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e-Business in the chemical, rubber and plastics industryExhibit 3.2-3: ICT skills requirements and outsourcing (2007)Employ ICTpractitionersHaveexperienceddifficulties infindingqualifiedpractitionersSay that e-business has asignificantimpact onskillsrequirementsHaveoutsourced ICTservicespreviouslyconducted inhouse in past12 months% of % of % of % of % of % of % of % ofWeighting scheme:empl. firms empl. empl. empl. firms empl. firmsCRP – 2007 total (EU-7) 45 22 21 15 40 36 30 28NACE 24: chemical 50 26 21 16 35 33 31 32NACE 25: rubber & plast. 42 20 20 15 43 37 28 26CRP – USA 47 27 25 16 40 27 33 20CRP – by size (EU-7)Small (10-49 empl.) 14 11 31 26Medium (50-249 empl.) 40 18 48 34Large (250+ empl.) 59 22 40 35Other sectorsSteel 52 24 20 5 36 28 19 22Furniture 33 18 7 9 53 39 24 21Base (100%) all firmsfirms employingpractitionersall firmsall firmsN (CRP, 2007, EU-7+USA) 911 911 911 911Questionnaire reference E1 E3 E5 E9The survey was conducted in 7 EU Member States (DE, FR, IT, ES, PL, SE, UK) and in the USA.Source: e-Business Surveys 2003 / 2007 by the SeBWEven if companies do not employ ICT practitioners, e-business can have an impact onskills requirements. In fact, about 40% of the companies in the sector believe so (seeExhibit 3.2-3). The case study on Medikémia (Section 5.4) concludes that the impact of e-business on the company is manifested in the development of employment and skillsrequirements, while the main hierarchical and functional characteristics have not changedmuch with the deployment of ICT. This is because the introduction of e-business canhave a profound impact on work and production processes (see Section 3.3.3);employees have to adapt to the new processes and learn to use e-business applications.This can be a challenge, as the benefits of introducing a new system may not be spreadeven across all departments. The case study on Probos (Section 5.6) shows thatemployees in production initially perceived a new system mostly as a burden, as itcaused additional work for them (entering more data into the system than was neededbefore), while the sales force immediately benefited from the new system.Outsourcing of ICT servicesThe demand for e-skills is also related to outsourcing strategies. In fact, there is evidencethat companies increasingly outsource ICT and e-business functions, either partially offully, to specialised service providers. About 3 in 10 companies interviewed in 2007 saidthat they had outsourced ICT functions to external service providers which they hadpreviously conducted in-house in the past 12 months (prior to the interview). Outsourcingcan mean a wide array of practices in this context. It includes the "SaaS" ("Software as aService") distribution model, where companies pay a license to use a software onlinewhich is hosted and operated by the service provider, rather than purchasing the software46

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