More and more companies rely on IT outsourcing to increase their competitiveness. This is done primarily by shifting IT services such as data centres, network management or programming assignments to outside service providers. Since the contract recipients are often companies in Eastern Europe or India, anxiety about job security in Germany is created. However, offshoring actually secures jobs in Germany. This is shown by market analyses for outsourcing and offshoring.

Authors must be appropriately compensated for their work. However, lump sum copyright levies for digital devices are unfair to both authors and users because they are established independently from actual use of intellectual property. Regardless, collecting societies continue to demand further lump sum copyright levies on PCs, printers and all-in-ones. Further strains on manufacturers, retailers and consumers are impending. In BITKOM’s opinion, the amount of the royalties should be based upon the actual use of the copyright protected material.

Energy-efficient products not only help the environment, they also save money - so there are good reasons even during tough times to make eco-friendly investments. Green IT encompasses ICT-related improvements in energy and material efficiency of equipment (ICT internal) as well as applications (ICT external). With the annual Expert Conference Green IT, the Green IT Advisory Office, established by BITKOM in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, provides a forum for users and providers of Green IT technologies. In addition to the Expert Conference, the Advisory Office offers assistance in the generation of ideas for Green IT projects and in applying for funding from the programme for innovation in the environment (promotion of excellence) or for general support from the KfW.

Remarketing refers to the resale of used goods following due reconditioning and cleaning. The volume of used IT and electronic goods marketed is steadily growing – especially in these hard economic times. Such products stem from a wide variety of sources – Goods returned by customers and goods returned from leasing agreements, exchange models from trade-in programmes, and “end of the range” models are all suitable for remarketing.