Expert in Management / UNIDO Expert

Technoparks, science parks and business incubators are considered as important tools for the development of developing countries

I’m one of founder of Elgazala Technopark www.elgazala.tn, and my experience during more than 15 years in this field and through the functions that I held at this organisation since its starting till its maturity, allows me today to have a clear vision and a practical approach about all the process of technopark and Business incubator’s contribution in the development of innovation, SME’s, job creation, synergy between university/research/industry…

This experience helped me also to understand the challenge for countries in the region and the role that ICT could play in developing the economy, and consequently to initiate programs and services facilitating the development of added value activities and smoothing the progress and the growth of start-up.

My skills in planning, analysis, action, management of programs, evaluation as well as in coordination, facilitated my job to reach the technopark objectives which is the communication and cooperation between research, private sector and university which are the vector of development of innovation and technology transfer.

My know-how could be very useful and an important contribution to countries similar to Tunisia development level, which want to engage in development processes based on Technoparks, science parks, Business incubators or science and technologies mainly to Arab and African countries.

Gabon has implemented its new economic vision called the “Emerging Gabon Strategic Plan” (PSGE). The PGSE aims to modernize the country and transform its economy into an emerging economy by 2025. The Government of Gabon insists on the development of sustainable growth and the improvement of social indicators in a context of reduced oil reserves.

Building a vibrant and innovative digital economy is one of three strategic objectives for the Gabor Pillar of the PSGE Services. The need to promote the digital economy has been identified by the PSGE, which will be implemented by the E-Gabon project financed by the World Bank.

Component 2 of the E-Gabon project “Promotion of the Development of a Digital Innovation Ecosystem” aims to contribute to economic diversification in Gabon by fostering the emergence of a fertile digital innovation ecosystem. This will include the development of digital incubators in several departments and improve the delivery of digital services, both public and private, in order to generate new entrepreneurial opportunities.

The project aims, among others, to build a network of digital incubators which will be the basis for creation of the new generation

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Feasibility Study of a Technopark in Mauritania

• Benchmark of the Technoparks in Tunisia
• Feedback on the Elgazala Technopark (first Technopark in Africa).
• Definition of the stages of setting up a Technopark
• Definition of the elements of strategic choices
• Measuring the impact on the ecosystem
• Critical analysis of strengths / weaknesses

“Smart Tunisia” is one of the strategic projects in Tunisia. It consists of the development of offshoring business in the country through the establishment of facilities and specific incentives for local and foreign investors in the information technology sector especially in the following activities:

• Research and development outsourcing
• Information technology outsourcing
• Business Process Outsourcing
• Call centers and customer care services

The project aims to create 50,000 jobs in a period of 5 years with a total budget of 500 million euro.

My duty in this project is to:

• Define and validate the value propositions for specific Market segments identified as well as target investors.
• Identify and coordinate the efforts of the local ecosystem to accelerate the growth of the IT sector.
• Develop monitoring tools and project monitoring.
• Develop and promote work platforms and technology platforms to accommodate and ensure the implementation of investors
• Coordinate the activities of the Project Steering Committee
• Coordinate the activities of the Project Monitoring Committee
• Support the investor projects and monitor them.

Elgazala Technopark first Tunisian Technopark, fits into the framework of the Tunisian development strategy and promotion of scientific research, innovation and high added value production through a mapping of 10 technology parks each specialized in a particular sector.

Elgazala Technopark, is an integrated environment for the development of small and medium enterprises as well as for multinational and major groups in the Information and Communication Technologies sector. Its main vocation is to host and support the development of high technologies and activities to promote research and development and technology transfer.

The objectives through the creation of Technopark Elgazala include:

• Position Tunisia as a pillar in the ICT sector across the Mediterranean area,
• Promote the export of services and products based on the Tunisian know-how,
• Strengthening job creation in the ICT sector,
• Develop and disseminate the use of ICTs in different economic sectors in Tunisia.

Based on its strength of 160 manpower composed of engineers, managers and agents, the Technopark manages a total area of about 150 ha covering almost the whole country through its 20 sites that offer office space of 100,000 m² housing 260 companies and 3,500 jobs.

My mission as General Manager of Elgazala Technopark consists of:

• Defining the overall vision of the Technopark and its integration into the National Development Vision of the ICT sector
• The definition and validation of the Technopark’s development strategy in a PPP model
• Planning and validation of the Technopark new products and services oriented to its ecosystem
• The reorganization of the Technopark’s activities in an objective of performance and optimization
• Coaching and support of the Technopark teams to properly conduct their projects
• The support of companies in their process of development and internationalization
• Business check of innovative companies
• Definition and monitoring of the implementation of quality management system, the BI system and the Technopark information system
• The launch of collaborative R & D projects in PPP model
• The implementation of the Feasibility Study of a Cyberpark in Gabes
• The supervising and implementation of the Feasibility Study of an ICT Innovation Centre in Cameroon
• In addition to the administrative and financial management of the Technopark

ADRI is a specific association of its kind in Tunisia. It has been created to highlight the advanced technology in the country and its use as well as promote research projects and researchers in addition to their networking.

The main activity axes of ADRI are:

• Technology animation through awareness seminars and reflections on topics related to Research, Development and Innovation (RDI)
• RDI partnership search for both businesses organization and researchers
• Awareness of public organizations of the positive impact of the RDI projects model on the national economy
• Stimulating of R & D demand in the public and private sectors through the analysis and optimization of operating modes
• Technical assistance for RDI projects based on university and enterprise partnership
• Highlight and promote RDI projects developed in Tunisia

Support of different actors in the innovation chain to properly fulfill their missions

FOCUS is an ISO9001 and CMMI level 3, IT-Outsourcing / Offshoring company providing value-added IT services to its customers and partners.

