Activities
Annual
Report
© 2013 The United States-Mexico Foundation for Science
Fundación México-Estados Unidos para la Ciencia
San Francisco 1626 - 205,
Colonia Del Valle, 03100, México, D.F. Printed and made in Mexico
www.fumec.org
Editorial Coordination: Rosario Taracena Editorial Assistance: Stephany Hernández,
Yamania Olivé and Jessica Borth Design: Dinorah Mosqueda
Index
Board of Governors 4
Origins of FUMEC 5
Letter from the Chairman of the Board of Governors 6
Letter from the Immediate Past Chairman of the Board of Governors 7
Letter from the CEO 8
Innovation Based Economic Development 10
FUMEC and its support programs for technology SMEs 11
Promoting innovative health technology companies 17
- Elemental Clinical Research: clinical research for a growing market 18
- CECYPE: clinical research for the global pharmaceutical industry 21
Supporting the growth of Mexican IT companies 23
- CloudSourceIT: a 100% mobile world 24
- Imagination Films: 3D dreams that become a reality 27
Promoting the development of processed food SMEs 28
- Grupo Jaztea: natural fresh tea, from Sinaloa to the world 30
- Avideg de México: the unmistakable flavor of Mexican food 33
Opening opportunities for advanced manufacturing firms 35
- Industrias Automotrices RC: innovative, but still traditional 37 - Intercovamex: high vacuum equipment with very high added value 40
Colombia looks to FUMEC programs to accelerate technology SMEs 41
Advanced Market-Oriented Research
- I/UCRC: A role model for academia-industry liaison in Mexico 43
Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology 45
- CECyTEQ: shaping competitive talent for the knowledge economy 46
- Veracruz: children and young people building quality scientific education 48
- Motorola and Intel: companies committed to science education 50
Health and Environment
- FUMEC supports U.S.-Mexico collaboration in
epidemiological surveillance 52
- Encouraging entrepreneurs in low-income communities 54
Strengthening our collaboration with Canada 56
- Directory 58
- Our Offices 59
Board
of
Governors
Warren J. BakerChairman
President Emeritus of the California Polytechnic State University
Juan Silanes Vice-Chairman
President of the Bioclon Institute
Francisco Barnés de Castro Immediate Past Chair
Commissioner of the Energy Regulatory Commission Karl Rüggeberg Treasurer Executive Director at Chatsworth Securities LLC Thomas Bowles
Executive Director at New Mexico Computing Applications Center
José Luis Fernández Zayas
Researcher at UNAM’s Engineering Institute
William Harris
CEO of Science Foundation Arizona
Silvia Hernández
President-Associate of Public Strategy Consultants
Santiago Levy
Vice-President for Sectors and Knowledge at the Inter-American Development Bank
Cristina Loyo Varela
General Director of the National Laboratory on Advanced Computer Science
Nestor Montoya
Advisor at the financial services company TIAA-CREF
Bernard Robertson
Senior Vice President at DaimlerChrysler Corp.
Leopoldo Rodríguez
Adviser and Partner of various enterprises
Cipriano Santos
Senior Scientist at
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Mary Walshok
Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Programs at the University of California, San Diego
Misael Uribe Esquivel
CEO at Médica Sur hospital
Guillermo Fernández Secretary of the Board
Origins
of
FUMEC
The United States-Mexico Foundation for Science (FU-MEC) is a nongovernmental organization created during the preparatory proceedings for signing the North Amer-ican Free Trade Agreement, based on a binational accord with the aim of promoting and assisting collaboration in science and technology between the two countries.
U.S. Congressman George E. Brown, Jr. played a key role in forming and consolidating FUMEC. As President of the Science and Technology Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Brown defended the need to strengthen binational exchange in these fi elds and his lobbying in the United States achieved the integration of an initial en-dowment for FUMEC of close to 11 million U.S. Dollars, which was an exceptional grant in assistance awarded to a nongovernmental organization by the U.S. Government.
Congressman Brown was an untiring promoter of science and technology. After his death in 1999, he left an important legacy of enhancements to science and
technology programs in the United States, standing out collaboration with other countries in this fi eld.
Two important players in establishing FUMEC were the scientifi c advisors of the Presidents of both countries, Guillermo Soberón Acevedo in Mexico and Alan Bromley in the United States, who were in charge of organizing work groups and ensuring that a commitment to create the Foundation was reached by both governments, which was formally established as an organization with legal status in both countries since 1993.
The United States-Mexico Foundation for Science, continuing with the spirit of collaboration that distinguished the work of Congressman George E. Brown, Jr., is seeking to become an entity that brings together binational efforts by identifying opportunities, creating synergies, integrating programs with objectives of binational interest, and searching for results in the fi elds that it is working.
“I believe that our countries have a shared path
and scientifi c cooperation is part of it.”
Letter from the Chairman of
the Board of Governors
The Foundation has been expanding and consolidating its role as
a catalyst for collaboration between the United States and Mexico
in science, technology and innovation in an
effort to help solve important problems that are of
interest to the two countries.
To this effect, it is very important to have available scientifi c and technological training that allows all those involved to be better prepared to contribute to fi nding solutions to the greatest challenges faced by our countries. One of the most pressing issues regarding competitiveness is undoubt-edly improving education in regards to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM education).
FUMEC understands that to achieve this goal it is essential to work as a team and continue to generate partnerships between academia, industry, government and civil organizations.
Improving STEM education has been a major goal of the United States and holds the highest priority within President Barack Obama’s administration. As a result, great impetus has been given to these activities and programs related to them are being improved and expanded. Studies of STEM education programs have shown that they promote the development of critical and independent thinking skills, teamwork and problem solving skills. These are all essential in order for individuals to have more opportunities and make greater contributions to the development and application of scientifi c and technological advances.
In the last ten years FUMEC has promoted collabora-tion between the two countries in STEM educacollabora-tion, and in Mexico it has facilitated the use of experiential and investigative basic level science education systems. This has been done through Innovation on Science Education (INNOVEC as abbreviated in Spanish).
INNOVEC has used the experience of institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution Science Education Center and other institutions in the United States and has drawn on the experience of countries like France, Argentina and Brazil, to name just a few. In the last decade, INNOVEC
states, now benefi tting 425,000 students annually. The re-sults obtained by this program have led to the backing of federal and state authorities, as well as additional support from companies such as Motorola Solutions Mexico, Dow Chemical and Intel.
FUMEC has also supported collaboration between the two countries in STEM education at the college level, through the Engineering Basics program in High School Education with the College of Science and Technology in the State of Queretaro (CECYTEQ as abbreviated in Spanish). The experiences of the South Texas Science Academy with programs such as Project Lead the Way (PLTW), and the University of California with its Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement program (MESA), have been taken advantage of. This program has been very successful and is now an excellent reference for FUMEC activities.
Throughout 2012 the Foundation opened new op-portunities for collaboration between the two countries in STEM education at the university level. The groundwork for collaboration between CONACYT and the National Science Foundation in an effort to promote collaborative academia-industry cooperation was laid, creating partner-ships with long-term vision.
