Not only large corporations are affected by increasing cyber attacks. This is shown, for example, by the cases of Stadler Rail and Comparis, which recently became public. A study by the ZHAW also reveals this: About one-third of Swiss SMEs have already fallen victim to cyberattacks, and about 4 % of them have also been blackmailed. This means that almost 200,000 SMEs have already fallen victim to a cyber attack. ICT Switzerland also warns in a study: "The risk of falling victim to a cyber attack is overestimated. Only 10 % and 4 % of respondents, respectively, perceive being put out of action for a day or even having their livelihood threatened as a great or very great danger." At the same time, however, only 60 % of respondents confirm having fully implemented basic protection measures such as malware protection, firewall, patch management and backup. Cyber incident detection systems have been fully implemented by only one in five companies, he said. Only 18 % of the companies surveyed still report processes for handling cyber incidents, and only 15 % report employee training on the secure use of IT.

When it happens, good advice is needed

When a cyberattack occurs at a company, good advice is needed. A ransomware attack, for example, is quickly followed by the demand for a ransom, usually in cryptocurrencies, to cover up traces. For victims, it often remains uncertain whether access to the data encrypted by the attacker will actually be fully restored after payment has been made. What is left behind are legal cases, reputational damage, financial losses and uncertainty. Prevention, intervention and aftercare are needed along with good advice.

Cyber Incident Hub for companies and insurers

Against this background, the three consulting firms MLL MeyerLustenberger Lachenal Froriep (MLL), Farner Consulting, Oneconsult and the startup CYBERA have jointly launched the interdisciplinary "Cyber Incident Response Hub", which is available with support services around the clock. Covered are cyber specialized legal advice (MLL), incident response and digital forensics (Oneconsult), crisis communication and reputation management (Farner), and international response to fraudulently stolen funds (CYBERA). According to the company, this unique offering in Switzerland addresses a rapidly increasing threat to companies from cyberattacks, data corruption, fraud and extortion in times of digital transformation. Target customers are not only (cyber) insurers but also exposed companies of all kinds. Nicola Staub, Founder and CEO CYBERA says about the new service offering: "To block and secure fraudulently stolen funds worldwide with criminally relevant information before they are laundered and irrevocably lost, new solutions are needed, which we offer."

The 360° offer

The interdisciplinary capabilities of legal, technology, forensics, and communications professionals offered by the Cyber Incident Hub are all needed to best prepare for, successfully defend against, and manage or mitigate risks. MLL Law Firm has built a network of leading and experienced partners to provide a coordinated response to cybersecurity issues of all types. Services range from the creation of a cybersecurity response plan and cyber risk readiness review to the legally correct handling of security breaches, data breaches and cyber incident investigations. Good communication in the event of the attack contributes to the rapid recovery of the reputation damage incurred. Last but not least, ensuring cyber and data security at all times is now one of the basic legal requirements for compliance and good governance, write the operators of the Cyber Incident Hub.

How can the Cyber Incident Hub be contacted? Currently acts MLL as a point of contactHowever, a landing page is currently being set up, we were told in response to our inquiry. The offer is intended less as an emergency call option than as a comprehensive service that can be used, for example, as part of insurance packages against cyber risks.

Founded in January 2011, CCR says it has more than 25 years of experience in Genesys partner and call center technologies to offer its customers the latest solutions. Now, new professional services packages have been developed to support those companies deploying Genesys-based solutions, the company says. The unified communications consulting services help replace legacy systems with the latest generation contact center technologies and increase business productivity, it adds. As a result, the company says it can better ensure personable and professional customer contact by contact center agents. Agents are empowered and can connect with customers through any channel, revenue is increased, and business costs are reduced with an omni-channel solution, according to other benefits cited by CCR. In addition, MS Teams management services are also part of the DMS, he said. The seamless MS Teams migration and management by CCR would form the technical basis for this.

With the following DMS Packages: Health Check, Standard Package and Full Coverage Package, companies can further develop and digitize their contact center. CCR is present in the banking, insurance, telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, retail and e-commerce sectors with its solutions. Some of CCR's reference customers in Switzerland are Sunrise, Medela, Medgate, WIR Bank, Vifor Pharma, Constellium, Brother (Schweiz) AG, etc.

