Whereas employees in major companies who are sent abroad can generally ask their colleagues for advice, staff working in small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) quite often have to collect all the necessary information on their own. In order to help them in this respect there is a new web site called iXpatriate.de which went online at the beginning of December last year. This site was developed by the professorship for marketing at the Dresden Technical University and is sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs through means made available by the European Social Fund.
The new site helps staff of SMEs to prepare in a quick, easy and free-of-charge manner for their mission abroad. Using the site employees have the opportunity to collect comprehensive information on the social and business habits of the country to which they are about to travel. There all the knowledge accumulated by expatriates is presented in a way accessible to anybody. On the site it is possible to find information on specific countries, lines of industry, kinds of job etc. Furthermore there are several forums and chatrooms in which intercultural topics may be discussed and experiences exchanged. More information can be gathered on the site itself. 