INFO day

INFO day on the ICT Policy Support Programme
On February 5th 2010 an INFO day was held in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce dedicated to the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP). 
The INFO day was inaugurated by Ms.Jasna Matic, Minister for Telecommunications  and  Information Society of the Republic of Serbia, by Mr. Stephen Pascal, adviser on international cooperation in the Directorate General for Information Society and Media of the European Commission and by Mr.Dejan Jovanovic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics and Regional Development of Serbia.
INFO day was attended by more than 250 participants, most of which were representatives of local companies either directly involved in ICT sector, or wishing to improve their business through the use of such technologies. Participation in this Programme offers the opportunity to our companies to receive funding for project realization, as well as an excellent opportunity to establish cooperation with European companies.

BELGRADE

Eighth Business Roundtable with the Government of Serbia - New Direction for Growth
Eighth Business Roundtable with the Government of Serbia will be held on March 24, 2010 in Belgrade, in the hotel Hyatt Regency, and the InfoReview magazine for business communications, as the media partner of the event, offers special discount for the participation in the conference!
Economist Conferences'New Directions for Growth is your opportunity to join an exclusive debate on the country's business outlook and investment climate. 

You are invited to join senior ministers from the Government of SerbiaincludingPrime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, alongside experts from The Economist Group and key companies in Serbia, as we engage in off-the-record discussions about the most important issues facing Serbia’s future economy. 
Key questions to debate will include:

• Forecasts for Serbia's prospects from the Economist Intelligence Unit  
• Government plans for stimulating the economy in the light of IMF austerity measures and progress to  EU membership
• Making Serbia more attractive to investors by cutting red tape and improving infrastructure
• Sectors that investors are likely to find most attractive

ECDL Pension and Insurance Fund

Pension and Insurance Fund started ECDL training
Within the project “Consolidated Collection & Pension Administration Reform in Serbia”, ECDL on-line trainings and certification of 100 employees from various state institutions, including top management personnel of Republic Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance, were conducted.  Among the first who successfully passed the ECDL exam was the Chief Executive Officer Slobodan Zdravkovic, and with his example he demonstrated the orientation towards continuous improvement as a prerequisite for development, achieving economic results and use of modern technologies and devices. That was the reason to make a short interview for our readers:
You have nearly 2.8 million policy holders, 35 subsidiaries, and 121 outposts. Are you satisfied with your information system and how much does it help you in your work?

SBS

IBM ISS: First class IT security solutions

IBM Internet Security Systems is the trusted security advisor to thousands of the world's leading businesses and governments, providing preemptive protection for networks, desktops and servers.
Its integrated security platform is designed to automatically protect against both known and unknown threats, helping to keep networks up and running and shielding customers from online attacks before they impact business assets.
IBM Internet Security Systems products and services are based on the proactive security intelligence of its X-Force research and development team — the unequivocal world authority in vulnerability and threat research. The Internet Security Systems product line is also complemented by comprehensive Managed Security Services and Professional Security Services

MDS

The Significance of Implementing the Information Security Management System (ISMS) According to the Requirements of the Standard ISO 27001
"Information is knowledge which becomes available by means of communication, and which possesses an intelligence value.“
The definition itself explains the importance and value of information, both for sender and receiver, and on the other side it explains the necessity of means of communication for a successful transfer of information.
In today's global business conditions and market liberalism, timely information becomes the most important resource of any company, enterprise, or organization.
Since MDS’s partners are the biggest foreign and domestic providers, banks, and financial institutions, as well as most prominent companies of different structures, and since a large part of operations is done publicly, via the Internet, people realize the importance of information security, both in mutual relations between partners, and in relations with end users.
Investments in security in the region are mostly limited to the procurement, installation and configuration of firewall, IDS, IPS, antivirus, anti-trojan and other security technologies. Is it enough?