Source and further information: www.ccr.group

We have known about the phenomenon of "influencers" not just since social media. Influential leaders have always had a sizable number of "followers." But this is about something very simple that is relevant to anyone who wants to influence others in any way: it's about influencing others so that they are happy to follow you of their own free will. If you can do that, you can move the proverbial mountains.

By the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with "blind allegiance". On the contrary: The more your people critically question and challenge you, the greater your influence - provided you are willing to accept the challenges and deal with the criticism.

Leaders come to me all the time with questions about why people don't follow them enough: "Why aren't you doing what we agreed? Why aren't you implementing things the way I told you to?" Here are the top three reasons from my experience why people don't follow you:

1. They spread uncertainty. I had already dealt with this in detail elsewhere. Many leaders spread insecurity to others through their lack of clarity. Clarity in communication is often drastically overestimated. What appears to be clear to you may be completely unclear to others. No one wants to follow someone they don't understand.
2. The trust is too low. Of course, you know this: if you are to follow someone, you must trust the person to some degree. The more trust, the easier the leadership. But what is often ignored: In order to trust yourself fully, you should know yourself as well as possible and be able to assess yourself. This requires actions that are outside the normal work processes.
3. There is no need. This may come as a bit of a surprise, but if you don't see a good reason to follow another person, you won't do it. So if others don't understand the need for your leadership, it will be difficult for you. The good news is that you can consciously create that need.

If you reverse these three points, you have a very good chance that other people will be very happy to follow you, which will then increase your influence.

Bonus insight: The three levers mentioned above apply just as much in sales if you want to turn as many customers as possible into your fans.

To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch

According to the latest quarterly survey of member companies of the industry association Swissmechanic, the MEM sector is at the start of a post-crisis boom. With the vast majority (75 percent) of respondents now assessing the situation as positive or rather or very favorable, it can be said that after two years in the red, the Swissmechanic Business Climate Index turned clearly into the green in July 2021. Still in April this year less than half (46%) saw the future as rosy, even though greater optimism was already emerging at that time.

SME-MEM on course for expansion

The fact that the recovery in the MEM sector continued to gain momentum in the second quarter of 2021 can be seen from the following indicators: new orders and sales rose sharply compared with the same quarter of the previous year (2020 Q2), partly due to the sharp slump a year earlier. The same applies to MEM exports; here Swissmechanic is talking about a record-breaking increase. A new trend reversal is also emerging in margins and personnel in the second quarter, this as a further finding of the survey. Capacity utilization rose to 92 percent in July 2021 and is thus higher than before the start of the pandemic.

MEM sector continues to face supply chain problems

Supply chain problems and labor shortages are currently ahead of order shortages on the list of concerns. According to the member companies surveyed, by far the biggest supply chain issues are availability, delivery times and prices of raw materials (e.g. metals) and intermediates (e.g. microchips). The shortage of intermediate products should primarily be seen as a symptom of the (global) race to catch up and the shift in consumption and production patterns, Swissmechanic writes in this regard. For example, the digitalization push caused by the pandemic has played a significant role in the microchip shortage.

Long-running issue: overregulation and a flood of regulations

Despite the problems in the supply chain area, the still young boom in the MEM sector is expected to continue this year and next. In order for the MEM SMEs to achieve a higher (structural) growth path in the long term, their framework conditions must be improved, the MEM SME industry association further states, and promises to continue to lobby for this cause in Federal Berne. The numerous regulations and the ever-increasing flood of paragraphs would increasingly restrict individual initiative and entrepreneurship and slow down the productivity and competitiveness of companies. This has a negative impact on innovation and jobs, Swissmechanic added. "Switzerland is permanently losing its attractiveness as a business location. This must not be allowed to happen. Therefore, Swissmechanic supports the introduction of a regulatory brake as well as all measures that contribute to relieving companies of regulatory costs. This benefits the Swiss workplace and thus society as a whole," reads the corresponding media release.

