MittelstandsWiki

According to Eurostat, the EU´s statistical office, Germany is among the leading countries as regards research and development in the fields of advanced and high technology. In 2004 there were 2.82 million people in the 25 EU member states working in research and development. Of these 23 percent were Germans, 17 percent French and Italians and Spaniard were 8 percent respectively. +++

If you want to participate in “The 2007 European ICT Prize” competition which is one of the highest endowed prizes in the field of information technology and telecommunications and sponsored by the European Union, you should apply by December 4th at the latest. The best ideas relating to these fields will be awarded with a prize money amounting to 700.000 Euro. Admitted to the competition are companies, universities and other institutions and organisations with their head offices in one of the 33 countries which are member of the EU or associated to it. +++

On Monday Deutsche Börse and KfW Mittelstandsbank opened the autumn edition of the German equity capital forum in Frankfurt. According to the organizers the forum with its more than 4000 participants is the most important event on capital markets and equity capital financing in Europe. The big interest sparked by the event demonstrates the importance of this subject matter in particular to small and medium-sized entities. +++

Kazakhstan has recently made negative headlines worldwide. In the film called „Bortat” the British actor Cohen is currently beating and belching his way through cinemas in his role as an unspeakably mannerless reporter. In reality, however, Kazakhstan is an economically stable country with a westerly atmosphere which is worth being taken into account by small and medium-sized entities in particular by those operating in the high-tech field. +++

In particular small companies quite often do not have the time and the resources in order to continuously follow the complex and constantly changing requirements of internet-based services. One such area is the fight against spam mails. It is very important to small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) that their in- and outgoing emails be received and that their email-marketing work properly. But there is a danger: overnight and without even being aware of it their own mail server or that of their provider may have been declared a spam server which means that outgoing emails do not get through to clients and business partners since they are caught in spam filters. +++

Thirteen months ago the first articles were published on Mittelstandsblog. In the meantime their number has risen to more than 700, the administration of which had become increasingly difficult on the previous server. For this reason on Friday we changed over to a more powerful server and a new layout. In addition, the contents and service of our site have been extended. +++

Anybody planning to establish joint research and development projects with European partners from abroad may apply for grants which are given in the context of the European „EraSME” (Era small and medium-sized entities) initiative. The right time for applying is just now given that the third EraSME invitation to tender will commence on December 15th. +++

Members of staff working in the sales department only spend 11 percent of their working time on active selling and 9 percent on new acquisitions. According to their own feelings sales people think to spend 22 percent of their working time on active selling. +++

Notebooks, mobile phones, PDAs and other mobile data processing devices are ever more used by small and medium-sized entities. Despite the safety mechanisms already implemented into the devices and services there are many weak points and potential threats which have to be taken into account and averted in a targeted manner. To this end the Federal Office for safe data processing (BSI) offers a 40-page brochure for free-of-charge download. +++

Today the Roland Berger Strategy Consultants will award the “Best of European Business Award” to most successful German companies. For the second time this competition which was launched in 2005 takes place in Germany. Winners in the “growth category” are the mechanical engineering company Benteler AG and the sports article manufacturer Puma AG. In the “Europe category” the winners are the Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH conglomerate and the Vaillant Group which is a heating and air conditioning technology specialist. In the category of cross-border Mergers & Acquisitions the energy combine E.ON AG left the best impression. +++