ECDL, Tax Administration of Serbia

ECDL training for e-business in the Tax Administration of Serbia

Based on the credit which the Republic of Serbia received from IDA – International Development Association, companies SAGA d.o.o. and EBC test center d.o.o conducted partial ECDL certification of the management personnel of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of the Government of Serbia. A large part of the work was done in the Tax Administration, which will offer various services to its customers in the field of electronic use of data base and financial accounting.
Interview with Dr Dejan Vidojevic, BSc, the assistant director of the Tax Administration:

e-Skills Week

In period from 1 to 5 March, 2010, under the auspices of the European Union, the European Commission, the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS), the most important ICT companies (IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Acer, HP... ) and other organizations, about 1.000 events within the campaign “e-Skills Week“ will take place simultaneously!
JISA – Union of ICT Societies, as Pan-European, but also as national stakeholder in this campaign, will, in cooperation with Ministries of Telecommunication and Information Societies, Youth and Sports, Education, Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, etc, as well as with a number of companies and organizations, realize a series of events throughout Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, with the aim of providing free ECDL – European Computer Driving Licence testing, as the most expanding and the most important digital literacy certificate recognized by European Commission.

SIEMENS

“Insurance Factory” opened its gates in Belgrade

WIMA

Leading International Conference & Exhibition

WIMA is the leading international Conference & Exhibition dedicated to NFC ( Near Field Communication) technology bringing together industry leaders, start-up companies, standards organizations, research & educational institutions to its annual event in Monaco.
Conferences
The WIMA 2010 Conference Programme will continue its highly successful parallel tracks, format of business and technical presentations from key industry leaders to start-up companies covering the latest NFC use cases, products on the market, innovative applications, services, testing, compliance, standardisation, R&D, workshops and much more….
The business sessions and panel discussions will provide the audience with the essential insight into the emerging business models and strategies, challenges ahead and opportunities to be seized for business with the eye for the consumer as the technology is rolling out. The technical sessions will present how to develop applications, integrate the technology into devices, programme tags, testing, compliance and more…

VLATACOM

Nothing without standards

MICROSOFT

It is the right time for us to make a technological advancement

In our efforts to realize what needs to be done to help the Republic of Serbia reach the standards of European Union, it was inevitable to reach the current problem of protection of intellectual property rights in information technology segment, which has to be resolved swiftly and adequately. Our interlocutor, Milos Trkulja, the public sector sales manager at Microsoft Serbia, agreed that this problem could be viewed from the other, more rational, and technically more accurate perspective.
In the previous period we witnessed the numerous foreign donations of computer hardware which played a major role in strengthening the capacity of state and local government. Were the softver licences present on the equipment adequately optimized?
In respect to the time dimension of the donations which you mentioned, as well as the state of the segment which we had inherited, we did not achieve this objective. For that reason, today in certain segments of state and local governments available hardware do not contribute to achieving maximum efficiency and productivity. On the other side, one has to notice the great progress that was made – the Government has done much to define the approach to the concept of eGovernment, and as a result the environment was significantly changed, and information technologies are being accepted as a possible solution of specific administrative problems.

TELENOR received the licence  for the second landline operator

In the presence of the highest state officials, Telenor received the license for the second landline telephone operator in Serbia on February 19, 2010, at the reception organized at the company’s headquarters in Novi Beograd. The Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and Minister of Telecommunications Jasna Matic once again welcomed the market entry of the second operator, and the license was handed in to the Telenor CEO Kjell-Morten Jonsen by Milan Jankovic, the president of the Tender Commission and the CEO of the Serbian Telecommunications Agency (RATEL).
„We are very glad that we received the license for the second landline phone operator in Serbia, and we hope that we will now be able to provide even faster access to broadband Internet, which will result in the growth of the economy and create new jobs. We are ready to do our part of the job, regarding the infrastructure investments, and now RATEL, as the regulatory body, has to regulate the pricing and access to the Telekom’s infrastructure in accordance with international standards,” said Kjell-Morten Jonsen, the Chief Executive Officer of Telenor in Serbia.

TELEGROUP

Trough standards (QMS, OHSAS, EMS) takes huge step forward

On Monday 8th  of  February TeleGroup received a certification for the quality management system according to the newest edition of the ISO9001:2008 standard, as well as for the health and safety system at work according to the OHSAS18001:2007 standard. The certification process, during which there hasn't been a single issue, was performed by the SGS group (Société Générale de Surveillance), the biggest company in the world for verification, testing and certification, established in 1878 with headquarters in Geneva.

