Activity Report 2006 (synthesis)
“3 I = Internet – Information – Innovation”
Transylvania Business Center (CAT), a regional non-profit, apolitical and decentralized association, for the promotion of its member companies and the implementation of programs for the global and local development, has continued the permanent achievement of its objectives and functions, comprised in the Operating Statute and Regulations.
The Plan of Actions established for 2006 was realized with the purpose of starting the projects concerning the identification of intelligent SmE’s and their mobilization in the direction of development of technological and trans-European cooperation and the participation at the European Program – FP7.
New successes of our communion of business were registered in generating sustainable activities – durable on a regional and local level, based on the “Transition-to-Innovation” principles (T-2-I & T-4-I) and on Fast-Easy-Cheap integration into the European structures – global economy. Over 100 actions have been realized in the advantage of our enterprises and of the local-regional communion: http://e-cat/irc/activitati.php.
Our main objectives concerning the decentralization, debureaucratization, dematerialization and virtualization of activities along with the creation of conditions for assertion of direct and virtual relations: “one-to-one”, “link-to-link” and “business-to-business” have been reached. CAT Cluj has become one of the most utilized mechanisms – concrete and virtual – of the new economy. Our organization, which is also the first virtual business center on the continent, has proceeded in 2006 to the implementation of virtual offices for each employee – “freelancer” and to our member firms.
The number of associated companies has surpassed 1500 in the Knowledgezation – iBIZ YEAR with an increase of 1.5%, from 1498 to 1516. Over 1000 companies associated to CAT are connected on the Internet and have sites with presentation elements. 44% have developed interactive web pages or electronic shops. They have been included into the FIRST TRANSYLVANIAN ELECTRONIC MARKET, the conditions of penetration of m/e-commerce being enriched. The main site for the unfolding of virtual activities, CAT@CAT has over 400 interactive web pages, programs and on-line data bases, other facilities needed for fast informing of our members and also potential clients, suppliers, investors or partners. The number of visitors over-passed 72.200 for http://e-cat.ro, 15.600 for www.v-market.ro and 62.150 viewers forhttp://e-bursa.ro. The total number of CAT web pages visitors surpassed 680.320, of which 149.760 in 2006, with a frequency of 411 potential partners/day or 17 visitors/hour.
The first Multicultural CyberCity: www.ClujNapoca.ro, www.Kolozsvar.ro was permanently actualized and the site: www.Klausenburg.ro is still in “redirection” with the hope to begin the construction in 2007. The virtual citadel is endowed with the most important information concerning the history and the present of the bi-millenary city. The site has grown to 70 web pages containing data and pictures about: art, culture, learning, sport, tourism, public utilities, institutions, business, etc. It has the first VIRTUAL MAYOR in the world, together with a Virtual Consilium, an electronic voting system, a chat-FORUM and many important links.
CAT continued to participate at the realization of the following European Committee projects:
* LIRIC – European Consortium formed by partners representing: Italy, UK, France, Romania (CAT), Poland, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, gathered for the development of Territorial Marketing and the creation of the Virtual Knowledge Warehousehttp://e/cat.ro/liric.html.
* IRC – Innovation Relay Center – the National Consortium coordinated by CRIMM-Bucuresti, organized of partners from Timisoara, Iasi, calarasi http://e-cat.ro/irc. 20 Focal Points have been opened at universities, research units, public institutions and companies, for the promotion of technological trans-European cooperation and the development of partnerships between our companies and European ones.
* smE-MPOWER – the mobilization of SmE to participate at the European Consortiums for the FP7 projects, was launched in November.
The Research & Development Department has sustained the programs destined to the young generation, especially for the Master students from the Faculties of European Studies and Economic Studies. The CasT and LBC Programs have been sustained in the benefit of the young entrepreneurs.
The delivery of the first course-seminar of mBIZ (mobile business/e-commerce) for the students from the Faculty of European Studies -”Management of European Institutions” section (http://e-cat.ro/mknowledge.html) has been continued, using advanced methods of teaching of the new European concepts and technologies in the field of business. At the same time, our new technique of research in the field of high technologies – IC&T – was developed
” the model PECS – Penetration-Eruption-Capture-Storage. This model will be developed in the context of the creation of the Virtual Knowledge Warehouse.
” The model mKM-4-mBIZ – mobile Knowledge Management for mobile Business, for the FSE-UBB masters was introduced, especially Cultural Management and the Management of Projects as well as PHD School – USAMV, where we deliver seminars and courses.