Source: Swissmechanic

If you want to earn a lot, you're in good hands in the ICT industry. That's because wages there have been consistently higher than in other industries for years. If you take inflation into account and compare the figures with the Previous year salaries have even increased slightly. According to the swissICT Salary Study 2021, the median salaries in 2021 for the "Junior", "Professional" and "Senior" skill levels are CHF 79,000, CHF 104,000 and CHF 127,000 respectively. despite Corona issues, only a few changes occurred in the IT job market. Overall, salaries are stable with slight deviations up and down. Nevertheless, the overall median is 1.1 percent higher this year than in 2020, which can be interpreted as an indication of the increasing shortage of skilled workers.

Occupational profiles are also becoming more differentiated. For example, the number of agile job profiles is increasing. The SAFe framework, for example, is increasingly being used in this topic, the study notes. Product owner, for example, received a further 23 percent more mentions than in the previous year. At a lower level, but with 98 percent growth, the Scrum Master is on the advance and gaining relevance.

More ICT service providers

272 companies participated in the salary survey. They reported 36,950 salaries. "This is an extremely pleasing increase," says Christian Hunziker, Managing Director of swissICT. "This shows, as in 2020, that the annual ICT salary survey continues to gain relevance. This is a nice sign and allows the evaluators to get a broader benchmark."

If we look at the sector distribution of the participating companies, we can see changes. For example, there was an increase in the number of participating service companies as well as in industry and commerce. Despite having the largest number of participating companies, ICT providers still account for 23 percent of all salary entries, or just under a quarter of all entries.

The cut-off date for the data collection was May 1, 2021. The salaries were evaluated on the basis of "ICT professions," which covers salaries for a total of 50 professions. This year, no new occupational profiles were added, which leads to more stability.

Differences in top specialists

A look at the standard evaluation of the swissICT Salary Survey 2021 shows the spread of salaries of comparable functions. In Switzerland, a "senior" application developer earns roughly between CHF 120,000 (lower quartile, 25 percent threshold) and CHF 135,000 (upper quartile, 75 percent threshold). This means that for one quarter of the mentions in each case, the salary is lower than CHF 120,000 and higher than CHF 135,000, respectively. With 2137 mentions, this occupational profile is among the most frequently mentioned.

The spreads for Junior (S1) to Expert (S4) are comparable and show a certain stability. In the case of the "Senior Expert S5", this increases by leaps and bounds and sometimes already exceeds 50,000 Swiss francs (25 percent to 75 percent quartiles). However, "If you come for the money, you leave for the money," says Nicole Kaeser Mirata, who has been involved in the "ICT Salaries" working group for many years. Her employer, Mobiliar, has participated in the salary study from the very beginning.

Source: swissICT

Data worlds from the cloud are constantly expanding. Technology stacks in the supply chains are increasingly interconnected. For this reason, the software applications in companies - first and foremost the ERP system as the digital image of the process organization and control instrument of the entrepreneurial value creation - have the complex task of taking over the integration of these data worlds into the business management heart of the company and making them usable in the sense of the company's goals. Trends such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), mobility, microservices, and the merging of production and IT are also fueling the digital transformation and facilitating the establishment of new, increasingly digitally supported business models. All this is the subject of SoftSelect's study on ERP software trends 2021.

Easing of investment brakes

After the Covid-19 restrictions on the entire social life over the past 12-18 months, many companies are now looking forward again and in many places the course has already been set for growth again, according to a finding of the study. It is also apparent that the reluctance to invest in digital infrastructure that is still often observed is increasingly giving way to a willingness to implement IT projects quickly. In many places, the aim is to eliminate any digitalization deficits.

The ERP system in particular, as the central process and data hub in the company, comes into focus when processes and entire business models are put to the test. By being able to link transactional, behavioral or, for example, technical IoT data with the commercial and master data from the ERP, companies not only achieve an improvement in data quality in the information network, but also create an important foundation for the control and automation of workflows beyond the ERP core.