Barcelona
Mobilni svet 2010

Mobile World Congress 2010:
New Operating Systems and Smartphones

After last year’s decrease in attendance, the record was again broken this year at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona: 49.000 visitors from 200 countries passed through its pavilions, witnessing world premieres of many smartphones, as well as the operating systems these devices will be equipped with.
Over the years, the largest global gathering of the telecommunications elite has scaled up from a technology congress to a commercial tradeshow, with those who deal with the engineering side of the industry no longer having the central role. The limelight is now on the manufacturers of smartphones and the software intended for these devices.
The biggest surprise of this year was that Nokia did not unveiled a single new smartphone. The Finnish manufacturer not even had a booth on the tradeshow floor, but it did announced the MeeGo, its new operating system for mobile phones based on Linux, created by merging together Maemo (Nokia`s previous platform) and Moblin (Intel`s similar product).
Smartphone for the sports-minded
Among the many booths at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona one non-IT company stands out: Puma, producer of sneakers and sport equipment. The company wasn’t here without a good reason, though, as it has partnered with Sagem to create its own phone for sport entusiasts, the Puma Phone.
The phone distinguishes itself from the pack with several features: It has a large solar charger on the back and a couple of sport/fitness related gizmos, such as the stopwatch, GPS tracker, compass and pedometer.
Puma Phone is a 10,2 x 5,6 x 1,3 cm device with 7,1 cm, 240×320 capacitive touchscreen, a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash, another VGA camera at the front for video calls, FM radio and 3G (HSPA)/Bluetooth/USB connectivity.
Puma describes this phone as „eco-frendly“, making it look even more green. Separate „solarometer“ informs users how much solar energy was used by phone.
Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 7
Microsoft unveiled the next version of its operating system for mobile phones, Windows Phone 7 Series, featuring a move away from applications and towards functions.
"It's all about the phone and how consumers react to the device," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, opening a news conference held outside the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Windows Phone 7 Series also marks a move by Microsoft to take greater control of the user interface of its phone software.
"We want more consistency in the hardware platform and in the user experience," Ballmer said, while nevertheless saying Microsoft wanted to leave room for hardware partners to innovate.
Microsoft also wanted the software to differentiate future phones from its past offerings, both phone and PC.

NPS

Microsoft Dynamics AX as the cause for a social occasion

On February 11, NPS held a meeting in the premises of Microsoft in Belgrade, where it gathered majority of current users of Microsoft Dynamics AX system (and a few potential users), with the focus not set on arid technical presentation, but on the opportunity for the users to meet each other and to establish connections from which everyone will have benefits.
The meeting was opened by Vladan Petrovic, the director of NPS company, a Microsoft Gold Partner awarded as “The best NAV partner in the CEE region in 2009.”

EEIG

Aleksandra Royal – Freight Forwarder according to European Standards!

Aleksandra Royal d.o.o. company was founded in 1992, with the headquarters in Novi Beograd. It has recently gone through a procedure and became the first freight forwarding company from Serbia, which will in the future operate according European standards of EEIG - European Economic Chamber from Brussels.
Business activities encompass a wide range of logistics services, from transport of goods in road, air and sea transport, to services of customs brokerage, storaging, distribution of goods and additional storage services.
Receiving the award for European quality, the director Aleksandra Vidojevic highlighted:

„Through a wide range of services and integrated logistics solutions, we offer our clients full support in the management of supply chains.
We approach to each client individually according to their needs, helping them to optimize their costs and to dedicate to their own core businesses in order to improve it.

