ICT and e-Business in the Pulp, Paper and Paper ... - empirica

Pulp, paper and paper products
Thus, EDI based standards will continue to play an important role for e-business
messaging in manufacturing industries in the near future.
Exhibit 3-10: Companies planning to migrate from EDI to XML based standards
0 20 40 60 80 100
Pulp & Paper (EU-10)
18
82
All 10 sectors (EU-10)
3
97
Plan to migrate w ithin 12 months
No migration plans
Base (100%): Companies using EDI. N (for sector, EU-10) = 71.
Weighting: in % of firms. Questionnaire reference: G4
Source: e-Business W@tch (Survey 2006)
3.3.2 Interoperability challenges
Interoperability refers to the "ability of two or more systems to exchange data, and to
mutually use the information that has been exchanged." 45 e-Business W@tch asked
companies whether they regard interoperability as critical for conducting e-business with
companies from their own sector, from other sectors, and for producing their products or
services. Results are fairly consistent with those obtained from a similar question in 2005
and do not show any pronounced differences between sectors (see Exhibit 3-11), with the
possible exception of the telecommunications and construction industries.
In the P&P industry, about 30% of all companies see interoperability as critical in each
of the three categories asked. This finding must be put into perspective, however, since
only about two thirds of all firms say that e-business constitutes a "significant part" or
"some part" of the way they operate. Thus, about 45% of those companies for whom e-
business plays a role in their day-to-day routines are aware of the critical role of
interoperability. The perceived importance of interoperability increases slightly by
company size.
45
Definition by IEEE and ISO, cf. e-Business W@tch Special Study on e-Business Interoperability
and Standards, September 2005, p. 14. Available at www.ebusiness-watch.org ('resources').
45