The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica
The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica
The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>European</strong> E-<strong>Business</strong> <strong>Report</strong> 2005<br />
High telecommunication costs are shown in the overall ICT expenditure as well: For 2004, IT<br />
expenditure was only 1.3% of GDP, while the EU-25 average is 3%. This low percentage is almost<br />
the same over the last 3 years. In contrast, Greeks spend 3.8% of GDP on telecommunication, more<br />
than their EU-25 counterparts (3.4% of GDP on average). Most of the expenditure is for services<br />
rather than for investment in infrastructure.<br />
Private sector initiatives<br />
A number of electronic marketplaces were constructed four or five years ago. Two of them, <strong>Business</strong><br />
Exchanges and CosmoOne, were created by major banks and telecommunication operators 104 and<br />
are used for the procurement of a variety of products, including office automation, IT equipment and<br />
others. <strong>The</strong>y have significantly increased the amount of B2B exchanges to several billion euro. <strong>The</strong>ir<br />
growth trend is clear, and one may expect these initiatives to grow further both in number and<br />
revenue.<br />
Some examples of other marketplaces and portals focused on their particular sector needs are:<br />
• www.yassas.com which is assisting goods procurement for the hotel industry matching 400<br />
suppliers with 600 hotels for a total number of more than 50,000 goods;<br />
• www.b2bconstruct.gr which acts as a portal for the construction companies; and<br />
• www.greekfashion.gr for the textile industry.<br />
All the banks in Greece have developed web-banking services in one way or another. <strong>The</strong> number of<br />
users of their services is still relatively small in percentage compared to the EU-25 average, but those<br />
who start using these services become permanent users.<br />
Some IT retailers – such as www.plaisio.gr – have very frequented websites and are constantly<br />
increasing their online sales. <strong>The</strong> tourist industry is still at the first stage of e-commerce, providing<br />
basic information but without allowing visitors to make online reservations and payments – except the<br />
big hotels.<br />
Last, but not least, there are only a few examples of e-business integration of all internal processes<br />
and interaction with the outside world such as customers suppliers, resellers, public services, banks<br />
and other service providers. <strong>The</strong> best cases are in the retail market, in some manufacturers and in<br />
some hotel chains.<br />
104 CosmoOne was founded in June 2000 as a joint venture between OTE Hellenic Telecommunications<br />
Organisation (30,87%), COSMOTE Mobile Telecom (30,87%), Alpha Bank (15%), Dienekis Informatics<br />
(13,18%) (a distributor in Greece for Commerce One Inc.), and the National Bank of Greece (10,08%). See<br />
http://www.cosmo-one.gr/en/company.htm)<br />
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