Clusters are a very popular topic in the EU at the moment. The Commission statement “Towards world-class clusters in the European Union“ was released on 17th October and this communication will be further discussed at the EU Council of Competition in December this year. Here’s a brief overview of concrete applications of EU cluster policy.
The EU envisions clusters as regional, industry-specific consortia, mainly comprised of SMEs with the perceived potential to compete with big global companies. The EU supports cluster development, as does the Czech Republic.
Continue reading ‘Cluster development has mixed results in the Czech Republic’
the CEE-ClusterNetwork is one of several initiatives concerning cluster development within Europe, an FP6 project focused mainly on future innovation and cluster policy. One aim is also the mobilisation and support of regional innovation policy actors to carry out and design co-operation activities together with other competent public authorities.
Thus, certain correlation with the CITT project is clearly visible. Another connection is the geographical focus, as the consortium of Central and Eastern Europe cover parts of Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland and Italy.
I participated at the cross-border workshop for cluster managers of this project in Vienna in September last year. During this interesting meeting I had the possibilities to get familiar with the project and for example participate at the brain storming sessions on project ideas, such as for example cluster academy, strategy for twin cluster, joint marketing activities related to cluster building.
Continue reading ‘Survey on skills and training needs of European cluster managers’
This post is somehow a free analysis of my observations, and you, dear readers and bloggers, can verify together with me if my observations and conclusions apply.
Recently I commented IBM CEE’s move from Vienna to Prague. I said that this move has no reasonable background, as the Czech Republic is no low-cost low-wage country anymore and if IBM wants growth, why not go to Russia right away.
At the same time it was announced that Siemens rail vehicles is closing down in Prague. No tit-for-tat feelings. Everybody who has his/her eyes open can see that classical production moves east.
Yesterday I attended an event where one of Austria’s top ICT researchers, Bruno Buchberger (one of the top three worldwide in Symbolic Computation) presented his new master studies program mainly targeted to foreigners as in Austria they do not have enough top qualified computer science students.
Continue reading ‘Are we trapped in a vicious loop?’
Vienna’s position as CEE’s ICT capital has suffered quite a blow by IBM’s announcement to move its CEE headquarters to Prague. Beware: I love Prague, I live there, but the decision’s wording “to move growth market activities to growth markets” sounds rather shallow if applied to the Czech Republic. Sure the country has growth potentials that the EU15 have lost long ago, but then why not move IBM CEE to Ukraine or Russia right away?
Continue reading ‘IBM CEE: Na shledanou to Vienna’
I am pleased to be able to contribute for the first time to a new nowEurope issue that so far has been quite underestimated in some European countries: Technology transfer, in particular in ICT.
The core business of CITT is to devise a strategy to establish and get running a viable cooperation between the ICT industry and research. Although a lot has been done recently on national and EU levels, Europe still gives away too much technology and know how to competing markets.
Continue reading ‘CITT: Add “Technology Transfer” to Europe’s vocabulary!’
In late 2005, we published a list of Central European ‘companies to watch’ which you’ll find at the top of the nowEurope links page. The list consists of technology companies based in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The main selection critera was the subjective opinion of the NETIES consortium team members in each of these countries.
It’s now time to review the list and consider whether those companies are still worth watching. And what better way than CoolSW, a new service launched by Intel which Wired Magazine describes as a DIGG for software companies.
The burning question: Are Central European software companies ‘cool’?
Continue reading ‘Is Central European software ‘cool’?’
When an entrepreneur succeeds to build, grow and sell a globally successful company, it can be called an extraordinary achievement. There is not many cases like that in the Central and Eastern Europe. If he or she succeeds to do it again, it makes him a star exceeding the dimensions of the region.
Recently we discussed here with Tarmo the Estonian team behind Kazaa (peer-to-peer system for sharing MP3 files) and Skype (acquired by eBay) that did it under Niklas Zennström (Swedish) and Janus Friis (Danish) management. I’m glad there is another success story, this time having roots in the Czech Republic.
Continue reading ‘Roman Stanek’s 2nd success story’
The ICZ company belongs to the top system integrators in the Czech Republic. Thanks to its division focused on e-health it ranks among the leading companies in the field of hospital information systems (IS) on the local market. In 2006 the company turnover reached CZK 1 billion. I discussed the division history and its R&D activities with its product manager, Michal Schmidt.
He originally worked as a programmer in the state company Geofyzika. The opportunity to run his own business after 1989 led him and two other colleagues to join the SET joint stock company that won the tender for an information system in a newly built hospital in Breclav. At that time hospitals were introducing their first complex computer systems and so SET could build its system from scratch according to its ideas and without being limited by a reverse compatibility.
Continue reading ‘ICZ: infotizing health care as an opportunity for European projects’
Since it was established in 2000, the DC Concept Corporation located in Brno has been focusing on the development of unique object oriented information system including an integrated development CASE tool for creating and customizing applications. Currently, the company has twenty employees developing the system and providing technical and business support, and cooperates with approximately other 200 external consultants that deploy the system within the network of 40 partners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I discussed the development plans with one of the company founders and the executive manager at the same time, Jiri Rychetsky.
Ever since the beginning, the development has been concentrated on creating an information system that would encompass tools for analysts and implementators to be able to easily model business processes for applications supporting production and business. So, the QI information system was developed, and the first installation dates back to 2001. “Due to unique system features that enable the system to be completely customized to fit specific customer’s needs from the data, function as well as price points of view, we named it the First elastic information system. Except for advanced functional and data adaptability, customers are interested in price elasticity, which means that they can choose from tens of options how to finance the system lease”, says Jiri Rychetsky.
Continue reading ‘DC Concept: A network player in the information systems market’
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