The Research-Documentation Focus Point created in collaboration with the University “Babes-Bolyai” and the University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine from Cluj-Napoca was directly supported through the IRC-Innovation Relay Center Project. CAT is “Innovation Support Organization”, being aggregated as a partner institution at the research and trans-European cooperation projects. The documentation-research-innovation point has the front office on nr 19 Avram Iancu street, second floor, and was put to the disposal of our companies, the organizations for innovation and technological transfer, researchers, universitarians, students, masterands, doctorands, media, and interested public. The other 18 IRC-CAT Focus Points are at: http://www.e-cat.ro/irc/contact.php.
The R&D department maintained direct relations with the European Committee, supplying with materials and information the first mBIZ group in Europe, created in 2001 and formed by 18 companies http://e-cat.ro/gmb.html. CAR-EUnit Team continued to promote the projects designated for the 6th Framework Program of the European Committee.
The collaboration with CRIMM Foundation in Bucharest was materialized through the unrolling of the realization of the national network IRC – Innovation Relay Center www.e-cat.ro/irc.
The sites of this department are: http://e-cat.ro/catresearch.html, http://e-cat.ro/lbcro.html, http://e-cat.ro/catshop.html, http://e-cat.ro/plicuriadacat.html, http://e-cat.ro/specat.html, http://www.n2n.ro.
The CATraining&Consulting Department has accomplished 31 missions of free assistance for our companies, through consultants from SES-Germany.
The division for EU projects has participated in 6 proposals of projects in the context of 6th Framework Program of the European Committee. The ABILITIES project was won in favor of FILBAC Company in Targu Lapus as well as ERMA won by the Local Council in Targu Lapus.
Over 4500 hours of free consultancy have been granted both to associated companies and to potential local and abroad partners. Promotional reunions for business links have been organized from which 50 smE’s benefited.
The working sites of the department are: http://e-cat.ro/consulting.html, http://e-cat.ro/catraining.html, http://e-cat.ro/expert.html si http://e-cat.ro/catranslation.html.
The Department of Relations http://e-cat.ro/catravel.html has intensified its efforts to identify workshops and expositions, and also external partners for CAT companies. 5 economical missions have been organized abroad where 12 companies and 16 business men participated, in: Germany, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Lithuania, France and Martinique, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Finland, France, Italy, Hungary, USA and China.
The main interest domains requested by CAT for participation to fairs and international expositions have been: ITC, civil constructions, furniture, confections, cosmetics, gastronomy, tourism, investments and cooperation in production.
The electronic stock exchange http://e-bursa.ro and the 28 virtual rings are connected to the most important internal and external sources of information. It works online on the categories of products and sectors proposed by the Transylvanian Trades, in accordance with the common state of rules elaborated by the Transylvanian Stock Exchange and CAT.
With the help of the Electronic Stock Exchange 100 requests/offers of services and products were introduced, ensuring the transparency and also the total and free accessibility of SME’s. E-BURSA’s connections with other similar local and foreign sites have opened the unlimited access of our companies to the Single Market and Global Market. The electronic review piat@zi is at http://e-cat.ro/e-bursa.html and http://e-cat.ro/v-bursa.html.
The collaboration with APM – the association of Managers and Craftsmen Cluj, UGIR 1903 and ARIES has lead to important business actions and to CAT programs’ development in territory, especially for small towns and Transylvanian villages. A permanent connection has been realized with the Transylvanian Trades and the Union of Owner and Business Associations in Cluj.
To support the creation of clothing and of the Transylvania Fashion program – Transylvanian Style Trade, CAT has co-financed events organized by Mikotronic-Show Master.
CAT has traditionally supported the cultural-artistic events in the benefit of the communion and of the: Romanian Opera, National Theatre, Transylvanian Philharmonics, University of Visual Arts and Design, Babes-Bolyai University, Transylvanian History Museum, Art Museum, State Archive, University Library and other institutions.
There was participation at the multilateral reunions organized for projects financed by the European Commission: IRC, smE-MPOWER, ERMA, ABILITIES and FP6.
Business information, folders, publications and requests/offers have been sent monthly to CAT members both by classical post and also by “electronic mail”. Monthly newsletters can be re-read on the Internet at http://e-cat.ro/tbreview.html because they contain concrete activities realized in the previous period. CAT relations with the virtual and written media have been constantly improved. Alongside local and national newspapers, radios and TV channels associated to CAT, eWEEK publication stood out which sustains CAT’s IC&T programs, APM – Businessmen Magazine and the “Cluj-Napoca” newspaper which supports the local image and development projects.
The Administration department (http://e-cat.ro/cinesuntem.html) has leaded the process of generalizing flexible work – Mobile Working.
CAT personnel have adopted the e-working style in proportion of 95%, working in TAM (Total Automatic Mobility) (4-A=anywhere-anytime-anyone-anything) using the Internet.
