In times of Crisis Technological Innovation, top level Consultancy Services and Training are the key to stay profitable.

The internet has been converted into the best friend of the companies and other organisations trying to mitigate the side effects of the financial crisis.  An increase is observed on the issues of online Marketing especially in the field of tourism.

The interest of large Cypriot tourist companies to ensure valid information and to study the new trends which are daily presented in the internet is highly increased.  From our experience we see companies like Amathus Hotels, Stademos Hotels, Four Seasons Hotel, Holiday Inn Hotel in Limassol, The Intercontinental Hotel in Paphos, St. George Hotel in Paphos and smaller companies like Pefkos Hotel in Limassol and travel agencies like A.L. Mantovani Travel ,  Sunhouse Travel , Travelorama ,  Azuro Travel and many more to have strong concerns as to the management of their online reputation.

Other organizations like  Louis Tourism Organasation, preferred to incorporate in their daily routine Open Source internet tools which they aspire to change into productive internet management tools.  Louis preferred the popular Joomla Content Management System in order to build its internet tools which will be interfaced with its traditional internal management systems.  The free open source tools as well as  the popular social media tools even though are free they need training, strategic planning and most of all change of culture within the Organizations.  For this reason, consultancy services as well as a humanly understandable training programmes from well established and specialized companies are necessary.

The capability of open source and “freenium” tools to adapt to the needs of small and large companies is judged on how they are used and not on how much are those used.  Hence, large organizations like Louis Tourism Organisation decided to use consultancy services which will assist them to incorporate in their daily processes a new work culture which will include the management of their online reputation, their online clientele and finally to develop an “Online Management” which will defiantly be proved  as very productive, measurable and profitable.

In the era when financial management was in “fashion”, organizations like PriceWaterhouse Coopers, KPMG and many more have placed their foundations in the market (in Cyprus and abroad) so as the entrepreneurs use new tools to better control their companies for more profitability.Now on the era of the new technologies the Cypriot companies should consult specialized companies on how to invest on human internet capabilities and how to use new tools to continue being profitable.

If large enterprises like Louis decided this change of culture, imagine how easy this will be for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)  to take advantage of the chance of “free” internet.  In Cyprus, in terms of consultancy,  training and especially the practical aspect of applied strategic internet, specialized professionals are available.  A sample of networking with highly qualified professionals from abroad, we had the chance to experience during the First E-Tourism Forum (www.etourism-forum.com) which took place in Limassol last February with the most recognized and well known professionals of the sector.  The Forum will be happening again in February 2010 and this time it will become a regional congress to attract tourism professionals from the Mediterranean countries.