| Austrian Resources |
June 29, 2002
|
Georg Aichholzer and Regina Sperlich
ITA, Vienna
Contribution to the DEEDS Policy Group,
Digital Economy: Policies Exchange and Development for SMEs
March 2001
1 Introduction: some facts on Austria’s way towards an information society and digital economy... 4
1.1 General indicators......... 4
1.2 Information and telecommunications sector 4
1.3 General diffusion and use of e-technology....... 5
1.4 Diffusion and use of e-technology by SMEs 5
2 Initiatives and policy proposals to promote the use of e-technologies by Austrian businesses 5
2.1 Proposal by the Working Group Information Society of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce...... 5
2.1.1 Policy for the business location Austria in the information society 6
2.1.2 Education 6
2.1.3 Protection of intellectual property 6
2.2 Initiatives for realising e-government services for businesses....... 7
2.2.1 A nine-step proposal by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce 7
2.2.2 A portal for business related e-government services 8
2.3 Selected projects of the action plan developed by the Ministry for Economy and Labour 9
2.3.1 “e-biz for SMEs” – an integrated impulse package 9
2.3.2 “e-Business Award Austria” 10
2.4 Actions and services implemented at regional level (“Länder”)...... 12
2.4.1 e-Business support of the „Land“ Salzburg 12
2.4.2 e-business support offered by other Austrian “Länder” 13
2.5 Other services supporting/promoting e-business in Austria 14
3 References 14
The massive transformation of Austria’s employment structure towards the service and information sectors is clearly visible in the corresponding statistics:
– nearly two thirds of the economically active population work in the service sector (63% by 1998) [1] ,
– already the population census in 1991 showed that the number of people in information professions had reached a level of 36% of the total working population [2] (figures for the new census to be performed in 2001 will show a significant increase),
– in parallel, the nominal share of the service sector in Austria’s total GDP has risen from 43% in 1964 to 66.7% in 1999 (Schmee and Mesch 2000, p.11).
– The share of the GDP of the manufacturing sector has been falling from 32.6% (1987) to 30.4% (1997) and is falling further. Although business services have not traditionally been a strength of the Austrian economy (see study of the Federal Ministry of Economy and Labour, 1998), Austria’s service sector belongs to the most innovative sectors in Europe.
The importance of the branches of the information and telecommunications sector in Austria can be seen through the following data:
– Network providers, hard- and software suppliers, content producers, electronic service providers and broadcasting stations make annually more than 150 billion Austrian Schillings today and contribute to more than 4% of the GDP.
– The number of enterprises in software-production and consulting has been tripled since 1990. Whereby, within the last three years the growth has been more than 20%. Today more than 17.000 enterprises are active in those branches. Parallel the employment rate increased. The sales of this branch are estimated with about 38 billions Austrian Schillings (source: Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, FV DV and UB).
– In many sectors employment has risen over the last years. More than 42.000 employees are active in the telecommunication sector (Source: A.D. Little, VAT). The providers of mobile networks alone account for 10.000 positions directly or indirectly. The sales of the Telekom Austria, the successor of the former PTT and the firm with the biggest market share was more than 36 billion Austrian Schillings in 1999. Until the end of 2000, the new telecommunication enterprises will have invested about 30 billions Austrian Schillings (source: VAT). Consulting firms employ more than 300 employees in the telecom-branch only.
– The value of production of the Austrian telecommunication industry was 17,3 billions in 1999. In comparison to the former year, this is an increase of 7,7% (source: Austrian Federal Economic Chamber/FEEI, June 2000).
– The electronic information market had more than 1000 employees in 1998 with sales of 2,8 billion Austrian Schillings (source: MSSTUDY II, ARCS, September 1999).
– According to the Austrian Internet Monitor (AIM) [3] , by December 2000, 56% of all Austrians above the age of 14 have a PC. For 46% of Austrians above 14 access to the Internet is provided, these are 3,1 million users (21% have access from their office, 33% from home, 9% at school or university);
– and 40% of Austrians are using the Internet regularly (31% are intensive users). The use of WAP services is still limited to a small proportion of the population (2 %, 140.000 users).
– By December 2000 the market penetration of mobile phones was about 70% in Austria (source: Internationale Telekom Statistik Siemens/mobilkom, Vienna). Coming after the Scandinavian countries this is one of the highest rates in Europe.
– 76,8% of Austrian SMEs have access to the Internet (source: Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, September 2000), in comparison to May 2000: 73% (source: Fessel GFK), to June 1999: 47% (source Austrian Federal Economic Chamber).
