well

developed and entering what we defined as the Focus Phase.

In this Focus phase, the high volume commodity business is dominated by a few larger (European, or even global) players with massive scale advantages, including the advantage of being the internationally accepted standard. The margins have decreased rapidly, but with volume the profits are in absolute terms very good. Larger companies are merging, like Oracle taking over PeopleSoft. The market is interested in more value-added, specialized products. Being a first mover has an advantage, but only temporary before the high volume players start commoditizing. Hence we see the companies in the IT industry using a combination of Product Niche with Innovation or Speed as the most favored strategies.

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What does the Merger Endgame concept mean for Bulgarian companies?As we see in the picture below, Bulgaria is still very much, as we call it, a ‘simple’ grower, revenue is

increasing, but the value creation stays behind. Bulgarian companies, also IT companies, should use the current momentum of highly skilled, but still cheap labor to enter the next stage of competition. Be quick with developing new specialized products for the international market, keep the focus, find a controlled exit strategy of the commodity business. Form alliances now to ensure a pipeline of new products and solutions in the selected specialized areas. Now the negotiation position is still strong with the advantage of having direct control of the developing market channels.

Another opportunity is to focus on the servicing the local market, supporting Bulgarian companies with the growing need for implementing business solutions. Larger international companies need local companies to implement.

Many opportunities. They all have one thing in common. They require conscious decision making and consistent implementation. Riding with the wave will most probably lead into dependency on the actions of larger, international competition. You cannot escape the global merger endgame, but it is our firm believe that local companies that recognize the endgame will make the best decisions and ultimately will generate the most value to all stakeholders: shareholders, workers, suppliers and the community.

More concrete, we recommend the following actions:• Develop from regional strategy into an Endgame relevant niche strategy• Spur revenue growth through focused sales push program• Improve capital management, e.g. conduct an overall asset improvement program• Establish continuous organizational optimization program, e.g. overhead cost reduction, sales force

efficiency

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History of Bulgaria will take you back dozens of centuries to Pliska, Preslav and Veliko Tarnovo - the seats of the first Bulgarian khans, czars and kings; to the stone carving of the Madara Horseman; to the Thracian Gold Treasure; to the breathtaking murals of the Kazanlak Tomb and the church in Boyana; to the quiet wisdom of the Rila Monastery and to the towns of Koprivshtitsa, Melnick and Zheravna - Renaissance legends of wood, stone and color.

Traditions could be felt in the unique rhythm, melody and harmony of the Bulgarian folk songs and chants; your heart will sense them in the merry and healthy joyful and vivid atmosphere of the rituals and celebrations. You will discern them in the everlasting beauty of the handicrafts, finely woven in the ceramic vignettes and wood carvings, colorful rugs and hammered copper-ware. You will find them in the refined taste of Bulgarian cuisine and in the fine aroma of Bulgarian wines.

Culture of Bulgaria one can find in the museums, including the world’s oldest gold; with beautiful collections of works from self-taught old masters to modern painters in the art galleries; with classical concerts and folklore song-and-dance festivals.

Nature fascinates everybody with its fantastic creativity, squeezing so much beauty onto such a tiny land - curious rock formations and mysterious caves; sunny seashores with golden sands, quiet coves and romantic capes; majestic mountains with fiery peaks, mirror lakes and shady woods full of scent.

Facts for Bulgaria

Location: Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Romania and TurkeyGeographic coordinates: 43 00 N, 25 00 EPopulation: 7.8 millionArea: • total: 110,910 sq km • water: 360 sq km Capital: Sofia, 1,5 million citizensBorder Countries: Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, TurkeyInternational airports: Sofia, Varna, BurgasCoastline: 354 kmVisas: citizens of most European countries can stay 30 to 90 days without a visa. Currency: Bulgarian Lev (approx. 0.51 EUR)Climate: temperate; relatively cold winters; hot and dry summers Winter time: GMT +2 hours (October through March)Summer time: GMT +3 hours (April through September)Terrain: mostly mountains with lowlands in north and northeastLowest point: Black Sea - 0 m.Highest point: Musala peak at Rila mountain - 2,925 m.Electricity: 220V, 50 HzWeights & measures: Metric Tourism in Bulgaria: 8 million visitors per year

Bulgaria in short

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Bulgarian software companies

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Year of establishment: 1991

Mission and brief descriptionDevelopment and implementation of software by user requirements, navigation software, mobile systems for data collection, data acquisition by intelligent censors, GPS/GPRS communication. Systems for Electronic data interchange (EDI) for retailers and suppliers. Implementation of ERP systems. Complex engineering services, design and development of computer systems, networks, communications, computer security, antivirus protection. Development and production of specialized controllers (Embedded Systems) and Real Time Systems managing software.

Competitive qualities: Long traditions and experience in design and development of complex information systems, efficient project management and complete system for control and guarantee of the implemented products’ quality.

Quality certificates and awards: ISO 9001:2000

Main fields of activityGovernmental administration, trade and production companies, banks and insurance companies, industrial systems for work in real time, applications in the mobile navigation, collection and transmission of telemetric data, etc.

TechnologiesObject-oriented, 3-layer architecture, WEB based applications and portals, Rational Rose, IBM WebSphere,Lotus Domino, JAVA, J2EE,EJB, XML/XSL, SOAP/WSDL, MS.NET, MS Visual studio, Embedded SW, C,C++,VC++,PiEOSWindows CESymbianGPS/GSM/GPRS

ACSIOR Ltd.

Address:1504 Sofia, 8B Hristo Georgiev Str.Tel.: +359 2 9438356E-mail: info@acsior.com, www.acsior.com

Manager and contact person: PLamen Tchiripov – PresidentDimitar Vassilev – Sales and Service Manager

Successfully accomplished projectsUnified information system for counteraction against crime (UISCAC).National registry of the statistical unitsCentralized information system for operative control over the sales of lottery tickets.Software for management of collection, processing and transmission of telemetric data through GPS/GPRS communications.

Main clients of the companyl National statistical institute l Ministry of justice l Supreme administrative court l Ministry of interior l State Lottery l Bulbank l ZAPAD Allianz l ASO PIRELI l SARANTIS l ОТОТОP l Coca Cola Bulgaria l Tandeml Zagorka

Purpose of participating in this cataloguePossibility for widest presentation of ACSIOR’s experience and potential for providing software developments and integrated IT solutions.

Business characteristics of the companyNumber of employees, April �00�: 55

Approximate turnover in �00�: 4.8 million BGN

Revenues by activities 61% software development 29% hardware delivery and system engineering services

Revenues by geographic location 92,2% Bulgaria7,8% Western Europe

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Year of establishment: 2004Mission and brief descriptionWe help businesses to find the best way to optimize their information management.Crossroad Ltd. is specialized in offering a wide range of specialized services that cover the complete process of implementing software solutions – requirements analysis, specification of functionality, selection of appropriate approach and technology, development, deployment and training.There are two types of software services offered by Crossroad Ltd.:l Development consulting services for solution provider companies. The most common services that we provide are:Technology consulting servicesSoftware audit and review servicesProject management servicesSoftware development servicesl End user software solutionsCrossroad Ltd. offers custom business management solutions.The expertise of the company is focused on Customer Relationship Management and Case Management solutions.l Own productsCrossroad Ltd. develops a warehouse management IT solution based on mobile devices. The solution provides location management, inventory management, orders and deliveries, integration with ERP solutions. Competitive qualities: Crossroad Ltd. is a software development and consulting company with unique expertise in Microsoft .NET development platform. Our team has industry-recognized expertise in the core Microsoft development platform and tools, including Visual Studio, SQL Server and BizTalk Server. We always take advantage of the latest technologies to create most effective and reliable solutions.Crossroad Ltd. team maintains its deep technology and management expertise with both formal trainings and hands-on experience in complex software projects. All of our developers are Microsoft Certified Professionals.Quality certificates and awards: Cyrilla, developed by Crossroad, has passed Microsoft Linguistic Evaluation and Microsoft Test kit. Crossroad is a Microsoft Certified Partner with expertise in Custom development solutions – Web Development SpecializationMain fields of activity: Bulgarian private sector companiesTechnologies used by the company: Crossroad Ltd. is focused on Microsoft technologies. The list below shows the main technology areas of expertise:l Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005l Web based application with ASP.NETl Windows based applications with .NET Framework

