The European e-Business Report 2004 - Berlecon Research GmbH

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The European E-Business Report 2004The e-business alignment of the new EU Member States: a complex pictureIn November 2003 the e-Business W@tch interviewed decision-makers from more than 2,600 firms inthe new EU Member States about the use of ICT and e-business in their firms. The results suggestthat the geographic digital divide in business may be smaller than expected. It is definitely smaller thanin households. 8 Firms from Slovenia and Estonia in particular, but also from the Czech Republic, werefound to be the "e-leaders" among the new members of the EU. 9Exhibit 1.1-2:The e-Business Index for 7 EU countries(eEurope 2005 benchmarking indicator 10 )A) ICTInfrastructureB) E-BusinessActivityGermany 96 93Spain 80 64France 86 67Italy 78 55UK 100 100Estonia 91 73Poland 66 33UKDEEEFRESITPLE-Business Index (2003/04)(Benchmark)0 20 40 60 80 100546974798410095Source: e-Business W@tch (2004)However, the picture is rather complex. The situationis not consistent across sectors, and locationis in no way a reliable predictor for the e-businessactivity of a company. As a rule of thumb,there tends to be a gap in the diffusion of moreadvanced e-business technologies and regardingthe integration of applications within the company.Basic connectivity such as Internet access is inplace in most of the companies from all MemberStates. Even broadband access is well deployed.Estonia is head to head with Germany, Franceand the UK when it comes to the share of firmsthat report being connected to the Internet with abandwidth of 2 Mbit/s or more. Companies fromother countries, for example from Poland, Hungaryor Latvia, are trailing behind in that respect,but not far from the level of lower-tech regions inthe current Member States.Differences still exist particularly with respect toonline procurement and supply chain integration.For example, only 19% of companies (in terms oftheir share of employment) in Poland say theyorder at least some of their supply goods online,while 46% of companies from the current MemberStates do. The ratio is similar for related activitiesand IT supported supply chain integration. E-procurement related activities may thus present apotential concern for e-business policies in thenew Member States.W@tchlist – this will be important:Improved telecommunicationmarkets: In some of the new EUMember States, the market structure isstill underdeveloped. This is a barrier forefficient use of e-business.Exchanging good practices across theEU, including e-business policy practiceand good e-business practice in firms.Focus on productivity: E-business drivenproductivity growth is likely to remain animportant factor in global competition overthe next few years.8910General population surveys on the use of ICT, for example by Eurostat, normally report a different situationand a still significant digital divide between most of the new EU Member States and the EU average.This evidence is supported by research from INSEAD. Cf. contribution from Soumitra Dutta and Amit Jain,Chapter 3.Cf. Methodological Annex, Specific Notes, No. 111
The European E-Business Report 2004Large firms continue to drive the development – but SMEs catch upIncreasing the efficiency of business processes, for example reducing processing costs related tocommercial transactions, is a major objective driving companies to implement e-business. This appliesto companies from all size-bands, but fixed costs for technology implementation and maintenancetend to be relatively higher for small companies. Larger firms, which can afford more powerfulsolutions, are more likely to benefit from efficiency gains. In fact, the diffusion of ICT infrastructure andof advanced e-business software solutions for automating business processes (such as ERP solutionsand SCM software) increases steadily by company size.Exhibit 1.1-3:The e-Business Index by firm size(eEurope 2005 benchmarking indicator 11 )A) ICTInfrastructureB) E-BusinessActivityMicro (0-9) 34 38Small (10-49) 58 60Medium (50-249) 79 71Large (250+) 100 100E-Business Index (2003/04)(Benchmark)250+ empl.50-249 empl.10-49 empl.0-9 empl.0 20 40 60 80 100355877100Source: e-Business W@tch (2004)The ICT systems of large companies obviouslytend to be more complex and sophisticated thanthose of small firms. This translates into moreintensive and advanced electronic businesspractices. Good examples are companies in thetransport equipment manufacturing sector andthe chemical industries. In these sectors inparticular, there is a significant digital dividebetween the large, often multinational firms,which are international leaders in e-businessadoption, and the many small supply companieswhich often adhere to much more traditionalforms of trading.On the other hand, there are many SMEs thathave specialised in trading online, mostly overthe Internet, particularly in the retail and tourismsectors. The share of firms conducting morethan 5% of their transactions online is, in fact,highest among the small enterprises (10-49employees), both for selling and for procuringonline. In retail, the percentage of companiesthat makes online sales is consistent acrosssize-bands with the exception of micro-firms.Many "e-traders" among smallcompanies …Some SMEs try to specialise in tradingonline, mostly over the Internet, particularlyin the retail and tourism sectors.The share of firms conducting more than5% of their transactions online is quiteconsistent across size-bands. Onlymicro-enterprises (with
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