– 41,3% of the SMEs realise there Internet access through a single computer work place. 31,5% have Internet access through multiple PC work places. 60% of the enterprises have access to the Internet through an own home page (source: Fessel GFK, May 2000).
– Within the liberalised telecommunication market fees have been falling significantly, while the quality and diversity of services have increased. At the beginning of 2000, there were 100 owners of telecom licenses, more than 200 Internet service providers and more than 200 cable-TV-enterprises.
– In 1999, the number of newly founded enterprises reached with 22.000 a new peak. More than 2700 of those enterprises are in the data processing business. The close networking with foreign markets and the fast reaction to changes of technology and market have become key criteria.
– Although there is just a small Austrian capital market (in comparison to the international market), the venture capital investment of sectors of the new economy are also successful in Austria, though the stock exchange of growing enterprises is often not taken place in Austria. Examples for such successful enterprises are BEKO, KEBA, FABASOFT, BRAINFORCE, UPDATE, FUNWORLD, JOWOD, BLUE C, BETANDWIN, YLINE, TOPCALL, and others. For the provision of venture capital in the meanwhile there is differentiated supply of private and public suppliers (e.g. innovation agencies, horizons, etc.).
Already in December 1999, a working group at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce has proposed a number of measures for the promotion of business with respect to information society technologies (in combination with steps of other institutions). The proposal is titled ”Measures for the Location Austria in a Digital Economy: Proposal for Steps and Positions of the Working Group Information Society of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce”.
– Policy for the economy-location in the information society
– Telecommunication policy
– Education
– Electronic Commerce
– Protection of intellectual property and
– Data protection.
Measures in this category are already partly realised. With the electronic signature law and provision for signatures important pre-conditions are established. By the end of 2000 – after the electronic signature law was taken into effect already by January 1, 2000, security policy should be elaborated for all offices of the administrations of the state and “Länder” in co-operation with the representatives of business for electronic contacts with enterprises (Austrian Federal Economic Chamber).
The signature law was the pre-condition for a secure and privacy-protected Austrian chip card. The introduction of this card has been decided by “the Austrian government on 20 November 2000” and was “based on the Austrian security card which will be rolled out to all people during 2002”. The Austrian citizen card itself is “an electronic identification based on secure electronic signature using the technology distributed by the social security system. It inherently offers the European dimension according to the legal situation provided by the European signature directive…As the actual provision of signatures and thus certificates on this card is left to the market this offers a system which is most open and still allows for maximum interoperability” [4] .
Measures in the education sector are already realised to a large extent, as concerns Internet access at schools: In December 1999, 3117 of all the 6246 Austrian schools had access to the Internet which was – on average - a percentage of 50%. Now, in February 2001, one can find 4153 of all 6317, 65.7% and therefore a decisive growth within a period of fourteen months (Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture) [5] .
An important initiative to increase the Internet access of Austrian schools was the Viennese Education Net (“Wiener Bildungsnetz”). This can be seen as fully in line with the initiative eEurope which asks for high-speed access to the Internet in the class rooms of all pupils and for an adequate education for teachers.
Currently, there are twelve different commercial content exploitation organisations (“Verwertungsgesellschaften”) active, which are responsible for a limited repertoire, thus, the user of the work is often forced to pay revenues to multiple commercial content exploitation organisations (“Verwertungsgesellschaften”) for either the same work or for different works. Therefore a proposal has been made that one-stop-shops for the proceeding of the collection of revenues from intellectual properties should be established quickly. The current law forces the user to purchase rates/acquire licenses at every single organisation (e.g. cable TV, rates for blank cassettes and reprographies).
The existing commercial content exploitation organisations are not able to come up with a smooth adoption of rights, which would keep the transaction costs low and protect the right holder effectively against claims from third parties, according to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
The e-business working groups of the initiative “e-business in a new economy” of the Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour has started – among many other suggested projects and measures – a copyright initiative that claims four points:
The Austrian Chamber of Commerce has set another initiative to help strengthen Austrian businesses’ and in particular SMEs’ preparedness for the digital economy. It has developed a nine-step proposal “Putting into action e-government in Austria” demanding the following principles and measures to be realised:
(1) e-government must be a priority for the government.
For enterpreneurs it is clear that top level executives must carry out the development over a whole legislation period and its timely realisation through all units of the administration.
(2) e-government needs similar identification, security measures and standards for the electronic contact on all levels of administration.
The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber proposes to complete a contract with the “Länder” on the basis of Section 15a BVA. Security policy must be based on open standard technology which is the pre-requisite for the digital signature.
