Corporate Analysis The Development strategy

Khachik Melkonyan Kristine Petrosyan Hasmik Shahnazaryan Lilit Margaryan Mariluys Yeremyan Sona Mamyan Sona Mirzoyan

Table of Contents

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Introduction About company, mission statement. Products and services Market and competitors Industry Analysis The main challenge Firm Analysis Impact of the challenge Strategic Advantage Profile Strengths and competitive advantages Weaknesses and competitive disadvantages Threat-Opportunity profile Opportunities Threats Salient issue for the organization Strategic Alternatives Recommendation Risks Bibliography Appendices

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Introduction
About company
"Lime Tech" is specialized in IT consulting and business automation systems. The company was established in 2008 and during 3 years has developed, produced and implemented 10 different types of products. The company produces the following products: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Queuing Management Systems Information kiosks Electronic lecterns, Internet kiosks, Payment kiosks, Music boxes, Vending machines

"Lime Tech" has successfully cooperated with Governmental and nongovernmental major Armenian organizations: State Revenue Committee by the Government of RA, Police of RA, Public Registry of RA, "Vivacell& MTS", "Beeline", "AmeriaBank", "ArmSwissBank", "InecoBank", "Mellat Bank", USAID, UNDP, etc., deploying more than 150 kiosks in Armenia. The advantage of LImeTech is in concentrating its efforts on building unique customized solutions for each of its clients.

The main question for the company is "Have I done everything in my power to ensure that this customer is completely satisfied?" The mission statement of the company is fresh solutions for making your business easier.

LimeTech - the key provider of business automatization systems in Armenian self-service market!

Products and services
“Lime Tech” specializes particularly in queue management systems (electronic queues), electronic lecterns, information kiosks, payment kiosks and different entertaining kiosks (photo kiosks, music download and public internet access). Electronic Queue Management System or EQ is one of the key solutions in business atomization systems in Armenia delivered by LimeTech Company. The system provides the opportunity to electronically control and manage everyday queues at the customer service desks of financial and telecommunication institutions. Electronic Queue Systems are widely used in o o o o o o Banks, Credit Institutions Post Offices Mobile Service Provider Organizations Internet Service Provider Organizations State and Governmental Organizations Embassies and Consulates

Payment Kiosk (electronic payment terminal) is designed for different types of payment. It enables people to make payment in cash for such services as mobile, cable TV, Internet, Utilities etc. Electronic Lectern is a unique gadget for making presentations, speeches, lectures. Clean functional styling, great sound and ease of use has made this lectern an irreplaceable tool. Music Box is a completely new product in Armenian market. It performs the playback of any type of music on customer order. Using the touch screen monitor the customer surveys through the user-friendly list of tracks (over 35000 tracks), picks the desired song/melody and makes his payment for playing the selection. The box accepts coins only. Internet Kiosk is high end, interactive terminal designed to provide public Internet access. The terminal is intended for installation in places of mass gathering and recreation and typically placed in hotel lobbies, long-term care facilities, waiting rooms, etc. Information Kiosk is designed to increase the customer service quality at various companies and organizations. It provides objective information about vendor company which can be accessed free of charge.

Cigarettes Machine is a vending machine that takes cash payment for packs of cigarettes. It is an absolutely new technology for selling cigarettes in Armenian market. Cigarette machines can be used at Super/ hypermarkets, business/trade centers, cafes, bars, restaurants, casinos, night Clubs

Market and competitors
Founded in 2008, LimeTech was the first company in Armenia that stressed the role of providing fresh solutions in business automation systems. By that time the self-service market in the country was still unexplored, meanwhile effective systems were already widely employed all over the world. Detailed market research and persistent efforts of the company finally brought the first outcome. The queuing management system ordered by “Inecobank, Armenia” was deployed successfully here by marking the employment of automation systems in the country. Soon the bank management sensed tangible results and impressive changes in customer service. In a short period of time "Lime Tech" obtained its respectable and stable position in Armenian market. Step by step innovative solutions were delivered across numerous industries and the company established itself as a trustworthy provider and partner. Today LimeTech is far the leading provider of business automation systems in Armenia which owns in-house manufacturing of self-service terminals. The two main competitors of "Lime Tech" are Qmatic and AKIS Technologies, both are overseas companies that have representative offices in Armenia.