l Microsoft Visual Studio 2003/2005l Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004/2006l Mobile devices based on Windows CE/Pocket PCSuccessfully accomplished projects:Cyrilla: Cyrilla is a product developed for BMG Ltd. It is a set of Bulgarian proofing tools that integrate in Microsoft Office and provide speller checker, grammar checker, thesaurus and hyphenation. All these tools use contemporary dictionary and current grammar and hyphenation rules approved from BAS. Crossroad Ltd. is responsible for the complete software development and support of the product.Speller check and Hyphenation tools are licensed to Microsoft by BMG and are included in MS Office Bulgarian version.Event Registration Management System: ERMS is a web based registration tool for event registration. It is a solution for identification and registration of participants before and during the event. ERMS can handle both small-size events (<100 participants) and large scale industry events (several thousand participants).Barcodes are used to identify participants that are printed by the participants which provides a cost-effective solution for the overall registration process.The solution was used in several big industry events for the last two years – Microsoft Days 2006, several events organized by BMG Ltd. - Adobe Creative Days 2005, Symantec Security Days, Autodesk Day.Sales Specialist Guide for Microsoft resellers: Sales Specialist Guide is a product made for Microsoft Bulgaria. It is designed to help Microsoft resellers and distributors with information for the most popular products, license schemes and additional resources on the Internet. It consists of a Smart Tag application and an HTML help file. The application integrates in MS Office and activates automatically when the name of MS product is written and navigates the user to the appropriate page in the help file or in the Internet. Main clients: Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies;BMG Ltd.; Microsoft Bulgaria.Purpose of participating in this catalogue: Visibility to potential clients

Business characteristics of the companyNumber of employees, April �00�: 11Approximate revenue for �00�: 484,000 BGNIncome from activity: Software development and consulting: 66%; Software Sales: 34%Income from geographical position: 100% from Bulgarian marketStructure of possession: 100% private Bulgarian company

Address: 36 Luben Karavelov Str., fl. 1, Sofia 1000, BulgariaTel.: +359 (2) 9877236 E-mail: office@crossroad.bg

Manager and contact person Vladimir Tchalkov – CEO

Crossroad Ltd.

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Year of establishment: 1995

Mission and brief descriptionWe are determined to provide competitive and professional service to all our clients. Global Consulting’s goal is to secure it’s partners with the latest achievements in the field of Information Technologies. We also want to be your consultant in the sphere of Computer technologies and finance matters. Global Consulting offers not only consultation services, but also develops successful strategies considering your scope of activities.

Competitive qualities Our concept is to supply the Bulgarian market with the latest innovations in Software Products and Computer equipment. We are also working on the development of these products in order to achieve functional applications.

Quality certificates and awards ISO-9001: 2000NATO AQAP 160 Certified

Main fields of activityDesign, marketing, procurement, installation and support of information systems and advanced solutions for banks, insurance companies, governmental agencies and other commercial enterprises with high volume distribution activities. l Specialized in providing business critical solutions based on open

information systems, for organizations that operate in transaction intensive environments.

l Internal and foreign trade activities with general commoditiesl Hardware Supplier of full range of UNISYS and EMC productsl Software Supplier - Microsoft Certified Solution Provider, Informatica,

Sybase l Communication Equipment: ISDN and X.25 equipment from EICON

TECHNOLOGY and CASE TECHNOLOGYl Electronic Banking software from OMIKRON Gmbh and BankServ

Technologiesl Programming languages: C/C++, c#, JAVA, Java Script, DHTML,

Transact-SQL, Pascal, Ada, UML, XML/XSL/XSDl Software tools: Microsoft Visual Studio.NET, JBuilder 8, Sybase

enterprise Application Studio, Microsoft Visio, PowerDesigner, Rational Rose

l Programming technologies: .NET Technology, J2EE Technology, Windows DNA, CORBA, ASP, .NET ASP

l RDBMS: Sybase Adaptive Server, Sybase Anywhere Server, Microsoft SQL Server

Successfully accomplished projects l BNB – Implementation of Nostro Reconsilation Project; Implementation

of Trema Treasury System, Implementation of DMX 800;l RBB – Multicash system for electronic payments;l Cosmo Globul Group – Back up system based on CX 500;l Bank DSK OPT Group – Multicash system for electronic payments, EMC

Infrastructure Solution – Storage Area Network for Data Wаrehouse Syastem based on DMX 800;

l HVB Bank Biohim – Multicash system for electronic payments;l National Electricity Company – Implementation of WEB Portal, l ING Bank – Interface platform for settlement;l BCCI – Information System l NSSI – Project “Pensions 2000”

Main clients Bulgarian National Bank, Bank DSK OTP Group, Raiffeisenbank, ING Bank, BNP Paribas, Texim Bank, Alpha Bank, HVB Bank Biohim, Piraeus Bank, SG Expressbank, BAKB, BTC, NEC, MoI, MoD, MoF, BCCI, NSSI, e.t.c.

Business characteristics of the company

Number of employees, April �00�: 29

Approximate turnover in �00�: 2 455 000 BGN

Income from activity Products – 1 577 000 BGNServices – 874 000 BGN

Revenues by geographic location: Bulgaria

Address:32 Parchevich str, ap.8, Sofia 10007-9 Uzundjovska str, fl.2Tel: + 359 2 9812 741Fax: + 359 2 9862 376www.globalcons.com

Global Consulting Ltd.

Manager and contact person:Dimiter Djendov – Managing Director

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Business Software Consult Jsc

Year of establishment: 1995Mission and brief description: ESRI Bulgaria Ltd. is privately-owned Software Company specialized in Software Design, Development, Implementation, Training, Support, and Integration. The company is major supplier of geodata for the territory of Bulgaria. The company is experienced especially in GIS (Geospatial Information Systems) based solutions. The company provides: Consultancy, Information Systems design, development and implementation, Accredited Training, Support, Geo data automation, Web geo services. ESRI Bulgaria is sole representative for Bulgaria for: ESRI Inc. – worldwide market and technology GIS leader, Leica Geosystems – worldwide leader in the field of software for digital image processing, Speedikon FM – software for facilities management, Telcordia Technologies – world leader in the field of telecom systemsCompetitive qualities: Starting 10 years ago as GIS pioneer in Bulgaria, ESRI Bulgaria is the only Bulgarian company to develop and integrate the GIS projects of national scope and importance. ESRI Bulgaria has a team with unique for Bulgaria GIS and geodata experience and expertise. Quality certificates and awards: ISO 9001:2000; Special Achievements in GIS, Certificate of Recognition – AFCEA, Business Ethics Standard Award – BBLF, Microsoft Gold Partner, Oracle Partner; Memberships: BAIT, BASCOM, BIBA, AFCEA, BAPM, BBLF, BWA, BAGIS, and others.

