European Telework Week: 4-11 November 1996

Country Report - Germany, Bonn event.

Reporters: Sune Wilhelmson, Rainer Pollman (ETD National Coordinator for Germany)

Telework Deutschland, Bonn November 11- 13 1996

From: Sune Wilhelmson

Almost 300 people attended the three day event, which was the centrepiece of Germany's activities during the second annual European Telework Week.

Dr Guenter Rexodt, Minister at the Department of Industry and Trade gave an opening speech with the title "Telework, an option and a challenge for the future" where he among other things mentioned:

• Telework is already established in Germany.
• Time and place is no longer important. In the industrial era people came to work. Inthe IT society work comes to the people. An opportunity for a new lifestyle with possibility to combine leisure, family life work.
• Germany plans to invest more than 1 Billion DM in telework.
• Germany expects to have 800,000 teleworkers in 1997, which corresponds to 10% of the total labour force. These 800,000 people reduce the number of kilometres on the Autobahn with no less than 3,2 million kms per year.
• There is a danger in telework where as employees lose contact with colleagues in the office. It is therefore essential that teleworkers get the opportunity to alternate there work either between office and home or in so called Telecottages.
• Teleworkers have little to no legal rights in Germany. This has to be changed.
• Many people have the urge to telework. The authorities will therefor do more to facilitate telework.
• INFO 2000 is a new program within the whole industry to show best practice cases in medicine, shopping, industry, telework etc.

Dr Herbert May, member of the board of Deutsche Telecom gave a short speech with the title "Future in working with the Future". Dr May stressed the fact that Telework will have a great influence on business and trade and the way we will work in the future. He mentioned various alternatives such as home office, working at home, telecottages and teleservice centres as future work places for the employees.

Mr Edmund Hug, a senior executive of IBM Germany was last of the three special guests invited to conduct the opening speeches of the Telearbeit Deutschland conference. His subject was "Teleworking in the IT-society". Mr Hug begun his presentation by stating the fact that Telework Electronic Commerce is a reality in Germany today. As an example he mentioned the development of automobiles. Through Telecooperation between developers in Europe, the USA and Japan development of new cars can continue 24 hours a day through the various time zones over the world. He then went on to describe different trends in Telwork in Germany:

• There are about 50 million in Germany. About 1 million of those are unemployed.
• There are about 16 million PCs installed in Germany.
• A PC today costs about 3.000DM.
• Most companies have a home site on the Web.
• 90 percent of the companies in Germany are of the opinion that teleshopping is an important marketing tool.
• There is a need for revised legislation and agreements between labour and trade unions.
• Mr Hug suggested a new name for telework "flexible mobile workplace".
• Telework can be used in all kind of businesses; banking, finance, construction, insurance etc.
• In Germany, 30% of the jobs within telework are mobile based. An increase of productivity of 15 to 20% has been experienced. New jobs will be created.
• Europe is far from a leading position in Telework. In the US the yearly investment in IT exceeds Europe with about 100 billion DM.

Peter Johnston , Head of Advanced Communications Development at the European Commission's DGXIII gave a detailed presentation including some statements about new initiatives:

• Telework is not new, it has existed about 10 years.
• About one million people in Europe are teleworkers today.
• It's a superior way of employing people and it suits most professions.
• Europe is lagging behind the US. Investment in Europe is only about 50 %of the US.
• Development in telework is faster in the UK, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries. Germany and central Europe follow in a second group and the Mediterranean countries are last when comparing the use of telework in Europe.
• The major obstacles for Telework are.
• Lack of flexibility in the organisation
• Low rate of computer usage
• Price of telecoms
• Tax legislation
• Management involvement

This three day event included the following contributions:

• Telework - Status quo and trends - Cornelia Yzer, Bundesministerium
• Telework - Satus quo and Trends - Werner Korte, Empirica
• Telework by means of customer support - Dr Gilbert Anderer, Intergrata
• Telework by means of customer support - Werer Zorn, IBM
• Telework by means of customer support - Wilhelm Ottenbreit, Deutsche Telecom
• Telework by means of customer support - Margarete Baitz, CompuServe GmbH
• Strategy for Telework in Large Companies - Dr Rainer Poltz, Allianz Insurance
• Strategy for Telework in Large Companies - Werner Schmidt, LVM Insurance
• Strategy for Telework in Large Companies - Rolf Bauer, Continental Insurance
• Outsourcing and Virtual Organisations - Josephine Hoffamnn, Fraunhofer Institute
• Telework in Parliament - Dr Helmut Krcmar, Hohenheim University
• Telework and Teleservicecentres - Gabriele Fladung, Telehaus Wetter
• Telework and Teleservicecentres - Reinhold H.Müller, Mayor Retzstadt
• Global Telework - Heinz-Dieter Hansmann, Lufthansa
• Resume and references to Telework in practice - Werner B. Korte, Empirica
• Telework as Job changer and path finder - Dr Werner Dostal, IAB
• Initiatives for Telework - Dr Detlef Garbe, Deutsche Telecom Initiatives for Telework
• New European Initiatives for Telework - Dr Peter Johnston, CEC, DGXIII

Delegates also received the following publications:

1. Telework - Penetration, Potential and Practice in Europe (Results from Representative Surveys and Case Studies and an Analysis of the Conditions for Telework Development (Eng)
2. Telematics for Education and Training (Eng)
3. Telework - a successful impementation (Ger)
4. Trevius, Teleworking - a Means of Implementing Virtual Enterprise Structures (Eng)
5. Cuparla, Computers and Telecommunications Make Parliamentary Work More Efficient and Flexible (Eng)
6. The Teleworking Handbook - New ways of working in the information society (Eng)
7. Updated for 96, CD-ROM which contains a set of documents produced by Projects engaged in the AU Action for stimulation of transborder telework and research co-operation in Europe, 1994-95 (Eng)
8. Looking for more information on the virtual office (http://www.gilgordon.com) (Eng)
9. Telecommunities - Final report of the Race Project Telecommunity (Eng)
10. Martel - Technology and Care for Europe's Older Citizens (Eng)
11. Telework 96 - Actions for stimulation of transborder telework and research co-operation in Europe. (Eng)
12. IWG Bonn - Information and communications of future industrial environment (Ger)
13. To live and work in the information society - Focus on People EU (Ger)
14. Telework - Our Motorways open new opportunities for jobs (Ger)
15. The Industrial Ministry - Telework - Possibilities to find new ways to do work, more work, flexible working hours (Ger)
16. Information society and the citizen (Ger)
17. LVM Insurance - Business Agreement regarding establishment of workplaces (Eng)

Bonn, November 13, 1996

From: Rainer Pollman

Generally the media awareness of the main Bonn event was still quite poor in Germany.

A statement from the Enquete Commission of the German Bundestag (Parliament) "Future of the Media in the Economy and Society - Germany's Road into the Information Society", provided some useful support to the pro-teleworking movement.

A smaller, separate exhibiton and workshop was held on 5 November 'Innfo '96' (Innovationsforum '96 ) in Gladbeck within the innovation centre 'IWG', where several presentations on telework, telework technologies and live demonstrations of teleccoperation in CAD/CAM environments were given or held. About 40 people visited, among them some representatives from the UK's North London Chamber of Commerce.

During the Open Day at TA Telearbeit's premises on 11 November at Gladbeck and at Geilenkirchen there were a few telephone enquiries and some email contacts.

The Telework Forum arranged by TA Telearbeit and a local Arbeitsamt (a legal employment office) for 28 November 1996: information forum on telework and the employment market in the town Kirn called 'Informationsveranstaltung am 28. November" in Kirn, Arbeitsmarktgesprach

Telearbeit - Innovative Arbeitsformen' was very successful. Over 80 people attended the event (in a very rural region) and were participants in a videoconference with DGXIII represented by Robert Pestel and Maarten Bottermann.

Cafe Mondial had a 65 square metres stand at the Infomarket Saar-Lor-Lux from November 15 to 17, where it demonstrated all the facilicities of its new centre for getting information, as a point of communication, and a centre for (tele)learning and working.

Cafe Mondial's was the most popular stand at the Fair, with about 1000 guests from all walks of life visiting and requesting information every day.

The planned opening of Cafe Mondial's centre in Losheim (in the Saarland) had to be postponed late-October and will now go ahead at the end of January 1997. The Cafe will be a "centre of excellence" in bringing new technologies and working methods to a semi-rural area.