Qmatic has been a pioneer in the queuing business for more than 30 years. Qmatic basically invented the industry and is the leading Customer Flow Management company in the world. Its systems are running in 122 countries and they’ve implemented more than 51,800 solutions worldwide. Customer Flow Management (CFM) is the methodology Qmatic invented to ensure the best delivery of a service solution. Smart-Tech is an official distributor of Qmatic in Armenia. Qmatic offers standardized packages to Armenian market that limit their attractiveness in comparison with the customized products offered by Lime-Tech. Support services of Qmatic systems are provided from Georgia which results in high cost and inconvenience to customers. Overall

eve the price of this hardware is much higher (about twice) and the support of the software and its continues updates are rather expensive. AKIS Technologies is a private capital company established in 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Company that specializes in information processes and automated system technologies

offers simple and efficient queue management systems starting from the very basic system for only one queue AKIS Micro and more sophisticated LITE and PRO solutions. Access also does not use customization and after installation support services in Armenia.

Industry Analysis
For the analysis of business automation industry we will use Porter’s five forces model.

Rivalry among existing competitors (Medium) There are only two companies that "Lime Tech" is competing with in this particular market: Qmatic and AKIS Technologies. Both competitors lack the flexibility, low cost and quick support services that "Lime Tech" offers to its customers. Qmatic uses a distribution channel which is Smart-Tech in Armenia and provides support services from the office located in Georgia. It makes the overall process slow and costly. In addition, Qmatic offers only standard systems that are not adapted to the Armenian market. AKIS Technologies offers very complex software and statistical analysis that is very costly to deliver to Armenia. Customization is again problematic for them because of the complexity and high cost of the original system. Thus, both rivals offer products that are less attractive to Armenian customer due to the high price (twice higher), inability to offer customized systems and unavailability of services in Armenia. Switching costs are considerable because once you installed a system for one customer all the supporting and complementary services should also be provided by you or otherwise the original system will need to be reinstalled to switch to another supplier. Threat of substitutes (Low) To the extent that customers can use different products to fulfill the same need, the threat of substitutes exists. The alternative to automated systems can be traditional systems, for example traditional “live” queues are substitutes of queuing management system. So, the company needs to consider this substitute so that it can think about competitive prices and

features to be offered to customers to make them use automated systems over the traditional systems. The company may counter this threat by becoming a low-cost producer in the industry and by clearly demonstrating the benefits that automated systems can bring to service companies. Especially in Armenia, where the market is small enough, each company must provide comfortable service and can control, evaluate and continuously improve its service quality.So, the bargaining power of substituted is quite low.

Threat of new entrants (Medium) The threat of new entrants is not very high in this segment. Although it may seem relatively inexpensive to start up a new business like Lime-Tech and even acquire initial funds for it. However there are some barriers that make it an unattractive for new companies to enter the market. First of all to compete with Lime-Tech the new entrant would need real brand name recognition and customer loyalty. For example, financial institutions in Armenia that are main customers of Lime-Tech made huge investments in automation systems and would not switch to any new supplier in a short period of time. Secondly, the time and cost of software development would also be considerable. Another reason of Lime-Tech customers being stuck with its systems is that Lime offers a portfolio of systems not just one tool so that the customer becomes trapped into a long term relationship with original provider which make the existing customers unacceptable for new entrants. Besides, a company that is already using Lime Tech products should allocate the financial resources and switch to a new solutions' provider that is more than costly. One possible way of entry into this market for new firms is to offer their services to medical institutions. For example, QMS may be introduced in hospitals and polyclinics. However, many clinics may be reluctant to this change due to the inability of some clients, mainly elder people to use the automated system in a proper way. This may even prevent some patients to use the services of clinics that introduced the automated systems and bring competitive disadvantage to them. Thus, for their entry to be really effective they will need to impose the change on all medical institutions using maybe governmental support which will take considerable time and cost. Buyer Power (High) Within the business automation segment, the bargaining power of customers certainly plays an important role. The customers of this market demand systems that are customized to their particular business needs that make the processes within their business more effective and distinguish them from their competitors. Otherwise they wouldn’t need

