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The German office for collecting radio and TV fees (GEZ) assumes that company computers are also used for listening to radio and watching TV, which is an absurd allegation in the eyes of entrepreneurs. Nevertheless from January 1st 2007 fees will also have to be paid for company computers equipped with an internet connection, if the company in question has not already registered any radio or TV post with the GEZ. However, it has not been determined yet whether only the radio fee amounting to 5.53 Euros or the TV fee of 17.03 Euros per month will have to be paid. +++

It is a fact that email marketing is also useful to small and medium-sized entities. Whereas spam emailing is simple, but illegal, legal and serious email marketing requires some adequate technical equipment and so far could only be provided by external service providers or using expensive computer software. These solutions, however, were often too expensive for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). Now an interesting open source alternative called OpenEMM is made available free of charge by the Munich based Agnitas email marketing company for download. +++

With regard to the cornerstones of a company taxation reform which were fixed by the German government on Wednesday, Mr. Mario Ohoven, who is chairman of the Confederation of German small and medium-sized entities (BVMW), declared: “The German government has realized at last that tax cuts mean smaller revenues at first, but will lead to a fresh impetus for investment and growth in the medium term thereby even increasing state revenues. +++

Das jüngste Printprodukt der just 4 business GmbH heißt “Faszination Dual Core”. Dabei handelt es sich um eine 16 Seiten umfassende Beilage im Auftrag der Firma Intel, die in den Aboausgaben der Zeitschriften c´t, ix und Technology Review (TR) des Heise Zeitschriften Verlags erschienen ist. Faszination Dual Core erklärt unter anderem die Vorteile von zwei Rechenkernen in einer CPU, die vPro- und Viiv-Technologien sowie den Unterschied von Dual Core versus Hyper-Threading (HT). Ein kurzes Interview zum Moore’schen Gesetz rundet das Thema ab.

Due to globalization companies have to face growing competition, but at the same time they are also provided new opportunities by new markets. In this context the Kienbaum management consulting company carried out the “New company locations as a challenge to managers” study which is based on the experiences of 75 relocations over the past years. +++

The Pressetext news agency reported that nowadays many companies count on their customers as so-called co-innovators in order to refine the findings of large-scale market research and marketing processes. “In their search for innovation an increasing number of companies do not simply rely on their own research and development units, but also take advantage of their clients creative potential at the same time”, says Mr Constantin Gillies from the Financial Times Germany. Ten percent of all new products brought onto the market by the brand name company Procter und Gamble result from external ideas, from so-called open innovation. +++

The importance of e-business for German companies keeps growing. This is the main finding of the e-business barometers 2006/2007 study carried out by Fraunhofer IAO in co-operation with the Wegweiser GmbH, the Confederation of German Industry (BDI) and BITKOM. The investment climate in the field of e-business is as good as never before since surveys were carried out for the first time on this subject matter in the year 2003. +++

Based on the online-questionning of over 500 people, a new study called “Payment processes over the Internet” which was carried out by the ibi research scientific institute at the University of Regensburg presents current trends in electronic business. The study comes up with information on business models and the current situation of online sales as well as aspects on payment methods, delay and default in payment. Furthermore, the study also contains data on the degree of automization of payment processes in companies and to which extent external service providers are involved in this matter. The study´s data were collected in the period from February to March 2006. +++

M’BlogDocuments are electronic brochures for owners and decision makers of small and medium-sized entities. They provide practical background knowledge and specific guidance by professionals for professionals.

Der Handel economic magazine, in co-operation with the Lexware software producer have prepared the “Investment potential in SMEs” (IPM3) study in order to provide information on the investment potential among German SMEs as a whole and on trade companies in particular to its advertisers. +++