I am very pleased to be part of the efforts of an orga-nization such as FUMEC, which has the vision and commit-ment needed to propose solutions that allow us to move steadily toward greater development and prosperity in our countries. Its programs in education, innovative business support and industry and health applied research show this to be true.
Sincerely, Warren Baker
Letter from the Immediate Past
Chairman of the Board of Governors
In May of 2012 in Washington, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of FUMECin the United States. The Foundation was honored to have the participation of many distinguished guests such as John Holdren, Advisor to President Barack Obama on Science and Technology; Arturo Sarukhán, Mexican Ambassador to the United States; Mario Molina, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Martha Brown, widow of Congressman George Brown, who was a key fi gure in the creation of FUMEC.
At the celebration, these individuals affi rmed their sup-port for the initiatives and projects of the Foundation and recognized FUMEC as an organization that contributes to the implementation of solutions and the creation of opportunities for development in North America.
Throughout its history, FUMEC has been known for being fl exible and creative and for translating global ex-periences into actions and programs that promote social and economic growth locally, nationally and internationally. This role as an articulator of efforts has allowed FUMEC to identify the interests and meet the needs of today’s knowl-edge economy, and to be a pioneer in developing initiatives that both countries need to become more competitive.
The experience gained over the last 20 years has resulted in programs that support successful technology companies by taking advantage of the best experiences of programs in the United States and Canada, to allow these companies to grow and become sustainable in a highly changing and competitive global market.
Thanks to the support of FUMEC and the TechPYME program, hundreds of Mexican companies have been able to identify existing market opportunities, and refocus their business plans to take advantage of these opportunities. Also, more mature companies have received very high level business advising from the TechBA acceleration program and as a result, have discovered new business openings in global markets.
The effectiveness and robustness of the Foundation is now recognized by many public and private actors due to the impressive results achieved by their programs. After 20 years of work, FUMEC is certainly a major player in
science, technology and innovation in both Mexico and the United States, and even in countries like Canada, who see the Foundation as an ally for increasing collaboration among North American countries.
This report details the progress achieved by FUMEC during 2012 and recognizes the Foundation’s great efforts in helping to create a better life through science, technology and innovation.
One of the great strengths of FUMEC, is its ability to foster cooperation with institutions and organizations that rely on the Foundation’s experience and knowledge. I would especially like to thank the Secretariat of Economy, the National Council for Science and Technology and the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property for their support. These institutions have worked with FUMEC to benefi t technology companies and researchers, but also, to ulti-mately contribute to the creation of a culture of innovation. I would also like to thank my colleagues on the Board of Governors, for the support they have given us during the time I was at the head of this body. Their experience and knowledge have enabled the Foundation to achieve greater focus and to have a stronger impact with their programs. I am sure that this organization will continue to make a strong contribution in achieving a better quality of life for both our countries.
Sincerely,
Francisco Barnes de Castro
Chairman of the Board of Governors of FUMEC from 2011 to 2012
Letter
from the CEO
A central goal of FUMEC is to open new avenues of cooperation in science, technology and education, and to promote the economic and social development of Mexico and the United States, in the context of regional cooperation in North America. During 2012, we made strong advances in the innovation and internationalization of Mexican companies by facilitating partnerships with organizations, companies and government agencies in the United States, Canada and other countries.
This year, we also expanded educational collaboration in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and opened new opportunities for collaboration in research oriented towards the needs of companies and government organizations. We continued channeling program resources from the United States government to Mexico for binational health and environment programs.
A change of federal government in Mexico occurred in 2012. As a result, part of our energy has been directed at maintaining close contact with the transition team and with those who will shape the new policies in Mexico. These efforts have been to ensure that collaboration with our allies in North America in science, technology and innovation is central to addressing many of the great challenges facing Mexico, including quality education, sup-porting entrepreneurs and boosting innovation as an engine for development.
In 2012 in Washington DC, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Foundation in the United States. This celebration provided the opportunity to bring our Board of Governors closer to the heads of government offi ces and non-governmental organizations who have worked with and supported FUMEC over the years. It also helped to open new opportunities, for example, with the National Science Foundation in the fi eld of Industry-Uni-versity Consortium with long-term objectives, and the National Institutes of Health on research and development to address diabetes and its complications.
The 20th anniversary celebration in Washington received an excellent response from key organizations in the United States, especially from the White House Offi ce of Science and Technology Policy, an organization that coordinates and promotes science, technology and innovation activities in
further advancing tri-national cooperation on these issues, to generate a more competitive region in the global context. We are pleased with the results we have achieved, both with the companies we have served through our TechBA and TechPYME programs, as well as with our programs that promote childhood education in science and technology. In addition, we welcomed the establishment of a new line of action of FUMEC aimed at advanced market-oriented research and are proud to see excellent results in our surveillance and food safety programs.
The work in all of these areas favored new relationships with local and federal associations, as well as with key stakeholders who defi ne regional development policies. We have also expanded our collaboration with international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank and have maintained a close relationship with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
The results shown in this report are refl ective of the efforts of more than 120 people who worked with us throughout 2012. We appreciate the commitment that they put forth every day to better position FUMEC as a major player in binational collaboration
I would also like to thank the invaluable support we have received from our Board of Governors, who have provided guidance and support to us and have enthusi-astically shared their knowledge, experience and contacts. Last but not least, I want to thank all of the organizations and individuals who have been allies of our projects and initiatives, because without them we could not move for-ward in achieving our goals.
Sincerely,
Results by
Programatic
Area
Innovation Based
Economic Development
Innovation is the motor of the transformations that will keep the
Mexican economy competitive. Mexico is way behind many of its
allies and competitors in innovation-related indexes.
There is an urgent need to step up the pace in techno-logical and corporate ecosystems that support innovation in businesses.
FUMEC has facilitated valuable interactions between Mexican, U.S. and Canadian organizations that have ex-panded the view of Mexican experts, business leaders and government organizations in terms of the mechanisms and programs which can be developed and strengthened by leveraging the best experiences of the three countries.
Some of these mechanisms and programs, such as TechPYME and TechBA, have already been rolled out as a preview to the kind of programs that might be imple-mented at national level with international partnerships and referents. This involves the creation of sectoral innovation networks in specifi c regions, and nationally, the alignment of companies’ technological strategies with the develop-ment of education and research institutions, and with the support of the relevant government programs both at state and national level.
In other cases, there has been support for initiatives like that of Dr. José Narro Robles, Rector of the UNAM, to integrate a National Science, Technology and Innova-tion Agenda, and that of Antonio López de Silanes to create the Business Foundation for Innovation, a clear sign that innovation is a key issue for business leaders in Mexico who are willing to build a collaboration program with the Federal Government through this Foundation. Furthermore, there has been collaboration with the Science and Technology Advisory Forum in other initiatives, such as the “National Innovation Agency,” and efforts
involv-ing the United States National Research Council (NRC) and Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC), underlining the importance of mechanisms that are independent from the organisms that operate inno-vation support programs, to study, propose, manage and ultimately evaluate the country’s initiatives in innovation. The following pages describe FUMEC’s work to promote economic development based on technological innovation, through local, national and international processes such as the formation of innovation networks to facilitate inter-actions between academia, industry and government, and through specialized programs for technology fi rms who work in market niches with high growth potential.
