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| E_procure & Supply 2007  The doors of the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg are wide open for management and purchasing and IT managers from the field of electronic procurement and supplier management from Wednesday to Friday, 25-27 April. The qualified visitors can look forward to some 140 exhibitors, who present software solutions and services for procurement management. This year's parallel congress organized by the Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e.V. (BME) is devoted to "Economic solutions and new developments". The congress and exhibition in 2007 focus on small and medium enterprises.SMEs are the backbone of the German economy – and they are doing better than for a long time. The German SMEs have recovered and expect the business situation to continue to improve. This is shown by the "SME Barometer 2007" produced by Paderborn University for accountants Ernst & Young. Confidence and optimism are also accompanied by investment planning. The study shows that almost half of those planning larger investment projects want to expand their capacity. According to the companies interviewed, the new purchases concern mainly IT, machinery, vehicle fleets and property. The exhibitors at e_procure & supply 2007 therefore present new ways, tools and intelligent Best-Practice solutions that enable small and medium enterprises to cut costs and improve quality at the same time. According to a study by corporate consultant KPMG, the cost of a procurement process can still be appreciably reduced. The consultants attribute this to the reduction of the many individual steps if orders are placed by electronic means. To make it easier for visitors to find such effective solutions, the stands of the companies will be clearly marked as part of the "'Go' SME" initiative. These exhibitors offer solutions tailored exactly to the special features of small and medium enterprises. Such flexible and variable solutions must fulfil certain criteria: first they must be functional and second they must have sufficient depth and efficiency to appeal to small and medium enterprises. The solution must also be so cost-effective that it can actually be implemented in SMEs. Congress participants can also obtain information on "Purchasing and production in the Czech Republic and Slovakia" on Friday, 27 April, as global sourcing is still one of the most important developments in procurement and logistics. Besides presenting the procurement markets, the event deals with "Setting up production locations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia". Apart from these two keynotes, the congress again offers plenary presentations, practical forums and intensive workshops on "Economic solutions, new developments" throughout the exhibition. The panel speakers include BME Executive Jörg Decker-Conradi, Head of Procurement, Bayer HealthCare AG, Raimund Pintz, Head of Strategic Sourcing Germany, HypoVereinsbank, and Thomas Vogel, Business Development Manager, i-Faber S. p. A. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Exhibition News :: home page |