Main fields of activity: Geospatial Information Systems /GIS/ and GIS applications in the fields of: Homeland Security, Environment, Cadastre, Utility, Telecom, Transportation, Education Healthcare, Crisis Management, and others.Technologies: Our application software development team has experience in a wide range of industries and is backed by degree and postgraduate qualifications in both the GIS and computer science domain. The team has experience of developing GIS applications using both ESRI technologies and other industry-standard development environments. In undertaking any development projects ESRI Bulgaria follows the guidelines specified in our Quality Management System, which is based on best practice within the IT industry.ESRI Bulgaria’s Internet GIS solutions satisfy requirements in all areas of public and private sector business to communicate geographically on-line.Successfully accomplished projects: Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Environment and Water, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, Cadastre Agency, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Education, National Statistical Institute, Executive Agencies, Sofia, Plovdiv, Bourgas, and many other municipalities, Bulgarian Telecom, MTel, Globul, NEC, Sofiyska Voda, and many other utility enterprises, Airports Number of employees, April �00�: 35

Address: 35 Nikola Vaptzarov Blvd, Sofia 1407Tel: +359 2 962 6366Email: info@esribulgaria.comWeb site: www.esribulgaria.com

ESRI Bulgaria Ltd.

Year of establishment: 1989, 2006

Mission and brief description of the main activities Software products for management of human resources, labor and salaries; warehouse management

Competitive qualitiesPresence and experience on Bulgarian software market since 1989

Main fields of activitySoftware products and solutions

Successfully accomplished projectsSoftware products:Reflex – management of human resources, labor and salaries;Global 2010 – warehouse management.

Main clients of the company More than 1000 Bulgarian enterprises

Purpose of participating in this catalogue: To present the company

Ownership structure: 100 % private

Business characteristics of the company

Number of employees working full-time, April �00�: 22

Approximate turnover in �00�: 550 000 BGN

Revenues by activities100 000 software 450 000 hardware and service

Revenues by geographic location: Bulgaria

Address:82a „Dondukov” blvd., SofiaTel.: +359 2 944 6097

Managers:Marin Dilchev, Yuri Vitanovwww.bsc.bg, www.temasoft.bg

Manager and contact personEvgenia Karadjova

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Year of establishment: 1998Mission and brief description: To employ technology with passion, integrity, and excellence for the benefit of people. We provide professional software services in the area of telecommunications. Our services encapsulates the whole software development cycle: project management; business process analysis; requirements development; software design and development; software quality assurance; system integration; system support.Competitive qualitiesAdvanced CMMI-based software processes leading to excellent predictability of operations. Professional project management which takes full care of project implementation details. Usage of state-of-the-art technologies. High quality of delivered products. ISO 17799-based information security policies. High business integrity. Strict observation of IP rights. Excellent business-cultural compatibility with USA and Western Europe. Quality certificates and awards: ISO 9001:2000 certified by Lloyd’s Register, IT Mark certified by European Software Institute, ISO 17799 appraisal for information security, CMMI Level 2 appraisal of software processes, We implement CMMI level 2 and 3 practices and Balanced ScorecardMain fields of activity: TelecommunicationsTechnologies: Core expertise: Java and C/C++ application development.

Bianor Extended experience with enterprise-scale J2EE-based applications and SOA. Technology partnerships with Sun, IBM, and Oracle. Certified Java developers, database administrators, Unix OS administrators, Object oriented analysts and designers, software testersSuccessfully accomplished projects: Service management platform for telecom operators. The system is divided into two major modules, each of them dealing with different aspect of the telecom infrastructure:Module for centralized VLAN management, traffic accounting, billing and SLA system for IP-based services. The module is designed for large-scale Cisco-based networks and is used to provide reliable wide-bandwidth VLAN connectivity to multiple customers with multiple end-points. VoIP module – this module features automatic call distribution, voice mail, call recording/forwarding, conference server, IVR, advanced billing, bandwidth and traffic shaping, security module with 128+ bit voice stream encoder/decoder, spam calls blocker, etc. The module supports H323 and SIP protocols.Main clients: The main clients of our company are located in North America, Japan, Europe and Israel.Business characteristics of the companyOwnership structure: Holding company Number of employees, April �00�: 80Approximate turnover in �00� < 2M EuroRevenues by activities: 100% from software development and consultancyRevenues by geographic location: 58% North America, 30% Europe, 12% others

Address:39 Kn.Klementina Street. Sofia 1618, BulgariaSwitchboard: +359 2 955-7300US Toll Free: +1 866 978-5156

Address:1797 Sofia, Bulgaria, 36 G.M.Dimitrov Blvd.Phone: + 359 2 489 0504Fax: + 359 2 489 0505

Web Page: http://www.bioteam.come-mail: info@bioteam.comManager and contact person: Plamen Topalov

Bioteam Software Ltd.Year of establishment: 1992Mission and brief description: Bioteam is a private software development company established in 1992. Since 1994 the company has provided outsourcing and onsite services for a number of European companies. In 1997 due to the business growing up process the company structure and name were changed to Bioteam Software. In the same year Bioteam established a new company Spectrum Net to provide Internet services on the Bulgarian market. Since 1999 Bioteam Software has been certified by Dasa-Zert Certification-Body of Bureau Veritas Quality International (Deutschland) GmbH to EN ISO 9001:2000-12 standard. Since 2000 Bioteam Software has been situated in its own building in the middle of Sofia city centre, Sofia airport and Vitosha mountain, which has room for 150 working places.Quality certificates and awards: EN ISO 9001:2000-12 (AC 0603-04 / 17.03.2006) - Software design, development, test and service provision in the field of industrial and office information systems, e-commerce systems, entertainment systems and web publishing systems.Consulting, education, system design, system integration, qality assurance, system maintenance and project management in the field of the information technologies.Main fields of activity: Process automation systems – monitoring,

statistics, archiving, presentation. Large scale distributed information systems. Internet/Intranet applications and complete solutions. eCommerce, CRM systems for Internet Service Providers. Internet sport games based on simulation methods. Consulting, training, support (hot-line, remote, onsite).TechnologiesPlatforms: MS Windows, Sun Solaris, Linux, Open VMS, QNX. Databases: Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2, MS Access, MaxDB, MySQL. Languages: C/C++, VB, Java, (J2ME, J2SE, J2EE), XML, Perl, TCL, PHP, JavaScript, ASP. Tools: MS Development Studio, JBuilder, Eclipse, Oracle Development Suit. Web: Apache Tomcat, Borland AppServer, JBoss, MS IIS. Design: UML, Rational Rose, Borland Together, MS Visio, ErWin.Main clients of the company • The Bulgarian Ministry of Industry.• The Bulgarian National Securities Commission.• Siemens AG, Germany.• Net Info, Bulgaria.• Spectrum Net, Bulgaria.

Number of employees, April �00� – 25

Fax: +359 2 955-5686http://www.bianor.comManager and contact person: Kostadin Jordanov, CEONadia Ropleva, VP Business Development

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Year of establishment: 2000

Mission and brief descriptionInterComponentWare AG (ICW) is a leading international eHealth specialist with locations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the USA, and Bulgaria. Its solutions for networking the various participants in the health care system achieve a sustained improvement in process-oriented communication and data integrity – and thus the quality of medical care. Among other things, ICW develops and markets software and hardware components for the healthcare IT infrastructure for the electronic health card, the personal health record LifeSensor, and network solutions for clinics and physicians in private practice. As part of the bIT4health consortium, ICW has provided important consulting services for the deployment of the electronic health card in Germany and is also involved in the Austrian eCard project.

Quality certificates and awardsApril 2002 – Award for outstanding achievements in the promotion of public welfare and the elimination of bureaucratic barriers. (Deutschprachiges Kommunitariernetz e. V.: German speaking communitarian network, registered association)March 2001 - LifeSensor belongs to awarded TOP 10 best e-Business models at CyberOne competition, Germany

The InterComponentWare AG in barrier village, distinguished with the certificate, let its on-line product www.lifesensor.de certify after the Internet privacy standards to audit (i.e. to examine) and thus the InterComponentWare AG subjected, on the one hand the adherence to data security-legal regulations to highest requirements guarantees themselves and current safety precautions after the state of the art contains (the criteria are observable under www.datenschutz_nord.de.)

Main fields of activity InterComponentWare (ICW) is a leader in the international e-health market, focusing on the development of healthcare data information exchange platforms with solutions that connect physicians, hospitals, payers, and patients through tools that enable the streamlined, secure sharing of information.