FUMEC
and its support programs for
technology SMEs
Through the years, we have
been able to build programs
directed at technology
businesses with rapid
growth potential.
In 1997 the Foundation began activities to leverage the best experiences of the United States and Canada, to boost the growth of small and medium-sized technology businesses with the help of universities, research institutions and specialized organizations.
Through the years, we have been able to build programs directed at technology businesses with rapid growth poten-tial, to help them fi nd counseling and support to develop internationally, taking full advantage of opportunities for technological and business improvement, and join inno-vation networks focused on strategic economic niches. Around 12 years ago we adopted different elements from programs like the Small Business Technology Development Center (SBTDC), the Pennsylvania Technological Assistance Program (PENNTAP) from the United States, and the Indus-trial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) from Canada, which have enriched the way in which we provide our services to companies, enabling us to be more timely and effective.
In 2004, following an in-depth investigation of the most successful international mechanisms of business support, and in conjunction with the Secretariat of Economy, we created TechBA, the Technology Business Acceleration Program for Mexican technology companies, which today has eight sites in highly dynamic business ecosystems: fi ve in the United States, two in Canada and another in Spain. The experience gained over the years has enabled us to mature our service models and organize the services we give to fi rms in two programs: TechPYME and TechBA. TechPYME (PYME is the Spanish equivalent of SME) is a program focused on building national innovation networks, particularly with state governments, supporting businesses
in strategic economic niches through coordination mech-anisms with local institutions and organizations. TechPYME studies and develops the capacities and development po-tential of technology-business ecosystems in those niches. TechBA is the network that facilitates the interna-tionalization of technology SMEs in the strategic eco-nomic niches in which the Foundation works, and is also the point of contact for national innovation networks with the international ecosystems where it operates.
Innovation networks: key to the
growth of businesses
One of the key components of our work through Tech-PYME and TechBA is the creation of innovation networks, connecting fi rms with all those players who can support their growth, such as universities, research centers, state and federal governments, clusters, business chambers and tractor companies, among others.
Firms that join either of these programs not only gain access to a support program, but also come into contact with different innovation networks in which FUMEC partici-pates, in order to support the fi rms in the best way possible.
We at the Foundation know that an isolated SME must face a series of challenges which can be overwhelming without the support of organisms and actors helping them to grow. However, when a business accesses a support network and an adequate coordination system, it can receive technical assistance, specialized assessment and information and a wide variety of services which enable it to better defi ne its path to strengthen and be successful.
FUMEC collaboration
networks contribute
to the development of
technology companies and
to the growth of strategic
economic niches.
Throughout this report we will show how the local net-works created by FUMEC support the growth of technology SMEs and how these networks are also effective mecha-nisms to promote economic development in several states. A clear example of how FUMEC support networks operate occurred in 2012 with our Health Technologies Coordination, which worked in close collaboration with the Mexican Consulate General in Boston to take a group of Mexican companies to BIO 2012, the world’s biggest biotech convention. After the event, the General Consul sent a letter which read, in part:
Thanks to the work of FUMEC, it was made clear to the other participating countries and industries that Mexico is also a major player in biotechnology and the life sciences, which contributed signifi cantly to improving our coun-try’s image, enabling different actors to see fi rsthand the quality and abundance of scientifi c research in Mexico.
FUMEC continues to work with ProMéxico and the Consulate General in Boston to take a group of businesses to this great event again in 2013, further spreading the potential of the country and its biotechnology companies.
In a similar way, in April 2012, a Mexican delegation of six companies attended the SAE Congress, a major international automotive convention held in Detroit, Mich-igan. This time the delegation included three companies supported by TechBA in Michigan, and who, in turn, re-ceived support from ProMéxico to attend the event. These and many more examples presented throughout the report show how FUMEC collaboration networks contribute to the development of technology companies and to the growth of strategic economic niches, connecting Mexican regional ecosystems with international business ecosystems, thereby opening endless opportunities for the companies themselves and the actors who drive economic development in Mexico and North America.
Focus on high growth potential niches
As mentioned earlier, central to the work we do in FUMEC is the organization of innovation and business support networks, which are formed around economic niches or subsectors with the potential to generate new development opportunities. The Foundation has identifi ed more than 15 industrial niches or subsectors which have undergone considerable growth and which offer incomparable busi-ness opportunities for SMEs seeking to consolidate and win new markets. A breakdown of these strategic niches is given in the following table.SECTOR
NICHES
Information Technologies Automotive Aerospace Health Technologies Food technologies Sustainability Microsystems Cloud computing Mobile technologies Multimedia Advanced manufacturing Advanced manufacturing Overhaul and maintenance Airport services Medical devices Clinical trials New drugs IT for health Nutraceutics Manufacturing processes Clean technologies (air, water, earth) Alternative energy Embedded systems FPGASStrategic Niches Identifi ed
by FUMEC
FUMEC participates in and promotes networking in each of these niches, allowing us to broaden the horizons of activity for companies through national and international actions such as:
• liaison with other government and private pro-grams,
• experience and expert knowledge in areas related to their own,
• association with similar companies with whom they can build partnerships,
• interaction with tractor companies seeking to strengthen their supply chain, and
contact with potential investors to fi nance their projects.
TechPYME
As already mentioned, the TechPYME program works with technology SMEs in Mexico and forms innovation networks to help businesses develop their capacities. As well as work-ing directly with businesses, another key objective of the program is to strengthen regional ecosystems that work in strategic niches to enable them to generate and mature an ever greater number of companies, in turn boosting new knowledge industries.
To achieve this, TechPYME works alongside the state Secretaries of Economic Development to create collab-orations which encourage the growth of both businesses and the business ecosystems where they operate.
This program also analyzes growth opportunities in the strategic niches in which we work and develops studies to gain insight into market opportunities which businesses can take advantage of. These studies help businesses discover the challenges and opportunities in their industries, and also serve to attract new companies looking to grow in those niches.
TechPYME begins by identifying companies eligible to receive support from FUMEC. It then does an evaluation of needs and growth opportunities and draws up an action plan for each company. Later, the companies receive all kinds of services ranging from training and assessment in specifi c areas, to help obtaining certifi cations and liaison services with actors and programs to help them grow.
Furthermore, this program encourages the development of innovation strategies that the companies can present to federal and state organisms when seeking funding, and facilitate the registration of patents and utility models with national authorities.
TechPYME works through a network of Business Tech-nology Advisors who are responsible for identifying the companies, evaluating them and introducing them to the services they need to boost their growth. These advisers work at local and regional level, have areas of specialization, and use tools that are of great use to the companies, includ-ing road maps, cash fl ow evaluation and management skills assessment. The TechPYME service model is summarized in the next graphic.
