The promotion of e-business adoption in SMEs plays a more and more significant role in the regional development strategy of every EU region. Reasons of e-Business uptake in enterprises are cost factors, speeding-up and improvement of business processes, the improvement of the internal (organisational perspective) or the external (customer relationship) knowledge exchange.

However, the potentials of ICT for business processes are not yet fully exploited. The e-business uptake especially in SMEs is still lagging behind in comparison to large enterprises with more than 250 employees.

 

 

 

Reference: E-Business W@tch (2006)

 

Example Baden-Württemberg: Consequences of e-Business adoption in SMEs

Reference: FAZIT-Enterprise Survey, June/July 2006

The availability of information services and e-business trainings, appropriate financial support or innovation promotion measures can therefore be considered as very helpful for enterprises, especially for SMEs, in order to find appropriate e-business solutions and their efficient uptake. Regional actors such as regional governments, other public authorities or intermediaries can play an important role by addressing these needs through their intermediary functions.

The overall aim of the SMEs oriented eBusiness strategy is to support SMEs in the field of ICT uptake to improve their competitiveness. Challenges of regional e-business policies are

• Raising awareness for the potential of e-business solutions
• Improving managerial understanding and skills for e-business
• Improving availability for e-business solutions for SMEs
• Promoting effective participation of SMEs in business networks and online platforms, to ensure that good ideas and working business models are being shared

However, the appropriate strategy is not always obvious when designing e-business policies that address regional conditions. Also the available technologies and IT service providers are changing rapidly. Formulating an ICT strategy on the national, regional and organizational level thus requires a thorough understanding of the internal and external environment as well as of the available technology.

This chapter will show "how to start". At the very beginning the aim is to raise awareness for the main benefits of a regional e-business initiative (agenda setting), define a regional understanding of the policy and then elaborate a concrete regional e-business policy strategy (policy design).

Setting e-business policy on the agenda: Communication of the benefits at the very beginning

Designing an e-business policy initiative is strongly interconnected with various factors. The way from the agenda setting to the formulation of a regional strategy with appropriate objectives and measures can be long. As policies are developed within a political system with diversified interests the regional political context has inevitably to be considered.

At the beginning the challenge is to find a political consensus on e-business support at the regional level. The design of policy rationale considering the interest of all regional key actors coming from different backgrounds is a great challenge.

An evidence-based e-business policy justifies the real need for action. In order to better visualize the needs and gaps in the context of e-business uptake in the region facts and figures can be very helpful. However, an evidence-based policy measure with clear strategic objectives alone does not assure the broad support in the region. The design of a coherent and successful e-business policy strategy is not only a matter of facts and figures.

Within this context, developing a communication strategy and lobbying relevant key stakeholders at the agenda setting stage is recommendable if not inevitable. For the stakeholders it is important to know the concrete benefits of the policy measure and what the expected outcomes will be.

Without any political will and commitment from the public sector side it will be difficult if not impossible to set up a regional e-business initiative. For instance regional decision making power is lacking (e.g. through fragmented/decentralised competences) or there is no real commitment to the e-Business strategy (e.g. due to other priorities such as investment in infrastructure instead of innovation).

Besides the reluctance of actors from the public sector towards e-business support measure, some private actors might also fear the crowding out e-business services offered by the private sector. It is therefore vital to communicate that there is a real demand of e-business services which cannot be offered by private actors at this stage.

The goal is to create a win-win situation to smooth possible conflicts and address the constraints of actors from the public and private sector. For the justification it should be assured that e-business support measure is neutral and independent but is constantly controlled with regard to quality and effectiveness.

Another constraint could be the perception of e-business policy as such. Innovation policy measures are often related to "soft" measures such as awareness raising, influencing attitudes, consulting etc. for improving the e-business uptake in SMEs. The direct impact is less measurable and thus has a smaller visibility.

Hurdles for the e-business uptake in SMEs could be

• Unsuitability for the type of business
• Lack of enabling factors e.g. availability of ICT skills, qualified staff, etc.
• Cost factors e.g. ICT equipment, software, reorganisation and ongoing costs
• Security and trust factor e.g. security and reliability of e-commerce systems
• Fear of lack of critical mass usage by costumers and suppliers
• Lack of strategic focus by SMEs

It has to be evaluated in what extent these constraints are justified and how to address these perceptions i.e. "real" bottlenecks. A needs analysis is therefore recommendable.