automation at all. However is is not only the unique products and services that prevents the buyers from buying from other companies but also the reasonable price. Lime-Tech offers products that are twice cheaper than the standard (not customized) products offered by its competitors. Although the buyers have some bargaining power to set initial prices, they become stuck with Lime-Tech for a long time due to the need for after-installation support services which is free for the first six months and is set at a reasonable price thereafter. Customers also provided with free training on how to use the solution effectively. During that six month Lime acquires strong customer loyalty by provision of high quality customer support and builds a ground for long-term relationship. Supplier Power (Low) The bargaining power of suppliers in the automation industry is small to medium. It should be considered in terms of supply of raw materials, labor and expertise. Typical raw materials for this type of business are metallic constructions to contain hardware and software, printers for output info and LCD monitors. There are plenty of companies in Armenia that produce metallic construction up to required design so that they do not really have much bargaining power in this industry. Printers and LCD monitors are also freely available in the market. Lime-Tech buys metallic constructions from a local company located in "Mergelyan Institute" and orders printers and LCDs from Chinese or Japanese suppliers. The company can easily switch to other suppliers if prices are not competitive anymore. In terms of labor force the situation is different. Employees and their expertise are crucial for the success of the company and so have greater bargaining power and the company should do whatever it takes to keep labor force because of special expertise they possess.

The Main Challenge for the company
Small market
Doing business in Armenia in almost all cases required to have someone on the ground. All business representatives underscore the need to have a strong understanding of local legislation, as tax, customs legislation, in order to avoid paying unnecessary fees. The importance of person-to-person contact in the Armenian business culture cannot be overemphasized. The capacity to act as responsible agents for existing Western-style legal

consultancies is limited because of the lack of transparency in the business culture totally. Most successful companies have Armenian partners who are familiar with the local business environment. Armenian market is actually small and have also the problem of high fees, so in Armenia only can work those companies who have good relations and with the help of those relations can survive. During the past several years, Armenia has experienced an impressive expansion in investment, in exports, and in real incomes, but actually an overall economic reform agenda remains unfinished. Nowadays it is very difficult to grow and develop in Armenia, because Lime Tech already has serviced approximately 50% of the banking sector and as well of other sectors. They have a very low opportunity to find new partners and for developments in Armenia they should think about the development of other products to find new partners from different sectors.

Firm Analysis
Impact of the challenge
There are some challenges that do not allow seeing the clear future of the company. Nowadays the political situation in Armenia is unclear and unpredictable. On the other hand, the number of potential customers shows a downward trend. Various causes may affect to this phenomenon such as the needs and expectations of customers can be changed over time. Moreover the competition becomes severe day by day. To keep the competitive advantage is becoming one of the most important issues for the company.

Strategic Advantage Profile
 Strengths and competitive advantages Professional and highly skilled staff: The employees of “LimeTech” have deep knowledge and expertise in product development, customization and product support. The employees are highly skilled not only in technical components but also are familiar with the needs and requirements of local customers. They are able to inject new innovative ideas and technology into the company. The employees of “LimeTech” periodically participate in training courses and seminars organized for IT specialists to upgrade the level of knowledge and stay in tune with the latest technologies

and innovations in IT sector, including novelties in programming languages, algorithms and libraries. “LimeTech” has the advantage of broadening its product portfolio and creating new lines of services by using the potential of its experienced and skilled workforce. Besides, the staff knows the market and customers deeply, work with them directly which helps to create whatever the client wants.

Full product package: “LimeTech” specializes particularly in queue management systems (electronic queues), electronic lecterns, information kiosks, payment kiosks and different entertaining kiosks (photo kiosks, music download and public internet access). The whole process starting from assembling the product and developing the software is being done by “LimeTech”. This allows the company to have full control over the product quality and set up optimal pricing mechanism. The full product package includes applications that can serve as an efficient tool for marketing policy, customer service quality improvement and provide 24-hour information service. For example, Queuing management system allows the company to assess the operating efficiency of the maintenance personnel, determine the total amount of customers per service or operation and perform many other activities for any period of time. Adaptable product for each customer: LimeTech works with a sharp focus on client’s most satisfaction. An individual approach is provided for each client of the company. LimeTech provides solutions specifically for the customer. For instance, before starting the project and the system installation, the technical team explores the objective of installing the product, the territory of the terminal implementation, the length of the territory, the floor location, employees' workplaces and other details before the software and hardware development in order to meet the customer expectations. The brand book, logo of the client are also crucial while developing the design of the machines. Customer support: The company supports its customers by customizing its products and providing good aftersales service. The latter enables “LimeTech” to build a long-term relationship with its customers, earn their loyalty, keep them coming back and encourages them to refer your business to others. The company keeps a follow-up contact and effectively deals with complaints. Low price high quality product, qualified suppliers:

The company deals with qualified suppliers who provide the company with high quality components that are used to assemble high quality products. As the company both assembles the product and provides the software, it is able to set a lower price for its products compared to its competitors, while keeping the quality on a high level.