ERP Software Trends 2021: Diversity of Offerings Grows

A few more concrete findings from the ERP Software Trends 2021 study: On the ERP vendor side, the service offering is not only showing growth in breadth (e.g., new cloud offerings, apps, business analytics, platform connectors, etc.), but also in depth. The most common core areas of ERP solutions include CRM (88 percent coverage), inventory and materials management (87 percent coverage) and document management (80 percent). While around three quarters of ERP solutions provide modules for financial accounting (78 percent), analytics components such as business intelligence, data warehousing or data mining (76 percent), supply chain management (74 percent) or project management (73 percent), around two out of three providers cover the areas of human resources/personnel management (69 percent), production planning/control (PPC for short, 68 percent), e-commerce (68 percent) or customer service (68 percent). The areas of payroll accounting (55 percent) and machine data acquisition (48 percent) are still covered by every second solution.

Many ERP solutions are also focused on specific industry segments such as industry (75 percent), retail (67 percent) or services (63 percent). In the industrial application environment, a wide range of manufacturing types are supported - from make-to-order production (98 percent coverage), small batch production (94 percent) and variant production (90 percent) to lot-size production (90 percent) and repetitive manufacturing (87 percent) to flow production (68 percent), kanban production (64 percent) and process manufacturing (60 percent). According to vendor data, 70 percent of ERP systems can be used regardless of industry. However, the range of ERP solutions thins out considerably for specific industry sectors such as transport and logistics (43 percent), skilled trades (42 percent), construction (34 percent) or the public sector (27 percent).

Java environments continue to gain ground

Not only is the range of ERP solutions more diverse than ever before due to new cloud, mobile and industry solutions, but the question of the optimal technology and the individually suitable deployment model also preoccupies user companies facing investment decisions today. 90 percent of the ERP systems examined in the study are classically offered as in-house variants. In contrast, 72 percent of the solution offerings are provided via the cloud. The offering is still dominated by client-server (88 percent), multi-tier (72 percent) and partially web-based architectures (67 percent). However, purely web-based applications are still the exception (12 percent), at least in the ERP area. The majority of ERP systems use .NET as their technological platform (60 percent), while Java accounts for a share of around 54 percent - an increase of 12 percentage points compared with 2020. The principles of service-oriented architectures (SOA) are implemented by around 49 percent of ERP solutions.

Multi-cloud sourcing

The approach of a hybrid IT landscape, in which certain core processes are operated "on-premise" or in the company's own cloud and are extended as required by applications from the public cloud, is becoming increasingly popular. Although private clouds are used for privacy-critical processes and sensitive data (e.g., customer or HR master data), public clouds are often used for non-critical data, e.g., from test or IoT environments. By storing part of the content locally and another part in the cloud and synchronizing it, companies want to retain control over critical data (keyword: data sovereignty), but at the same time offer users and partners more flexibility in access. The choice of the future data deployment model is now a central question that has a major influence on the future IT strategy and the choice of ERP service provider. After all, no company today wants to close itself off to future developments for years (with ever shorter innovation cycles) by locking into a particular technology or provider. Today, HR functions, CRM services, collaboration tools and databases are increasingly being provided from the cloud. In addition to public cloud and private cloud operation, the integration of several data clouds in a so-called multi-cloud is gaining in importance. In order to make data from external clouds usable for the benefit of the company's own value creation or for controlling processes, various data clouds, cloud applications, systems of collaboration partners or IoT environments are brought together in a cloud stack via a multi-cloud and managed centrally.

"The ERP system does not need to fear for its standing as the leading system within the IT landscape for years to come. Although external clouds are increasingly taking on the function of an additional data hub, the ERP system acts as an integration and control platform for all core business processes and maps the process knowledge across the entire value chain," says SoftSelect Managing Director Michael Gottwald, summarizing the study results.

Source and further information: http://www.softselect.de/erp-studien

The use of artificial intelligence is also advancing in the marketing environment. This is demonstrated, for example, by the Chatbot Study 2021 for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which was conducted by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in cooperation with the technology company swiss moonshot AG (aiaibot) was published. As part of the study, around 1,000 people were surveyed about chatbot use, as well as their experiences with and expectations of digital assistants.

