Annual Report 2004

The OeNB — An Innovative,
Dynamic and Cost-Efficient Enterprise
Efficient procurement
structures
Organizational
changes
Environmental
protection based on
the principle of
sustainability
Joint Vienna Institute (JVI), which
was established in Vienna in 1994. It
is a multilateral training center that
supports transition countries, in particular
in Central and Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet Union, on
their way to becoming market-oriented
economies. The IMF, the Austrian
Federal Ministry of Finance
and the OeNB share the cost of the
regular training courses offered at
the JVI. In 2004, the OeNB organized
a number of seminars which covered
topics like Economic and Monetary
Union, payment means and payment
systems, and central bank management.
In November 2004, the OeNB
successfully completed the reorganization
of its branch offices. In the
course of this reorganization, the
original framework of eight branches
was restructured according to market-related
regional aspects. Aside
from the OeNBÕs head office in
Vienna, which covers Eastern Austria,
there are now three regional branch
offices:
— Northern Austria branch office,
located in Linz, with a representative
office in Salzburg;
— Southern Austria branch office,
locatedinGraz,witharepresentative
office in Klagenfurt; and
— WesternAustria branch office, located
in Innsbruck.
The regional model supports the
OeNBÕs decentralized approach to
fulfilling its tasks. The tasks of the
OeNBÕs branch offices range from
public relations and communications
activities to holding cash reserves,
providing information on payment instruments,
handling cash, observing
the local economy, supporting the
supervision of financial markets and
carrying out payment transactions.
Following the introduction of a
new front office system in 2003 and
in view of the changing framework
conditions, organizational and workflow
structures in the treasury domain
were optimized to ensure that
the OeNBÕs Treasury Section operates
in an economical and sustainable
manner.
As a public sector contractor, the
OeNB is subject to the Federal Procurement
Act, which prescribes a call
for tenders for procurements exceeding
a certain threshold. In 2004, a total
of 26 calls for tender were carried
out, guaranteeing efficient, free and
fair competition in the procurement
process. The OeNB succeeded in reducing
costs massively in 2004 by
continuously optimizing efficiency.
All corporate expenditure-related activity
follows economic and ecological
principles.
To ensure process efficiency, an eprocurement
system is used to handle
all orders with IT support. A procurement
platform open to all OeNB
subsidiaries has been established to
achieve synergy effects in procurement
across the OeNB group.
By introducing an integrated environmental
management system for all
its offices across Austria, the OeNB
has further strengthened its leading
position in environmental protection
among European central banks. With
this step, the OeNB has signaled its
willingness to go far beyond the ecological
requirements businesses have
to meet by law.
Environmental efforts are measured
on the basis of ecological indicators
for businesses, which rely on input-output
data. These indicators
make it possible to regularly assess
the improvement of environmental
efforts, facilitate comparisons with
other companies in the industry and
thus help identify potential for longterm
improvement. The following table
gives a brief overview of the
70 ×
Annual Report 2004