GS1

Under the coordination of the GS1 Serbia national association and its health working team, the pilot project “The Traceability in the Supply Chain in the Public Health – The Application of the GS1 Standard” was launched. The main goal of the project is presenting the establishment of traceability of drugs as one of the requirements of the Law on Medicines, which emphasizes the protection of patients. Representatives of leading pharmaceutical companies in Serbia highlight that the main goal of the introduction of this standard is the safety of patients, and that its implementation provides opportunities for enormous cost reductions.The importance of the project is reflected in the implementation of the global GS1 standards, which are accepted in over 140 countries and are basis for entering the world market, competitive position in the business world, and the efficient exchange of goods and information. The standardization process is joined by Galenika a.d and Hemofarm a.d as manufacturers, wholesalers Velefarm a.d, PhoneixPharma d.o.o, and Jugohemija a.d, and Pharmacy Institution of Belgrade.
The Global Supply Chains Standards
When the term GS1standards is mentioned, presumably there are a few doubts as to what this actually means.  However, when we link the term to EAN it is well known what this term means since this system of standards has been present in our country for nearly 30 years. These standards have been adopted by over 140 countries and represent worldwide business language within the supply chains at the global level.
Establishing the System
Identification of the articles being traded has always been in focus (to enable more efficient ordering, maintaining control, receiving, dispatching goods etc). To prevent confusion regarding misplacing and mismatching regarding similar and ambiguous namings, codes had to be assigned to the articles. In order to overcome internal as well as national solutions tied to marking of goods, multinational marking solutions were imposed during the sixties and seventies of the previous century, although, with no significant results. It was in 1977 that the EAN system was established (European Article Numbering)).

RISK 2010

The successful conclusion of the RISK 2010 conference

Last week at the convention center of Hotel Habakuk in Maribor, the biggest event in the field of computer security and new technologies for business operations assurance in the Adriatic region took place – the RISK 2010 conference.
The formal opening introduction was given by Mr. Saso Papp, and was then followed by the speeches of the head of sales of REAL security, Mr. David Ivačič, and by the Deputy Mayor of the city of Maribor, Mr. Rok Pece.
The opening ceremony was also accompanied by the sound of academic drummers from the percussion ensemble 'Slovenski Tolkalni Projekt' (STOP), who with their strong drumming symbolically declared war to hackers.
This traditional conference, fifth in a row, was attended this year by slightly less than 450 participants from the region in two days, and  the event was supported by 35 partners and sponsors, among others, the Municipality of Maribor, as honorary patron. In two days 26 speakers held lectures attended by an audience of leading Slovenian and international experts.

AUREA

Business portal eKapija.com grants Aurea Award for the best investment of the year for the second consecutive year

Business portal eKapija.com grants Aurea Award for the best investment of the year for the second consecutive year. The crown of the "Aurea 2010 - Investment of the Year" award selection process will be the official Awards Ceremony in Belgrade Aeroklub in the second half of March. Just like the last year, the grand prix and two special awards will be presented to the winners by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia and the Minister of Science and Technological Development, Mr.Bozidar Djelic.
Business-investment portal eKapija started the “Investment of the Year“ campaign in 2009 with the aim of addressing the challenges in the investment climate and drawing attention to good investment projects in Serbia. The aim of eKapija is to present original examples of exceptional success, the examples of investments that are innovative and inspiring, financially viable and, above all, good for society and sustainable growth of Serbian economy, that is, the investments we can take pride in.Concerning the fact that the information that business portal eKapija offers are available in Serbian, English and German language, and having in mind the unlimited power of Internet, this initiative contributes to spreading of the good word about Serbia as an investment destination.

IDC

Falling sales of personal computers in Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia

BELGRDE, ZAGREB, LJUBLJANA – February 19, 2010 – In the fourth quarter of 2009, a total of 225 thousand personal computers were sold in the personal computer markets of three countries in the region: Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia, which presents a fall of about 20% compared to the same quarter of 2008. According to the preliminary results, the sum of total deliveries in those three countries throughout 2009 was less than 800 thousand PCs. The results are gathered from separated computer market researches in those three countries, conducted by IDC Adriatics research company.
Serbia
In the Serbian PC market, IDC recorded the delivery of 102,543 devices in the fourth quarter od 2009, with the personal computer sale fall of 22% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Throughout the year of 2009, 332 thousand computers were delivered in Serbia, which is 20% less than in the prevoius year.