PartnersProSyst Software AG, Germany - Development PartnerGMD GmbH, Germany - Development PartnerIAS- Institute for Work and Social Hygiene, Germany- PartnerYellow Map AG, Germany - Cooperation PartnerSAP AG, Germany - Development PartnerLintec Information Technologies AG Germany- Distribution PartnerPricewaterhouseCoopersUnternehmensberatung, Germany - Implementation PartnerMD Medicus Gesellschaft fuer Medizinischer Service, Germany - PartnerDOCexpert Computer GmbH, Germany - Partner InterfacesTyco Healthcare Deutschland GmbH, Germany - Development Partner (Devices)boso Bosch+Sohn GmbH, Germany - Development Partner (Devices)Bayer AG Germany- Development Partner (Devices)

MembershispCo-founder and member of BASSCOM (Bulgarian Association of Software Companies)

Purpose of participating in this cataloguel To get Bulgarian market acquainted with the huge opportunities and the experience of ICW.l Finding Partners for joined activities within eHealth Bulgaria.

Business characteristics of the companyNumber of employees, April �00�

ICW Bulgaria is a rapidly growing company with more than 45 employees in its office in Sofia, Bulgaria

Revenues by activities 900 000 EUR

Revenues by geographic location 900 000 EUR

Address:ICW Bulgaria Ltd.1202 Sofia, 11 Industiralna Str., 2 Fl.Phone: (+359 2) 917 85 80Fax: (+359 2) 917 85 88Web Page:www.icw-global.com

Manager and contact perso: Executive: Ivaylo RadevContact person: Emilia Velinova

InterComponentWare Bulgaria Ltd.

Offices in Bulgaria and abroad:

InterComponentWare GmbHMillennium TowerHandelskai 94-96, Etage 231200 Vienna, AustriaTel +43 (0) 12 40 274 45Fax +43 (0) 12 40 274 47www.icw-global.com

ICW AG,Otto-Hahn-Straße 3D-69190 Walldorf, GermanyTel.: +49 (6227) 385-0Fax: +49 (6227) 385-199

ICW Inc.1840 Gateway Dr Suite 228San Mateo, CA, USA94404Tel.: +1 (866) 429-8111Fax: +1 (650) 378-1490

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Year of establishment: 1996

Mission and brief description: Interconsult Bulgaria, Ltd. (ICB) is a leading Bulgarian software development and consulting company, founded in 1996. Since 2003, ICB has become a member of the COWI group (www.cowi.com), a renowned consulting and engineering company with more than 3 400 employees worldwide. The company is Microsoft Certified Partner and partner of IDS Scheer (Germany) for the Bulgarian market.

Competitive advantages:l Well established processes based on the international standards

and best industrial practices.l A team of innovative and qualified software engineers and expe-

rienced project managers.l 10 years of tradition in providing software services on the inter-

national market.l Strong technology focus.

Quality certificates and awards: ISO 9001:2000 certificate, Awarded with European ICT Prize, Nominated for European eHealth Award

Main fields of activity: ICB is specialized in the development of complete software solutions for complex business problems. The company develops custom software for a variety of economic sectors: Central and local government, Banking and finance, Gas distribution, Health, Education, Environment, Industry, etc.

Technologiesl Business analysis & design: UML, ARIS Process Platform, IBM Rational

Suite, Enterprise Architectl Database design and management: MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL,

MS Accessl Programming languages and IDE: .NET Framework, C#, C++, VB,

Delphil Internet / Intranet: ASP.NET, XML, XSL, HTML, ASP, Macromedia

Director, Macromedia Flash MX

Successfull projectsCAMMS – A software system for condition assessment of railroad bridges and management of maintenance work, implemented by the Norwegian State Railroads.ENSIS – An environmental surveylance and information system for monitoring of water/air quality and polution effects prediction. The system has been implemented by Norwegian environmental authorities

and research insitutes, and several regions in China. Awarded with 1998 European ICT Prize.EASY SAFE – A system for automated processing of bank cash deposits developed for the Scandinavian consulting group Rosengrens Clausen. EasySafe holds a market share of 75% in Norway.CADDIE – A system for professional automated design in architecture, construction, machine engineering and other engineering areas. The system has over 14000 users in the UK, Sought Africa and Bulgaria.PLEXUS – A Web-based system for management of intellectual assets into business networks, developed within the EU research program.Automated Timekeeping System for time and attendance management developed for Unitime Systems, US. The system provides options for exchange of employee and labor information with payroll, HR, and other systems.

Main clients of the company: The major clients of the company are located in Norway, Denmark, UK, USA, Austria and Bulgaria: l Kongsberg, Norway www.kongsberg.coml Rosengrens Clausen, Norway www.rosengrens.nol COWI, Norway www.norgit.nol Advanced Computer Solutions, UK www.caddie.co.ukl Backbone Entertainment, USA www.backboneentertainment.coml Unitime Systems, USA www.unitime.coml CafePress, USA www.cafepress.coml Ministries of finance, education and science, and justice in Bulgarial National Health Insurance Fund www.nhif.bg and others

Purpose of participating in this catalogue: We are looking for international IT companies that would like to establish long-term partnerships for software products development.

Structure of possession: COWI (www.cowi.com) 50%, Bulgarian partners 50%

Business characteristics of the company

Number of employees, April �00�: 65

Revenues by geographic location: The software development for clients abroad forms more than 80 % of the ICB’s turnover.

INTERCONSULT Bulgaria Ltd.

Address: 7, Indzhe Voivoda Str.1309 Sofia, BulgariaPhone: +359 2 920 1120Fax: +359 2 920 0552www.icb.bg

Manager and contact person: Stoian Boev (Mr.), Managing DirectorPavlina Kozarova (Mrs.), Marketing & Sales Manager

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Information Services PlcYear of establishment: 1970 Mission and brief description l To provide value added services to our customers in the areas of business analysis, system integration, software development, hardware maintenance and outsourcing of information processes;l To become a strategic partner to our customers in the process of establishment, integration and maintenance of Information Systems. The main activities are:System Integration of nationwide information systems; Software development, implementation and maintenance; E-government projects; Building and maintenance of national and regional registers; Outsourcing of IT services; Project management services; Providing Qualified Certificate Services (PKI) and applications; E-commerce, web design and Internet based solutions; Management of public IT infrastructures; Web solutions and Internet technologies; IT Consulting services; Training and education services.Competitive qualities: The company has regional branches, service and training centers, PKI registration authorities and info-offices situated in all 26 regional centers and have built an advanced network for customer support. The company employs more than 500 qualified and certified IT professionals. This team is the driving force for the progress of Information Services Plc towards its mission of enhancing its position as the leader on the Bulgarian Information Technologies market.Quality certificates and awards The company is ISO 9001:2000 certified – since 2003.Awards: IT Project 2004 – BICIS, Gold medal winner in the 59th International Technical Fair - Plovdiv fall 2003, Three first awards for institutional site, Web Fest – Albena 2003 and Albena 2004, First award in the Justice and Law category, BGSITE 2004, First award in the E-Government category, Web Fest – Albena 2006, Main fields of activity: Government and local administrations, Bulgarian court system, Banks and insurance companies, Utilities CompaniesSuccessfully accomplished projects: Bulgarian Integrated Customs Information System (BICIS) - provides information, technological and software tools for support and optimization of the all customs activities management.l processing of customs manifests and control of regimes and

obligations;l internal regulatory organization;l aggregation of data in different types of reports;l smart cards and digital signature authentication;l integration with external government systems. InetDEC e-Service - online service for submitting tax declarations over the Internet:

l improves capacity of the National Revenue Agency (NRA);l NRA clients can send various tax forms over the Internet, signed

