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

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ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industryThese errors are due to the high number of variations that can suffer a product, that is,different dimensions, fabrics, materials, finishing, etc.In this sense, traditional catalogues are incomplete. In addition to their high commercialprice and the high number of references included, these are not able to show all thevariations of every model: shape, colours, accessories, materials, etc.Exhibit 3.4-3: Percentage of firms having an electronic catalogue describing their productsor services based on a certain industry standard for e-catalogues (2007)0 10 20 30 40 50Furniture (EU-7)30NACE 36.12+1336NACE 36.1428010-492250-24932250+46Germany31Spain30France22Italy46Poland31Sweden17UK18USA30eCatalogueThe 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) = 761.Weighting: 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.Questionnaire reference: C2Source: e-Business Surveys 2007 by the SeBW69
ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industryExhibit 3.4-3 shows a relatively high adoption of e-catalogues in the furniture industry.This trend, more evident in large companies, is also due to the requests of interiordesigners, who need product information easy to store (compared with paper catalogues)and quicker to update.Another driver is the complexity of the catalogue, higher in the kitchen and office furnituresector, that significantly shows higher e-catalogue adoption percentages (36% vs 30%average adoption): e-catalogues are easier to update for the manufacturer and moresearchable by the customer. Besides, this sector strongly addresses the contract marketthat needs quick and flexible selection and ordering systems.The significantly higher percentage of e-catalogue adopters in Italy can be ascribed to thepresence of a network set up by the Italian furniture manufacturers association anddescribed in the Webmobili Case Study. Moreover, Italian companies are particularlydedicated to high-end design furniture, and their offer is addressed to interior designersand architects who have a high level of familiarity with computers and prefer e-cataloguesto paper.Standardisation of data, an important issue in e-business, is a very sensitive concern inthe furniture industry, due to the huge variety of items, materials and finishes available onthe market. At a European level, this subject has been addressed, among the others, bythe SMART-fm 41 initiative, illustrated in the following business example and, presently, bythe INNOVAFUN 42 .Business example:A Smart way of doing businessUntil now the e-commerce potential has been underexploited due todisparate technologies - from design systems to catalogue managementtools - that hinder business-to-business interoperability.The solution is the creation of international standards, and perhaps moreimportantly if they are to be implemented, proving and demonstrating theirbenefits to furniture manufacturers, retailers and software engineers. Withthat goal in mind the SMART-fm project will release a tutorial and pilotdemonstrator in Europe aimed at convincing the European furniture sector,comparatively the largest worldwide in terms of employment, of the value ofstandardisation."The problem of introducing a standard has generally been the complacencyof software designers toward implementation," explains project managerMaría José Núñez at AIDIMA in Spain. "We have therefore tackled the issuefrom a transparent approach. Rather than trying to impose standardisation,we are trying to convince the sector of the benefits through demonstrationsand easy-to-use software."The standards-based software being developed by SMART-fm, under theumbrella of the funStep interest group, is aimed at allowing B2Binteroperability at all stages of the furniture production life-cycle from the4142Seehttp://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/60707.http://standards.eu-innova.org/Files/Publication/EUR_Standards_INNOVAFUN.pdf.70
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ICT and e-Business Impact in the Furniture Industry - empirica

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