The European e-Business Report 2004 - Berlecon Research GmbH

The European E-Business Report 2004• Security and data protection are regarded as more critical in this respect than issues related tocataloguing or transaction processing. Cataloguing is regarded as more important by large firms.On the same issue, it can be shown that sectors that have made good progress in cataloguingtheir products consequently express low concern: the chemical industries and the electronicsindustry are those with the lowest level of concern about this item.Exhibit 1.5-2: Perceived obstacles stemming from the lack of technical standardsCompanies seeingobstacles to electronicbusiness stemmingfrom lack of technicalstandardsyesnoDon'tknow… of those that see obstacles regard as critical: **SecurityDataprotection /privacyCataloguingissuesTransactionprocessingBy sector *Textile industries 16 77 7 95 89 75 83Chemical industries 18 74 8 82 61 38 55Electronics 21 73 7 72 62 44 47Transport equipment 13 81 6 76 70 58 60Craft & trade 14 78 8 92 86 67 73Retail 20 74 6 74 66 60 51Tourism 16 73 11 85 72 55 54Business services 17 77 6 79 77 55 56ICT services 19 76 5 87 76 47 52Health & social services 17 76 7 88 87 54 60Total 17 76 7 83 76 56 58By firm sizeMicro (0-9 empl.) 14 79 8 81 77 54 55Small (10-49 empl.) 17 76 8 86 75 48 58Medium (50-249 empl.) 21 73 7 83 74 57 58Large (250+ empl.) 21 74 5 82 81 70 63* Note: Different country configurations by sector. Percentages are therefore not fully comparable across sectors andshould be regarded as trends or indications only!** Note: Multi-response question, base: firms using computers and seeing obstacles to electronic business stemmingfrom lack of technical standards.Base (100%): firms using computers / firms seeing obstacles to electronic business stemming from lack of technicalstandards data. N ~ 500-1100 per sector, with the exception of craft & trade (N = 1247). All data in % of firms of thesample interviewed (unweighted). Time: November 2003.Source: e-Business W@tch (2004)Outlook: What companies regard as important for the futureIn the November section of the e-Business Survey 2003, the e-Business W@tch introduced a questionabout emerging e-business technologies and standards. Companies were asked to assess whetherthey considered the following developments to be important for their own business:• Mobile solutions to connect fieldworkers with the company• Integration of IT components through web services• New XML based standards will be important for our company• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to connect companies securely via the InternetAs for the question on the use of electronic standards, results are only available for specific countries,and cross-sector comparisons should therefore be regarded as trends rather than as exact statistics.Some patterns can, however, be observed. The perceived importance of the emerging technologiesincreases almost linearly with firm-size, with large companies standing out. However, this finding is notconsistent across all sectors and countries. In the chemical industries, for example, it was found thatthe perception does not differ much between size-bands in the new Member States.35