by means of government approved digital signatures:l Corporate tax declaration (B2G), l Income tax declaration (C2G)l Family taxation declaration (C2G)l Request for digital communication formsl Interfaces to the National Tax Register (BULSTAT) and the National

citizen database (ESGRAON system).Government Election Information System (GEIS) was developed for the Central Election Commission and supports all kinds of elections, defined in the Bulgarian election laws.DELFI - national corporate trade register system. It was developed at the beginning of 1989.Communication network of the Ministry of Finance – provides data and voice transfer within the country and comprising more than 300 subdivisions of the Ministry of Finance (МF).Public key infrastructure (PKI):l StampIT - Digital Certificates services provider – since 2001;l First Bulgarian accredited certification authority;l Qualified personnel and protected infrastructure;l Protection software, based on smart cards and advanced electronic

signature usage;l More than 30 Registration Authorities over the country;l PKI based applications development.Main clients: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, Healthcare Ministry, Ministry of Education, State Commission on Information Security, Tax administration, Customs Agency, Bulgarian court system, Central Elections Commission, Number of Municipalities across the country, Bulgarian National Bank, DSK Bank and Trade banks, Insurance companies, Bulgarian State Railways, Utilities companies Purpose of participating in this catalogue: Partnership and cooperation in the fields of software development and systems integration, outsourcing of IT services, and distribution and maintenance of IT solutions.Business characteristics of the companyOwnership structure: Information Services Plc is a joint stock company. Major shareholder is Bulgarian Government, represented by the Ministry of Finance. Number of employees, April �00� – 802Approximate turnover in �00�: The 2005’s company IT services revenue is 13.1 million Euros.Revenues by activities: System integration – 50%, Outscoring of IT services – 24 %, Software Application development – 15 %, Training and education – 3%, Hardware support - 4%, Others – 4%Revenues by geographic location: Bulgarian ICT market.

Address: 2 Panaiot Volov Str., 1504 Sofia, BulgariaOffices in Bulgaria and abroad: Regional branches with information, technical and training centres are situated in all 26 district centers of Bulgaria.Manager and contact person: Alexander Vitanov – Chief Executive OfficerTel.: +359 2 9420 340Fax: +359 2 943 6607e-mail: office@is-bg.nethttp://www.is-bg.net

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Mag Studio LTD

Year of establishment: 1998

Mission and brief description: Database design, Installation and maintenance, e-commerce and e-payment, B2B and B2C applications design, Security and data encryptment, E-Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Online advertising, Modern systems for Dynamic Database Driven websites management, Macromedia Flash and Dynamic Database Driven websites and applications, Virtual games and promotional web sites, Interactive multimedia presentations and Dynamic Database Driven product catalogues, distributed on CD/DVD

Competitive qualities: Creativity, innovation, fast and quality service

Quality certificates and awards: The programmers in Mag Studio have excellent certified skills in .NET technologyl “Best website of 2006” in the category “Cultural institutions” (www.institutfrance.bg) - Web Festival, Albena 2006l “Best website of 2006” in the category “Copywriting” (www.

zachistabulgaria.info) – Web Festival, Albena 2006l “Best website of 2006” in the category “Information and services in

real estate and furnishing” (www.homeforyou.bg ) - Web Festival, Albena 2006

l “Best website of 2006” in the category “Radio”(www.retroradio.bg) – Web Festival, Albena 2006

l “Best website of 2006” in the category “Campaigns” (www.zachistabulgaria.info) - Web Festival Albena 2006

l “Best website of 2006” in the category “Sport events, news and services” (www.airtracks.de) - Web Festival, Albena 2006

l “Best Brand website of 2005’’ (www.spetema.com) – awarded by the Bulgarian Marketing Association

l “Best website of 2004 ‘’ in the category “Arts” (www.bulgarianvoices.com) – Bulgarian Web Association.

l “ Best corporate website of 2003 г.’’ (www.aroma.bg) – BG Site 2003 г. Main fields of activity: Internet, Marketing, Advertising, Information Technologies, Software

TechnologiesPlaforms:l Operation systems: Linux and Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XPl Web servers: IIS, Apache, Tomcatl Data base: Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL

Programming languagesl Server: ASP.NET (VB.NET, C#), XML, PHP, ASP, JSP, Cold Fusion, SQL l Client: HTML, DHTML, WAP, XML, JavaScript, CSS, FLASH Action

Scriptl Desktop applications: .NET Platform, Visual C++Graphic design: Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Indesign, Macromedia FLASH, 3D Studio, Corel Draw

Successfully accomplished projects:l 2 be – www.2be.bgl Adis - www.adis.bgl Address – www.address.bgl Balkan Tourist Development Services Ltd - www.balkantourist.bgl Bayer - www.erekcia.coml Borovets - www.borovets-bg.coml Bulgarian – American Credit Bank - www.bacb.bgl Bulgarian Telecommunication Company – www.btc.bgl British Councill Coca Colal Colliers Internationall DGVN (United Nations Associations of Gernamy)l Euroline – www.euroline.bgl Forem Consulting – www.foremconsulting.coml Home For You - www.homeforyou.bgl J&B Nightology - www.nightology-bg.coml Manager magazine – www.manager.bgl SMC (Swiss Management Center) – www.swissmc.chl Standart news – www.standartnews.coml Vivatel – www.vivatel.bgMain clients of the company: 2 be, Adis, Address, Balkan Tourist Development Services Ltd, Bulgarian Telecommunication Company, Bulgarian Tourism Authority, Bulgarian American Credit Bank, Forem Consulting, Home For You, Manager magazine, SMC (Swiss Management Center), Standart news, VivatelPurpose of participating in this catalogue: Establishing new contacts and business relationships for long-term cooperation in projects and/or parts of projects

Business characteristics of the companyOwnership structure: LTD., person in charge: Kiril Apostolov Number of employees, April �00�: 40

Address:1000 Sofia, 30 William Gladstone Str., fl. 2GSM: + 359 888 68 83 98Tel: + 359 2 981 87 42Fax: + 359 2 981 87 48Web site: www.magstudio.bgManager and contact person: Kiril Apostolov

Offices abroad:13 – 1734 avenue No16Long Island CityNY, 11106 US

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Year of establishment: 1995

Mission and brief descriptionSoftware DevelopmentQuality certificates and awards3 Gold Medals – International Fair, Plovdiv 1997, 2000, 2001, ISO 9001 CertifiedMain fields of activityAccounting Software, Warehouse software

Technologies: Visual Studio .NET

Successfully accomplished projectsMicroinvest Warehouse ProMicroinvest Warehouse Pro presents a system for tracking of warehouse availabilities in unlimited number of warehouses in real time. The program’s architecture enables the processes definition and work flexibility. All main principles of modern business are grounded in the design of the application – remote work, mobile working places, system for defining the operators’ rights and data edition at each step. A visual interface that could be adapted to each user and cound considerably expedites the work of the operators has been built. The program offers a set of 6 document styles and adaptive interface.

Product’s key characteristics:l Work in client-server model Maintenance of huge loading, nomenclatures and operationsl Tree structures of all nomenclaturesl Possibility for graphic presentation of the informationl Allocated net technology, remote access and synchronization l Global definition of the access control of each userl WEB interface and administrationl Data import from MS Excel as well as from other products of

Microinvestl Connection to mobile Palm OS and Pocket PC devicesl Expedition of work and operations effectivenessl Possibility for work with different databases types: Access, Microsoft

Desktop Engine, MySQL and Microsoft SQL.

Operations supported in Microinvest Warehouse Pro:l Salesl Deliveriesl Transferl Rejects

Microinvest Ltd

Address: 1618 Sofia, 215 Tzar Boris III Blvd, 12 floorTel.: +359 2 9555515; 9557226; 9555334Fax: +359 2 955 4046www.microinvest.net

l Dischargel Consignmentl Delivery Ordersl Quotationsl Tenders

Ideology of work in Microinvest Warehouse Pro:The ideology of work in this product copies the good business practice and it includes the processes of contracting, price-formation and goods realization before the existing and potential partners. In the spirit of the new technologies a mechanism for documents transformation, tracking of payments by partners, documents and dates is implemented. At the same time functions for business additional value – electronic document turnover, operative tracking of quantities and control of the personnel have been built in as well.

