MittelstandsWiki

Germans and Dutch wishing to set up on their own in each other´s country will find answers to their most important questions on an internet portal which was recently launched by chambers of commerce of both countries. The website which is available in Dutch and in German provides information on important contacts, necessary registrations, legal form and trade register matters as well as on social insurance, taxation and public sponsoring issues. +++

According to the IWF the German economy is doing very well. It is forecast to grow by two percent in 2006, whereas the global figure will be 5.1 percent. In the spring of this year the IWF experts expected just 1.3 percent of growth for Germany. Thus, following the latest forecast Germany is now the shooting star among the industrialized countries for which the forecast had to be corrected to the better most significantly. +++

More and more companies realize that for a company to be successful not only being popular due to image cultivation is important, but also a good reputation, i.e. to be trusted by clients and the social environment. The same view is taken by the authors of a recent report published in the English Media Guardian online magazine. According to them, as a consequence of this development “reputation management” is becoming the engine of growth in the PR business. +++

Visiting http://www.check-personalwirtschaft.de/ entrepreneurs and staff managers may have the quality of their companies´s staff management checked. The result of this check is based on a comparison with several hundred companies which -according to the MA&T Organisationsentwicklung GmbH – have already undergone the check. After the check participants have the possibility to download an ebook called “14 x 3 ideas on how to improve staff management in your company” free of charge. +++

Who is most innovative? To find out just this is the mission of the renowned “Top 100 – The 100 most innovative small and medium-sized companies” project. The annual event dedicated to innovation management will once more start in September. Those SMEs which make it into the first hundred will be awarded the “Top 100″ quality mark and have the chance of winning the “Innovator of the year” title. Patron of the event is Dr. Lothar Späth. +++

The “infodienst-ausschreibungen” online portal have extended their TTC (tender to contract) data base by data relating to the Austrian and Swiss markets thereby allegedly becoming the biggest service provider of its kind in Europe. The portal was launched one year ago and due to this latest extension its data base currently contains TTC information from the entire German speaking as well as from middle and eastern Europe. +++

According to the BITKOM Confederation for information management, telecommunications and new media in Europe there are 20.4 million people listening to the radio over the internet (15.1 million last year). Thus, this market will grow by more than one third in the current year alone. These figures are based on the findings of a recent study by Goldmedia, a consulting firm to media businesses. The European audience of internet radio is forecast to grow to 31.9 million people by 2010 thereby providing new opportunities also to SMEs. +++

A guide on internet telephonie (VoIP) drawn up by Swyx, a VoIP provider, is now available to small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). The brochure is to explain the advantages of VoIP to decision makers and managing directors in SMEs and serve as a reference. It contains a lot of useful information. +++

The antimonopoly dispute between Microsoft and the European Commission is about to escalate. In a press statement released on September 7th Microsoft threatened to again postpone the launch date of Windows Vista ,which is the operating system successor to Windows XP, in Europe as a consequence of continuing objections on part of the European antimonopoly guardians. According to Microsoft such a measure would have serious effects on the whole IT sector and tens of thousands companies in Europe. +++

This year economic growth has accelerated to 2.7 percent in the EU and to 2.5 percent in the Eurozone. According to the Commission growth is mainly driven by internal demand, in particular by investment, and has not been that strong since the year 2000. In view of this favourable business climate the labour market is gaining momentum too, with the unemployment rate falling to 8 percent and to 7.8 percent in the EU and Eurozone repectively in the month of August. +++