NEEDED INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EACH NICHE Trends and Opportunities Studies Training of Human Resources -Academia -Enterprises Integration of the Business Technology Advisor Development of a Innovation Network
for the Niche
DEVELOPMENT OF STRENGTHENING PROGRAMS FOR THE COMPANIES
Market opportunity
analysis workshop ACTION PLANBY COMPANY
BUSINESS STRENGTHENING • Diagnostics
• Roadmap
• Entrepreneurial tools • Liaison with other support programs and institutions
INNOVATION STRATEGIES • Innovation networks • Calls for companies and presentation of projects • Intellectual property • Technological monitoring
COMMERCIAL AND TECHNICAL READINESS
• Technical advice • Certification advice
• Interaction with commercial and technological networks
IDENTIFICATION OF COMPANIES WITH POTENTIAL TO BE INTERNATIONALLY ACCELERATED • Networking events • Integration to the TechBA program
Results in new products, new markets, access to innovation funds, new organization culture and measurement of impact on sales.
TechPYME Service Model
Results of the TechPYME Program
TechPYME results
In 2012 TechPYME continued to search for and evaluate technology companies with growth potential in an effort to fi nd the SMEs that work in the niches detected by FUMEC and that could be integrated into this program. This was done to combine the portfolio of companies to be worked with in the 2012-2013 period, adding businesses with growth potential to those that had already been identifi ed.
TechPYME reviewed and analyzed state, regional and national business directories, and subsequently made several calls to interview and learn more about the companies interested in entering the program.
As a result of these efforts, a portfolio of 361 compa-nies that entered TechPYME starting in August 2012 and that will continue to receive services until July 2013 was created. The following table shows the distribution of these companies and the niches in which they work.
SECTOR
92 29 4 55 68 54 32 27361
Number of
companies
Total
Information technologies Automotive Aerospace Other advanced manufacturing areas Health technologies Food technologies Clean technologies New materialsTechBA
The TechBA program was designed to help Mexican tech-nology companies gain access to the most dynamic business ecosystems in the world and expand their operations into international markets, primarily the United States, Canada and Europe. TechBA has eight locations in cities with highly competitive and specialized economic activity: Arizona, Austin, Madrid, Michigan, Montreal, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Vancouver.
The TechBA acceleration model is aimed at catalyzing the development of companies, facilitating access to a wide network of high-level international advisors and experts with profound knowledge of the technological processes and markets of each sector. The guidance from these experts enables companies to improve their value offer to ensure international success and guarantee long-term permanence.
This program facilitates the interaction of Mexican SMEs with different business environments, allowing them to achieve accelerated growth by creating partnerships, generating new sales and attracting investment. Each Tech-BA site has a wide network of experts in their economic fi elds, and key actors and organizations from the region who support the growth of the Mexican companies.
In addition to their acceleration services, TechBA offers businesses a pre-acceleration process that consists of
ana-lyzing their potential for penetrating international markets and the advantages that would imply for each company from a technical-commercial angle. Pre-acceleration informs companies about their strengths and weaknesses, and im-provement opportunities should they want to enter the global marketplace.
During acceleration, work centers on improving the value offer of each business. On many occasions this im-plies deep adjustments to the products and services they hope to launch on new markets. Another relevant aspect is improving the way the value offer of each company is presented to potential buyers, and familiarizing business owners with how business is done in global markets. The TechBA service model is shown below.
TechBA Service Model
Incorporation and work plan Review of value proposition and market penetration strategy (investment
and alliance search) Adaptation of the product or service to
the new market (certifications, IP protection, etc.) Consulting and access to network of contacts Initial market penetration plan Implementation of “beta test” and interaction with “friendly” clients Refinement of marketing and commercialization strategies Implementation of commercialization tools (campaigns, demand generation, distributor development, etc.) Sales support Directory development and client profiling Sales coaching Sales channel development Customer service Business maturation Integration of an Advisory Council Evaluation of company’s development Implementation of complementary financial strategies, innovation, and business model
The TechBA program has
played an outstanding role
in the internationalization
of innovation networks
involving Mexican
companies.
2009 2010 2011 2012 $40,958,171 160 $5,673,600 7.22 $95,579,760 228 $7,432,000 12.87 $145,024,881 209 $8,037,037 18.04 $147,761,921 185 $6,459,090 22.88 International sales Supported companies Resources coming from Mexican Secretariatof Economy
Rate of return
(international sales generated per dollar invested)
The TechBA program has played an outstanding role in the internationalization of innovation networks involv-ing Mexican companies, and in introducinvolv-ing innovative support models to Mexico for the creation of new busi-nesses and the strengthening of technology companies.
An example of this is the Bootcamp model, designed to help companies establish successful, sustainable business in a few weeks. Bootcamps allow companies to quickly evaluate whether their business ideas have market
po-tential or need adapting. Bootcamp is an opportunity to conduct market research, develop and refi ne business ideas and build prototypes, as well as validate clients and investment possibilities to ultimately take sustainable products to market.
Results of the TechBA Program
During 2012, the TechBA program worked with 185 busi-nesses which generated international sales in excess of $140 million dollars.
When compared to the resources invested by the Secretariat of Economy to operate the program, this fi gure gives a $22.88 dollar return on every dollar invested. The following table shows that the return rate of the TechBA program has increased consistently over the last four years.
Operation costs of the TechBA program vs. international sales generated by
companies in the program (fi gures in U.S. dollars)
Promoting innovative
health technology companies
2 Juárez López de Nava, José Mario (2012). “Medical Devices en Mexico:
Op-portunities for Baja California”, in Negocios ProMéxico. October.
1 Estrada Cortés, Jesús (2012). “Medica Devices, a Healthy Business”, in
Nego-cios ProMéxico. October.
Mexico has enormous growth potential in numerous areas related
to health technologies, including medical devices, clinical trials
and pharmaceutical industry, medical tourism and information
technology applied to health.
country into “an attractive option for many medical device manufacturers from the United States and other parts of the world seeking to serve the domestic market or improve manufacturing costs with a maquila strategy in Mexico.” Beyond the numbers, Mexican business owners are ready to face a greater demand for their products; in the words of Miguel Ángel Félix Díaz Alonso, treasurer of the Medical Device Cluster of the Californias, “In this region we are used to putting up a fi ght. The mentality of business owners here is to fi nd the way to do things right. There are many regulations in medical devices and the process for being a supplier can be slow, but we will come on board because by being authorized suppliers we will be on a path towards success.”
This cluster includes the majority of medical device companies in Baja California Norte and Sur and main-tains close ties with the cluster in San Diego, California, This section describes the opportunities that FUMEC has
identifi ed for the growth of health SMEs in the country, and how we had worked in those niches to boost the competitiveness of businesses and enhance the capacities of the ecosystems in which they operate.