The study shows: Experience with chatbots has increased significantly. Three years ago, according to the survey, only 40 percent of respondents had interacted with a chatbot at least once. In the current study, the figure is now 63 percent. These are clear indications that artificial intelligence is finding ever broader application in marketing. In addition, 44 percent of those survey participants who have never had contact with a digital touchpoint could well imagine interacting with a chatbot in the future.

Practical chatbots 

In theory, the use of chatbots has undisputed advantages. They simplify the lives of customers and customer service representatives alike: The latter no longer have to answer recurring questions manually, and the former benefit from immediate service. But what does the practice look like? Are chatbots actually accepted by customers? The aforementioned study provides various findings in this regard. A first one: customers appreciate the speed and all-round availability of bots. They want a quick solution. The "how" plays a subordinate role, says the study. Chatbots are clearly preferred to voicebots - writing seems to be closer to them than speaking. Reachability, neutrality and fast help are the top three advantages cited by customers. Bots are usually used in the evening or at weekends from home and mostly on websites, according to another result of the survey. The respondents see numerous use cases for the use of a chatbot: Obtaining information, making appointments, checking delivery status, address changes, support in the purchasing process and many more.

Data as currency

Another finding is that customers are willing to trade data for better service. Around 60 percent of those surveyed in the study also trust that their data is secure when interacting with the bot. 75 percent are willing to authenticate themselves in dialog with a bot. More than half of the respondents are positive about the possibility of a chatbot knowing the users personally and being able to access their customer history accordingly.

In the interpretation section of the aforementioned study, the findings were also examined with the help of an in-depth analysis focusing on the intention to use. This revealed that the probability of using a chatbot repeatedly in the future is highest when the chatbot optimally combines the functional and emotional benefits. This knowledge is particularly important in the realization of a chatbot in order to consider both benefit components equally.

Artificial intelligence in marketing: not just chatbots

In addition to chatbots, another example of artificial intelligence in marketing is Google Ads. There, for example, predicting the conversion rate of an ad is standard - that's basically AI in its simplest form. And Facebook shows users more frequent messages that they are most likely to respond to. In short, marketers are already using AI applications on a regular basis without even realizing it. Automated collection of customer data, making data-driven decisions: Here, too, it is now hard to imagine marketing without artificial intelligence.

Using artificial intelligence correctly in marketing

Despite all the euphoria and optimistic study results, the use of AI must be critically monitored. The digital service provider Macaw recommends the following approaches that companies can use to successfully adopt AI-powered marketing.
1. strive for balance: Generally speaking, if companies automate all processes, the human factor is eliminated, but if they don't automate anything, the company becomes inefficient and ineffective. So it's about finding the right balance between people and technology. For example, AI can generate the content for search engine optimization or create regular marketing reports. This gives employees more time to set up innovative marketing campaigns. The example of chatbots shows that the use of AI is not a one-way street. In some cases, customers would rather talk to a real human being - that is, someone who really listens and personally tells them what to do. The motto for the use of AI-supported processes in marketing is therefore: "Digitize where possible, but human interaction where desired".
2. define purpose of use of data: For successful AI-supported collection and analysis of usage and customer data, companies need a data strategy. What insights should be drawn from the data? Do you want to find out at which point in the customer journey the customer drops out? Or is it of interest how customers arrive at the website? What data is needed to extract this information? A data strategy ensures that companies can draw meaningful conclusions from data with the aim of offering customers a personalized experience: no more generic content push, but addressing the customer with exactly the right content, at the right time and via the right channel.
3. AI and marketing - simply implement: As mentioned, marketers already use artificial intelligence on a daily basis - in many cases without being aware of it. Not to mention all the AI applications that are used - sometimes unconsciously - in the private sphere: the series and movie suggestions from Netflix or the Discover Weekly playlist from Spotify. All these offers are compiled on the basis of user behavior to refine the user profile and thus enable a personalized customer experience. Many marketing tools and applications now offer powerful AI capabilities: an ideal way to get started with AI in an easily accessible way.