(3) The establishment of a task force that connects the activities of ministries, “Länder” and administrations. This task force prepares and realises the handling of administration proceedings.
Therefore, the co-operation of all ministries is necessary in order to realise further online applications.
(4) Opening of the existing and future online proceedings for all enterprises as well as the free choice of access.
The existing or planned online service realisation of, for example, tax returns (through FinanzOnline) are not open to obliged enterprises. Instead, they are only available to professions, like lawyers. Also, the electronic access is only possible for customers of certain providers.
(5) Definition of interfaces that allow software enterprises to develop compatible programmes for the contact with administrations.
It should be possible to compile and to send, e.g., tax returns, by using programmes which are otherwise used in businesses.
(6) Online handling of proceedings of the general administration practice and of the leading organisation of administrations as well as the further development of help.gv for enterprises.
Although pilot projects are useful, they must be integrated into the everyday administration practice. In all parts of the administrations, which are close to the economy, location-relevant conditions for the implementation of information and communication technologies in contact with enterprises must be prepared. Thereby, priorities should be set. Because of the limited budget one should concentrate above all on proceedings, which need to be done regularly by many enterprises.
With help.gv the government has an important instrument for the realisation of e-government services. Now, this concept of the pure information system should be rebuilt to an offer of services for citizens as well as enterprises. The Economic Chamber has prepared in the line with the “life situations”, which are the basis for help.gv, information of “enterprise situations” and is ready to bring this into the co-operation.
(7) A transparent basis for the utilisation of public information carried out by all ministries and länder governments as well as by the affected parts of the economy (e.g. legal texts, statistics and geographic data).
The economy proposes the establishment of an “advisory board” in which economy and administration cooperate and in which they elaborate and develop the necessary rules in order to be able to prove the possibility of a public-private partnerships already before the assembling of data.
(8) Improvement of the technical equipment and education of staff of public administration to be able to realize e-government.
Although the flexibility of the budget is cero, this request must be recognised within the next budget as structural measurement.
(9) Compatible development of e-government-applications with European administration proceedings in Austria.
With the development of the European single market the integration of European administrative proceedings gain importance. This is not only important for the international trade, but also for other administrative fields. The EU takes therefore into account the further development of IDA.
In the meantime the development of e-government services for businesses has made considerable progress. Very recently, at the beginning of March 2001, the first stage of an online service platform dedicated to public administration services for businesses has been implemented and publicly presented. It represents an extension of the existing public service platform for citizens called “Amtshelfer” (public service assistant) or help.gv [6] which is structured according to life events and which is appreciated internationally as a model solution in many respects. What is important is that it offers more than a simple list of links. It offers an initial set of core information prepared in a standard format on each subject directly plus links to sites which are relevant.
With this additional branch of help.gv the government has established an important instrument for the realisation business related of e-government services. The Chamber of Commerce has prepared in one line with the “life situations”, which are the basis for the citizen related branch of help.gv, information of “enterprise situations”. Now, this concept of the pure information system has been rebuilt to an offer of services for citizens as well as enterprises. The further development of help.gv is undertaken through the following partners: Federal Ministry of Public Service and Sports, Federal Ministry of Economy and Labour, Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Austrian Association of Industrialists. The extended information service can be found through http://www.help.gv.at as well as through the new address http://www.help-business.gv.at. Here, enterprises can gain uncomplicated support for their public service procedures. Enterpreneurs as well as employees can prepare their public service procedures independently from time and place. The steps for the founding of a new enterprise is a special service for single enterprises and corporations, too, which visualises the optimal founding procedure of an enterprise. Additionally, this information service was enriched through an extended offer of downloadable forms.
Other information services and links which are offered through help.gv for enterprises currently include the following subjects (the list is constantly being extended):
The impulse package “e-biz for SMEs” should offer SMEs the necessary support in form of information, individual advice and accompanying care for the implementation and realisation of new information technologies. Information will be also offered in a well organised way through a web portal for SMEs with the motto “reducing information to its essence”.
Content and realisation plans can be described as follows:
– Concept and realisation of a marketing- and information campaign, including the promotion of knowledge transfer in relation to e-business, especially B2B-e-commerce through PR and the co-operation with “multiplicators”,
– Elaboration and offer of materials for measures for awareness raising, e.g. publications, brochures, CD ROMs, videos, web-sites, etc.,
– Conception and realisation of events explicitly in relation to SMEs, partly sector-specific (symposia, seminars, workshops, e-business award, etc.).