The payments and discounts have been realized in proportion of 75% by i-Banking and credit cards. The activities of accounting, webhosting-ICT, supply, transport, mailing, training, consulting, busniessLinks were externalized by outsourcing contracts with CAT companies.
The administration has been working in the mKM (mobile Knowledge Management) system, the mobility and the virtualization of our organization therefore being increased to 85%. The Meetings of our Direction Committee have been hold on-line using SKYPE conferencing or Yahoo! Messenger Multimedia (audio-video).
The working place was reduced to the minimum needed for secretary-administration, and the activities-services of m-employees took place on the “field-at-clients” and “without papers-everything electronic”. We reached a high level of sustainability and we permanently reduced the consumption of materials (paper, furniture, equipments…) and energy but we doubled the costs with mobile communications (Tmobil, Internet, mTermianls) and the investments in Knowledge.
Our objective concerning the digitalization of CAT companies hasn’t been completely accomplished, because of the associated companies’ slow rate of adopting the on-line deductions by our associated companies, donors and sponsors. This objective will be included as a priority in the 2006 CAT Program. The alignment and integration of the Romanian financial-account-bank-fiscal system into the digital European systems will allow CAT to go over from that current virtual electronic state to that of virtual mobile: eCAT-2-mCAT, giving the users that chill-comforting totally profitable, that we all wish to have.
The Administration Department has signed the Accounting Balance Sheet for 2006, which it then forwarded to the Committee of Direction and to the Auditing Committee; the main indicators are:
A. Incomes from:
- economical activities:………………………………………………0 lei
- own activities (cotizations):………………………………34.749 lei – 33 %
- Grants from abroad (UE, SES):…………………….. 68.026 lei – 65 %
- Donations, sponsorships:………………………………………..0 lei – 0 %
- other incomes: interests, financial incomes……………1.305 lei – 2 %
TOTAL INCOMES (LEI) …………………………… 104.080 Lei
TOTAL INCOMES (EURO)…………………………..29.530 Euro
B. Expenses with
- economical activities ……………………………………………………………….0 lei
- own activities (supplies, salaries, taxes, income taxes, rents):
- expenses with personnel …………………………. 95.628 lei – 45.4%
- expenses with outsourcing ……………………….97.809 lei – 46.4%
- other ………………………………………………… 17.344 lei – 8.2%
TOTAL EXPENSES LEI: ……………………………………………… 210.781 Lei
TOTAL EXPENSES EURO ……………………………………………..59.805 Euro
C. Surplus/Deficit: Lei: +106.701; EURO : 30274
* Average rate of exchange for 2006: 1 EURO= 3.5245 lei
The total CAT assets have been decreased in comparison to last year with 42.730 lei, reaching on 31.12.06 the amount of 17.008 lei.
Expenses in amount of 28.293 lei were directed at the members with dues (53%) and at some suppliers (47%). The recovery of these sums was programmed for the first trimester of the year 2007, with measures including the exclusion of members that haven’t accomplished their obligations.
There are 46.282 lei worth of debts, mainly localized at the personal loan (without any interest) given by CAT’s founding-president, as a consequence of the European Committee’s delay to offer the payments for projects IRC, LIRIC and smE-MPOWER.
The surplus registered in the amount of 106.701 lei is all designated for covering the accounting deficits from the last years, generated by the European Committee’s delayed payments will be balanced in 2007-2008 with the closure of engaged projects.
In conclusion: we want to warmly thank all our members, the whole staff and the young partners, censors, management of the trades, resident directors and independent CAT managements from Transylvanian cities, and also to our programs’ sponsors. The support and effort that they have provided to maintain our organization among the most performant and sustainable Business Centers in the region, has lead to the strengthening of CAT’s image on the local, European and international level. We would also like to express our gratitude to our partner CRIMM-Bucharest and the European Committee in Brussels, for accepting CAT into the IRC and smE-MPOWER Consortiums, and also to its delegation in Romania, which has co-financed in 2000-2001 our successful program: BusinessLink-BREuropa who’s results we still see today.
The working papers are put at members’ disposal at CAT’s front office on nr 4 Nicolae. Titulescu Boulevard, room 1, mibile phone: 0722-354447 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0722-354447 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, phone/fax: 0264-433768 e-mail e-cat@e-cat.ro. They can also be examined on the Internet at http://e-cat/raport2006 for the preparation of debates from the General Meeting, convoked for 31st of March, 2007, 15.00 hours. The General Meeting will take place phisycal and virtual (Internet-SKYPE/Yahoo! Messenger Multimedia-Audio-Video Confference).
Dr. Radu-Adrian Mlesnita
Presedinte
Cluj-Napoca ,March 23, 2007