The project history began in 1993 when Octavio Maizza-Neto, former Director of Metrology and Standardization branch of UNIDO invited Serge Golovanov, Manager of GOLEM IMS GMBH, Austria and Prof. Per Lind, INMADE Industrial Management Development, Sweden to make simple personal software for entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises in developing countries to facilitate performance and continuous improvement practices. Within 1994 - 1997 there were 4 personal software packages developed as the result of this collaboration as follows:

• Business Environment Strategic Toolkit (BEST),
• Financial Improvement Toolkit (FIT)
• Pharos Business Navigator (Pharos)
• Measurement Control Chart Toolkit (MCCT)

Several thousands installations of the software were made in various organizations and industrial enterprises in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe after the first demonstration of Pharos software at UN Center in Nairobi, Kenya by prof. Per Lind in 1995.

After signing the Contract with UNIDO in 1998 and 2000 company GOLEM IMS GMBH provided technical services for several UNIDO upgrading programmes which included implementation of the software, training and coaching of the entrepreneurs on sites. The implementations were guided and supervised by UNIDO officers Mr. Octavio Maizza-Neto, Mr. Gerardo Patacconi, Mr.Otto Loesener Diaz and Mr. Carlos Chanduvi Suarez.

The projects and programmes included as follows:

UNIDO Projects in Komi Republic of Russian Federation, Sustainable Industrial Development and Competitiveness, 1999 

UNIDO - ACMA India, Strengthening of Small and Medium automotive component suppliers to deliver export quality products in India, 1999

UNIDO - Egypt Association of Leather Industries, The Pharos training workshop for entrepreneurs and consultants, 2001 in Cairo.  

Application of quality principles to the food processing sector of 7 Sub-Sahara African countries, Training of trainer’s workshops on Pharos and MCCT in UN Center, Nairobi, Kenya June and on-site implementations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, 2000

UNIDO-Ministry of Economic Development, Integrated Programme for Colombia “Improving quality, competitiveness and performance of Colombian Industries in four industrial sectors of four regions in Colombia: Barrancabermeja, Bogotá, Eje-Cafetero, Ibague, 2002-2004

UNIDO Training workshop “Strategic and production management of industrial enterprise: application of UNIDO benchmarking and business excellence tools Pharos + Produce-Plus", 2003 UNIDO ITPO/ARCEIT, Manama, Bahrain.

Annual UNIDO Pharos workshops 2005 – 2009 , UNIDO, Vienna

UNIDO Pharos Training Workshop, State Ministry of Research and Technology of Indonesia, Jakarta 2006

Entrepreneurship facilitation and upgrading programmes "Management of Change" by European - Lebanese Center for Industrial Modernization (ELCIM) under UNIDO and European Union support, Lebanon 2004, 2007, 2008.  

The UNIDO Pharos training workshops for senior management of enterprises and business consultants, DISAIC, Havana, Cuba 2008, 2010.

The implementations made within 1995-2011 included various training workshops, installations and Focal Point projects in various countries including Sri Lanka, Chile, Angola, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, India, Sudan, Australia, Slovakia, Iran, Serbia, Ghana, Cameroon, Thailand, UK, Palestine, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Russia, Ukraine, France, S.Korea, Italy, Pakistan, Singapore, Syria, Turkey.

Download the presentation "UNIDO Pharos Suite - The Past and The Future: 20 years of collaboration in digital transformation innovation for efficient and sustainable inclusive industrial development" made at 4-th Conference “Green Industry for Sustainable Cities 2016”, UNIDO - Ulsan Metropolitan Area, 28-30 June 2016, Ulsan, Korea