Information and communication technologies (ICT)

Inside track to ICT development

The GREATER GENEVA BERNE area (GGBa) is fast becoming a favorite ICT location. Growth has been stimulated by the need for secure data transfer by the many multinationals, banks and international organizations here. The high number of start-ups in bioinformatics, encryption systems, internet and network security is evidence that the GGBa is positioning itself as a leader in this field.

Equally important, ICT policy is made in the GGBa, where federal policy-makers, developers, educators and international regulators have formed centers of competence with numerous business links:

• Federal Office for Communication (BAKOM)
• Federal Office for Computer Science and Telecommunications (BIT)
• Computer science departments and telecommunications departments at the University of Applied Science Western Switzerland (HES-SO)
• European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
• ICT Cluster Berne (tcbe)
• RFIDnet Bern GmbH, a neutral center of competences in RFID, daughter company of BFH and tcbe
• IDIAP Research Institute (Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence)
• Industrial federations such as ICT Switzerland and SICTA
• Information Systems and IT Security Cluster (ISIS) at HES-SO and the University of Fribourg
• Information Systems Institute at the University of Lausanne (UNIL)
• International Institute of Management in Technology at the University of Fribourg
• Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of Berne
• International Society of Aeronautical Telecommunications (SITA)
• International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
• Lake Geneva ICT Cluster (Alp ICT)
• MIRAlab, a lab working on virtual human simulation (University of Geneva)
• RFID Center (Institut Icare)
• School of Computer and Communication Sciences (EPFL)
• Swiss Multimedia and Electronic Communication Association (SwissMedia)
• The Grid (at CERN)
• Universal Postal Union (UPU)
• Berne University of Applied Sciences

With 8% of GDP, the ICT sector is a pillar of the Swiss economy, employing at least 150,000 workers in two main areas:

• Software: More than 80% of companies offer software development and consulting; the remainder focus on wholesale and retail;
• Telecommunications: Workforce productivity is nearly three times better than the Swiss average.

Sector's main players choose GGBa

ICT in the region is characterized by a fertile mix of small and medium-sized enterprises and multinationals increasingly on the look-out for commercial research partners, to establish support and sales subsidiaries, or relocate headquarters.

Close interaction between the GGBa’s research institutes, incubators, technology parks and companies has resulted in a great source of innovation and value to the sector’s main players. Three of the five top providers – IBM, T-Systems and Swisscom – are located in the GGBa, along with HP, Microsoft, Siemens, SAP, Logitech, STMicroelectronics, VeriSign, Autodesk, Cisco, Yahoo! and Salesforce.