ICT and e-Business Impact in the Furniture Industry - empirica

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ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industryregards e-business applications in marketing and sales, attention has been given tothose solutions that can enhance customer service at the point of sale, such astools to configure and price products, as well as provide visualisation of theproducts with dynamic graphics and layout utilities.Finally, the chapter investigates the role of ICT for product and processinnovation.3.1 Basic access to ICT networks and skillsThis section looks at companies' access to ICT networks and their endowment with basicinfrastructure in 2007. The objective is to assess the sector's overall "e-readiness", i.e. towhat extent the basic ICT infrastructure for doing business electronically is in place.Internet access – the deployment of broadbandPractically all companies (99%) from the furniture sector with at least 10 employees areconnected to the internet (see Exhibit 3.1-1), similarly to the other manufacturing sectorsanalysed, chemical and steel.The share of employees with internet access is an indicator for the "informatisation" ofwork and production processes in manufacturing. In the furniture sector where traditional,manual work is still important, fewer workers need ICT to perform their tasks, only 24% offirms corresponding to 26% of employment in the sector reported that their employeeshave access to the internet, . In other sectors, notably in chemical by contrast, ICT areincreasingly used to manage and control production processes (36% of firms accoountingfor 45% of employment).This degree of informatisation in work processes does not change significantly with firmsize. In larger firms, the share of employees with internet access is relatively low (25%)as the organisation of activities does not require the usage of ICT by employees incharge of most of production operations; in medium firms, in contrast, the blurringboundaries among different companies functions account for the slightly higher (29%)usage of the internet among the workforce.The quality of companies' internet access is fairly good, notably among SMEs. The shareof small firms (with 10-49 employees) that say they are connected with broadband 34 was37%in 2007. Broadband adoption in the furniture sector is in line with the othermanufacturing sectors (40% and 41% for chemicals and steel respectively).34Broadband has been defined in this study as internet connection with a bandwidth of at least 2Mbit/s.39
ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industryExhibit 3.1-1: Internet access (2007)Companies withinternet accessAverage share ofemployees withinternet access infirmsCompanies withinternet access>2 Mbit/sWeighting scheme: % of empl. % of firms % of empl. % of firms % of empl. % of firmsFurniture (EU-7) 100 99 26 24 46 39NACE 36.12+13 100 100 33 29 44 46NACE 36.14 99 99 23 22 47 36Furniture – USA 99 98 33 46 71 67Furniture – by size (EU-7)Small (10-49 empl.) 99 23 37Medium (50-249 empl.) 100 29 42Large (250+ empl.) 100 25 54Other sectors (EU-7)Chemical 100 99 45 36 46 40Steel 100 100 30 24 34 41Base (100%) all A1 = 1, excl. DK A1 = 1, excl. DKN (Furniture, 2007, EU-7+USA)761 749 586Questionnaire reference A1 A2 A3cThe survey was conducted in 7 EU Member States (DE, FR, IT, ES, PL, SE, UK) and in the USA.Source: e-Business Surveys 2007 by the SeBWExhibit 3.1-2: Internet access and remote access to the company network(2007)807060504030201002650Furniture(EU-7)232429562510-49 50-249 250+67Share of employees with internet accessRemote accessThe survey was conducted in 7 EU Member States (DE, FR, IT, ES, PL, SE, UK) and in the USA.Base (100%) = all companies. N (Furniture, EU-7 and USA) = 761Weighting: Figures for sector totals and countries are weighted by employment ("firms representing x% ofemployment in the sector / country"), figures for size-bands in % of firms.Source: e-Business Survey 2007 by the SeBWAnother good indicator for "e-readiness" is the share of companies that enable remoteaccess to their computer network. This means that employees can access data from acompany's network remotely, e.g. when working from home or travelling. In the furniture40
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