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Weaknesses and competitive disadvantages

Marketing skills:
“LimeTech” outsources its marketing functions and does not have well developed marketing strategy which is a serious obstacle for the company. It does not generate the required awareness about its products and services among customers. Having better understanding about the potential customers who will be interested in LimeTech products and being close to the target markets will assist them to sell or create connections. “LimeTech” does not update its websites regularly as it should. Customers are exposed to information that is two years old. This leads to a loss of potential customers who browse the website for the latest products of the company. No light versions of products: LimeTech provides software and hardware integrated solutions, which also provide reports on each employee's work, statistical figures, inform how customers have been served per day, week and month, as well as how many and what kind of operations have been performed. Some potential users of queue management may not be interested in such reports; they would rather prefer buying queue management system simply for avoiding queues and gathering. “LimeTech” is not developing light versions of its queuing management systems. This leads to losing some customers, who are not interested in paying for the full package while needing only some functions. Concentration on one product: Currently “LimeTech” is concentrated on developing and selling mainly its Electronic Queue Management System. However, the company has also developed other products, such as payment kiosk, electronic lecture, music box, internet kiosk, Information kiosk etc. “Limetech” does not work on expanding and selling these products among the customers and again loses some segment of the potential market.

Limited resources: Another weakness of the company is the lack of financial and human resources. It is essential for an IT company to have enough financial resources for business growth, R&D, development and production of new products and services. The company’s staff consists of a CEO, a procurement manager, a project manager, a designer, a programmer, a technical director and a technical support team with 4 members. The company, faced with such resource constraints, may inevitably be delayed in meeting deadlines. The project manager may hire temporary employees to help them, if the added expense stays within the company’s budget. Otherwise, the company should allocate its resources in a proper way. Resource constraints can cause the company to eliminate the least important procedures and operate more efficiently.

Threat and Opportunity Profile
 Opportunities

Highly skilled inexpensive labor force:
Strong university programs with specialization in IT and computer science enable to prepare welleducated and talented workforce with a high degree of technical skills and English language proficiency. Meanwhile, the cost of the labor is highly competitive with low operating costs. “LimeTech” may use this opportunity to capitalize on young and highly qualified workforce, benefit from the talented and creative workforce and highly competitive wages rates.

Government support of IT sector:
Armenian Government declared support of ICT sector as a key priority for its economic development policy and has the commitment to improve the investment climate in Armenia. The growing importance of IT industry led the Government of Armenia to declare ICT as one of the priority sectors of Armenian economy in 2000. Other key initiatives in the policy field include preparation of Armenia’s ICT Master Strategy and formation of Information Technologies Development Support Council (ITDSC) in 2001 and start of Enterprise Incubator project in 2002 (EIF, ARMENIAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR: SOFTWARE AND SERVICES, 2009). “LimeTech” is a member of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE) founded in 2000. UITE is the organizer of many significant events in the IT sector, like DigitecEXPO annual exposition. The participation in other organizations both international and supported by the Government of RA will open new opportunities of development, particularly in the international relations with foreign organizations of the sector.

Foreign Investments:
As the tendency shows that local companies are often becoming a location of choice for multinational companies to outsource R&D, operations and software development, “LimeTech”

may gain from the inflow of foreign investors, as well as extensive experience with multinational organizations.

Strong and successful Diaspora:
Diaspora is considered one of the major competitive advantages of Armenia in terms of access to foreign markets and expertise. The majority of foreign branches operating in Armenia is established through direct involvement of Diaspora Armenians (EIF, ARMENIAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR: SOFTWARE AND SERVICES, 2009). Diaspora representatives are usually well disposed towards Armenia and are willing to contribute to its development. Companies with top management or owners of Armenian descent are better suited to evaluate the risks and understand the culture. “Limetech” may also benefit from Diaspora when selling its services abroad.

