Seminar on customs issues informs importing and exporting SMEs 3. September 2006 by Thomas Jannot 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 …
EU estimates inflation rate in Eurozone to stand at 2.3 percent 3. September 2006 by Thomas Jannot 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.
ISO 20000 standardizes IT Service Management 1. September 2006 by Thomas Jannot 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.
Expectations on outsourcing not met 1. September 2006 by Thomas Jannot More than fifty percent of all German companies are dissatisfied with their outsourcing projects. 55.2 percent of them deplore that the objectives to be met by outsourcing have hitherto not or only in part be achieved with the main objective of two thirds of executives questioned being the reduction of costs. These are the findings …
Conference on consequences of EuGH jurisdiction for German legislation 30. August 2006 by Thomas Jannot The focal point of a conference called “EU jurisdiction and consequences for German tax law” will be the opportunities and risks facing German companies in the wake of verdicts already passed or to be expected by the European Court of justice (EuGH). The conference taking place in Munich on the 13th of November is organized …
Half-year figures on wage settlements published 30. August 2006 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office in the first half of 2006 standard wages increased by between 0.5 and 3.4 percent. These figures include increases agreed upon in new wage settlements as well as increases fixed by already existing agreements which took effect in the first half of 2006.
Federal Association of SMEs think that no dismissal protection would create more jobs 30. August 2006 by Thomas Jannot The Federal Association of small and medium-sized entities (BVMW) hold the opinion that dismissal protection laws are the major obstacle preventing SMEs from taking on new staff in Germany. According to the association´s chairman, Mr. Mario Ohoven, this fact is confirmed by a survey carried out among 502 of the BVMW´s member companies. Therefore Mr. …
New technology against counterfeits 30. August 2006 by Thomas Jannot The German equivalent of the British MOT (TÜV) has allegedly developed an effective technology for the protection against product piracy. Core piece of the new service package for the protection of intellectual property is the Brand Protection System which generates a fake-proof 13-digits code which is individual for each product. The codification can be combined …
Ebusiness counselling paid for by Federal ministry 30. August 2006 by Thomas Jannot The Federal ministry for economic affairs and technology (BMWI) sponsors counselling on the implementation of e-business for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). This initiative is to give unbiased and manufacturer-independent advice to SMEs operating in the consumer products industry on the opportunities, obstacles and solutions provided by e-business applications and to provide them with clear …
Innovative TV services could provide opportunities to SMEs 25. August 2006 by Thomas Jannot “Triple-Play”, “mobile TV” and “IP-TV” are slogans which for years have gone the round but apart from initial euphoria and some small-scale market testing to date have only yielded little -if any – convincing services. Is there still a chance for IP-TV and mobile TV, which has just been launched for test reasons, to become …