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

Pulp, paper and paper products
Exhibit 3-23: Main type of supply goods ordered online
0 20 40 60 80 100
Total Pulp & Paper (EU-10)
23
25
9
6
36
Micro (1-9 empl.)
9
41
16
11
23
Small (10-49 empl.)
14
30
9
16
30
Medium (50-249 empl.)
23
28
9
7
33
Large (250+ empl.)
30
11
8
1
49
All 10 sectors (EU-10)
21
22
6
14
37
MRO goods Raw materials Intermediary products Services Mixed / all
Base (100%): Companies placing orders online (without "don't know"). N (for sector, EU-10) = 522.
Weighting: Totals (for the sector and for all 10 sectors) are weighted by employment and should be read as
"enterprises comprising …% of employment in the sector(s)". Figures for size-bands are in % of enterprises
from the size-band. Questionnaire reference: E4
Source: e-Business W@tch (Survey 2006)
Use of ICT for e-procurement processes
As in 2005, e-Business W@tch asked companies whether they "support the selection of
suppliers or procurement processes by specific ICT solutions." The rationale for this
question was to further test whether electronic procurement is in fact a systematic and
digitally integrated process in a firm, or rather an occasional business activity without
much significance for the overall business.
In 2006, only about 8% of firms (representing about 14% of sector employment) in the
P&P industry reported the use of software solutions or internet-based services for e-
procurement (see Exhibit 3-22). This shows that there is a massive gap between the
percentage of companies placing at least some orders online (~50%) and those that use
special software for this (~8%). It can be assumed that companies without such software
place orders mainly through websites or extranets of suppliers, which does not require
any special e-procurement system. The digital back-office integration of procurement
related processes (all the way from ordering to the receipt of goods / services) is probably
not in advanced state in these cases.
It is interesting to observe that the percentage of firms with special ICT systems for e-
procurement equals about half of those firms with an ERP system, throughout the sizebands.
It appears that about every second firm with an ERP system has taken the next
step to add a module or interface for B2B integration with suppliers.
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