E-Business Most Frequently Used by Baden-Württemberg's IT and Media Sector

Almost 63 per cent of the companies in Baden-Württemberg use computer-based applications to network and automate their business processes (e-business). There are however significant differences between the branches. Whereas about 68 per cent of the companies in the IT and media sector apply e-business solutions, below average proportions are recorded in other branches.

E-business is used by 62 per cent of the transport providers and by almost 59 per cent of the technical service providers and enterprises in the manufacturing industry. Up until now, e-business solutions are least common in the banking and insurance sector including credit and insurance brokers (49 per cent). These are the findings of the third representative FAZIT Company Survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, in June and July 2006 in Baden-Württemberg.

An intensified use of e-business solutions can be observed in bigger companies. The utilisation rate among large-scale enterprises with at least 250 employees has reached 91 per cent in comparison to 55 per cent among small companies with up to four employees.

More than half of the companies consider accounting to be the main application field of e-business solutions. Approximately 37 per cent use e-business solutions in the context of purchasing, for example in the form of online shops, online marketplaces or auctions. 27 per cent of the companies apply e-business solutions in terms of customer care. However, e-business is hardly used for production purposes (9 per cent) or supply chain management (4 per cent).

When choosing an e-business solution, the related costs play a crucial role. About 89 per cent of the firms using e-business solutions consider low costs to be the most important selection criterion. Other crucial decision criteria refer to the interplay of the e-business solution with the company-specific software environment. More than 84 per cent of the enterprises attach particular importance to compatibility with other existing solutions and 78 per cent highly value the linkability with other solutions. More than 70 per cent favour standardised solutions. The regional proximity of the e-business solution provider, on the other hand, does not play a very important role.

The use of e-business solutions in firms may have diverse consequences. 57 per cent of the companies state that their business processes have speeded up. 46 per cent confirm a qualitative improvement of their business processes and 43 per cent have recorded decreasing costs. E-business also has a positive effect on the flow of information. About 35 per cent of the companies notice an improved exchange with customers and suppliers, and almost 32 per cent confirm a better information exchange inside the company or between individual business units. However, according to 10 per cent of the firms, the application of e-business in their companies has not yet shown any effects whatsoever.

FAZIT Company Survey

The "Research Project for Current and Future IT and Media Technologies and Their Use in Baden-Württemberg" (FAZIT) is a non-profit research project fostered/promoted by the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. More than 1.000 firms of Baden-Württemberg from the IT and Media sector (software, data-processing service providers, IT and media hardware, telecommunications, audio-visual media, printing and publishing, advertising and market communication, content service providers), as well as from other sectors that utilize IT and media technologies (chemical industry, mechanical engineering, medical, measuring, controlling technology, car manufacture, transportation, banking and insurance sector, research and development, and technical service providers) participated in the current survey.

Contact

Jörg Ohnemus, Phone: +49(0)621/1235-354, E-mail: ohnemus@zew.de