Neolectum

CeBIT 2008 - Hannover, 4-9 March

ICT plays a key role in boosting the efficiency of public administration

At CeBIT 2008 “Public Sector Solutions” will occupy two entire halls for the first time. On 7 and 8 March TeleHealth will showcase dedicated ICT solutions for the healthcare sector. The broad-based lecture program will feature numerous high-profile contributors who will present their research findings and discuss best-practice examples.

As in past years Public Sector Parc (PSP) will be located in Hall 9. The 250 exhibitor line-up includes major players such as Agresso, Fabasoft, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, IBM, MACH, Materna, SAP and Siemens, plus numerous public sector institutions and regional state organizations. These exhibitors will showcase the latest ICT solutions on a total display area of 11,000 square meters. The official PSP patron and opening speaker is Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s Federal Minister of the Interior.

“We are very pleased that Public Sector Parc is dealing with such a broad range of issues,” says Dr. Sven-Michael Prüser, the Senior Vice President responsible for CeBIT. The EU Services Directive enacted in June 2007 will figure prominently in the PSP forum program. “The public authorities are still unsure about how to implement the Directive – i.e. to what extent they will have to modify their internal systems and who should be accessible via the standard 115 telephone helpline. At CeBIT visitors will be able to talk directly to the experts and find out about future developments,” Sven Prüser adds. 

The PSP is targeted at decision-makers working in local, regional and central government, education and research, as well as private industry. It provides a complete overview of the latest e-government tools. In Hall 9 the emphasis will be on the improved delivery of services to citizens and companies and on the streamlining of internal processes. Other issues on the agenda will be energy conservation, secure data transfer between public sector organizations and the integration of electronic signatures.

In this context Fujitsu Siemens Computers and OPENLiMiT® have teamed up to create an e-card solution which complies with Technical Guideline 03-112 of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Small and medium-sized enterprises will likewise use PSP to present their innovative concepts to potential users in the public sector. One example is sunhill technologies’ mobile-phone payment system for parking charges (“sms&park”). Pre-registration is not required. Before the virtual parking ticket expires, the user receives a reminder in the form of a text message. If required the parking duration can be extended at the touch of a button.

Focus on geographical information systems

Geoinformation —i.e. the processing and interactive presentation of geographical data— will feature prominently at Public Sector Parc 2008. The list of exhibitors includes the Autodesk specialist Contelos, CEGI - Center for Geoinformation, ESRI Geoinformatik, GfK GeoMarketing, the German Land Surveyors’ Association (DVW) and the German Geoinformation Federation (DDGI). Public authorities now rely heavily on geographical information systems – for example, in the area of security, urban planning and traffic management. Such information also plays a critical role in predicting and responding to natural disasters.

Geoinformation systems are also deployed in a wide range of business sectors. Agriculture and forestry are two obvious examples. Other examples include the public utilities, the waste disposal sector, the telecommunications industry, the healthcare industry, the real estate sector and the car industry. Geoinformation systems are an important planning tool for banks, insurance companies and retailers. Visitors to CeBIT will be able to view the latest visualization and evaluation techniques and gain an insight into future developments.

Wide-ranging forum and congress program

A major highlight in Hall 9 will be the “Municipal Marketplace” – a separate forum tailored specifically to the requirements of local administrative bodies. The focus here is on call center services, double-entry bookkeeping, municipal finance and accounting, municipal web portals, e-government, the DeutschlandOnline web portal, geographical information systems, as well as municipal workflow and document management systems. Parallel to the “Municipal Marketplace”, PSP 2008 will feature a further forum devoted to key current issues such as the EU Services Directive, the central service number 115 and electronic passports. The forum will boast a varied program of lectures, case studies and discussions.

Following its successful debut in 2007, the “Public Procurement Workshop” will be taking place for the second time (on 6 March 2008). The event is targeted at mayors, district administrators, senior government officials (national, regional and local), procurement officers, ICT and e-government specialists, legal affairs officers, consultants, lawyers and – last but not least – private enterprises that are aiming to do business with the public sector. The goal is to inform attendees about national and European tendering procedures and to familiarize them with the latest technological processes.

PSP welcomes mayors and other decision-makers

Public Sector Parc 2008 will include the “Local Government Days” staged in collaboration with Germany’s federal states. Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein have already pledged their support. Mayors, district administrators, senior officials and ICT experts are invited to take part (free of charge) in guided tours of the PSP presentation. Dr. Sven Prüser is convinced that the “Local Government Days” will once again be a resounding success: “In Lower Saxony alone, more than 500 mayors and ICT specialists have already signed up for the 5 March. Numerous decision-makers from other federal states will be attending Public Sector Parc on the other days. The high level of interest in the ‘CeBIT Municipal Days’ indicates that effective ICT solutions are in high demand in all sectors of public administration.”

Focus on French municipalities

France is this year’s CeBIT Partner Country. A record number of French exhibitors will be taking part. Against this background several German federal states (e.g. Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate) have issued specific invitations to their twinned municipalities in France.

Recruitment of ICT specialists

Human resources will be a key theme on the weekend of 8 – 9 March. Computer specialists will have the chance to evaluate training and career opportunities – not only in public-sector organizations, but also in private companies that are developing sophisticated IT solutions for administrative tasks. HR managers will be available to advise and answer questions. For the public sector this represents an ideal opportunity to position themselves as attractive employers.

January 2008

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CeBIT 2008 – Hannover, 4-9 March

“Business Solutions” display category

Concentrated topics — solutions-oriented focus • Core of “Business Solutions” in halls 2 to 7

In keeping with the new CeBIT concept, the organizers at Deutsche Messe have restructured the show’s traditional “enterprise IT” sector and given it a new name: “Business Solutions”. This display sector is the biggest of the three so-called “CeBIT pillars”, consisting of software products and services, vertical industry solutions and special topics, including the Future Parc innovations platform, network technology and IT for banks.

