CeBIT 2008, 4 to 9 March - Business Solutions at a glance

The world's biggest trade fair for the digital industry, CeBIT, has a new format for the coming year. 'CeBIT 2008 has a clearer structure, a sharper profile and substantially more content', said Reinhold Umminger, CeBIT's Project Manager for Business Solutions, speaking on Wednesday in Munich. 'With its new look CeBIT will reinforce its standing as the world's leading trade fair for the digital world.' No other event worldwide affords such a comprehensive overview of the most important international trends across the ICT industry.

The new-look CeBIT for 2008 is much more closely geared to the needs of users. This is the thinking behind the new presentation concept, which groups the exhibits into three main sections: 'Business Solutions', 'Public Sector Solutions' and 'Home & Mobile Solutions'. These three pillars of the show are underpinned by a fourth section, 'Technology & Infrastructure'.

In line with the new CeBIT display concept, the core display section traditionally labelled 'Business IT' has been reorganized and is now bundled under the broader heading of 'Business Solutions'. This is the largest of CeBIT's three main sections, and as well as software products and services it also embraces solutions for specific types of business and specialized themes such as the innovations platform 'Future Parc' (Hall 9), network technologies (Halls 11-13) and IT for the banking industry (Hall 17).

The displays of 'Business Solutions' are concentrated in Halls 2 to 7. They cover business functions at every stage of the product lifecycle - from internal and external communications to product development, production, distribution customer care and administrative processes such as financial and personnel management. Displays on complementary or allied themes are located close together, ensuring that professional users who are keen to streamline their business processes and pick up new ideas can quickly form a picture of the available options.

For the first time Hall 2 has been added to the group of halls occupied by 'Business Solutions' at CeBIT 2008. The displays here cover themes such as business storage, servers and IT services, as well as virtualization. The list of exhibitors in Hall 2 includes household names like IBM, Datev and Novell, as well as leading suppliers of storage solutions such as HITACHI, Promise Europe and Iomega.

Hall 3 has been home for a number of years now to the displays of enterprise content management (ECM) and web content management (CM). Joining them for the first time at CeBIT 2008 are exhibitors of document management systems (DMS). Systems software and business intelligence and enterprise information integration (bi & eii) complete the range of offerings in Hall 3.

Microsoft, SAP and Software AG, together with numerous small and medium-sized enterprises, form the backbone of the displays in Hall 4 from 4 to 9 March 2008. As well as enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), visitors to this hall will see service-oriented architectures (SOA) and intelligent business process management systems (BPM). Customer relationship management applications (CRM), solutions for online marketing and the new consulting & services platform for management consultancies are the other areas of specialization covered in Hall 4.

As well as housing a host of branch-specific solutions and supply chain management applications (SCM), Hall 5 has become known in the last two years as the 'ERP hall'. Here the visitor will find all the applications needed for efficient resource planning. 'The reorganization of the halls has persuaded many ERP suppliers to exhibit in Hall 5 as well in future. We are delighted to be able to offer visitors at CeBIT 2008 an even more comprehensive overview of the latest ERP solutions in Hall 5', said Umminger.

One of the highlights of the show is the convergence of human resources management (HR) with the theme of security in Hall 6. 'Exhibitors like Kaba or Interflex have traditionally been closely associated with the IT security industry. For this reason we have decided to bring the two groups of displays together in one location', explained Umminger.

The special presentation 'CeBIT Security World' is one of the largest IT security events in the world. With its wide-ranging displays covering the technical, physical and logical-organizational aspects of IT security, it highlights all the products and solutions that help to protect business data and corporate networks. Also closely linked with the theme of personnel management, and therefore to be found in Hall 6 as well, are the 'CeBIT Job & Career Market' and the new special presentation 'Learning & Knowledge Solutions'.

On a dedicated display area of some 800 square metres a group of leading companies will be presenting the latest solutions in digital learning and knowledge management. Biometric systems and card technologies complete the array of exhibits in Hall 6.

Two key punctuation points in any tour of the 'Business Solutions' section of the show are AutoID/RFID and Professional Output/Office Solutions in Hall 7. The 'Auto ID/RFID Solutions Park' will appeal to anyone who is interested in interdisciplinary solutions for the motor industry, aviation, commerce and logistics, healthcare and pharmaceuticals. These will be presented in a series of themed group displays. The Metro Group will also be among the exhibitors here. Big-name companies showcasing their professional office applications in Hall 7 include Kyocera, Xerox and Casio.

Much more than just another trade show, CeBIT 2008 offers visiting international professionals a wide choice of special events, discussion forums and networking platforms spread across Halls 2 to 7. For those interested in information management, for example, there is the DMS Area in Hall 3, which is presenting innovative solutions for the electronic capture and logging, management and legally protected archiving of business-related documents.

In the CM Arena, meanwhile, the implications of Web 2.0 for improved business communications will be explored in depth. And complementing the conference program for the CM Arena will be the thematically related 'Enterprise 2.0 Summit', which is taking place in parallel.

Another highlight for business users, occupying some 600 square metres of Hall 3, is the 'bi-eii Forum', which looks at the latest software solutions for IT-based enterprise management.

Next door in Hall 4, at the 'crm Arena', leading CRM suppliers and service providers will be presenting innovative products, strategies and concepts for inclusive and effective customer relationship management.

The 'SOA World' presentation launched in 2007 will be extended for CeBIT 2008 to include BPM, for the simple reason that these two topic areas are now fast converging. The new 'SOA-BPM World' will extend over more than 500 square metres in Hall 4.

At next year's show France will be a major contributor to this lively international mix - as the official Partner Country at CeBIT 2008. And as such the level of participation by French companies - 106 in 2007 - will break all previous records.

France continues to play a key role in the dynamic development of the European market. This can be seen from the fact that French companies are among the leading players in all the branches of industry represented at CeBIT. But then: the French ICT market is the third largest in Europe.

The national presentation by France at CeBIT 2008 also marks one of the high points in the collaboration between the German and French ICT trade associations BITKOM and Syntec Informatique.

BITKOM was instrumental in choosing France as the official Partner Country for the German ICT industry in 2008, thus clearing the way for Europe's two major high-tech markets to move even closer together. One highlight of the Partner Country program at next year's CeBIT is the German-French ICT summit, attended by prominent politicians from both countries. 

Deutsche Messe - photos Cinzia Marzani-