Medical Devices
In recent years, the country has become increasingly at-tractive for the global medical device industry and this is refl ected in the accelerated growth of domestic production and the growing number of investments received in this area. Mexico is the seventh biggest exporter of medical devices in the world and, according to data from INEGI and ProMéxico, produced $8.56 billion dollars in medical devices in 2011. By 2020, production is expected to reach $14.91 billion dollars.1
In 2011, Mexico exported $6 billion dollars in medical devices and attracted 23 investment projects in the same area.2 This industry has grown at a rate of 6.4%, well above
traditional producers like Germany, Japan and Switzerland. According to data from CANIFARMA, between 2007 and 2010, Mexican medical device companies increased sales by 24.2%. Similarly, from 2002 to 2011, jobs in this niche grew from 17 to 32 thousand and are expected to continue to grow with the presence of new companies.1
In early 2013, DHL Supply Chain revealed a study which indicated that the robust domestic demand and a forecast-ed annual growth rate of 5.2% for 2020, have turnforecast-ed the
FUMEC helped us make
many contacts, have
opened many doors for
us and that is why we are
here now.
Mexican business owners
are ready to face a
greater demand for
their products.
forming one of the most complex and diverse groups of medical products in the whole of North America.
Since 2010, the cluster to which Félix Díaz belongs, has been a FUMEC ally, providing support to health companies in Baja California. When asked how the work was going, he said, “In Tijuana we have had a very healthy relationship; through FUMEC some companies have benefitted from help obtaining certifications, attending seminars and courses on project portfolio management, and getting more infor-mation about the sector.”
Other benefits of being in contact with FUMEC has been broadening the cluster’s spectrum of relationships and getting to know new business environments. “In 2011 we took a trip to Spain,” says Félix Díaz. “We were met by
TechBA Madrid and through them we made visits to get contacts, talks and see the kind of support we could get.”
This business owner appreciates the Foundation’s work in putting the cluster in touch with new actors because, “The relationships have shown us how we might achieve a different projection. I think we were focused too locally, very much within the region, but FUMEC has allowed us to see things more globally, to see that as a group we need to be related to other sectors and countries, and that we must have greater openness with government, education and other entities.” hacetouch with nwts, chat and see the kind of support we ogoing, the enter the ie accelerate
Although this relationship did not immediately bear fruit, in the medium term the companies who participate in the cluster have seen results: “As a sector, it would never have occurred to us to go to Madrid to explore business opportunities, because the whole world naturally tells you ‘we have the United States right next door,’ but this relationship has enabled us to get help for seminars and courses and that is a very valuable result, beginning as a group to have joint initiatives,” concludes Félix Díaz.
Elemental Clinical Research:
clinical research
for a growing market
In 2010, six Jalisco doctors decided to develop an intraurethral catheter to administer drugs to parts of the body which are inaccessible by traditional catheters. They realized they needed to do clinical trials and opted to conduct them themselves.
And so Elemental Clinical Research was born, a company specialized in clinical research and services for the pharmaceutical industry.
To consolidate their project, the doctors attend-ed an incubator of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, where they learned the basics of creating a business. They soon realized they were getting into a very little known area in Mexico, because “even the Tec people struggled to understand our business mod-el,” remembers Luis René González Lucano, Opera-tions Director of Elemental Research.
As they continued the incubation process, they discovered that FUMEC offers support to health companies, in particular those conducting clinical
Health Technologies representative in Jalisco, they contacted the Foundation and began to see Mexico’s enormous potential for growing business-es like theirs.
In 2012, Elemental Research responded to an invitation from FUMEC to attend the 3rd Interna-tional Life Sciences Convention, where they met a company called CECYPE, also supported by FU-MEC, and began to analyze ways to partner. Today the partnership is a reality and their primary objec-tive is “to strengthen clinical research in our zone,” said González. “We want to offer comprehensive
3 CECYPE, 2011. Ensayos clínicos en México: retos y oportunidades. Estudio
elaborado por CECYPE a solicitud de FUMEC.
There is a favorable setting for
clinical research in Mexico,
since the country has excellent
conditions for creating and
consolidating companies that
function as CROs.
cover to Jalisco which is the second most important zone for the pharmaceutical industry, after Mexico City.”And so, almost without forethought, Elemental Clinical Research entered the clinical trial business at a very opportune moment when there was al-ready a demand for their services. “New medicines are coming into the country because the popula-tion has grown a lot, and investors see Mexico as an area of opportunity. Furthermore, we have a privileged position right next to the United States and that enables us to conduct studies very quickly,” explains González.
The growth of the industry has meant the consolidation of this company which, despite being only two years old, has already more than dou-bled in sales and the number of employees. For its founders, part of the success is due to the support received from FUMEC. “They have helped us make many contacts, have opened many doors for us and that is why we are here now,” says González, who predicts that the company “will grow even more, because we have projects ready to sign and that makes us optimistic.”
Clinical Trials and Pharmaceutical
Industry
Another great area of opportunity in health has to do with the development of preclinical and clinical trials for drug development. In 2008, investment in the global drug industry rose to 86 billion dollars. Investment in clinical trials was $54.8 billion dollars in 2009, with a 9.1% growth over the previous year and prospects of reaching a value of $81.2 billion in 2014.3
Today the drug industry is facing the need to develop new products, but is struggling to do so in developed countries because of high costs and problems recruiting volunteers for their trials. As a result, large fi rms have begun to pass preclinical and clinical trials on to specialized com-panies known as clinical or contract research organizations (CROs) which develop different stages of the process in certain developing countries.
This situation suggests a favorable setting for clinical re-search in Mexico, since the country has excellent conditions for creating and consolidating companies that function as
CROs. A study performed in 2011 for FUMEC found that Mexico underutilizes its capacity to generate this kind of company, and occupies a marginal position (26th in the world) in the conduct of clinical trials in spite of its privileged geographical location, internationally competitive regulations, good number of inhabitants and skilled professionals.3
Furthermore, Mexico is listed among the so-called phar-ma emerging countries, but the growth of its drug phar-market is below the average for this group and will drop from 11th place in 2005 to 17th in 2015. It is worth remembering that there are more than 200 drug companies in Mexico with the infrastructure to produce drugs to supply a domestic market of $14 billion dollars.
Through its TechPYME and TechBA programs, the Foun-dation has helped develop companies seeking to enter the clinical trial market and the pharmaceutical industry, giving them advice and resources to do so. The support network for health companies that TechPYME has formed in Jalisco is shown in the next page.
Support network for health companies in Jalisco
In Jalisco, the representative of the Health Technologies Coordination, Michelle Otero, has provided support to 32 health companies with help from the local Ministry of Economic Development and the organisms that form part of the network created by FUMEC.
According to Ernesto Baez López, Director General of Sectoral Development and Integration of Jalisco, this state “is the second most important corridor in the country for human pharma and the first in animal pharma,” so support for health companies is vital for the local economy. In the Baez’ experience, “Companies which have participated in FUMEC programs have been satisfied.” Nevertheless, he feels that FUMEC “has tools which as an institution we could leverage a lot more.”
