White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 9technologies: 92% of small companieshave email, 98% of the averagecompanies and 99% of large companies;95% of small firms have Internet access,as opposed to 98% of averagecompanies and 99% of large companies.However, possessing an email addressor Internet connection is not exactlywhat is meant by the diffusion of ICT incompanies. In other words, theseelements alone do not generateeconomic advantages or returns in termsof productivity. But what does isregistering a domain name for thecompany website which can certainlybring returns in terms of visibility,advertising and communicating thebrand image. In this case the differencebetween small and medium-largecompanies is fairly significant. Only53% of small firms have a website, whilethe equivalent figure for largecompanies is 88%. The gap is evengreater as regards companies with anintranet (27.4% of small companies) oran extranet (10% of small companies).These figures are particularly significantbecause they refer explicitly to toolsrequiring the engineering andimplementation of a dedicatedapplication software, designed to meetthe specific features of the company.Moreover, a quick comparison of thedata for average company size atnational level highlights the enormousproportion of small firms in theaggregate figure. This is particularly clearin the percentage of companies with awebsite, intranet or extranet. The figuresalso reveal a strong geographicalpolarisation: in the South the percentageof companies which use each of thesetools is systematically lower than theaverage national figure.Table 9.3 – Companies equipped with ICT with at least 10 employees by types ofactivities/networksEmail Internet Website Intranet ExtranetCompany Size(No. Employees)10-49 92.3 95.5 53.2 27.4 10.150-99 97.5 98.7 76.7 53.0 24.9100-249 98.1 98.9 82.5 68.2 35.4250 And Over 99.0 99.3 88.2 83.5 55.4GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 94.4 96.6 61.4 34.7 14.5Northeast 93.9 96.4 60.1 33.0 12.7Centre 92.3 95.2 54.8 32.1 13.8South & Islands 89.6 94.6 43.7 23.2 8.9Italy 92.9 95.9 56.4 31.6 12.8WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 221