Focus offers significant experience and expertise in providing Offshore Software Development, Application Maintenance, third party software testing and Customer’s Technical Support.

 Focus acting in the following main activities

• Software Development
• Web Enablement & Application Re-Engineering
• 3rd party Software Maintenance & Support
• 3rd party Software Tests & Validation
• 3rd party application Customer Technical Assistance Services

My duty as a business Development Manager is :

• Promotion of the company activities
• Identification of new market niches (prospecting, segmentation, …)
• Evaluating business opportunities
• Business Development
• Monitoring and support of customer accounts
• Integration of the company in its ecosystem (cluster / research center / university / professional organizations)
• Establishment and setup of an R&D unit

• Vision defining and strategic orientations framing for the Technopark
• Management of the department activities (planning / monitoring / evaluation)
• Interfacing with international networks and partners (EOS / EBN / Clusters)
• Development of project datasheet and project management
• Technical and financial evaluation of SMEs projects
• Advice for SMEs on the technology platforms choices
• Assistance to the IT risk management
• Design and planning a technological resource center (shared laboratories)
• Design of a “cloud computing” laboratory
• Planning and monitoring of the information system of Elgazala Technopark
• Design and monitoring of the business intelligence system (technology survey, business intelligence …)
• Supervision of the quality management system
• Organizational support to the implementation of ISO and CMMI quality standards for SMEs
• Establishment of an examination center for certification in project management
• Planning, monitoring and support activities of E-Business Readiness laboratory
• Management of ICT Promotion department (technical / technological choice / investors support)

Expert missions

• Feasibility study of an ICT technology Park in Madagascar
• Analysis of technology parks role in the context of “Emigration and Development” in Tunisia (UNIDO PROJECT – XP/TUN/06/001/17-01)

Seminars and workshops

• Quality and certification in IT Management : ITIL Awareness
• The Technology Park and the emergence of an ICT industry in Africa
• The 4th Business meetings ICT and Multimedia “e-3M Tunisie’2006”
• The 5th Mediterranean Exhibition on Information Technologies “Med-IT Tunis’2007”
• Alliances between IT Companies “export consortium “
• Manager and Coach both a challenge …
• Building trust in the digital economy
• Certification in Project Management
• The remuneration of the ICT sector in Tunisia

Establishment of a spinoff unit at Tunisie Telecom (project feasibility study)

• Defining the strategic vision of Tunisie Telecom
• Development of an action plan
• Estimation of the project budget
• Project Planning
• Awareness of the pilot spinoff program at Tunisie Telecom
• Member of the steering committee for the Development of spinoff in Tunisia study

Studies

• Potential ADSL service in Tunisia
• WiFi, what strategy for Tunisie Telecom
• Risk management in information systems (as part of a research study)

• Prospecting markets
• Interface companies
• Processing of customers requests for  establishment
• Development of the organizational structure of Elgazala Technopark
• Preparation of status of Elgazala Technopark
• Monitoring of tenants project in the Business Incubator
• The Incubator management (technical, administrative and financial)
• Technological Animation
• Development of the Technopark infrastructure (network management system, online services …)
• Network management of the Technopark (IT and telecom)

Seminars and workshops

• Mediterranean School of circuits and devices of telecommunications technology in February 2003
• Med IT: Mediterranean Information Technologies in May 2003
• Made IT: Made In Tunisia in October 2003
• Mediterranean business meetings in May 2004 Elgazala
• Seminar on Grid Technologies April 2004
• The Roundtable (Technoparks : observation and analysis methodologies)

Expertise

• Establishment of a science park in Yemen 2003
• Launching an business incubator in Yemen 2003
• Analyze of the management model of Knowledge Oasis Muscat Oman 2003

Studies

• Comparative study of competitiveness by product
• ICT and emerging business
• Classification of new businesses
• Telework in Tunisia
• Classification of specialized ICT technology parks
• Begin entrepreneur by necessity or by conviction

• Development of the master plan for the Technopark Elgazala
• Monitoring the implementation of the telecommunications infrastructure at Elgazala Technopark
• Study of the security and safety of the Technopark
• Promotion of the Technopark at national and international level
• Attraction and implementation of private companies to the Technopark.
• Setting up an incubator of telecommunications projects

Seminars and worshops

• Socio-economic impacts of technology parks and business incubators 1999 Tunis
• Workshops on incubators and technology parks 2000 Elgazala
• Cisco networking academy program in 2002 Elgazala

Studies

• Technological and scientific parks (objectives and missions)
• Infrastructure of telecommunication of Elgazala
• Business incubators (their roles in technological development and innovation)
• Development an action plan for Business incubator (IBIS/UNIDO program)
•  Development of a methodology for promotion, evaluation and selection of projects for the business incubator (UNIDO / IBIS program)
• Development of a guide for the business incubator (UNIDO / IBIS program)

Engineer Studies in Telecommunications

Manager – Coach  “Réussir ses entretien de Gestion”

Manager – Coach “Gestion des conflits et résolution des problèmes”

Manager – Coach “Manager et Coach à la fois … tout un défi”

Qualility and certification in IT Management (ITIL and CMMI)

• Prendre conscience de l’importance de la comm interpersonnelle
• Type de comm
• Déformation de l’information émise
• Améliorer sa communication