BMW 2006 Annual Report Download - page 62

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61
– the creation of a working environment for the
future
– promotion and maintenance of the workforce’s
ability to perform with the appropriate set of skills
– training
– increasing employees’ awareness of their re-
sponsibility to make personal provisions for
their future
– individual employee working life-time models
– The BMW Group’s pension obligations to its
employees resulting from defined benefit plans
are measured on the basis of actuarial reports.
In accordance with IAS 19, future pension pay-
ments are discounted by reference to market
yields on high quality corporate bonds. These
yields are subject to market fluctuation and influ-
ence the level of pension obligations. Further-
more, changes in other factors, such as longer
life expectancies, can also have an impact on
pension obligations.
In the United Kingdom, the USA and a number of
other countries, funds intended to cover pension
entitlements are held separately from corporate
assets and are mainly invested in fixed-income
securities with a high level of creditworthiness,
and in equities. In Germany, by contrast, the funds
remain part of the enterprise’s assets.
Information and IT risks
The BMW Group protects data, business secrets and
innovative developments against unauthorized ac-
cess, damage and misuse using security measures
appropriate to the risk involved. These measures
encompass manual, process design and IT controls.
Group directives are in place requiring employees
to handle information appropriately and ensure that
information systems are properly used. Targeted
communication measures increase employees’
awareness of security requirements.
The protection of information and data is an in-
tegral component of business processes and is
achieved within the BMW Group by applying
inter-
national security standards. Together with the related
IT infrastructure, the group’s core process “Product
development” has been audited and certified to in-
ternational security standard (ISO 27001/17799).
Certification had already been received back in 2003
and was again achieved in 2006.
The technical data protection procedures used
by the BMW Group include process-specific security
measures as well as standard activities such as virus
scanners, firewall systems and access controls at
operating system and application level.
Protecting BMW Group-specific know-how is
also treated as a major issue as far as cooperation
arrangements and relationships with partner com-
panies are concerned. The BMW Group protects its
intellectual property by ensuring that the relevant
departments have clear instructions regarding data
protection and the use of information technology. In-
formation underlying key areas of expertise is espe-
cially protected. In addition, staff members working
in IT functions are increasingly receiving specific
train-
ing in the area of data protection.