by Bruno Lamborghini,
Chairman of the EITO Advisory Board
The idea of creating a new and independent instrument for contributing to the development and strengthening of Europe in the area of Information Technology was put on the table in a beautiful restaurant of Champs Elyseés in Paris mid 1992. Around the table there were representatives of the European IT Associations and Trade Fairs: Enore Deotto of Milano Smau Fair, Petit Herrera of SIMO Fair Madrid, Jörg Schomburg of CEBIT Fair Hannover, Gunther Moeller Secretary General and myself, Chairman of Eurobit, the European Federation of National IT industry Associations. At the end of the dinner, the European Information Technology Observatory was born. |
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The first report was printed at the beginning of 1993 and publications continued every February (including also updates in October) for 15 years until 2007, based on an independent non profit organisation funded by a number of industry sponsors and supported by organisations including the European Commission and the OECD. The EITO became a broad and unique source of data, analysis and forecasts for the European industry and policy makers on the most dynamic and strategic industry sector, dramatically changing during the 90s and the beginning of the new century. During 15 years the EITO Report analysed and anticipated the dynamic trends of a unique period characterized by the explosion of the use of Internet and of Web applications, the extraordinary diffusion of cellular mobile telephony and all wireless technologies in Europe, and – last but not least – the process of the digital convergence between IT, telecommunications, consumer electronics and digital media. The EITO Reports have – step by step – widened their market coverage from IT to Telecommunications, to Consumer Electronics and to Internet through detailed statistics, forecasts and special reports, anticipating the enlargement process of the European Union to the new members.
Between 1993 and 2007 EITO has been quoted in numerous EU and national governmental reports, in hundreds of business plans of ICT start-ups or financial reports of leading enterprises and in thousands of press articles all over the world. Today EITO is a truly strong brand in European ICT market research and analysis.
In 2008 a new phase of the EITO life has just started with the objective to move from the traditional rReport printed once a year to a continuous up-to-date flow of data presented on a online portal and with wider and detailed market coverage including the EU markets and the major world markets from North America to Asia, with customised services in order to offer to all interested parties in Europe the most flexible and useful access to required services. The launch of the new EITO has been possible thanks to the engagement of BITKOM , the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and new media. We are also very thankful that well-known companies continued their financial contributions to the funding of the new EITO: the Deutsche Messe AG, organiser of the world’s largest ICT trade fair CeBIT, Telecom Italia, IFEMA Fería de Madrid, KPMG, and Munich Fairs . Without their support we would not have been able to create a state-of-the-art online marketplace.
The new EITO has beenis a European project from its very first day on. EITO is co-operating with market research companies from five numerous European countries. Its scientific Board, the EITO Task Force , is open to all co-operating national association. In the first two years the ICT associations of ten countries have already officially joined the project, and many more followed the invitation to join the biannual Task Force meetings held throughout Europe. It is our aim to bring together as much expertise from European countries as possible. EITO is therefore still looking for more partners in all European member states and beyond. Since the re-launch in March we have started talks with many European associations and have already signed a partnership contract with the Turkish TUBISAD, and in May a contract with Syntec Informatique from France will follow. Our ambitious target is to have ten European associations together at the end of 2008. The new EITO further is in close cooperation with the European Commission and the OECD intending intends to continue collaborating with the EU Institutions and Members States to strengthen the role Europe will be playing on the global marketplace in the years to come. With this open approach the new EITO intends to keep up the state of an independent market research project steadily working to improve its contribution to a better understanding of the big global challenge we are facing in Europe, driven by the full penetration of the digital networks in all economic and social activities, in business models, in all professions and labour organisations.
Date: July 2010
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