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Threats

Emigration of qualified staff:
Emigration has become a hindrance to the economic development of the Republic of Armenia. Emigration also significantly affects human capital of the country, as the emigration of highly skilled professionals, scientists, and intellectuals reduces the reproduction of human capital. Emigration is a serious challenge in Armenia; many professionals, talented young people are leaving for other countries, where they are highly valued, contributing to their human capital increase. In 2011 2.6 thousand emigrants have left Armenia, 51% left because of lack of job opportunities and low wages, 31% because of low living standards (ILO, 2012). More than half of the emigrants had middle and high education level. This may become an issue for “LimeTech”, which in the future may not be able to recruit high qualified staff.

Entrance of new competitors:
As IT sector is considered to be very profitable with high rates of return and high productivity; the total return of the sector in 2011 comprised $244.35mln, this may be attractive for new companies to enter IT sector and concentrate on the similar products of LimeTech. 327 companies operate in IT sector of Armenia, out of which 182 are local and 145 are foreign companies. (EIF, ARMENIAN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SECTOR, 2012) Thus, another challenge is the possibility of already operating IT companies to expand their product portfolio, including products similar to Limetech.

Tax environment:
On January 1, 2013 tax changes took place provoking concerns in IT sector. Problems regarding to the accounting reports that have become more thorough and time-consuming. Besides, previously, IT companies were able to give outsourcing jobs abroad, but now it has become harder because an additional 20% tax should be paid. Problems have also arisen in the case of grants, which are set to 20% VAT. This change will endanger the receipt of new grants in the future, because if the grant has to be increased by 20%, it will be given in another country, for example Malaysia, rather than to Armenia.

Corruption:
In 2012 Armenia was ranked 105th in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. Although Armenia went up from 129th place in 2011 to 105th out of 176 countries, corruption continues to remain an important issue. Some elements of corruption

exist in the field of public tenders and procurement system. There is a lack of transparency of the competitions in the public procurement system, unclear terms of the announced tenders, inaccessibility of information about the announced tenders for all the interested groups. The tenders are announced for acquiring big portions of IT products, which does not encourage SMEs to take part in such competitions. Besides the winners of competitions are often those companies that have proposed the lowest price, rather than the best quality.

Salient issue for the organization
Since the foundation the company had a remarkable yearly turnover and profit growth rate. It has worked with all major banks and telecommunication companies of Armenia. The company has a clear vision for the upcoming two years due to already signed contracts and potential clients. But as already mentioned, the main problem of the industry is that it is too small, and the future of the company in terms of market saturation is not clear after two- three years. Thus, Lime Tech needs to carefully plan and follow a strategic plan for future market expansion and generation of new sources of revenues.

Strategic Alternatives
Exploit existing markets
The first alternative for the company is to continue further exploitation of its existing products. In this prospective Lime Tech has two options, concentrate on its main product queuing management system, or start actionable marketing and sales of its other products, such as information kiosks, internet kiosks, electronic lecterns etc. and the development of new solutions.

QMS- Queuing management system
From one hand it is obvious that the market for the queuing management system of Lime Tech is almost saturated. As already mentioned, Lime Tech has sold its product to the majority of potential clients. The companies that rejected to implement this solution in their business, simply do not need it in terms of financial investments or business concepts.

From the other hand, the solution of Lime Tech is very complex and includes many components that might be extra for some companies. There are many “untouched” small and medium companies that might need the solution in more simple and easy format. Most of the big international competitors that provide queuing management systems, have three or four options of products, starting from the very basic and cheap solution,up to the professional solutions with integrated statistics and monitoring tools. Lime Tech currently has only the professional solution and one option for exploring bigger markets in Armenia is to create simpler versions for its queuing management solution. The solution options that the company may create are: QMS Basic This option will be covering the market of small and medium businesses with one queuing line in their customer service. The customer will be able to get her/his ticket by just pushing one button. The employee will have a simple, small device for calling the next customer. A simple digital screen will be placed in the waiting room for indicating the ticket number that should be served next. For this solution no other advanced technology will be needed in the customer service office. QMS Light Another simple solution for small and medium businesses who provide multiple(from 2 to 5) services in their service centers. With this option the customer will be able to choose the desired service he/she wants to get and pick his/her ticket number. If there are more than one employees, the services and employees will be interconnected and when an employee calls a customer it automatically picks a customer that may be served by this employee. The main screen for this solution will indicate not only the ticket number, but also the free employee desk number. This solution is more complex than the first one, but still is a simple and convenient solution for businesses, which do not want to get a complicated and costly solution. QMS Pro: This is basically the same solution as Lime Tech currently has. This solution includes an innovative touch screen ticket dispenser, large screen monitor for arranging the queues and for placing announcements and advertisements. Employee user program that include more sophisticated options than just calling a customer. With this solution the management of the company is able to get periodic reports and monitor the activity of the company online. The main take away if the company chooses to continue exploiting QMS market area:

