Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media

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Bitkom e. V.
logo
legal form Registered association
Seat Berlin
founding 1999

place Berlin
president Achim Berg
executive Director Chief Executive
Bernhard Rohleder
management
Anja Olsok
Susanne Dehmel
Niklas Veltkamp
Members 2600
Website www.bitkom.org
Bitkom at the Hannover Messe 2016

The Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media e. V. (Bitkom) is the industry association for the German information and telecommunications industry . The current president of Bitkom is Achim Berg . Chief Executive is Bernhard Rohleder . In total, more than 100 employees work for the Bitkom Group, which includes Bitkom Servicegesellschaft mbH (BSG) and Bitkom Research GmbH.

President

Since it was founded, the board has been headed by a president.

history

The association was founded in October 1999 in Berlin. Bitkom's founding associations were the Federal Association for Information and Communication Systems (BVB), the Federal Association for Information Technologies (BVIT) and the information technology associations in the VDMA and communication technology in the ZVEI . They were merged with Bitkom on January 1, 2001, as were the following six VDMA working groups:

  • Copier manufacturers and importers (AG KHI)
  • European Printer Manufacturers and Importers (EPMI)
  • Fax (AG Telefax)
  • Document shredders (AG document shredders)
  • Telecommunications Value Added Services (AG TMD)
  • Old devices (AG CYCLE)

In the following years, four other associations and organizations were transferred to Bitkom:

  • Information Systems Association (UVI)
  • German EDI Society (Dedig)
  • European Net Economy Forum (e-nef)
  • European Thin Clients Forum (ETCF)

In addition to Volker Jung as President, Willi Berchtold, Jörg Menno Harms and Gerhard Jörg were elected as Vice-Presidents of Bitkom when it was founded. The first Bitkom Presidium included Erwin Staudt (IBM), Josef Brauner (Deutsche Telekom AG), Eberhard Färber (Ixos AG) and Werner Schmücking (Siemens AG).

Until the end of 2000, the Bitkom statutes only permitted membership of other associations, after which also direct company memberships. The association organizes technical and political work in the business areas of economy and technology, law and security, start-ups and digital transformation. Within these areas, studies and policy papers, guidelines, concepts and new business models are developed and published in around 120 working groups, committees, industry dialogue groups and forums with representatives of member companies and employees of Bitkom.

The association is a member of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and the European umbrella organization for the information and telecommunications industry, DIGITALEUROPE .

Members

As an interest group , it represents 2,700 companies . 1,800 of them are direct members, who together generate around 190 billion euros in annual sales and have 700,000 employees . Its members include more than 1,000 medium-sized companies, over 400 start-ups and almost all global players . Among the members are equipment manufacturers, suppliers of software and IT services , as well as services in the field of telecommunications and Internet services, manufacturers of hardware and consumer electronics as well as companies in the digital media and the network economy . Bitkom members employ more than two million people in Germany. 80 percent of the members have their headquarters in Germany, eight percent each come from Europe and the USA, and four percent from other regions. 

aims

The interest group wants to achieve optimal political and economic framework conditions for the ICT industry. He also advocates a strategic ICT policy that encompasses the political levels from the EU to the federal and state governments and local authorities. At the same time, Bitkom wants to induce politicians to integrate their measures in the fields of action that are critical for success. The fields are:

Bitkom continues to appear publicly as a lobby organization in the discussion of computer-implemented inventions . In addition, Bitkom has repeatedly expressed criticism of the German government's IT strategy and called for a strategy for the digital age.

subjects

At the core of Bitkom's political agenda

  • Digital participation
  • Modernization of the education system and labor law
  • Securing the next generation of skilled workers
  • Expansion of digital infrastructure for broadband, energy and transport
  • Digitization of administration and public services (e-government)
  • Promote digital transformation and innovation
  • Industry 4.0
  • Data protection and security
  • E-health
  • Medium -sized companies and start-ups
  • Consumer electronics .

The wholly owned subsidiary Bitkom Research GmbH, which operates the EITO portal, provides the association with current market data and analyzes on the European and international markets for information and communication technology as well as representative survey data from business and the population through its own market research . The subsidiary Bitkom Servicegesellschaft mbH, which is also wholly owned, offers services for members and non-members, including through the Bitkom Academy, Bitkom Consult and weee-full-service.

Events

Bitkom organizes several events every year in which members and other interested parties exchange views on the association's topics. The so-called hub.berlin , in which high-ranking representatives from politics and business take part , always receives special media attention . In 2012, 2013 and 2014 it was held - still with the old name "Trend Congress" - under the motto "Create.Innovate.Grow". The event has been internationally positioned since 2015 and was initially given a new title with the name hub conference , which was then renamed again in 2017 with " hub.berlin ".

criticism

In May 2017, Bitkom received the negative Big Brother Award in the business category. In her laudation, Rena Tangens cited three main reasons:

  1. "Uncritical promotion of big data "
  2. "Penetrating lobbying against data protection "
  3. because he is "de facto a front organization of large US corporations that have the say at Bitkom".

The allegation of being a front organization of large US corporations is justified by the fact that five out of 16 members of the Bitkom presidium (32%) are sent by a US subsidiary, while only eight percent of Bitkom members come from the USA.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.bitkom.org/Bitkom/Ueber-uns/
  2. ↑ https://www.bitkom.org/Bitkom/Organisation/Praesidium/
  3. ↑ https://www.bitkom.org/Bitkom/Organisation/Die-Bitkom-Gruppe/
  4. ↑ https://www.bitkom.org/Bitkom/Organisation/Die-Bitkom-Gruppe/
  5. ↑ Membership structure according to Bitkom's own presentation. Retrieved November 15, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Interview: Marc Thylmann, spokesman for the Bitkom industry association. In: Netzwelt. June 10, 2011, accessed November 15, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Carsten Knop: Explorers and digitization: And what about the future of our country? In: FAZ.NET . January 12, 2018, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 3, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Official website of Bitkom Research GmbH. Retrieved November 15, 2012 .
  9. ^ Official website of the Bitkom Academy. Retrieved May 18, 2016 .
  10. ↑ weee-full-service: Complete solution for the disposal of old electrical devices. In: www.garantiesystem-altgeraete.de. Retrieved December 22, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Lars Budde: Bitkom Trend Congress: Berlin takes a look into the digital future. In: t3n magazine. November 12, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Johannes Schuba: Experience the trends of the digital economy at the Bitkom Trend Congress. (No longer available online.) In: t3n magazine. October 16, 2013, archived from the original on November 7, 2013 ; Retrieved December 20, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / t3n.de
  13. ↑ Innovation is no longer suitable. In: heise. November 26, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 .
  14. ↑ a b Rena Tangens: The BigBrotherAward 2017 in the business category goes to the German IT industry association Bitkom, represented by its President Thorsten Dirks. In: BigBrotherAwards.de. May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2017 .
  15. ↑ a b Jonas Jansen: Bitkom receives the “Big Brother Award”. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2017 .