Smart Company has been in existence for two years now and during that time, we’ve noticed a marked increase in the number of small firms that are turning to technology in order to grow their business.
A recent study, which was carried out on behalf of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) confirms this. The survey found that the number of small firms with their own websites now stands at 64 per cent, a nine per cent increase on 2002 figures. Additionally, around a third of small and medium sized companies now use the Revenue Online Service, while an impressive 59 per cent use online banking.
However, while it’s encouraging to see that more companies are beginning to embrace IT, it seems that there’s still a long way to go. The Chambers of Commerce study found that while almost half of small and medium sized firms receive orders online, the level of actual payments online remains considerably low, with just 35 per cent of companies using the Internet to make and receive payments.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, a second survey conducted by mobile operator O2 indicates that a significant number of small firms aren’t even using e-mail in the workplace. According to the study findings, 25 percent of small and medium sized companies don’t take advantage of e-mail for business – a figure that rises to 31 per cent for firms employing between 1-9 people. Even in firms employing between 10-49 people, there were as many as 15 per cent of Irish companies still not using e-mail. Not surprisingly given those figures, the number of companies taking advantage of SMS (Short Message Service) for business purposes is low, with two thirds of small firms saying they never used the medium even though it can seriously help to reduce the costs of mobile phone bills.
Around 82 per cent of companies were found to be still relying on paper based means for areas such as invoicing, rather than electronic trading. Even more worrying is the fact that 22 per cent of survey respondents described their PC skills as poor or non-existent, while over half declared their computer capabilities to be average.
Much of the technology focus recently has been placed on broadband rollout. Critics have been quick to suggest that many small companies aren’t using technology more because of the slowness with which high-speed services are being made available. Furthermore, as O2’s study also shows, two thirds of businesses don’t currently have high-speed access. However, as this month’s Broadband feature shows, almost every company can now get broadband in one version or another thanks to a steady increase in DSL lines and the availability of Wireless and satellite high-speed services.
So, what’s going on? It’s easy to blame the leading telcos for the failure to bring out broadband, but it’s possible that even if it were freely available at an earlier time, small firms wouldn’t have adopted it. Perhaps companies should look inwards instead of pointing the finger outside the firm because all these studies indicates that even when technology such as e-mail is widely available, a large number of small firms still aren’t actively using them in the workplace.
Clearly, small firms need more education in relation to IT and hopefully, Smart Company goes some way to meeting that need. Nevertheless, businesses are also going to have to help themselves, get out there and start using technology if they want to continue to succeed.
08/03/04
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