● Full saturation of queuing management market ● Effective use of existing know how ● Low production costs ● More support contracts The main weak points of developing QMS products are: ● Concentration on one product ● Lack of differentiation ● Positioning the company as QMS producer and not automation systems producer

Other products
Besides Queuing Management Systems, Lime Tech also produces a range of other products which are not yet appropriately presented to the market. This products include a variety of kiosks and terminals such as information kiosks, internet kiosks, electronic lecterns, vending machines, music boxes, payment terminals etc. Some of these products have good opportunity to market: Information kiosks These are very useful and innovative solutions for companies that desire to provide information about themselves to their clients/visitors. The first target customers may be hotels, business centers, banks and malls. Internet terminals Nowadays people are used to have internet everywhere. Internet terminals allow to surf on the web by using the terminal. It also allows to distribute wifi wireless access to internet, so that people may use their mobile devices to access the internet. Internet kiosks as well may be put in hotels, restaurants, tourist information centers, business centers, etc. Payment terminals The payment terminal market is a fast growing market with few players in Armenia. There are two major companies owning payment terminal networks: Tandem, TelCell. Lime Tech has a potential to produce hardware for payment terminals with competitive prices. The main advantages of developing the existing products are: ● Effective differentiation policy ● Sales through existing channels ● Use of existing know how The disadvantages of developing the existing products are:

● Costly product development ● Requires sales force ● Differentiation of support service

New product development
Besides selling the existing products, Lime Tech has also an option to create new products that have bigger markets and selling opportunities. The new products may be lottery terminals, betting terminals, restaurant automation systems, hospital automation systems, etc. The advantages of launching new products are: ● Larger markets ● Product differentiation The disadvantages of entering completely new markets are: ● Lack of know how and expertise ● Need for investment ● Undefined sales channels

Export of Lime Tech products
Export strategy can be considered the main priority for Lime Tech although it creates some additional costs and also require deep analysis of any particular market and also the competition analysis. We should also consider the brand acceptance of international competitors and the coverage of the market. In this point of view we have outlined two markets that can be the first ones to enter. The first one is Georgia, a market that is similiar to the Armenian, can be more or less controllable from the head office in Yerevan and needs improvement of service quality in all industries of the economy. The same industries are considered to be targets:  Financial Institutions/ Banks  Education  Tourism  Healthcare

Today the major three banks in Georgia, TBC, Bank of Georgia and Cartu banks control more than 72% of the market share, don't have QMS and other solutions but will start implementing QMS in their all branches in near future as they started to negotiate with the main QMS providers. Besides, there are about 17 banks with about 126 branches around Georgia who can also be considered as potential clients. From this list with VTB Georgia, Procredit Bank and BTA bank will be effective to work based on the partnership that developed here in Armenia. Competitors in Georgia The main competitor in Georgia is QMatic that started its collaboration with the Ministry of Justice of Georgia in 2012. Since that they have installed new devices in the Public Service Hall of Georgia, in the Ministries of Justice in Telavi, Akhaltsikhe, Ozurgeti. Since 2011 the Georgia Investment Climate Advisory Services is also using QMS in daily processes. As part of a major renovation project, Liberty Bank in Georgia has recently invested in a QMS system from Qmatic. With the new QMS system the management is hoping to improve the customer service and increase the bank’s efficiency. Q-MATIC is distributed to the Georgian market by a local company, Next Generation. In 2006 Q-MATIC signed a distribution agreement with Next Generation Technologies of Tbilisi, Georgia.By appointing Next Generation Technologies as a distributor, Q-MATIC AB recognises Georgia as an attractive new market with considerable growth potential in retail banking and the public sector. In the Georgian market there are also other competitor companies such as Wavetec, CTRONIX, Dualtron but they all have the same platform as Lime- Tech. In the comparison with these both local and international companies Lime Tech has an advantage in terms of price flexibility and the software adoption. It will be effective to start face to face negotiations with the managers of financial institutions as the Governmental bodies give their priorities based on other factors, such as personal connection or corruption.
As alternative markets can be considered Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine. Although the Russian market is huge enough but there are lots of regional and international competitors who have established their reputation and gained their market share about 5 years ago. So, they have significant portfolios in the local market that give them a strong advantage. In Kazakhstan and Ukraine QMatic has a strong position among large companies, so Lime Tech should focuses on medium and smaller companies due to its price advantage. Besides, in these two markets there are not any legal restrictions to enter that make things better. In comparison to these markets in Belarus the market for the business optimization systems is totally free and open.