– Creation of an e-business portal as a single-access-point for SMEs under the recognition of existing content and the evaluation of already existing services. Through this portal a central information source for enterprises should be created, including multiple themes, like law, data security, events, advice, education, best practices, promotion, newsletter, etc.,
– Through adequate networking with existing solutions on the horizontal, but also on the regional level, the way should be eased to prove complementary offers or related services,
– The provision of active services, the mediation of concrete partners and the interactivity of the information flow need to be recognised here.
– Establishment of quality standards for supportable advice (“certification”),
– Support or provision for advice (primary, individual, branch-specific or project-specific advice, virtual B2B-solution),
– Support for concepts for the introduction of B2B solutions,
– Support for relevant research and development projects within the FFF (Industrial Research Promotion Fund),
– Support for and implementation of B2B solutions of SMEs (single and co-operative projects) within the context of the ERP-fund, the BÜRGES, relevant “Länder”-programmes with the best possible utilisation of financial resources from the EU.
– The initiative “e-biz” should be effective for the whole federal area including regional points under recognition of the European framework
– Besides the Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour, other relevant promoting funds (ERP-Funds, FFF, Innovation Agency), the “Bundesländer”, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Austrian Industrialists, WIFI Austria, Austria Pro, and other intermediaries are participating within this initiative.
– Phase of implementation: about 3 million Austrian Shillings,
– Running costs (first year): about 20 million Austrian Shillings,
– Running costs (second and third year) about 30 million Austrian Shillings.
The initiative is planned for a period until the end of 2003.
Awarded will be technological solutions in connection with relevant business models, which use Internet technology to support transactions within the value chain. In the centre of interest are transactions and not information and communication (like the still typical home page).
A second characterisation of the winner of the Award should be the market-relevant co-ordination of service-exchanges. Here, many customers meet a supplier (sell side solutions), a customer meets many suppliers (buy side solutions) or many customers meet many suppliers (net markets). One-to-one relationships, like the EDIFACT-Connection between producers and suppliers are the objective of the e-business Award Austria. Possible business models for this Award are
– Electronic markets,
– e-Shops and e-auctions within the B2B segment (sell side solution),
– e-Procurement (buy side solution),
– Vertical portals within the B2B-segment,
– Functions for the security of the market-relevant service-exchanges.
– Pupils and students,
– Research institutions and start-ups,
– Enterprises,
– Special category m-business,
– Special category handicapped.
– Television (Austrian Broadcasting ORF),
– National newspapers of quality (Die Presse/Der Standard),
– Local newspapers (Kurier, Kleine Zeitung, Salzburger Nachrichten, OÖ Nachrichten, etc.),
– Sponsors from the category m-business (e.g. provider of m-services),
– Further sponsors of the sectors IT-industry, enterprise consulting and “old economy”,
– Sponsors for the Networking Academy,
– Partners as gatekeepers to SMEs (Austrian Chamber of Commerce).
– Innovation of technology,
– Innovation of business model,
– Quality of the realisation,
– Detailing of the business model,
– Transparency of the business model,
– Attraction of the target market,
– Integrative implementation,
– Co-operation of work,
– Compatibility/model-effect/contribution to awareness raising.
– In the first year, groups are acting primarily on the national level. Through the inclusion of the European Commission’s goals and the membership of a representative of the European Commission in the steering committee, the European dimension should be guaranteed from the beginning.
– In the second year, there is a two-step procedure possible. In the first step, there will be the possibility of a regional pre-selection. In the long run, there could be an extension on the European level.
– Applying pupils and students,
– Applying research institutions,
– Applying start-ups,
– Applying enterprises (team),
– SMEs,
– Sponsors from media enterprises, the IT-industry and consulting firms,
– Austrian Federal Economic Chamber,
– European Commission,
– Federal Ministry of Economy and Labour.
– From December 2000 to September 2002.
These costs are primary estimations and have to be further detailed and specified. Depending on the negotiation result of the media partners and the sponsors for the Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour costs are estimated between 1.000.000 and 1.500.000 Austrian Shillings
|
Position |
Costs in Austrian Shillings: |
|
PR Television |
4.000.000 |
|
PR Print |
2.000.000 |
|
Flyer and brochures (incl. CD) |
500.000 |
|
Price in Cash |
70.000 |
|
Prices in goods |
60.000 |
|
Networking Academy |
500.000 |
|
Expenses for jury members |
300.000 |
|
Web site |
200.000 |
|
Office of organisation |
700.000 |
|
Overall |
8.330.000 |
This is an action program as part of the of the small enterprises support funds “e-business”.
