My name is Rob Lauderdale and I made Aliyah from NJ to Efrat in Aug of 2006. I work full time for an american co as the SME on Mainfame Data Encryption and DB2 Database Encryption, I have been in the Data Processing field for over 40 years. While I applaud your efforts to establish a dialog between US Companies and companies here in Israel, it is fraught with many problems. Simply put, the technology in Israel is outstanding, the professionals in DP are also of an extremely high expertise. Where Israel fails miserably is its infrastructure for web communications. Its speeds are slow (5 megabits is considered fast here) vs the average T-1 type speeds in the average US Home. It is subject to frequent drops in service, VPN connections suffer tremendously. It is to a point in the last 7 months lost at least 10 days to poor, bad or no service. I have used every provider available at one point or another with no appreciable change in service. They all promise but do not deliver. The company I work for has informed me if the service does not improve I will be required to return to the US or find a job here.
So until something is done to improve or at least stabilize the ability to communicate with the rest of the world on an equal footing, US Companies will try, fail and pull back there business and it will take a long time to get them back.
The other area of great concern is the mail system. I recently sent a envelope containing a 2 page document via Israeli Express Mail at a cost in US Dollars of $20.01, it took 13 days to reach Teaneck, NJ, in the US for $7 it would take 2 days and that is stretching it somewhat. A FEDEX package weighing 7 lbs cost over 130 dollars but is here in 4 days delived to my door. So besides internet connectivity being in the doldrums, mail is worse.