Two clear examples of the support that FUMEC pro-vides to health SMEs are Elemental Clinical Research of Jalisco, whose success story was presented on page 20 NN, and CECYPE of Morelia, whose case is given below.
Medical Tourism
In mid 2012, The New York Times published an article which spoke of the influx of United States citizens who travel to Mexicali seeking medical care.4 The text
de-scribed how in 2011 more than 150 thousand patients traveled to that city to see a doctor, generating an eco-nomic spillover for the local economy of $8 million dollars. The publication of this article was no more than the acknowledgment of the growing popularity of Mexico among United States patients who need low-cost medical care and travel south for everything from dental care to heart surgeries to cosmetic weight-loss procedures.
According to the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce (USMCOC), medical tourism in Mexico has enormous growth potential, made popular by rising health costs in the United States and improvements in other coun-tries in the standards of care and the technology they use.5
A. Clusters
1. Medical Tourism Cluster 2. West Bioclúster
3. Association of Private Hospitals of Jalisco
B. Universities and research centers
4. Guadalajara University
5. Center of Research, Technological Assistance and Design of the Jalisco State
6. Center of Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute
C. Government institutions and other entrepreneurial support organizations
7. ProMéxico
8. Jalisco Institute of Information Technologies 9. Council on Science and Technology of the Jalisco State
10. Regional Chambe of the Transformation Industry 11. Jalisco Secretariat of Economic Development 12. National Chamber of Commerce
13. Jalisco Institute of Quality
14. Institute for Development and Innovation within the SMEs
4 Medina, Jennifer (2012). “Mexicali Tour, From Tummy Tuck to Root Canal”
5 USMCOC (2011). Tourism Development, Medical Tourism, and Safe and
Basque Country by the name of CECYPE Europe. There, the company is about to begin an investiga-tion on the genetic factors which predispose renal impairment, through an alliance with the University of Euskadi.
Although CECYPE has been well received in Spain, things were different in the beginning; the Spanish were skeptical. “There had been total incredulity about Mexico’s capacity to conduct studies. They even asked us questions that might seem offensive: ‘Do they know what good clinical practices are in Mexico? Do they work with ethics committees?’” recalls Herrera, who adds, “You can understand their attitude because in the recent past it didn’t exist, but when we started to show them that we had clients like Sanofi and Bayer, who know our capability and recommend us, they changed their attitude and went from doubt to awe.”
For CECYPE, having presence in Spain is part of its strategy to get into the European market. “We are still seeking out new markets and we have allies in Spain with knowledge of the French and Swiss markets. We are also defi nitely interested in the United States, Canada and Germany, above all with the new biotechnology services and functional foods,” said Herrera.
CECYPE executives are convinced that Mexico can become a world leader in preclinical and clinical research. “We need to create an environment that converts the country into a hub, because the best way to grow this industry is to have more people developing research,” explains the engineer Jorge Herrera, CEO of the Morelia company.
A couple of years ago, at FUMEC’s request, CE-CYPE made an analysis of Mexico’s opportunities in this industry and found that the country did not leverage its growth capacities and is in a secondary position, 26th in the world, despite its incompara-ble geographical location, competitive regulations, a good-sized market and competent professionals. “Hence, we’re looking for the opportunity to devel-op that capacity in Mexico,” continued Herrera.
It all seems to indicate that the pharmaceuti-cal industry will continue to demand specialized research services, which motivated CECYPE to partner with the CIATEJ research center in Jalisco to start new preclinical, clinical and analytical trial units, and generate new units as growth demands.
The said units will be built in two or three cities and serve to evaluate biotechnology and bioequiv-alent medicines, pharma chemicals, medical devices, new treatment schemes and even functional foods.
Paradoxically, this national expansion plan is the result of the CECYPE’s exposure to international markets which they had the opportunity to explore thanks to TechBA Madrid, a program it entered in 2009 and that helped it set up a company in the
We need to create an
environment that
converts the country
into a hub for
clinical trials.
Volunteers on a study conducted by CECYPE. Photo courtesy of the company.
CECYPE:
clinical research for the global
pharmaceutical industry
6 Chaudhry, B. Wang, J., & Wu, S. et al., (2006). “Systematic review: Impact of
health information technology on quality, effi ciency, and costs of medical care”, in Annals of Internal Medicine, 144(10), 742–752.
7 Markets and Markets (2011). World Healthcare IT. Retrieved from http://
www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/healthcare-information-tech-Tijuana is another key site for developing medical tourism. Thanks to its geographical location, thousands of patients from California and the West Coast often visit the city. Since 2010, Minerva Avelar, representative of the FUMEC Health Technologies Coordination in Tijuana, has worked with a group of local hospitals to help them obtain certifi cation as a Medical Care Facility authorized by the Mexican General Health Council. This certifi cation shows that the hospital is internationally competitive, allowing it to receive patients from the United States.
One of FUMEC’s allies in the city is the Medical, Dental and Hospital Cluster of Baja California, whose President, Karim Chalita, comments that three years ago this cluster and FUMEC began a process for hospitals to become cer-tifi ed. Together with the Foundation, a situational diagnosis was made for16 hospitals, which Chalita describes as “a watershed, because we were lost. We knew we needed the certifi cation, but we didn’t know what shape our hospitals were in. Then on a second occasion we received help to review the hospital infrastructure and that has been a great support and an enormous help.”
For Chalita, the cluster’s collaboration with FUMEC has triggered new projects in benefi t of the hospitals. “Today there are already eight hospitals in the region that have fully entered the certifi cation program. They found a fed-eral resource where the government provides 66% and the remaining 33% comes from the company, but it was FUMEC who laid the foundations and sparked it all off.”
Health Information Technologies
Information Technologies (IT) are powerful tools for managing information related to medical treatments, and nowadays can be used to exchange information not only between doctors and hospitals, but also between doctors and patients and even between national and international health institutions.
IT are seen as tools which enable better quality, security and effi ciency in the handling of health information, obtain-ing benefi ts such as: improved care quality, reduced costs, improved administrative effi ciency and even an increase in accessible health services.6 The world healthcare IT market
is expected to grow from $99.6 billion dollars in 2010 to $162.2 billion in 2015, at a Compounded Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2% from 2010 to 2015.7
Some of the areas with most growth potential are: elec-tronic clinical records, mobile applications and telemedicine. FUMEC, through its Health Technologies Coordination (hereinafter TecSalud), has engaged in a series of activities to promote the use of IT in medicine, from training in the use of electronic clinical records to boosting the development of mobile applications designed to resolve health issues.
An example of this was seen in Nuevo León, where the Health Cluster has worked in collaboration with FUMEC and CANIETI on an electronic clinical record project to be used in state hospitals to provide communication and accurate information to other hospitals when a patient needs to be transferred.
