MittelstandsWiki

For small companies it is often difficult to meet important requirements of industrial safety regulations at an acceptable expense. Quite often there just is not enough money, although, using the respective know-how, many costs could be avoided altogether and additional opportunities be seized. Opportunities because safety may also stand for a competitive edge. +++

The common opinion is that the biggest threats to the data processing systems of companies are represented by damaging software from the Internet. However, according to the Computer im Mittelstand expert magazine, there are many errors committed by employees themselves which endanger the reliability of a company´s electronic network. +++

As was reported in January 2006 by the Federal Agency for Statistics most companies set up in 2004 started as one-man shows. Thus, in March of 2004 three quarters of the 276.000 full-time founding entrepreneurs (76 percent) started without paid employees. Among the 68.000 founders which set up on their own on a part-time basis, even 93 percent started out as individual fighters. As compared to the year 1996, the number of individual founders has substantially risen in the full-time field (by about 10 percent) as well as in the part-time sphere (plus 5 percent). One-man companies on a full-time basis were set up mainly by men (70 percent), whereas on a part-time basis it were mostly woman who set up their one-woman business (62 percent). This trend is allarming to SME, since with the increasing part of one-person companies the importance of SME as a whole reduces. +++

The entrepreneurial magazine Markt und Mittelstand in his January 2006 edition has drawn an alarming conclusion. According to the magazine the potential of USB sticks, MP3 players and mobile phones to damage sensible company data were underestimated. +++

As was reported by the Handelsblatt magazine, some family-owned companies reject the change over to the new financial reporting standards IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). This is because they fear that applying these standards they might lose equity capital, given that according to the IFRS provision IAS 32 equity capital will only be considered as such, if the respective financier is not personally entitled to the repayment of the investment. +++

Export and other types of international business are of interest to many small and medium-sized entities (SME). Quite often, however, there are many unexpected obstacles to the implementation of a strategic decision. Frequently the local staff is opposed to the decision „from above” due to concerns regarding their own future and external influence. In some cases the ignorance of the particularities of international business is enough to endanger the success of the commitment as a whole. +++

From the first of January 2007 onwards data which have to be published by companies can be retrieved over the Internet. This is the plan of a draft which has just been agreed by the federal government. This development will render obsolete the conventional disclosure of these data in the daily press. This new electronic company register will channel into one pool register entries, publications at the end of a financial year as well as the list of associates. +++

Companies and loans belong to each other just like banks and Basel II. But in order for the rating to be in line with Basel II, a dynamic analysis and evaluation of business figures is necessary. The more work processes and operational data are seized and processed electronically, the more easy will be this analysis. +++

Employees surfing on the Internet in an uncontrolled way without limits not only are less productive, but they also expose their company to incalculable legal risks. If files with extremist or pornographic contents or contents which is protected by copy right are downloaded or even circulated, the company will be made liable. As is revealed in the October 2005 edition of the Linux Professionell magazine, the additional traffic also unnecessarily impairs the computer network´s capacity. +++

The abbreviation HBCI stands for Home Banking Computer Interface which is a national standard developed by the Central Credit Committee. Using this method it is impossible for bank customers to be redirected by, for instance, so-called Phishing-Mails to faked Internet sites, since the online connection to the sites on which customers leave their sensible data is secure and encoded. When using HBCI a special software provided by the customer’s bank will be used. The confidential numbers will be stored on a chip card, which has to be wiped through a special card reader each time a transaction is carried out. The required hardware and the chip card are made available at the purchase price by many banks. +++