Innovate with IT

During 2006 the outlay for IT (HW,software and services) of the Italian SMEs oscillated between 760 and 1200 Euro.A high figure that, can indicate a business inclined to ICT based innovation but it can also indicate the use of an IT infrastructure and a range of
applications that requires high maintenance costs. Taking a more careful look in fact only 12% of the Italian small-to-medium-sized concerns seem to have achieved a high level of “overall ICT maturity”, while 40% of the sample (comprising more than 1,000 companies with a number of employees between 10 and 500) is still seen to be “immature” on the structural and applicative level, and the remaining share is at an average level.
These are some of the findings in the latest study drawn up by Milan Polytechnic School of Management permanent ICT observatory, and divulged in the convention held May 30th entitled “SMEs: innovate to survive!”.
Some figures - The study traces out a situation of strong transition and change and, from the analysis of the range of applications used by Italian SMEs, a highly heterogeneous scenario emerges with around 1 company out of 3 only using a single elementary package, that enables the management of some basic activities such as accountancy and administration, if need be integrated with special development software.
To this one should add a certain number of companies (around 12%) with no use of any “server sided” application, while the remaining 45% use an applicative portfolio that guarantees a good level of process coverage, even though featuring different levels of flexibility and standardisation (high in only 3% of
cases).
• Indeed the use of more evolved Web applications as opposed to the simple institutional website is beginning to spread, aboveall in the larger-sized concerns in specific sectors. The most widespread applications are Intranets involving employees (used by 16%-53% of concerns, depending on the size), Extranet applications aimed at business customers (the number or users varies from 7% to 37%), and B2C electronic business websites (obviously only involving concerns that directly address the end
customer).
• The use of Mobile&Wireless applications by Italian SMEs is also
growing. The percentage of concerns that use Mobile Office applications varies between 16% and 47% depending on their size, while the use of other applications (mainly Sales Force Automation on cell phone networks and warehouse management using a Wi-Fi network) oscillates between 7% and 46%. Compensating that, RFId applications are virtually absent in
companies with less than 50 employees and are used by around 9% of those with a number of employees from between 250 and 500. The food sector is the sector where this technology is most used, followed by traceability standards, and warehouse administration, access gate controls and antipilfering (aboveall in the retail trade) are the most frequent applications.