We assist our clients in defining their strategies, and in setting up plans for the implementation of these strategies. The focus in this part of our services is mainly on international business development strategies.

For strategy reflection and planning exercises, we can use several different techniques among which in-company seminars and workshops, strategy reflection sessions with individuals throughout different levels or departments of the organisation, audits, a ‘task force’-approach, ...

Work performed by Yellow Window in this respect is also related to the economic development of Third Countries.
· Yellow Window has acted as consultant for local organisations under the Private Sector Support Programmes in Egypt and Jordan, financed by the European Commission, and has in this position built up its knowledge of the management of such programmes.
· Further, we have assisted companies and organisations all over the EU as well as in Mediterranean Non Member Countries, with the definition of their Business Plans (up to Marketing & Sales Plans and Communication Plans) as well as with the implementation of these plans.
· In the Gulf States, Yellow Window has performed an evaluation study for the European Commission of the services infrastructure to assist enterprises in their transnational development.

In this area we work for both public and private companies.

Yellow Window has experience in testing both internal and external communication procedures and material for its clients.

In the private sector, our in-company surveys are oriented towards improving the processes, channels and the contents of internal communication. Both top-down and bottom-up communication is the object of our research.
External communication related surveys mainly consist of testing marketing material among its target groups.
In addition, we have helped our clients in setting up and fine-tuning their commercial policies, including marketing and distribution policies, search for commercial partners, license agreements, intellectual property issues, etc. Our experience also includes the evaluation of the marketing policy of a medium-sized bank.

With regard to the public sector, in the field of corporate image and communication studies, one of the recent clients of Yellow Window is the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Alicante, Spain) with which a framework contract for the provision of audit / assessment / evaluation services in the area of Communication and Marketing has been signed. Studies for the European Commission conducted in the field of financial services concern the introduction of the EURO. We worked also for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work evaluating awareness-raising campaigns.

The basis of a major part of our activity is business-to-business research, which is the consultancy's specialisation.
Projects can be:
· ad hoc assignments in Belgium or abroad for both Belgian and foreign clients,
· pan-European multi-country surveys (for private clients, but also for the European Commission),
· both qualitative and quantitative research;
· internationalisation, acquisition, customer satisfaction, communication and related research throughout the EU.

Moreover, Yellow Window is known and appreciated by its clients for the high added value of its services. As a matter of principle, we do not simply deliver ‘raw data’ as a result of our business-to-business market research surveys, but formulate on top of the data specialist advice and recommendations.
Our clients come from different activity sectors. We have developed long-standing relationships with them, building up a thorough knowledge of their history, ambitions, culture and projects. This clear insight enables us to provide our clients with services and advice exactly tailored to their needs and specific situation.

Yellow Window is the Belgian member of the network with which the European Commission has concluded a Framework Contract for qualitative studies.
The objectives of these qualitative studies are:
· to evaluate the attitudes, appreciations, motivations, expectations, fears, resistances, etc. of the European citizens with regard to the different policies and actions undertaken in the context of the European construction (institutional aspects of the Union, policies and actions undertaken, more general attitudes towards Europe and the European construction, etc.); one of our reports is available on the website.
· to perform tests of understanding and adaptation to the different target groups of ‘messages’ prepared by the Commission with regard to information actions about the future of the European Union;
· to evaluate the validity and efficiency of such messages for each age category, socio-professional category, in relation to the national and local ‘cultures’ and the communication styles expected by the different target groups;
· to identify the types of information and means that are best adapted to the communication of the messages to each of the European target groups;
· to evaluate the validity of video films, logos, promotional material, publications, or of all other projects / means elaborated by the Commission.

Examples of work performed by Yellow Window in the context of the above-mentioned contract are mentioned under the next chapter of this dossier.

We have acted as evaluators of programmes implemented by the European Commission on a number of occasions, including:

- impact assessment studies preceding Communications to be issued by the European Commission;
- analysis of public sector measures, e.g. those applied to the business sector;
- monitoring the customer satisfaction of EU programmes, e.g. the PRIMATS programme
- evaluation of training; e.g. the PRIMATS programme;
- feasibility and evaluation studies of large-scale projects of the European Commission:
- development of methodological tools for the evaluation of support measures and the definition of good practice;
- monitoring of organisational change.

Many of the assignments Yellow Window has executed for the European Commission are linked with the enterprise policy of the Commission.
Projects have included :
· the evaluation of Europe-wide pilot projects conducted by the Commission,
· the European co-ordination of such projects,
· feasibility studies in preparation of measures targeted at European enterprises,
· the drawing up of the ‘Transnational Cooperation Guide’ for companies,
· qualitative surveys among enterprises (both large companies and SMEs): e.g. to understand their needs for information, to analyse their status in preparation of the Euro, etc.

A major part of our work is linked with small businesses: from providing services to small businesses ourselves, over coordinating projects through which SMEs are assisted, to training of SME service providers.

Some examples of assignments linked to the European co-ordination of projects the enterprise policy of the public sector in which Yellow Window was involved as project manager or co-manager are:
· European Coordination of SME Stimulation Actions within the CRAFT scheme;
· The European Coordination of the Euromanagement Environment pilot action, which included the development of a methodology to execute an environmental audit in an SME, and the training of 50 consultants to assist SMEs in developing an Environmental Management System;
· The European Coordination of the Euromanagement RTD II pilot action, which included the development of a methodology to execute an R&D audit in an SME, and the training of 51 consultants to assist SMEs in their R&D policy;
Training of public and private sector consultants in technology auditing of innovative SMEs.

Our studies in this area mainly cover decision-support studies for the European Institutions, related to their institutional reform, implementation of their policies, management of uncertainty and improvement of public involvement in decision-making processes.
Within the Qualitative Framework Contract signed with the European Commission we performed a qualitative study on citizen’s opinions as to how to optimise decision-making on institutional level; and also the qualitative research to explore citizens’ perceptions and attitudes regarding security, justice and related policies, and the principle of common EU action in these domains. This report is available on the Commission website.
Additionally, for the European Parliament, a qualitative study on the image of this institution was performed.

Yellow Window has signed a framework contract for the provision of audit / assessment / evaluation services in the area of Communication and Marketing for the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) – OHIM. Within its framework several studies have been realised so far, ex. large-scale market study among companies, owners of the Community Trade Mark and external ‘agents’, representing companies towards OHIM. Purpose of the survey was to explore the positioning of the CTM and of OHIM, the expectations of the clients of OHIM in terms of service aspects, and the future prospects for the CTM. The report is available on the OHIM website.
Furthermore, Yellow Window is assisting the OHIM in the setting up the implementation of a communication strategy.

Yellow Window is an active member of REACTE (Regions Enterprises European Transnational Cooperation Actions), which is a major European programme co-financed by the European Commission and run by CERRM (Centre Européen de Ressources sur les Reconversions et les Mutations). The aim of REACTE is to reinforce the support given to SMEs under the European Structural Funds.

Further, Yellow Window has been in charge of all evaluation tasks in PRIMATS, a two-year project supported by the European Commission, through the REACTE programme within the SME Support Measures budget line. This project has taken place in 8 Objective I and II regions of the EU. Under this project, SMEs were trained in and supported with the management of innovation projects. Yellow Window’s evaluation tasks included the evaluation of the training provided to the local consultants as well as the ‘customer satisfaction’ of the SMEs being assisted.