Chemplorer already one of the most successful industry marketplaces - Deutsche Telekom's online shop seeks to double revenue of DM 500 million - AktivMobil 100 combines mobile and fixed communications - SMS for the fixed network At CeBIT 2001, Deutsche Telekom is consolidating its position as a market and innovation leader in the telecommunications business with a wealth of new products and services for different customer groups. "We are interconnecting the New and Old Economy with our technical solutions and co-ordinated sales and support service", said Josef Brauner, Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG, responsible for sales and customer care at the technical press conference at CeBIT 2001 in Hanover on Thursday. "In the process, we have transformed a telephone company that produces and sells mass commodities into a workshop for tailor-made solutions." Broadband communications, e-business, and the convergence of fixed and mobile applications are the cornerstones of important developments. "Deutsche Telekom is instrumental in driving forward evolution in all these areas for consumers and business users," emphasized Detlev Buchal, Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG, responsible for product marketing.
Electronic marketplaces are one example for the powerful solutions provided by the T-Systems system house. chemplorer, the marketplace we operate together with Bayer, Höchst chemfidence and others, is already well established. Since October 2000, this marketplace has become one of the most successful industry marketplaces of all, with a total of some 180 000 transactions. Baulogis, the marketplace for the building trade, was launched mid February by Deutsche Telekom in co-operation with Walter Bau und Immobilien Holding. The transfer platform will be supplemented with the tendering database and project communication modules which will help save time and cut building costs. Furthermore, the aim of the avanturo joint venture is to set up a marketplace for insurance services.
Electronic marketing is also becoming more and more important for selling our own products. In 2000 alone, Deutsche Telekom marketed more than 20 percent of its T-DSL lines on the Internet. At www.telekom.de, Deutsche Telekom's online shop in the Web, almost 750 000 orders were received last year with revenue amounting to some DM 500 million. This puts Deutsche Telekom far ahead of its competitors in the industry. For the current year, Deutsche Telekom is planning to boost online retail revenue by up to 100 percent. The number of orders the company receives via the Telekom Marketplace is to be increased to 1.5 million.
The targeted move into electronic business and the use of IT and telecommunications technology to support business processes will also become a central issue for small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. T-Com is the ideal partner for these companies, since it has immediate access to all products, solutions and services offered in mobile and fixed communications and in the online and Internet area, for IT solutions and Application Service Providing.
InterConnect Office Solution is a tailor-made Internet full-package solution geared in particular to small and medium-sized enterprises. It links the entire corporate network with the Internet via a single broadband Internet fixed line and a plug&play Internet server. All employees within a company thus have their own Internet access, own e-mail address as well as the option of file sharing and secure access to their workstations whilst on the move. With a new price package to be launched on 1 April 2001, Deutsche Telekom is further opening up the market for professional Internet services on the basis of its high-speed T-DSL technology and is also lending new impetus to the sustained growth of Internet traffic in Germany. In addition to the introduction of a flat rate for T-DSL-based Internet fixed lines, this package includes a price cut for monthly usage and slashes the one-time installation costs for the T-InterConnect Internet fixed accesses by up to 69 percent.
The "Video over IP/ISDN" videoconferencing system is another solution for small and medium-sized enterprises that allows conferences for up to 16 external participants. Another new product is "PublishingNet" - a user-friendly non-proprietary platform which can be expanded by further modules and works across different networks. It allows for smooth communications between PC and Mac as well as between ISDN and ATM, the reduction of costs and increased flexibility.
Broadband communications also plays a crucial role in the development of Application Service Providing, ASP for short, i.e., using software from the network: software rental instead of purchasing. Deutsche Telekom already offers a broad product portfolio in the area of ASP. To meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, we provide standard applications such as office packages with programs like Word or Excel via the Net. As a service provider, we are better positioned than any other provider on the market for Application Service Providing. And we will continue to strengthen this position, for instance by providing software applications online for customer relationships and supply chain management.
In Internet communications, high-performance security mechanisms are indispensable for electronic payments and access to sensitive data on the Net. Deutsche Telekom has a broad range of products and comprehensive experience in implementing high-security telecommunications solutions. The best example of our expertise in this field is the high-performance security concepts for telecommunications between public authorities, industry and citizens that we have implemented in close cooperation with the Federal Ministry of the Interior. T-Online and T-Systems will now be adding secure e-mail and Web communications to these concepts for federal and regional authorities, for example within the framework of electronic procurement. Incidentally, this project is also a prime example of the customer-oriented cooperation among the Deutsche Telekom group pillars.
One of the key trends in telecommunications is the convergence of fixed and mobile applications. The possibilities for exchanging information via SMS will soon be enhanced by enabling subscribers to send short messages from mobile phones to fixed lines and vice versa. Anyone owning an SMS-enabled fixed telephone will receive the information on the telephone set's display. At CeBIT, Deutsche Telekom will be presenting new fixed-network telephones which can be used to send and receive short messages. If the phone does not have this function, it is possible to listen to the short message on the telephone read out by an automated voice.
Another product that combines mobile and fixed communications is AktivMobil 100. This is a mobile phone rate option that is charged to the Deutsche Telekom telephone bill for any of Deutsche Telekom's fixed network lines. With AktivMobil 100, Deutsche Telekom provides the customer with fixed and mobile communications from a single source - with one bill and one contact for all queries.