With the Digital SME Award, Visable, the operator of the B2B platforms wlw and Europages, creates a stage for SMEs and their ideas and innovations. The award is intended to honor groundbreaking digital projects by small and medium-sized enterprises in the DACH region that make a significant contribution to making their own company more future-proof. "The Digital SME Award pursues the same goal that we have dedicated ourselves to as a company: more visibility for SMEs on the Internet and now also on the DIMA stage," explains Peter F. Schmid, CEO of Visable and jury board member. "We are convinced that innovative small and medium-sized enterprises are faster and more successful than many of their large competitors. With the award, we are putting these hidden champions in the spotlight."

New award with four categories

Until October 10, SMEs in the DACH region can submit their digital projects free of charge in one or more of a total of four categories. In the "Customer Experience" category, projects can be submitted that manage to pick up customers online and take them on a digital journey.The decisive factors here are ideas that invite interaction with the brand, product or service in B2B business. The "Solutions in Sales" category looks for smart digitization measures that give sales new impetus and customers.In particular, this includes well thought-out digital approaches that create added value - e.g. in the sales process, in marketing or in customer loyalty. The core of the "Sustainability in the company" category is the digital development and implementation of ideas that promote and advance the topic of sustainability in the company. The "Innovation" category evaluates the development and implementation of new digital projects that are particularly surprising and convincing due to their high degree of innovation.

Top-class jury of experts awards digital achievements

The jury, which examines each of the submitted projects for its innovative character, its digital character and its impact in the corporate context, is made up of six renowned experts from business, research and digital media. As head of the jury, Peter F. Schmid contributes his expertise in online retail and B2B business. He is assisted by Miriam Wohlfarth, founder and CEO of the financial technology company Ratepay, business journalist Dr. Holger Schmidt, Jenny von Podewils, founder and co-CEO of the startup Leapsome, Prof. Dr. Reiner Kurzhals from Münster University of Applied Sciences and founder of Westphalia DataLab, and marketing and trend expert Oliver Leisse.

The jurors are hoping for lively Swiss participation: "We are looking forward to receiving numerous applications from Swiss SMEs at the award," says Peter F. Schmid. "Switzerland is a very innovative country and I am convinced that there are many Swiss digital projects that serve as role models," says Schmid. The announcement of the winners can be followed free of charge in a livestream on November 18 after prior registration. In addition to the actual award ceremony, the online event will include exciting presentations on current developments in digitization. In addition to an official award, the winners will also receive a company profile on wlw and Europages worth a total of 25,000 euros.

More information: www.visable.com/dima

The study "Strategy development in the digital age" - already the third Swiss study on digital transformation published by the FHNW - shows with over 1,800 participants that only half of SMEs (but more large companies) have a digital strategy. Many SMEs lack a formulated strategy that sets out the digital direction for the next few years. According to the head of the study, Prof. Dr. Marc K. Peter, this value is too low - especially in a highly competitive, global environment driven by new technologies.

The need for strategic transformation

The study further shows that only half of Swiss SMEs conduct a market analysis at least once a year, and a quarter never do so. More than half of the SMEs assume that the corporate strategy will have to be adapted in the next two to three years due to the ongoing digital transformation. One-third of SMEs assume that competitors' digital strategies threaten their own business. This is also a high proportion of companies that feel threatened; and too small a proportion of companies that have a digital strategy.

According to the authors, these study results demonstrate the need for strategic discussions, ideas and plans in Swiss companies. This is also indicated by the fact that just under half of Swiss SMEs have already modified their market or marketing positioning, at least in part, in the last two years.

Key insights into strategy work in Swiss SMEs

• 24% of SMEs never conduct market analysis, 24% do so every 2-3 years or less frequently, and 52% do so at least once a year.
• 50% of SMEs have a digital strategy (7% separately, 43% as part of corporate or IT strategies).
• 56% of SMEs need to further adapt their business strategies due to the digital transformation.
• In 45% of SMEs, the Corona crisis has an impact on business strategy.
• 34% of SMEs feel threatened by competitors' digital strategies.
• 44% had to partially or completely adjust their market/marketing positioning.
• 44% of SMEs are not satisfied with their digitization progress.