Goal: The “Salzburger Landes Fond” can grant annuity-subsidy for commercial loans for credits which are used for investments in order to strengthen Salzburg’s family and small enterprises’ ability to compete through the building and enlargement of electronic commerce.
– Small enterprise (max. 12 employees, not including apprentices) with current business allowance,
– Business location in Salzburg,
– Member of the Chamber of Commerce of Salzburg.
– Basic annuity subsidy of 6% per year within a funding period of 3 years,
– Additionally to the basic annuity subsidy, a regional annuity subsidy of 6% for funding applicants who’s location of enterprise and investment is in the political districts of Saint Johann (Pongau), Lungau, Zell am See or the three municipalities of the Lammer valley,
– The base of calculation is maximal 75% of the fundable overall costs (excl. value added tax),
– The maximum of fundable credit volume per case is 150.000 Austrian Shillings,
– Overall costs of at least 50.000 Austrian Shillings (exclusive value added tax) are necessary.
– Action for funding of small enterprises,
– Energetic improvement of places of enterprise.
– Industrial e-Business (http://www.ebusiness.or.at/):
This is a comprehensive e-business information service for the Länder Burgenland, Lower Austria and Vienna.
– eCommerce Show (http://www.wkk.or.at/roadshow/default.htm):
– eBusiness Fundings (http://www.wkk.or.at/neweconomy/):
An information service on e-business provided by the Chamber of Commerce of the Land Carinthia.
– Industrial e-Business (http://www.ebusiness.or.at/):
See above “Burgenland”.
– e-Business Information (http://wko.at/ooe/ecommerce/inhalt.htm):
List of e-business links provided by the Chamber of Commerce of the Land Upper Austria.
– e-Business Information (http://www.sbg.wifi.at/ebusiness):
Links provided by the Institute of Economic Development of the Chamber of Commerce of the Land Salzburg to “Continuing Professional Training”, “PR & advertising consulting services”, “International Know-how Transfer” and “Consultancy Services”.
– e-Business Fundings (http://www.land-sbg.gv.at/wirtschaft/e-business.htm):
See case description above (top of this chapter).
– Multimedia Show (http://www.wkstmk.at/roadshow3/info.htm):
Roadshow for SMEs in Austria in the information society of the Chamber of Commerce of the Land Styria.
– e-Business Information (http://www.wkstmk.at/service/pep-module/e_business/wkodefault.htm):
e-business service of the Chamber of Commerce of the Land Styria.
– e-Business Fundings (http://www.sfg.at/foerderung/e_business.html)
– Go2Internet in Vienna (http://www.wkw.at/go2internet/):
Internet advice- and funding modules of the Economic Chamber of Vienna.
– SPIN: e-Business (http://www.electronic-business.at/):
Electronic business portal of the expert group enterprise consulting and information technology Vienna. Electronic business information service for suppliers and interested people.
– eBiz FAQ (http://www.ebizfaq.at/):
A modern information forum for specialists of Viennese entrepreneurs of all kinds of commercial proceedings that can be handled through the Internet.
– Industrial e-Business (http://www.ebusiness.or.at/):
An comprehensive e-business information service for the members of the industrial sections Lower Austria, Vienna and Burgenland.
An important category of instruments which promote the adoption and use of of e-technologies and e-business in the Austrian economy and by SMEs in particular are a number of national level funds for technology and innovation promotion. One of these is the Fund for Innovation and Technology (ITF) with special programmes Technologies for the Information Society, EDI Business Austria, and Multimedia Business Austria. Further institutions of promotion include the ERP-fund, the BÜRGES-fund and the Innovation Agency. They all have contributed in different forms to the e-business promotion of SMEs.
In addition there are various special initiatives including the following:
AustriaPro (http://www.austriapro.at/ ):
An association for the promotion of electronic data interchange in co-operation with the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
IT4career (http://www.it4career.at/):
An e-education platform in co-operation with the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.
eDay 2000 (http://www.eday.at):
Information service on e-business events for the members of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.
Telefit e-Business Show 2000 (http://www.telefit.at/):
e-business service of the Institute of Economic Development of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.
Sint, P. P. (1998): „Empirische Analyse der Beschäftigung im Informationssektor“, Kurswechsel 2/98, 45-64.
[1] Schmee and Mesch 2000, p.13.
[2] Sint 1998, 48 pp.
[7] http://www.lets-ebiz.at/ (an initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour in cooperation with the Austrian Chamber of Commerce).
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