The advantages of the system are as follows:l Monolithic structure that follows the product’s purpose;l Architecture of a system from a highest class;l Integration with all contemporary products;l Lowest total cost of ownership (TCO).l Microinvest Delta

Main clients of the company:25 000 small and middle companies in Bulgaria

Purpose of participating in this catalogue: New contacts + New projects + Reselers

Ownership structure: Private company

Manager and contact person: Victor Pavlov

Business characteristics of the companyNumber of employees, April �00�: 42

Approximate turnover in �00�: 970 000 BGN

Income from activity: 40 000 BGN

8000 Burgas, 34 Gurko str.

5000 Veliko Tarnovo, 29 Nezavisimost Str

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TechnoLogica Ltd.Year of establishment: 1990

Mission and brief descriptionOur mission is to meet and exceed our clients’ expectations by significantly improving their work through the implementation of leading information technology solutions. We achieve this with our team of highly qualified professionals in a broad range of leading technologies. Some of the most experienced employees came from scientific institutes. We are among the first who developed and worked with RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems), CAD systems and Business Management Systems among the Central and East European countries. Our IT staff includes qualified Engineers and Masters in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Mathematics. There are also specialists in the area of Economics, Finance, Production Management and Marketing, six of us have acquired Ph. D. and seven of us with diplomas, issued by Western institutes. We have also are Certified Professionals in ORACLE, Microsoft, HP-UX System Administration, Certified IS auditors. Business linesl Software Development l Consulting and transfer of know-howl Business Software l Services Outsourcing in the area of Human Resources Management l Training and transfer of know-how l System Integration, Engineering Labor Automation – CAD/CAM l Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Competitive qualities l Proven experience in achieving success on huge projects in the

dynamically changing Bulgarian business environment l Company software tools l Rich portfolio of software technologies l Significant experience in the whole life cycle of the software

– development, integration, training, support l Dedication to the client’s success l Recognized name which is a guarantee for quality and

correctness

Quality certificates The National Codification Instrument developed by TechnoLogica for the Ministry of Defense was certified as compatible with NATO in 2004. The Human Resources Management System HeRMeS was awarded a

Gold Medal at the Plovdiv International Technical Fair in 1996.ISO 9001:2000

ProductsHuman Resource Management SystemsThe HR/Payroll System - HeRMeS®, a TechnoLogica product, is a de facto standard on the Bulgarian corporate market. The system is unique for the Bulgarian market and has functionality comparable to the leading HR/Payroll systems in addition to a web version, English language version and a high-class ERP systems integration option (SAP, ORACLE Applications, BAAN).

Technologies: Oracle, .NET, etc. from MS, J2EE, CASE, XML, UML, HTLM DB, Data Warehousing and OLAP, Spatial Data& GIS integration

Successfully accomplished projects l National Codification Instrument – MoDl Management Information System – NHIFl National Budget Management Information System – BNBl ING Pension Insurance Association Information Systeml Central Credit Register – BNBl IS Registers at the Financial Supervision Commissionl Information System for Leasing Companies – Hebros Leasingl Object Monitoring and Control System – GPS Bulgarial Human Resources Management System Integration for Multiple

Corporate Clients

Main clients of the company Industry, State AdministrationBanking and financial sectorTrade and Services

Business characteristics of the companyOwnership structure: LTD.

Number of employees working full-time, number of other employees as of April �00�: 100

Address: 46 Chervena stena Str., Sofia 1421

3 Sofiisko pole Street, Sofia 1756,

Tel.: +359 2 91 91 2www.technologica.com

24 Braita Miladnovi Str., office 31, Varna 9000

13 Tzar Asen Str., Plovdiv 4000

Manager and contact person: Ognian Trajanov

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Year of establishment: 1997Mission and brief description: FRONTSTEP Bulgaria is one of the first Bulgarian IT companies, which activities include development of business software, implementation of ERP systems and management consulting. Since 1998 FRONTSTEP Bulgaria has been business partner of US ERP vendor Symix Inc. Now our company is Channel Partner of Infor Inc. – the third business software provider in the world. One of the major products of Infor is SyteLine ERP.In Bulgaria was established SyteLine competence and development center for Europe. The FRONTSTEP Bulgaria team develops modifications and new modules for SyteLine ERP for Infor offices and partners in Europe.Competitive qualities: FRONTSTEP Bulgaria has more than 10 years in development, localization and implementation of business software and especially ERP systems. The FRONTSTEP Bulgaria team includes APICS certified CPIM specialists. Long and successful partnership with partners, customers, and suppliers in Bulgaria, Europe and USA.Quality certificates and awards: IT project of the year 2004 in category “Successful implementation” for Optimizing of the manufacturing and logistic processes in Schneider Electric plant in Bulgaria.Main fields of activity: FRONTSTEP Bulgaria offer wide range of products and services for the following industries: Paperwork, wood processing and furniture, packaging and printing;

metalwork, machine building, electronics, electric work, defense and aerospace, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, distribution, system integration, engineering services and many others. Technologies: Microsoft SQL, Microsoft .Net, Visual Basic for Application, Progress RDBS, Progress 4GLSuccessfully accomplished project: FRONTSTEP Bulgaria have more than 20 realized projects in Bulgaria, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Russia, Turkey and United Kingdom. Major projects: SyteLine ERP localization and development of Bulgarian Country Pack; Implementation of SyteLine ERP and Workflow Automation in Smartcom Bulgaria; Implementation of SyteLine ERP in Festo Production; Implementation of SyteLine ERP, Quality Control Solution and Data Collection in WATTS-MTB; Implementatio and upgrade of SyteLine ERP and Quality Control Solution в Schneider Electric Bulgaria;Implementation of SyteLine ERP and Product Configuration in Sprint - Maxcom; Development of Product Configuration for SCM Solutions Gmbh; Development of SyteLine Kitting for Omniconsulting - Finland;Development of SyteLine modul for Deferred Checks for EKIP MAPICS – Turkey; Business characteristics of the companyOwnership structure: 100% private, BulgarianNumber of employees, April �00�: 9Approximate turnover in �00�: 411 000 BGNRevenues by activities: 62%, Consulting Services: 38%Revenues by geographic location: 72%, EU – 25%, Non EU – 3%

FRONTSTEP Bulgaria

Address: blvd. Maria Luiza 91B, Sofia 1202, BulgariaTel.: +359 2 931 1908

Manager and contact person: Alexander Kenderovwww.frontstep.bg

Year of establishment: 2003 Mission and brief description: IBS is a leading Bulgarian IT company and a successful IBM Premier Business Partner. At IBS we provide a combination of IT services, hardware & software technologies, and expertise that ally together to advance the enterprises to new levels of efficiency, responsiveness and productivity. As a technology and business solutions provider we work closely with clients to ensure we fully understand their particular business requirements. Our technology services include IT consulting, systems design, custom application development, system integration, hardware provisioning, training and education. We work hard to develop solutions that help companies better manage their revenue stream and resources through improved productivity and cost-effective, scaleable business solutions.Competitive qualities: High Technology products and quality maintenance services Quality certificates and awards: ISSO 9001, IBM On Demand Business Partner, Best IBM Business Partner – 2005Main fields of activity: Software - Our turn-key software integration systems are built with best-of-breed IBM application development programs. We provide quality driven comprehensive workplace solutions for private companies as well as government bodies.

