The Vision of Silicon Sanssouci

 

 

 

 

Information, telecommunication, and software development are synonyms for the dynamic development of Potsdam as a home for the world of high-tech. There are already about 1,500 employees at work in this innovative sector of the Potsdam economy. Before that could happen, however, an adequate infrastructure had to be developed to enable the successful establishment of existing enterprises and the founding of new ones. Today, all the modern telecommunication services for industry and commerce are available and tailored to suit the needs of the market, such as mobile communications, data services, and dedicated digital connections in all bandwidths. ORACLE, Deutsche Telekom, e-Plus mobile telephone services, and Toll Collect have already given a modern profile to Potsdam as a location for business.

ORACLE, the world's second largest software company, moved its Internet Sales Division from Dublin to Potsdam in 2002. Over 180 employees market ORACLE software solutions and provide advice to large to medium-sized customers in the German-speaking marketing region from the Potsdam site.

Since 2003, the heart of a new electronic truck toll system has been beating in the metropolis on the Havel. At the system's core is the customer center of the Toll Collect consortium, which is made up of DaimlerChrysler Services PLC, Deutsche Telekom PLC, and the French Cofiroute PLC. Some 250 employees in Potsdam are responsible for the recording and calculating of the tolls for heavy trucks (exceeding 12 tons), and servicing the recording devices on-board the vehicles.

The development of the high-tech campus at the Jungfernsee lake, on a site with an area of 36 hectares in the north of Potsdam, is an important step along the way to realizing the vision of ‘Silicon Sanssouci.' Models for the high-tech city on the Jungfernsee's shore are world-renowned locations like the SAP labs in Palo Alto, California, for example. The idea originated at the University of Potsdam, in connection with the desire to shift the science and development labs out of their ivory towers and establish them here. The investor is Professor Hasso Plattner, Dr. h. c., the managing director of SAP.

The planned investment amounts to about 250 million euros. The state is participating with a 20-million euro contribution that will be used to finance the development of the site. The plans are long-term in scale and design and are aimed primarily at attracting successful companies from all over the world to establish themselves here and, in turn, profit from the excellent setting, made unique by Potsdam's rich cultural environment, the proximity to Berlin, and the dense population of scientific institutions here, such as the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering (HPI), and the subsequently established, HP-Ventures business incubator.

By the year 2013, some 3000 to 4000 new jobs are to be created here, advancing real net output in innovative fields.