Cooperation between business information technology vendors and users

An event entitled “Cooperation between business information technology vendors and users” on August 20th brought together recognised experts in Hamburg’s Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten.
This expert workshop was called by the BMWi (German Ministry for Commerce and Technology) and organised by AIIM (Association for Image and Information Management International), IIE (Institute for Information Economics) and PROJECT CONSULT Unternehmensberatung (IT consulting).

Trend Report: Development of the German IT business through 2006

The background of this event is the discussion of core statements of the second Trend Report 2001/2002 entitled “Development of the German IT business through 2006”, drawn up by the IIE for the BMWi in cooperation with NFO Infratest.
The BMWi’s objective in bringing together personalities from political, user, vendor and scientific circles was to obtain insights on how current assistance policies can be better adapted to actual needs.
In the study referenced above, over 95% of the experts asked said that poor cooperation between vendors and users represents a risk factor for Germany’s economic development. They also said that these risks should be seen as opportunities currently going unexploited due to the lack of cooperation.
The reason for this is that opportunities are only seldom recognised as such. The “Opportunity Paradox” proposition gave rise to an interesting discussion among the participants.

Discussion and suggested steps for future BMWi assistance policies

The experts, from Bayer, BMWi, EON, Factiva, HWWA, IIE, KPMG Consulting, Mak DATA System, PriceWaterhouseCooper, PROJECT CONSULT, Spiegel Publishing, Hamburg University, Wer liefert was? and WestLB discussed the causes, and also suggested concrete measures for future BMWi assistance policies.

Objective of AIIM International

As an association of both users and vendors, AIIM International considers one of its most important objectives to be bridging the gap between the opportunities for and the actual use of potential synergies.
A follow-up workshop is planned for this year. The “Hamburg Theses” proposed at this last workshop are listed below. These provide a first point of departure for involving business IT users and vendors in a discussion that will hopefully prove fruitful in coming years.

The “Hamburg Theses”

1. “Opportunity paradox
2. Internationality is an absolute
3. User enterprises: maintain the balance among strategy, adhering to planning and change management
4. Vendor enterprises: after the collapse of the “new economy” it is more important than ever to demonstrate substance and seriousness
5. There must be comprehensive cooperation between users and vendors
6. Special importance of soft skills
7. The greatest unused cooperation potential is with SMEs
8. Support cooperation between SMEs and large companies
9. In addition to dialogue within industries, there should also be cooperation with other industries
10. Consultants can perform important functions in the cooperation process between IT users and vendors
11. Institutions of higher learning and research have an important role to play in IT cooperation
12. The public sector as an IT user (E-Government)
13. The public sector as an IT vendor – the “Public Sector Information” problem area
14. The public sector as a political source of assistance
15. Important role for IT associations in ensuring efficient cooperation across industries

The complete “Hamburg Theses” with detailed explanations are available in German and in English on request.