MittelstandsWiki

As was reported by the Cologne-based Institute of the German Economy (IW Köln) a comparison among 15 industrialized countries showed that Germany had the fifth highest unit labour costs in 2005 after those of Great Britain, Denmark, Italy and France. On average, Germany´s competitors in the processing industry had labour costs per production unit which were 10 percent cheaper. Labour unit costs in Japan were even 25 percent cheaper. +++

According to the Gartner market research institute the outsourcing industry is once again considered to grow strongly in the current year. A total turnover of 134.7 billion Dollars in this sector which is expected by the end of this year would amount to a growth by 8.3 percent as compared to the previous year. However, the business process outsourcing sub-segment of human resources (HR BPO) is seen less optimistic by the Gartner experts and said to lose momentum in particular in the US. +++

A change over to freely available applications may lead to substantial cost reductions for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs), given that license fees would no longer be applicable. Linux-based applications are an interesting alternative to the dominating messaging groupware solutions such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes. A report by Berlecon Research demonstrates that many well-established email, calendar, contact and messaging solutions in the German market are already open source. +++

Consulting and in particular coaching are so-called “personal” services for the success of which there is the precondition of an intense co-operation between consultant and customer. This precondition is even more important for coaching than for consulting. Against this background, how important a role can online-consulting play and is such a version of this service useful at all? +++

On September 20th from 9 am to 5 pm the Confederation of the German service industry (BDWi) will stage their 1. Conference of German service companies in Berlin. The event is intended as a forum for the German service economy which also offers the opportunity to exchange views going beyond the realms of one´s own business sector. Participation is for free. +++

Entrepreneurs who overdraw their business accounts for more than 90 days should in due course reorganize their financial requirements. According to Basel II (see MittelstandsWiki) overdrafts would “generally be considered as a plain negative criterion and early warning signal” as reports the Wirtschaft magazine published by the chamber of commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria. Prolonged periods of overdrawn accounts may lead to banks reducing their loan exposure. +++

Russia is a huge country and also a market very difficult to open up. Eleven time zones and an average population density of 8.5 people per square kilometer are not exactly encouraging for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) to venture into this market. However, it seems to be quite interesting a calculation to compare Moscow having a population of more than ten million people with a big German city: With 10.400 inhabitants per square kilometer there are more than four times as many people living there as compared with Hamburg. +++

Whoever wants to be successful in international trade has to find their way about the jungle of customs regulations, given that irrespective of all the progress made with regard to market opening and harmonization there are still a lot of rules, controls and non-tariff trade barriers in place. Valuable know-how on this subject matter can be acquired in January next year on the occasion of the “Nürnberger Zollseminar” organized by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Trade (DIHK) and the Oberfinanzdirektion in Nuremberg. +++

In August the annual inflation rate (price change in the current month as compared with that of the previous year) in the Eurozone is expected to be 2.3 percent. Such is the forecast by the Statistical Office of the EU (Eurostat). For July this indicator was 2.4 percent. +++

Although ISO / IEC 20000 had already been introduced back in December 2005 as an international standard for IT Service Management, many companies still do not know its importance and its correlation with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Information events taking place in Hamburg and Munich are to change this situation. +++