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Enlarged EU is benefitting from internal trade flows

Joaquin Almunia, EU commissioner of Commerce and Finance, presented a report in Brussels suggesting that the extension of the European Union from 15 to 25 member states 2 years ago has proved to be an advantage to everyone. The report also shows that fears of job cuts and relocation were exaggerated. It furthermore states that […]

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Damaged hard drives may still be saved

According to the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, USA, 93 percent of companies the server of which has been out of order for more than ten days go bankrupt within the following year. Charred interfaces, crushed read heads and destroyed drive cases represent the daily routine in the laboratory of Kroll Ontrack […]

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What executives need to know about Basel II

Crashes of major commercial banks in the 1970s led to the setting up of a committee for the supervision of banking in Basel, Switzerland, at the Bank for International Settlement (BIZ). This committee is made up of representatives from central banks or supervisory institutions of Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, […]

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Small and medium-sized companies call for specific financial reporting standards

Small and medium-sized German entities (SME ⇒ Wikipedia) are calling for their own special version of the so-called International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS ⇒ Wikipedia ). This is the unanimous opinion voiced at last Wednesday´s “Internationale Rechnungslegung” conference, according to the organiser of the event, the accountancy and consultancy enterprise PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

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Many companies violate Data Protection Act

One out of five companies, according to estimates by the association Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien (Bitkom), violates the rules of the Federal Data Protection Act (⇒ Wikipedia). The association therefore cautions against careless handling of customer data. Although the processing of these data has become a matter of daily routine in virtually any […]

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Newspaper Die Welt recommends to buy shares in small and medium-sized companies

Mrs Patrizia Ribaudo, journalist with the newspaper „Die Welt�? and stock exchange expert, strongly advocates to invest in small and medium-sized companies which want to go public. Going public has become the rage and while the attention of investors is mainly drawn to the most recent protagonists of Air Berlin or Catoil, a growing number […]

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Sound products suitable for spin-off

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 […]

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Google Scholar informs on the state of the art of science and technology

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.

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German Internet Award endowed with 3 x 25.000 Euro

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 […]

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Selective IT outsourcing appeals to smaller companies

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 […]