Sectoral e-Business Watch(SeBW) of European Commission

Viiryawww.viirya.org

March, 2008

• Support European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry in ICT and e-business policies• Enhance competitiveness of ICT sector• Facilitate uptake of ICE for European enterprises

• Study and Assess impact of ICT• Highlight barriers for ICT uptake• Identify public policy challenges• Engage dialog with stakeholders

• SeBW is to support informed policy decision-making in ICT fields including innovation, competition, structural policy

• Period - Jan, 2007 ~ June, 2008

Mission and objectives

Lisbon 2000 objectives

eEurope Action Plans 2002, 2005i2010 Strategic Framework

Go Digital2001 ~ 2003

eBSN

Renewed Lisbon2005

Policy context

• Lisbon 2000• Address the necessary changes and actions to next decade in

economy, society, employment• Preparing transition to knowledge-based economy and society• Modernising European social model, combating social

exclusion, investing in people• More coherent and systematic approach for appropriate

macro-economic policy mix• eEurope Action Plans as a key instrument to Lisbon objective to

make EU most competitive knowledge-based society by 2010• i2010 Strategic Framework stress ICT’s critical role for

productivity and innovation• Businesses’ lack of interoperability, reliability and security may hamper

productivity gains

Policy background

• Go Digital (2001~2003), an umbrella policy to support SMEs in using ICT• Identify and disseminate best practices and showcases of e-business

SMEs• Make SMEs aware of benefits of e-business• Identify and discuss practical obstacles• Disseminate Go Digital policy

• eBSN (e-Business Support Network)• Focus more on network and exchanges of good policy

practice• Build on benchmarking of policies supporting e-business• Successful policy initiatives too isolated, their efficiency

could be enhanced by learning each other and sharing practice and information

Initiatives

• e-Business Watch’s main annual publication

• Summarizing sector studies and featuring contribution from international authors of e-business development

European e-Business Reports

• The state of e-business adoption in enterprise based on e-Business Survey 2006

e-Readiness e-Activity e-Impact

InfrastructureInvestment

InteroperabilityManagement

IntegrationCooperationProcurement

Marketing

For individualFor industryFor policy

EBR 2006/2007

• By means of representative telephone surveys

• Forth survey after 2002, 2003, 2005

• Scope of 14081 interviews with decision-makers from 29 European countries

• With focus on sectors and SMEs

e-Business Survey 2006

• Food and Beverages• Textile, clothing and footwear• Paper products• Publishing and printing• Chemical, rubber and plastics industry• Pharmaceutical industry• Steel• ICT manufacturing• Construction• Tourism• .....

eBiz Studies on sectors

• Comparatively low level of ICT and e-business adoption• Good level of internal process integration and SCM activities• Distribution drives F&B companies to e-business practices - e-

invoicing, inventory management• Standards, interoperability are hot due to impacts as

tracebility• Open source software use increases as its lower price and

adaptability• Cost of software solutions affects smaller companies• e-Procurement use in F&B lags behind other sectors• e-Marketing and sales are focused mainly on distribution chain• Innovation through ICT is perceived as process innovation• Company size & cost are main barriers

Food & beverages

• Internal processes automation• Compliance with food safety regulations,

increased competition, cost-efficiency• SCM, CRM• Food manufacturers and grocery retailers

reduce costs and inventory levels• Mobile & RFID• Inextricably connect with SCM and QA

issues

e-business trends in F&B

• Improving e-skills, among especially SMEs• Small companies face difficulties in coping

changes ICT & e-business bring

• Facilitating compliance with quality and safety criteria• Provision of relevant information & training of

ICT use

• Promoting favorable innovation environment• Promotion of value-chain cooperation, sharing of

good practices and participation in business network

Policy implications of F&B

• TCFI e-business level is below average compared to other manufacturing sectors

• Small size of companies is important reason e-business is not a major role for operation

• Regional disparities, gaps in diffusion & usage of ICT especially sophisticated ones like SCM, CRM

• Collaborative online design is relatively deployed well

• Complex sector supply chain relations are rarely measured and assessed in terms of response time or prices to enhance efficiency

Textile, clothing and footwear

• Increasing efficiency of product development• Raising awareness, encouraging e-business

technologies for SME support policies’ focus• Encouraging micro, small companies adopting

basic infrastructure• Encouraging standardization• Promoting ICT related training

Policy implication for TCFI

• Tourism industry scores in middle field regarding overall use of ICT and e-business

• Overall internet connectivity is below average of other sectors• Also the level of usage of ERP, e-

procurement• Customer expectations, market competition

are main drivers of e-business• Small size of most companies and costs of

acquiring technologies are main barriers

Tourism

• Dis-intermediation• ICT enables tourism service providers to interact directly with

customers

• Re-intermediation• ICT solutions also provide new opportunities for traditional players

and emerging online intermediaries

• Market consolidation• Dynamic packaging• ICT developments in aviation industry

• e-Ticketing• Customer self-service• Bar-coded boarding passes• RFID for luggage handling

e-business trends

• ICT have influence on consolidation of intermediaries• Lead to strong oligopolies with negative effects on

competition• Policy should monitor and intervene market

concentration if necessary

• Initiatives to promote networking and cooperation• Encouraging adoption of e-business in micro and

small companies• Promoting ICT infrastructure and e-integrated

business processes• Encouraging innovation and R&D in e-tourism

Policy implications