Practical guide for strategic transformation

Based on the results, the project team has developed a available free of charge Practical guide with a strategy process and a strategy check (can be carried out on www.digital-strategy-check.ch) for the digital age was developed. The basis for this is the ACT method (Analyze, Create, Transform), which the Strategylab supplemented with many case studies, checklists, a workshop canvas and templates for strategy work in companies.

The research project was supported by various partners (Bank WIR, Mobiliar, AECS Swisscard, Lenovo, Rahn+Bodmer, Swiss Export, KMU Next, digitalswitzerland and the Gewerbezeitung) and authors.

More information

In our private communication, smileys, emojis and the like have long been established. Now we are encountering the mostly yellow faces more and more often in the professional environment as well. But how is that actually - are they appropriate here as well, or rather unprofessional? Michal Bürger, CEO and co-founder of eM Clientexplains when you can safely use smileys in business e-mails and when you should leave them alone.

What is the difference between emoticons, smileys and emojis?

Michal Bürger: "Emoticons are sequences of ASCII characters. With the help of control characters emoticons are entered into the keyboard. The best known is the grinning face with :-). Some programs automatically convert the lying line images into graphic representations - these are then the so-called smileys. So smileys are graphical emoticons. They can be used to better convey moods such as anger, fear or joy. However, smileys can also be emojis. Emoji is the generic term for comic-like representations and, so to speak, the further development of emoticons. Compared to smileys and emoticons, emojis represent not only emotions, but also animals, plants or food and drink."

Why do we use smileys more and more often in communication?

Michal Bürger: "Smileys replace the missing non-verbal communication - what facial expressions, gestures and tone of voice normally do in a face-to-face conversation. A conversation consists of more than just spoken language. That's exactly what we're trying to transfer to digital communication through smileys. In addition, we communicate much faster today than we did in analog times. In the various chats, we receive new messages every minute and have the feeling that we have to respond just as quickly. This is where smileys offer the advantage of saving time: you can express an emotion with just one click on a particular emoticon and don't have to do it in writing."

Are smileys also appropriate in business emails or do they look unprofessional here?

Michal Bürger: "There is no clear answer to this question. For one thing, it depends on the context and the formality of a message. For example, if you are sending an e-mail that you would have sent as a printed letter in the past, it would be better to leave out smileys. Examples include invoices or quotations. Secondly, their relationship to the recipient is crucial. If the sender and recipient have never met, smileys can quickly come across as incompetent. Among familiar colleagues, on the other hand, the use of smileys is completely unproblematic. Even if you've known a business partner or customer for some time and are on familiar terms, you can use smileys, but you should do so somewhat more sparingly than in private communication."

What effects can I achieve on the recipient through emails with smileys?

Michal Bürger: "Especially critical e-mails can be positively influenced by a smiley. With a laughing or winking smiley, you can considerably weaken negative feelings in the recipient. The risk that he or she will take your criticism personally decreases significantly. In principle, however, it is important to use smileys very consciously and to ask yourself beforehand exactly what effect they are likely to have on the recipient. To be flexible here, it is of course very advantageous if the e-mail program you use also technically supports smileys."

Should there be smileys or emojis in the subject line?

Michal Bürger: "Emojis should always be used in moderation and not en masse. If it's a private mail, the subject line can contain three smileys in a row. But the subject line should not be predominantly populated with small icons. If only for the reason that, if these are not recognized by an e-mail client, only a cryptic subject remains. Another thing to consider is that in quite a few companies, e-mails end up in spam if they contain special characters, which, after all, include smileys and emojis, whether in the subject line or in the text."

How do I reply when I get an email with smileys?

Michal Bürger: "If your "counterpart" uses smileys, that doesn't mean that you have to do the same - for example, to avoid appearing rude. Rather, develop your own communication style and stand by it. Of course, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't adapt your language style to different conversation partners. This can also include smileys. In addition to smileys, the language used in your e-mail is still crucial. Avoid words that evoke negative associations. Because then even a smiling smiley won't help."