Infrastructure – We have strong experience in IBM Personal Computing, IBM eServer products family, IBM Totoal Storage Solutions and specialized IBM Retail Store Solutions. IT Consulting – We provide our customers with consultancy and assistance in building and implementation of their strategies based on our deep IT expertise, analytical and business process skills. Education – IBS is an Education Centre for IBM Software. Technologies: J2EE, Java, Lotus Script, Php, IBM WebSphere, Lotus Domino, DB2UDBMajor projects: Central Bus Station Sofia, Arena Cinema, BNB Balance of Payments StatisticsMain clients of the company: Mtel, БTC, Public Administration, Alexandra Group, BNB, etc. Business characteristics of the companyOwnership structure: private property Number of employees, April �00�: 37Approximate turnover in �00�: 9 245 000 BGNRevenues by activities: hardware provisioning and system integration – 70%, Software Solutions – 20%, IT Consulting and Education – 10%Revenues by geographic location: 100% - Bulgaria

IBS Bulgaria LTD

Address:1172 Sofia, 4 Pimen Zografski StrTel.: 070011444+ 359 2 961 5455www. ibs.bg

Varna 9009Business Park Varna,Sgrada 1, ParterTel.: +359 52 699444

Manager and contact person: Goran Vladimirov Angelov

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Mirchev Ideas is an established software service company with a background of over 100 custom solutions developed for entrepreneurs and corporate organizations from all over the world. The company delivers a wide array of custom systems, which are industry specific and highly specialized to the client company operations.

Over the years the work process within the company has been repeatedly challenged and fine-tuned, thus making us a software service provider which stands up to the highest and toughest demands of customers. We guarantee successful delivery and high performance of every requested solution by providing: l prompt and reliable customer service via email, phone, IM and

Skype conference in fluent English and German languages (Monday to Friday, 12 am – 8 pm EET)

l well-organized staff of professional developers, web designers and test specialists

l efficient time management in terms of performance and schedule of project’s tasks

l commitment to completing projects in deadline requested

We are pleased to present the company by the words of its customers:

“As for Mirchev Ideas, I rate them very highly. Since 1999, I have not come across a team as talented and committed to doing good work

Company Presentation as they are. There is absolutely nothing they cannot do and do to the highest standards.I have been using Mirchev Ideas on an ongoing basis over the past 2.5 years and am happy to say that it is evident I have settled with a technology partner that I am truly confident in.My web site receives over 1 million visitors on a daily basis and the programming provided by Mirchev Ideas keeps moving without slowing down. This is a testament in itself.”

Khaled Abdulla, UK

“I have been working with Mirchev Ideas for more than a year now, and I can only say the best about them. I have been outsourcing previously, but Mirchev Ideas has become my preferred source for this. They are responsive, responsible, and can be trusted to both produce great solutions, architecture and code alike, as well as work directly with my clients. “

Mark Kerzner, USA

“I can honestly say without any hesitation that the quality, professionalism, customer relations and stability, not to even mention the extreme savings in development costs that I have experienced with the Mirchev team has been way beyond my expectations.They are currently working on a solution for us that once completed will be launched on a National scale in UK and their coding practice is certainly one that I have no concerns about whether the code will be ‘up to the job’. “

Stuart Bond, UK

Year of establishment: 2003Mission and brief description Mirchev Ideas provides IT solutions of highest quality that perfectly match customers’ business practices. Services: Software Development, Website Design, E-commerce site, AdWords API development, X-Cart customizations, Intranet site, Internet marketing and advertising Products: MI PHP Framework, InventoryWords, PHP AdWords API LibCompetitive qualities: Talanted team of developers and web designers, reliable customer service, efficient time management, reasonable prices, detailed and informative business quotes, ongoing after-deployment support, currently in the process of adopting ISO 9001:2000Main fields of activity: Web Development, Web Design, AdWords API development, X-Cart customizations, PHP programming, Java and JavaScript programming, .Net programming, C and C++ programming, XML programming, Flash developmentTechnologies: Web Technologies: HTML, XHTML, XML, AJAX, DOM, CSS, XSLT

Platforms: MS Windows, Unix (Linux)Programming languages: PHP, Java, .Net, PERL, C/C++, JavaScript, VBJ2EE Application Servers: Oracle AS, BEA Weblogic, JbossDatabases: Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL Server, MS Access, ODBC, JDBC, XML DatafileSuccessfully accomplished projects: 100+Main clients of the company: Pinestream Communications Inc (USA), Softronics Inc (USA), SHM Soft (USA), Advanced Navigation (USA), DPS Telecom (USA), Norris Enterprises (USA), Treasure House Support (USA), Microchannel Technologies (UK), Offtek (UK), Procedis (UK), Business Computer Projects (UK), MJA Impressions (Canada), East-West Gift Centre (Canada), Columbus Group Ltd (Spain), Cassia Consultants (Italy), Fairrank GmbH (Germany), Bindesysteme Schoenherr (Germany), American International School (Austria)Business characteristics of the companyNumber of employees, April �00�: 13Revenues by activities: 80% of revenues come from software development, 20% from other services

Mirchev Ideas Ltd

Address: 113 A, Tzarigradsko Shosse Blvd.,IPK “Rodina”, floor 3Phone: +359 2 975 2424Website: www.mirchevideas.com

e-mail: contact@mirchevideas.comSkype: mirchevideasDirector: Georgi MirchevContact Person: Viktoria Dimitrova

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Year of establishment: 1998Mission and brief description: Rila Solutions provides consulting services and advanced IT solutions. Rila has successfully completed a lot of complex information solutions and projects for more than 80 clients in the US, Europe and Bulgaria. The company focuses on: Professional consulting services, ERP solutions implementation, Telecom solutions, Mobile and wireless solutions, Finance solutions.Competitive qualities: Rila`s approach is bringing together the people, processes and technology expertise, which is critical for successful projects. Rila’s management is committed to corporate development and progress through quality. This commitment is demonstrated in implementation of a formal quality policy and Quality Management System, based on the following principles: Client trust, Clearly defined requirements, Forward planning to minimize risk, Proactive identification and prevention of problematic issues, Adherence to clearly defined Quality Management SystemQuality certificates and awards: ISO 9001:2000 certified process and methodology. Technologies: Platforms (OS): Linux, UNIX, MS Windows, MacOS; Languages and Technologies: ASSEMBLER, C/C++, Perl, PHP, Java, J2EE, .Net, SQL, HTML, DHTML, Javascript, XML, Ajax, Cold Fusion

Rila Solutions EAD Databases: Oracle, MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, MySQL, Sybase.Successfully accomplished projects: Bella Bulgaria – Automatic system for planning and managing of resources.l Bulgarian Army Pilot Logistics Systeml Development of Data Warehouse solution for the faults and requests

in the Operation Support System of BTC.l Procurement Form Editor for Public Procurement Agency - USAIDl Public Procurement Register for Public Procurement Agency - USAIDl National Electricity Company (NEC)l Saltillo ChatPC3Main clients: Bulgarian Public Procurement Agency, Bulgarian Telecommunication Company, Bulgarian National Bank, BULBANK, Ministry of Defense, National Electricity Company, USAID Bulgaria, Open Society Institute – USA, Synxis Corporation – USA, Comms factory – UK, Microsoft – USA, ICOSR – UK, FrenchToast.com – USA, Saltillo Corporation USA, Unisys _Germany, ets. Purpose of participating in this catalogue: Rila`s management aims to show the technology and business practices we use hoping that this will lead to significant new market opportunities in the nearest future. Business characteristics of the companyNumber of employees working full-time, April �00�: 71Approximate revenue for �00�: 2 M Euro

Address: Bulgaria, 1113 Sofia, Acad. G. Bonchev Str., building 27Tel.: +359 2 970 96100www.rila.com

