Focussing on the core business is a necessary step for many small and medium-sized companies in order to consolidate business activities, if financial recources and executive capacity are running short. Thus, many promising and sound products and services from the past are abandoned, which is a huge pitty considering the many efforts and development costs as well as motivation of staff which all seem to have been futile in such circumstances. more…

For small and medium-sized companies offering innovative high tech solutions ranging from electronics to genetic engineering products it is very difficult to keep constantly updated on the latest changes in research and development, even though the Internet often provides quite comprehensive information in particular at the initial stages of new developments. more…

Yesterday Berlin saw the launch of this year´s German Internet Award campaign. The prize which is awarded to small and medium-sized companies taking advantage of innovative information and communications technology was created in the year 2000 by the German Federal Ministry of Economy and Technoloy (BMWi) and will be confered for the first time this year by the Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien (BITKOM). more…

Concentration on the core business, buying in of external know-how – this is the outsourcing mantra which has been repeated for many years by the providers of IT services to their major customers. Quite new, however, is the fact that this credo meets with a lot of enthusiam by small and medium-sized companies, as is reported in an article by the Austrian magazine Format. For smaller companies it was important to relieve their IT departments of daily routines and to avoid constant employee trainings, but not to outsource entire units (also see “Outsourcing of IT services pays off to small and medium-sized companies”). more…

Apart from being appealing to major enterprises, the stock exchange is increasingly accessible to small and medium-sized companies as reveals an article worth reading published in the P.T.-magazine of the Oskar-Patzelt foundation. more…

According to the ddp/Dow Jones business agency the British „Limited” (⇒ Wikipedia) legal form continues to be highly appealing to small and medium-sized German companies, in spite of an announced reform of the German private limited company. more…

A joint conference of the Business Application Research Center (BARC) and the Österreichisches Controller-Institut (ÖCI) in Vienna was dedicated to the subject matter of “Business Intelligence” (⇒ Wikipedia). According to a press statement by Pressetext.austria the conference showed that in particular small and medium-sized companies show a significantly growing interest in business intelligence solutions. Just like big entreprises many small and medium-sized companies are faced with the challenge of having to chanel growing heterogenious data flows due to commitments and aquisitions abroad.

Several PDF brochures dealing with the subject of Business Intelligence can be downloaded free of charge from the portal Competence Site.

According to the findings of the Mittelstandsbarometer 2006 study carried out by Ernst & Young the momentum gained by the Chinese economy is perceived rather as an opportunity than a danger by German small and medium-sized companies. Almost one out of five German companies expect this development to have a positive effect on their own businesses. However, ten percent do not see any positive aspect in the rise of China and consider this development as a threat to their companies.
German small and medium-sized companies which are already operational in China report positive experiences while at the same time expressing severe criticism: more…

The European Space Agency ESA is continuing with its “Start-Up Project Initiative. This iniative aims at making satellite comunication (SATCOM) accessible to small and medium-sized companies which in general are unable to bear the technical and economic risks of projects based on satellite technology. more…

“The legal form of the EWIV applied in daily business” – this is the subject matter of a conference on the legal form of the EEIG (European Economic Interest Grouping) which will take place on the 22nd September 2006 in Vienna. more…