Utimaco Welcomes Export Initiative for German IT Security Industry from Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour
London, 18 March 2005 – When it comes to IT security solutions, German companies are often technological leaders at home, but with a few exceptions, are rarely successful further afield. As a result, the ‘IT security made in Germany’ export initiative, intended to assist German IT security companies to turn their competitive advantage into market success outside Germany has been launched. The announcement follows a debate chaired by the German Ministry of Economics and Labour, together with leading representatives of the German IT security industry, earlier this week in Germany.
Utimaco, an attendee to the event, currently receives almost 50 per cent of its revenue from its product business outside Germany. In the first six months of the current business year 2004/2005, the revenue recorded outside Germany was 38.3 per cent higher than in the previous period, a substantial increase compared to total sales revenue growth (35 per cent).
“International competitiveness is a critical consideration for the German IT security industry to be healthy, strong and, above all, able to survive independently”, said Martin W??lfert, CEO of Utimaco Safeware AG, the world-wide leader in securing mobile devices such as notebooks and PDAs, based in Oberursel Germany. “German companies can only overcome the strong competition from American companies if they look beyond their borders early enough”.
The key contributor to the continued success of Utimaco outside Germany is its strategic focus on extending indirect and OEM partnerships with leading international manufacturers. For example, IBM is a world-wide reseller of two Utimaco security solutions for encrypting data on notebooks and desktop PCs. “The initiative by the Ministry is, for us, an important step towards further strengthening our competitiveness in regions with interesting prospects for growth,” said W??lfert.
About Utimaco Safeware AG
Utimaco Safeware AG is the leading European technology manufacturer of professional IT security solutions. The security technology and solutions developed by Utimaco protect the electronic data of companies and government bodies against unauthorised access and guarantee that business processes and administrative procedures in the electronic world are binding and confidential. Utimaco Safeware’s Personal Device Security division supplies technologies and solutions for mobile security in the areas of high-level authentication including biometric techniques, encryption and integrity checks. Its products and solutions secure data in terminal server and Citrix environments, on the PC, notebook and PDA at the workplace, and on the move. Utimaco Safeware’s Transaction Security division specialises in security solutions for e-business, e-government and e-payment based on its own technologies (telecommunications management systems, hardware security modules, gateways for e-mail security, authentication and digital signatures, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and PKI-enabled applications).