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

Pulp, paper and paper products
favourable framework in the EU Member States for the use of e-invoicing; addressing
barriers such as a lack of interoperability is one of the issues on the agenda. 46
Exhibit 3-12: Problems due to a lack of interoperability: firms experiencing difficulties in …
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40
30
20
10
22
25 22
26 27
23 25 25
22
20
25
24
20
16
0
Procurement
Logistics
management
Invoicing Payments Cataloguing Technical
aspects
Regulatory
aspects
Pulp & Paper (EU-10)
All 10 sectors (EU-10)
Base (100%): Firms that say that interoperability is critical for their e-business.
N (for sector, EU-10) = 388. Weighting: in % of firms. Questionnaire reference: G6
Source: e-Business W@tch (Survey 2006)
3.3.3 Use of Open Source Software
The open source model
Open source software (OSS) refers to computer software under an open source license.
An open-source license is a copyright license for software that makes the source code
available and allows for modification and redistribution without having to pay or seek
permission from the original authors. In the past years, the public awareness of OSS has
grown steadily, with the operating system Linux (an alternative to proprietary operating
systems such as Windows) being the best-known project. Besides Linux, other OSS such
as the database mySQL or the Internet browser Firefox (a Mozilla browser spin-off) have
each achieved significant market shares.
Policy is interested in monitoring OSS developments and the uptake among companies
for several reasons. There is some debate and different views on whether the use of OSS
based operating systems could possibly reduce ICT costs for SMEs, at least in the long
run. Another aspect is whether OSS systems may help to "unlock" companies from
specific ICT service providers in the future.
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For more information, see website the European e-Business Support Network, a network for
policy makers coordinated by DG Enterprise and Industry (www.e-bsn.org)
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