The core of the “Business Solutions” display sector will be located in halls 2 to 7 in a layout reflecting the individual functional areas of an enterprise, beginning with internal and external communication, product development, products, sales and customer relationship management and ending with administrative processes like financial accounting and human resources management. Related topic areas will be placed in direct proximity, guaranteeing a fast, easy and comprehensive tour for the professional user looking to improve his or her business processes and pick up some new ideas.

Halls 2 to 7

CeBIT 2008 marks the first time Hall 2 has been included in the “Business Solutions” sector. The featured topics in this hall include business storage, servers, IT services and virtualization. Exhibitors in Hall 2 include IBM, Datev, Novell and leading storage providers like HITACHI, Promise Europe and Iomega.

The “regular” features of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Web Content Management (CM) in Hall 3 are being supplemented this year by Document Management Systems (DMS). System Software and Business Intelligence and Enterprise Information Integration (bi & eii) will round out the offerings in Hall 3.

Along with numerous small and medium-sized enterprises, Microsoft, SAP and Software AG will make up the backbone of the displays running from 4 to 9 March in Hall 4. Apart from Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP), visitors here can get a first-hand look at service-oriented architectures (SOA) and intelligent Business Process Management systems (BPM). Customer Relationship Management applications (CRM), online marketing solutions and the new Consulting & Services platform for management consultants will also be presented in Hall 4.

Apart from playing host to numerous vertical market solutions and Supply Chain Management applications (SCM), Hall 5 has developed into an “ERP hall” over the last few years. Here the visitor will find all the applications needed for efficient resource planning. “The new hall alignment has inspired numerous ERP manufacturers to appear additionally in Hall 5. We are delighted to be able to give our visitors an even more comprehensive overview of the latest ERP solutions in Hall 5,” reports Dr. Sven-Michael Prüser, CeBIT Senior Vice President. Hall 5 will also feature the “CeBIT SME Forum” as well as LinuxPark.

A special highlight at the show involves the merging of Human Resources Management (HR) with the topic of Security in Hall 6. “Exhibiting enterprises like Kaba or Interflex are traditionally closely involved with the IT security segment. For this reason we decided to consolidate both topics at a shared location,” explains Prüser. The “CeBIT Security World” is one of the world’s biggest IT security events, featuring a comprehensive range of offerings from a technological, physical and logical-organizational standpoint and guaranteeing the visitor access to all products and services for enterprise data and network protection. Equally closely linked to the issue of HR management and therefore also located in Hall 6 is the “CeBIT Job & Career Market” as well as the new “Learning & Knowledge Solutions” special presentation. The exhibition program in Hall 6 is rounded out by displays of biometric systems and card technologies.

Two dynamic categories will round out the core themes at the “Business Solutions” display sector: AutoID/RFID and Professional Output/Office Solutions in Hall 7. The “Auto ID/RFID Solutions Park” will serve as a magnet for anyone interested in cross-industry solutions involving automotive, aviation, retail/wholesale logistics, not to mention health care and pharmaceuticals — all presented in pavilion clusters. The Metro Group is among the exhibitors this year. Visitors can also examine professional office applications at the stands of Kyocera, Xerox and Casio.

Additional topics covered

Future Parc in Hall 9 features the digital world’s most exciting future trends. Halls 12 and 13 will serve as the exclusive showcase for networking and visitors to Hall 17 will be treated to the first holistic presentation of the complete spectrum of software and hardware systems for the banking and financial services sector. The “Banking & Finance” segment has been a key display category at CeBIT for years — in 2008 it will be extended by a “Point of Sale” special display.

Varied supporting program

Above and beyond the standard range of exhibits, CeBIT 2008 also offers numerous special events, discussion forums and networking platforms. Over 20 topical events are planned in the Business Solutions display sector alone. Here are a few highlights:

Hall 2 will be the venue for the new Virtualization Forum, staged by Deutsche Messe in cooperation with the Magirus Group. This forum features big-name manufacturers of hardware and software solutions that can help make an enterprise’s global IT structures scalable, secure and easier to administer. The virtualization market is booming. Companies today are more interested in virtualization technology than ever before, since it has a direct relationship with the IT challenges of the future such as consolidation, IT capacity utilization, computer and data security, archiving and hardware independence. As a key technology for more energy-efficient data centres, virtualization is closely related to the CeBIT focal topic of green IT. Virtualization solutions, for example, allow companies to split up individual servers into smaller, “virtual” units or to merge small individual machines into large-scale systems.

In the CM Arena in Hall 3, the featured topic will be Web 2.0 in connection with improved corporate communication. The conference program at the CM Arena will be supplemented by the international “Enterprise 2.0 Summit”, an event held entirely in English. Another highlight involves the bi-eii forum, dedicated to presenting the latest enterprise management software solutions and occupying around 600 square meters of space in Hall 3. Visitors to Hall 3 will likewise be treated to a presentation of innovative solutions for electronically capturing, searching and archiving digital corporate information at the DMS Area, where the issue of legal compliance will also be covered.

At the “crm arena” in neighboring Hall 4, leading CRM suppliers and service providers will present their innovative products, strategies and concepts for comprehensive and effective customer relationship management.

In response to the growing significance of IT in the financial services sector, an independent Finance Forum has been specially established in Hall 17. Dr. Ibrahim Karasu, a member of the Management Board of the Association of German Banks, will open this CeBIT Finance Solutions Forum on the first day of the show.

January 2008