With 2006 a record year in terms of economy growth for many European countries, the question is how well the high-tech markets have recovered from the lean years following the over-hype phase of the late 90s.

Based on our own success for clients in 2006, we have seen a dramatic increase in interest and openness towards new technology approaches - not only to collect info, but to truly evaluate the potential to gain competitive edge and also go into business case evaluations. This was indeed very pleasant to see, since lots of high-tech startups have in the last few years found it tough to attract large customers simply because of the fact that they were young unexperienced ventures. While of course there is still no way for very new ventures to approach and win tier-1 operators, for example (even if they have better technology to offer), at least they will have a chance to present and lay the foundation for - hopefully - future wins.

Even this has not been possible over the last few years, and was quite frankly a waste of time. What we have also seen now work quite well is the following "trick". New startups approach tier-1 clients and interview their CTOs and other technical and operational experts in order to collect product requirements for expected new roll-out projects. They then focus on matching these requirements 100% (at least) and offer the product as an OEM product to an established vendor who has access to tier-1 clients, enabling that large vendor to win this account against other established players.