Numerous Swiss SMEs have been affected by the pandemic in very different ways: Entire sectors of the economy have been paralyzed, global markets have slowed down, suppliers have fallen behind schedule or staff have been absent. Despite these difficulties, however, it is crucial for them to remain competitive and continue to offer innovative products. Applied research at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland HES-SO now wants to support SMEs with concrete projects.

Applied research for the benefit of SMEs

The projects were selected from 100 submissions and come from all the colleges of the Engineering and Architecture Department of the HES-SO: HE-Arc Ingénierie, Fribourg School of Engineering and Architecture - HEIA-FR, Haute école du paysage, d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Genève - HEPIA, HES-SO Valais-Wallis School of Engineering - HEI, Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud - HEIG-VD and Changins School of Viticulture and Enology.

The numerous responses to this call for proposals show that researchers from the HES-SO universities maintain close links with SMEs and have skills that enable them to support these companies in their innovation process, regardless of the economic circumstances. The 33 research projects that emerged from this extraordinary call for projects are short-term projects to be completed by the end of 2021. Some enable new technologies to be tested, while others focus on developing innovations that can be used directly by companies.

Wide range of projects

One of these 33 projects is a collaboration between a team of engineers from HEIA-FR and the Freiburg-based startup Softcar. This company wants to launch an electric city car in the coming months and is developing a gas-powered range extender for this purpose in partnership with HEIA-FR. This would give the city car a range of 400 km, compared with 170 km today.

A team from HE-Arc Ingénierie is again developing a new electropolishing process for beta titanium for the watchmaking industry: a material that has excellent cold forming properties and is therefore of great interest to the industry. For this, the team is working with the PX Group - an SME from La Chaux-de-Fonds specializing in high added-value metals.

In Yverdon-les-Bains, engineers work hand in hand with the company Livetools Technology, which provides high-end broadcasting technology for major sporting and cultural events. After all of these events were canceled as part of the pandemic response, the SME wanted to expand its product range and secure a good position for when the market picks up again. To do this, the company turned to the engineers at HEIG-VD: They support the SME in the integration of new algorithms so that in the future, flawless image quality can be achieved at major events, regardless of constraints such as weather or interference with other transmission systems.

Source: HES-SO

In August 2021, many young people will again begin a new phase in their lives with the start of their vocational apprenticeship. Countless SMEs and large companies are once again training young people in a wide range of professions. One of the largest training centers in Switzerland is the car dealer AMAG. This company currently trains 760 apprentices, or around 11 percent of all employees, in eleven different professions ranging from car body mechanic or automotive mechatronics technician to commercial clerk.

No effort spared for a successful start to apprenticeship

At the start of their apprenticeship, new apprentices usually attend a one-day Welcome Camp. There, they learn everything they need to know about AMAG for a smooth start. This year, the introductory event still took place in a digital setting. For example, last Thursday, August 12, AMAG Group CEO Helmut Ruhl welcomed the apprentices via screen, from a specially equipped studio at AMAG headquarters in Cham with countless cameras, a control room and interpreters who translated live for the young people from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.

Digital exchange with the CEO

Although the 240 new apprentices were not all able to meet in person to listen to the various speakers live, a good atmosphere was nevertheless created, according to AMAG. This was felt, for example, in the interactive (digital) exchange during the event. Right at the beginning, the new apprentices were allowed to ask Helmut Ruhl questions online. The CEO of AMAG supports the fact that apprentices show curiosity and initiative: "As one of the largest training companies in Switzerland, we are very pleased that we have been able to recruit 240 young people for our current eleven apprenticeships. AMAG's vocational training is sustainable, innovative and our apprentices learn - supported by coaches - with a great deal of personal responsibility. An apprenticeship with the AMAG Group provides a great start to a career in one of the most exciting industries of our time: AMAG has the vision of becoming the leading provider of sustainable individual mobility. And apprentices can help shape this."

Source and further information: AMAG