TecSalud has given workshops on electronic clinical records in states including Baja California, Jalisco and State of Mexico, given that this tool is already part of international quality standards that must be met.
As far as boosting mobile applications for health, since 2011 TecSalud and FUMEC’s Digital Media Coordination have worked with Health Services of Oaxaca to promote a call for tenders to push the use of mobile technologies for following-up on patients in remote areas. As a result, Neoteck, a company from Aguascalientes and with the help of TecSalud, developed a pilot program of mobile monitors which allow patient follow-up for maternal mortality, arterial hypertension and vaccination, among other issues.
Information Technologies (IT) have brought about radical changes
to everyday life, to such a extent that most of us would struggle
to imagine what work was like before computers and before data
processing became as natural as breathing.
Mobile Technologies
The use of mobile technologies is growing at an expo-nential rate throughout the world. A report from GMSA and A.T. Kearney states that half the world’s population (a little over 7 billion people) use mobile communications and in the last four years one billion have subscribed to mobile services, bringing the total to 3.2 billion worldwide.10
This growth and constant innovations in the fi eld have led representatives of leading mobile operators to believe that signifi cant growth will continue in this market in the coming years. Some 700 million new subscribers are ex-pected by 2017, surpassing the 4 billion mark by 2018.3
In Mexico, the number of mobile connections is es-timated to reach 98 million, converting the country into the second largest market in Latin America, after Brazil.11
FUMEC, through its Multimedia Coordination, promotes the growth of companies seeking to develop mobile de-vice applications using a strategy which gives them direct attention and connects them with industry giants in Mexico like Nokia, RIM and Qualcom.
This relationship has allowed companies like RIM, the maker of Blackberry, and Nokia to discover the potential of Mexican SMEs and leverage their capacities. “FUMEC is a unique point of contact that contributes to building this community of developers and facilitates our efforts as an
Supporting the growth
of Mexican IT companies
The pervasiveness of IT makes it an ever-growing indus-try all over the world. According to IT consulting fi rm, Gartner, global spending on IT for 2010 was $3.4 trillion dollars and for 2020 will reach $3.67 trillion dollars.8
In Mexico, IT is a highly dynamic sector which is grow-ing by leaps and bounds. The AMITI organization says the Mexican IT services market has doubled in the last six years and another fi rm, Select, estimates an annual growth rate of 10% between 2011 and 2015.9
As part of its work to promote the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, TechPYME has identifi ed three niches within IT that offer unique development oppor-tunities for SMEs: mobile technologies, cloud computing and multimedia. This section summarizes the Foundation’s work in these niches and how we help the companies that work in them.
8 QFinance (s/f). Information Technology Industry. Retrieved from http://www.
qfi nance.com/sector-profi les/information-technology, in February 2013.
9 Rodriguez Abitia, Guillermo (2011). “Mexico: IT Just Makes Sense”, in
Nego-cios ProMéxico. April.
10 GMSA y A.T. Kearney (2013). The Mobile Economy. (s/l). Retrieved from
http://www.gsmamobileeconomy.com/, in February 2013.
11 eMarketer (2013). Challenges and Opportunities in Mexico, a Concentrated
Mobile Market. Retrieved from http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Challeng-es-Opportunities-Mexico-Concentrated-Mobile-Market/1009075, in February 2013.
FUMEC taught us that
we are on a par with
international companies
and we have lost our
fear of doing big things.
industry to bring our technology into the marketplace,”comments Carlos Silva, Senior Alliance Solutions Manager for RIM, Mexico.
For Rafael Olvera, Developer Marketing Manager for Nokia in Mexico, FUMEC has been a good ally to the company because “they fi lter and channel companies that are really useful to us and let us focus on what we want to achieve. The clearest example is the company Ironbit. When we started to work with them they already had developments for Nokia platforms, but through FUMEC we sat down to build a partnership and have done many things, like applications for brands that benefi t our targets and generate business for them.”
And indeed, Ironbit is a mobile company that has lev-eraged FUMEC’s support and grown considerably in the last few years, so much so that we included it as a success story in our 2010-2011 report. Similarly, CloudSourceIT has capitalized on the assessment and resources FUMEC has provided and is another of the success stories presented in this year’s report.
Another initiative from FUMEC’s Multimedia Coordi-nation has been to invite companies to events such as the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, taking 12 fi rms in 2011 and a few more in 2012, and preparing a special liaison agenda with the developer community in Spain. “We held business meetings with fi rms; we were with Telefónica, Nokia and BlackBerry in Spain, who are the key players in the ecosystem there, and we also met with a group of Austrian and French companies who do innovation,” says Mariano Contreras, leader of TechPYME’s attention program for mobile companies.
FUMEC’s knowledge of fi rms in the sector has created an unexpected demand; some companies from Spain, Canada and Central America have sought assessment from TechPYME to analyze their opportunities to penetrate the Mexican market. Two fi rms from Spain are now operating in Mexico, one of which has partnered with a company being helped by FUMEC to enter this market.
CloudSourceIT:
a 100% mobile world
If anything distinguishes CloudSourceIT from thehundreds of other Mexican software fi rms fi ghting for survival, it is that two years ago its founders de-cided to focus on one niche of opportunity, special-ized in it, and are today growing at a phenomenal rate thanks to that decision.
“We are a niche company,” says Director, Gus-tavo García. “We live and eat mobile.” And indeed, the company offer clients a wide range of applica-tions for mobile devices including: mobile banking, comprehensive corporate travel tracking, medical applications that benefi t patients and doctors alike, and highly sophisticated marketing solutions.
Shortly after the CloudSourceIT founders made the decision to focus on mobile applications, they got in touch with the TechPYME program which supports businesses in this niche. The meeting
could not have gone better and FUMEC invited the company directors to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It was there they began to realize the opportunities that might open for them in Mexico.
“In Spain we met with La Caixa bank and saw there was a niche that wasn’t being exploited in Mexico because banking applications were not 100% native. When we got back we were the fi rst to offer them,” said García proudly.
FUMEC works in alliance
with Microsoft to promote
the migration of Mexican
IT SMEs toward cloud
computing schemes.
banks to develop their entire mobile banking, which will make any transaction possible in fewer than four clicks. “What we learned in Barcelona is that there are features of online banking that should not go into mobile banking. For example, mobile cannot capture 1500 transactions because users should perform all their movements in between 5 and 15 minutes.”
One of the enormous advantages of Cloud-SourceIT is that all its projects are conceived and developed on native mobile platforms, which results in highly effi cient applications that give end-users a unique experience, unlike those which simply adapt web-based solutions to make them mobile accessible.
Another example of how the fi rm is innovating is through the use of a sound called “GhostWave” which is only detectable by mobile devices and which, when activated, will allow applications to deploy that will offer users all kinds of information from shopping tips to the latest news.
Specialization has allowed CloudSourceIT to embark on ever-bigger projects and increase sales up to 700% in the last year. “Before we were a very small company with a national vision, but the expe-rience we had with FUMEC taught us that we are on a par with international companies and we have lost our fear of doing big things,” García concludes.
