Footwear Industry Footwear Industry - empirica

Footwear
ICT impact on competitiveness and productivity 87
The analysis carried out for this report and the experiences from case studies provide
real-life examples of footwear companies which have achieved significant savings in cost
and time and/or gains in efficiency through the adoption of e-business. However, the
reported impacts of e-business on efficiency and productivity presented in Exhibits 5-2
and 5-3 indicate that this kind of achievements are not yet widely diffused in this industry.
The 2006 Survey results about e-procurement, SCM and e-marketing (see Sections 3.5
and 3.6) suggest that ICT is used by this industry’s firms to automate existing flows and
processes rather than introduce innovative working methods.
All evidence analysed for this report suggests that the full potential for industry-wide
productivity gains from ICT adoption has not yet been exploited for two main reasons:
the low adoption of ICT and the low degree of business process integration on the
one side, and
the lack of a guiding role from large enterprises (or other players in this value
chain) on the other one.
However, evidence also suggests that the adoption and usage of ICT does not
automatically translate into increased competitiveness 88 . In this context the suggested
path is to identify priority areas where efforts should be made to stimulate ICT adoption
and, ultimately ICT-enabled innovation, for example where ICT-supported processes
could strengthen productivity and competitiveness (see Section 5.2 of this report).
Expected ICT impact in the future
Companies interviewed in the survey were asked to indicate in which areas they foresee
an important impact of ICT in the future. Companies from the footwear industry pointed to
accounting and customer support as the most important areas in this respect, followed by
marketing, management and logistics. In contrast, footwear companies expect that ICT
will have less impact on their production and R&D activities.
Footwear companies which said that they anticipate low or no impact of ICT in the future
are consistently fewer than those in other sectors with also relatively low ICT penetration
(e.g. the F&B industry). This might indicate that footwear companies have been slower in
realising the potential impact of ICT than firms from other sectors but are nevertheless
aware of the benefits associated to e-business and are also keen to adopt those solutions
that suit their needs, size and financial capabilities.
87
88
For more information, see e-Business W@tch Special Study (2006): The Impact of ICT on
Corporate Performance, Productivity and Employment Dynamics. The study report is available
at www.ebusiness-watch.org ('resources').
ibidem
134