Recommendations
Having analyzed the situation of Lime Tech and possible actions for expanding its market, we offer the following solution: 1. Full saturation of QMS market. As Lime Tech’s main product is a queuing management system, and it has the expertise and is famous in the market for this product, it will be efficient to start manufacturing light versions for QMS solution and target not only big organizations but also small and medium companies. 2. Development of new product by combining existing two products: internet kiosk and information kiosk. By creating an information kiosk that has integrated internet kiosk functionality, Lime Tech can easily target hotels and resorts as the top priority potential clients. The terminals may contain information about the hotel, its services, room rates, map of the hotel, table or taxi booking possibility, useful local information,information about the partners of the hotel etc. It may also give possibility to the user to surf the web, check e-mails, send messages and even call to local mobile operator phones. 3. Get ready for export: in a long term perspective, the company needs to get ready for exporting its product. For this reason, there are two major factors that may influence the success of the company. a. First of all, in the international market Armenian companies are not famous and this causes incertitude towards middle sized Armenian companies. This is why Lime Tech needs to pass international standardization, in order to be a reliable partner for overseas market. b. And secondly, the brand of Lime Tech may be attractive enough for Armenian market, but for international market, it needs to improve its brand image. The logo, the name of the company, the webpage, everything needs to be created from scratch. There are several companies in the world with the name Lime Tech, there is even one company which has a similar logotype(Appendix 1). The web page of the company has to be improved and the information in the web-page needs to be updated in order to represent the company in a right manner.

Risks
With the proposed strategy, there are several low and medium level risks that the company should take into consideration. Some of the small and medium companies will not be willing to buy any type of queuing management system, as they are not facing any vital issues in their current daily activities. For this reason Lime Tech needs to emphasize the low cost of the product and its nonfinancial benefits, such as innovative company image, willingness to improve customer service, professionalism etc. Regarding the export of Lime Tech products to international market, there is a risk that the company does not gain brand image and recognition. For this reason Lime Tech has to pay attention to the quality of its new brand, the sealing materials, advertising campaigns, social marketing, etc. Besides, in order to have internationally recognized standardization certificates, Lime Tech needs to pass the standardization process through international organizations and not local certification organization. One of these organizations is AB Certification which has its representation in Armenia.

Bibliography
1. EIF. (2009). ARMENIAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR: SOFTWARE

AND SERVICES. Yerevan: Enterprise Incubator Foundation. 2. EIF. (2012). ARMENIAN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SECTOR. Yerevan: Enterprise Incubator Foundation. 3. ILO. (2012). Migration and Development: Armenia Country Study. Yerevan:
International Labour Organization. 4. http://www.tradekey.com/buyoffer/I-Am-Looking-For-A-Queue-ManagementSystem--1537709.html 5. http://static.ddmcdn.com/pdf/sample-business-plan.pdf 6. www.limetech.am 7. www.qmatic.com 8. www.banks.ge

Appendices
Appendix 1 Logotype of the company

Logotypes of other companies

Appendix 2. SWOT analysis

Strengths 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Professional and high skilled staff Full product package Adaptable product to each customer Customer support Low price high quality product, qualified suppliers

Weaknesses
1. Marketing skills 2. No light versions for products 3. Concentration on one product

4.

Limited resources

Opportunities
1. Highly skilled inexpensive labor force 2. Government support of IT sector 3. Foreign Investments

Threats
1. Emigration of qualified staff 2. Entrance of new competitors 3. Tax environment

4.

Strong and successful Diaspora

4.

Corruption

Appendix 3.

Final version of offers as templates

List of potential clients/ Lime, City Guide

Preparation of offers and other materials for each potential client/ group to send, call, discuss To send, call, discuss

Armenia Expo/ preparation

DigiTec Expo/ preparation

What to take, brochures, business cards, image preparation

Web- city guide, Lime tech

City GuideFacebook, City Guide ads/special prom

Testimonials/ other tools

External partners

CRM