Cloud Computing
In 2011, the cloud computing services market was worth $79.6 billion dollars and was forecast to grow at an com-pound annual growth rate of 23.21%, to reach a value of $148.9 billion dollars in 2014.12
A United States study calculated that cloud computing would increase the use of servers by between 12% and 60%, generating scale economies that would lead to signifi cant economic, social and environmental benefi ts.13
For Mexico, it is estimated that these savings could be equivalent to 0.31% of the national GDP, of which 0.23% corresponds to private and 0.08% to public sector savings. (This last fi gure would be similar to the saving of 0.05% of the GDP estimated by the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy for the public sector in the United States.)13
FUMEC works in alliance with Microsoft to promote the migration of Mexican IT SMEs toward cloud com-puting schemes, since by offering cloud services they can become more competitive against the big com-panies without investing too much in infrastructure.
For Ricardo Medina, Liaison Manager for Microsoft Mexi-co, cloud computing “represents an advantage for companies, because they are going to be able to get down to what really interests them, which is seeking clients and having better products, and they won’t have to worry about the server going down, getting the latest software versions, etc.”
The efforts of FUMEC and Microsoft in cloud computing complement each other well; both organizations push the growth and internationalization of Mexican businesses. Mi-crosoft identifi es both young entrepreneurs and businesses with certain experience seeking to make developments in the cloud, and collaborates with FUMEC so companies that so require receive reinforcement services, reach a certain maturity and are able to offer competitive services within the country, and even prepare them for the international market.
12 Transparency Marketer Research (s/f). Cloud Computing Services Market -
Global Industry Size, Market Share, Trends, Analysis And Forecasts, 2012-2018. Retrieved from http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cloud-comput-ing-services-market.html in February 2013.
13 Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad y Microsoft (s/f). “Cómputo en
la nube”: nuevo detonador para la competitividad en México. Retrieved from http://imco.org.mx/images/pdf/Computo_en_la_Nube-detonador_de_com-petitividad_doc.pdf in February 2013.
National resources together with the international support networks created by FUMEC make a decisive contribution to this collaboration. In Medina’s words, “the support of the ecosystems, partners and technical con-sultancy services that Microsoft can give and the business and market consulting from FUMEC, is an extraordinarily good combination for anyone seeking to go beyond do-mestic markets.”
Among the cloud computing companies receiving support form FUMEC are:
• Netmark. This fi rm has specialized in the design, de-velopment, deployment and adaptation of web-based products and services, and offers advanced cloud computing solutions to help reduce IT costs. The fi rm operates in four countries including the United States, and thanks to its services has been able to generate value for around 500 businesses and organizations. • Scio. Scio is an expert in Microsoft technologies for solutions as diverse as email archives to algorithm systems for betting on horse races. Its team of 13 in 2006 had grown to 50 people by 2011. Sales in that period increased by more than 400% and it has already taken the leap to becoming a global company.
Multimedia
Multimedia is the name given to those cultural products that result from the combination of contents such as text, images, sound, animation and video. Multimedia technol-ogies, their applications and products form part of what John Howkins in 2011 called “creative economies,” referring to the economic activities where ideas are both the raw material and the main product.
Multimedia industries are in full expansion around the world. For 2015, world spending in entertainment and media industries is forecast to reach 1.9 trillion dollars, a 5.7% increase on the 1.4 trillion dollars spent in 2010.14
Latin America is the region with most growth in these industries with 10.5%, an increase from 66 billion dollars in 2010 to 109 billion dollars in 2015.7 The total value of
the media industry in Mexico climbs to almost 54 billion pesos and records growth of 8%.15 In addition, according to
ProMéxico the country is the biggest video game market in Latin America and is fast becoming one of the countries with most potential for industry development.16
As in other market niches, FUMEC promotes the growth of Mexican multimedia SMEs by offering services to improve their value offer and increase domestic sales, and even to conquer international markets if they are prepared to do so. FUMEC’s Multimedia Coordination works with businesses locally and, together with the TechBA sites, identifi es those with the potential to enter international markets.
Among the companies that FUMEC has helped is Nu-fl ick, which offers an online transmission platform through the Internet for Mexican and Ibero-American independent fi lms and documentaries that are not widely distributed by the major cinema chains in Mexico.
Likewise, the work of FUMEC has boosted companies like Kaxan Games, which went through an acceleration process in TechBA Seattle that helped it make contact with Chillingo, a leader in the publication of video games for the iPhone. This liaison was evident in August 2011 when “Taco Master,” a video game created by Kaxan, became the most sold on iTunes Mexico for iPhone and iPad, surpassing international brands like “Plants vs Zombies” and “Angry Birds”.
In 2012, Alucina Studio, a company also helped by TechBA Seattle, won a contract to develop a game for the NFL in the United States, and at the end of that same year signed a contract with toy giant Mattel to include a videogame in
14 PricewaterhouseCoopers (2011). Global entertainment and media outlook
2011-2015. Events and trends Vol. 250. (s/l).
15 FUMEC (2010). Sector de medios interactivos. Programa de Innovación
Orientada. Mexico.
Another site that has helped the development of multi-media companies is TechBA Vancouver. Among their consul-tants are experts like Paul Gertz, who was vice-president of animation house Hanna-Barbera and has a long trajectory as the executive producer of television series and movies.
TechBA Vancouver has provided advisory services to fi rms like Matzin Game Studios, JB Entertainment, Cluster Studios and Imagination Films, creator of the fi rst 3D stroboscopic feature fi lm made entirely in Mexico. The achievements of Imagination Films are presented in this report.
Imagination Films:
3D dreams
that become a reality
and script doctor of the fi lm which is currently under pre-production.
Finishing Z-baw, and a second fi lm to be re-leased at the end of 2013, left Imagination Films with invaluable knowledge and experience which the fi rm seeks to capitalize on with the opening of a new center fully dedicated to the development of 3D animation in the state of Querétaro.
The center is the product of the collaboration that Gómez found between the Government of Querétaro, the Autonomous University of Queréta-ro and private investors. In its fi rst fi ve years, the center plans to generate 50 jobs and three produc-tions per year (movies, TV series or videogames), whether of Mexican origin or by attracting invest-ment from other countries like the United States.
“I believe that in fi ve years we can reach a qual-ity similar to Pixar and Dreamworks,” says Gómez, explaining that his own experience has convinced him that Mexico has the talent required to success-fully compete in international markets.
They say that “when dreams go on too long, there’s a danger they’ll become nightmares,” and that might have happened to Ricardo Gómez, Director and founder of Imagination Films, who in 2008 embarked on one of the biggest projects of his career: to make the fi rst 3D, computer generated imagery and stroboscopic fi lm manufactured entire-ly in Mexico.
After almost two challenging years of struggling to dominate the technology required to make the fi lm, Gómez decided to go to TechBA Vancouver, where he presented the progress of Z-baw, his ambitious full-length fi lm, to
