On Wed May 3rd 2017 during the meeting in Greece we visited the ICT enterprise Space Hellas. Space Hellas is a leading system integrator and value-added solution and service provider in the areas of ICT and Security, active not just in Greece but also in Europe and the middle East.

After passing security, due to the ISO regulations that such an enterprise should follow, we gathered in a conference room where company’s executives welcomed us. At first, mr Yannis Anastasakos the Director of the System Integration Division played a short video  and made a presentation about the company. His presentation introduced us the  company’s profile, what they offer to their clients and what markets they target. He mentioned some of their clients and some indicative projects that they have implemented for them and we were pretty impressed by the huge scale and the importance of these projects. When he was concluding his presentation he told us the company’s motto: “TRUST: Space Hellas is your trusted partner” and it was very enlightening his explaining that since the trust of a customer for an ICT provider “Takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair…” it is indeed critically important.

Next, mr George Lagogiannis, member of the Board of Directors, gave a presentation about “Evolution and Current Trends in ICT”. With the perspective that to look at where we are heading, it is useful to see where we have been, he started his presentation with an annotated list of principal events in the development of computers, information technology and telecommunications.  Then, he presented us some future trends such as: the Cloud, the Internet of Things, the microservices apps, some artificial intelligence systems, the UCC, e.t.c. We were amazed to find out how much we didn’t know but will be certainly dealing with in the near future! His last tips to us were very inspiring.  He told us that he considers us being lucky to live in such an interesting era and that Europe needs young people to pioneer and compete in the global market. He highlighted that youth entrepreneurship and intense business thinking  is necessary nowadays in order to provide high tech-solutions for real needs. Last, he expressed his belief that the combination of expertise and specialization is the key to success and advised us to focus and develop our excellence in something for us to succeed in our life.

The last presentation was about “Job opportunities - Qualifications and Skills” and was given by mrs Myrto Thanou, the Human Resources Manager of the company. At the first part of her presentation she showed us a typical operational model of an ICT enterprise like Space Hellas and she explained all the available positions and therefore the career opportunities at an ICT company.  The 2ond part of her presentation was very constructive to us since she explained the importance of  qualifications  and skills for a future job candidate. As expected, someone has to start with undergraduate studies in the field of ICT but in order to achieve higher employability, postgraduate studies and several  professional certifications are required. Mrs Thanou surprised us with insisting on the importance of soft skills such as flexibility and active listening that an employee should have. The majority of us thought that getting a job is all about qualifications and hard skills proven by academic degrees but she highlighted that those intangibles that define a personality are also of high importance. Last but not least, she encouraged us to do something we love for a living.

 

After finishing the presentations we were given a usb stick as a present and we were offered some drinks and snacks. Then we had some free time to chat with the company’s executives and we visited in small groups the operational center of the enterprise.

 

Our visit to Space Hellas was inspiring for all of us. For those who are interested in ICT it was a splendid first hand experience and for those who aren’t it was cool to see how “computer nerds” are working and to realize the importance of the proper ICT services.

Special thanks to the executives of Space Hellas who organized our visit and offered us their valuable knowledge.

 

 

Authors: Bill Mentzinis, Anna Kokkinou

Supervisor teacher: Eleni Zalavra