Year of establishment: 1992Mission and brief description: Sirma Group transforms the innovative ideas and dedicated work of talented people into successful knowledge enterprises. Through continuous technological and market innovations, each Sirma business has excellent prospects for great return of investment and stable, profitable growth in the future.Competitive qualities: Sirma’s business units apply business strategies that enable them to deliver significantly more added value to their customers in new ways. This is achieved not only through the application of advanced technologies, but also through innovative marketing strategies and tactics that redefine markets, create new market segments and render existing competition obsolete.Quality certificates and awards: European Information Technology Prize (EngView division), GTEC (Government in Technology) product innovation award (WorkLogic division, Canada), EuroWard for promising start-up (EyeBill joint venture), Bulgarian IT innovation award (Vulcan C4I system), ISO 9001:2000 certified.Main fields of activity: Banking and insurance, Education, Telecommunications, GovernmentTechnologies: MS.NET, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, J2EE, JSP, EJB, Tomcat, IIS, ASP, VBScript, Jscript, J2ME, J2SE, PHP, Perl, Apache, MysqlWindows 98, 2000, XP, 2003, Linux (RedHat, SuSE), IBM AS/400, RPG ILE, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, SQL, Rational Rose, AllFusion Erwin,

IBM Eclipse, J2ME, USSD, SIM Toolkit, Oracle Collab Suite, IBM DB2 Content Manager, IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM Business Integration Svr, IBM AlphaBlox OLAP, IBM WorkPlace, IBM Lotus.Successfully accomplished projects:l Foodscape portal, Instill Purchase Web, IPW Connect, USAl VULCAN artillery fire control system, Ministry of Defense,Bulgarial Modules for desktop search product, X1 Technologies,USAl Subsystem implementation (SWIFT, card products, BISERA, BORIKA), UniCredito Bulbank,Bulgarial Helpdesk management system, Elections Canada, Canadal Grants and contributions management system, HRDC (Human Res Dev Canada), Canadal NIPIES inter-departmental Intellectual Property system Patent Office, Customs Agency, Bulgarial Request Management system, Library of Parliament, CanadaPurpose of participating in this catalogue: Visibility, Finding new clients and partnersOwnership structure: 100% Private, BulgarianBusiness characteristics of the companyNumber of employees, April �00� 130Approximate turnover in �00�: 3 000 000 EURRevenues by activities: Software Development– 40 %, IT Consulting and System Integration Services– 40%, Hardware and software supply – 20%Revenues by geographic location Bulgarian market – 50%Export services - 50%

Sirma Group Corp.

Address: 135, Tsarigradsko shosse Blvd.,Sofia 1784, BulgariaTel.: +359-2-976-8310info@sirma.bg, www.sirma.bg

Manager and contact person: Tsvetan Alexiev, CEO

Sirma International Corp.438 Isabey Street, Suite 103Montreal, QuebecCanada H4T 1V3Tel.:+1-514-448-4649

Manager and contact person:Miroslav Iliev – CEO

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Year of establishment: 1995Mission: Developing of ideas and innovations on the basis of strategic co-operation with the clients for servicing their business goals. Creating of conditions and stimulus for continuous increase of qualification of the employees, certifications and acquiring of new knowledge. Individual approach to every customer. Solutions and servicesl System Integration. Complex network solutions: network design;

network infrastructure protection. Data processing and storage solutions: building of data processing centers. Monitoring and management of IT infrastructures. System software solutions: implementation and development of system software of leading vendors; creating specialized software modules for different systems’ integration; design and implementation of active directory; design and implementation of teamwork systems; planning and installation of antivirus and antispam systems. Specialized software solutions – IP telephony; Call centers; Help Desk; automated installation of workstations and servers. l Building management systems and structured cable systems. l Service and SupportCompetitive qualities: Highly professional specialists with experience in the implementation of complete solutions on the basis of the most

modern technologies.l Successful co-operation with leading IT vendors l Good knowledge about business processes in the financial sector, corporate management and public administrationl Complex services for complete building and support of information systemsQuality certificates: ISO 9001:2000 in range of design, accomplishment, system integration, 24-hours support, service and trade with IT products and solutions. Hewlett-Packard - Preferred Partner, Cisco Systems - Silver Certified Partner, Microsoft - Gold Certified Partner, Intel - Certified Processor Integrator, 3Com - Gold Partner, Citrix - Solutions Provider, Symantec - Enterprise Solutions Partner, Oracle - Partner Network, Reichle & De-Massari – Certified Installer & Planner, AMP - Certified Installer, Panduit - Certified Installer, Siemens – Certified System Integrator.Main fields of activity: Fianance, Public administration, Industry, Education Ownership structure: 100% BulgarianNumber of employees, April �00�: 72Approximate turnover in �00�: 15,650 BGN Revenues by activities: Hardware for system integration: 6,778 Mln BGN, Software for system integration: 2,471 Mln BGN, Telecommunication solutions as a part of system integration: 5,137 Mln BGN, IT services: 1,261 Mln BGNRevenues by geographic location: Bulgarian market

Paraflow Communications Ltd.

Address: Sofia 1421, 52-54 Dimitar Hadjikotzev str.Tel.: 960 42 00, Fax: 960 42 18 e-mail: office@paraflow.bg, www.paraflow.bg

Burgas 8000, 8 Uspenski str., office 13tel./fax: 056 840 197

Varna 9010, jk Chaika, bl. 128 Tel./fax: 052 32 19 97

Stara Zagora 6000, 45 Slavianski blvd., floor 3Tel./fax: 042 60 53 50Manager and contact person: Nikolai Avramov

Year of establishment: 1996Mission and brief descriptionOutsourcing professional specializing in providing expert software development for small to medium enterprises worldwide.Competitive qualities: Size, breadth of technical expertise, communications model Quality certificates and awards: ISO certified Main fields of activity: Software DevelopmentTechnologies: Hardware Platforms and Technologies, PC, Sun, HPPalm, PocketPC, Operating Systems and Platforms, Windows, Linux, UNIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Programming Languages, Java, JavaScript, C++, C#, SQL, Python, Perl, Visual Basic, VBScript, ASP, ASP.NET, HTML, XML, XSL, SAS, PowerBuilder, 4GL, UML, Development Methodologies and Processes, Rational Unified Process, UML, OOA, OOD, OOP, Prototyping, Eclipse, Swing, Database, Oracle, Informix, SyBase, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Technologies, J2EE, J2ME, JavaBeans, JSP, ODBC, JDBC, DAO, ADO, ADO.NET, Web Services/SOAP, .NET, ActiveX, COM+, CGI, RPC, CORBA, Struts Framework, Custom Model-View-Controller (MVC2)

Successfully accomplished projects: All are successful, we currently are managing 20 separate projects and have well over 50 projects completedMain clients of the company: Actional Corporation, Akonix, AonixAPIS, AppTran, ASTEC Global Consultancy, Beijer Automotive, Belair Airlines, Blue Martini, Cerado, Inc, Certus, Credit Suisse, EPIQ, Fogbreak Software, FWB Software, Global Securities, HestiaSoftware, IntelliCo, JPS, KIM Systemhaus GmbH, Lockheed Martin, Market Metrix, Mercury Interactive, Metapath Software International/Marconi, Nortel Networks, Orbitel, Pi Group, Privasphere,SAP AG, ScaleTools, SeeSaw NetworksSeonix, Siemens Business Services, Slam Dunk Networks, TechniData, Thomas Cook Airlines, BE, Tumbleweed Communications, UPAQ, VMWare, Websense, WyNpro SolutionsPurpose of participating in this catalogue: Exposure, awarenessBusiness characteristics of the companyNumber of employees, October �00�: 170+Ownership structure: Private

Address: 9 Chamkoria Str.Sofia 1504, BulgariaPhone: +359 2 943 3331Fax: +359 2 943 3337

Sciant, EOOD

Offices in:l Zug, Switzerlandl Sofia, Bulgarial Varna, Bulgarial Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam

Manager and contact person: Dudley BlossomMarketing & Sales Director

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Published for Bulgarian State Agency for Information Technology and Communications

by Saga Technology Ltd.