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On Monday Forfas issues a new report, "e-Business: Where Are We and Where Do We Go from Here?", which serves to caution Irish companies and the government that despite the tech downturn, the adoption of e-business practices can still cut costs and create efficiencies.
The report praises Ireland for many of its leaps forward in the adoption of e-business practices; but it also says that countries with which Ireland competes continue to strive for leadership positions by implementing new initiatives to improve the business environment for e-business.
"Other countries are continuing to move ahead," explained Declan Hughes, manager of e-business at Forfas and one of the authors of the report. "Their strategies are very well laid out; It's a very competitive environment out there and we don't want to be complacent... we don't want to lose our sense of urgency."
One figure that Hughes offered to back up has claim was the take-up of Internet banking by businesses. Only 20 percent of Irish businesses use the Internet for banking, he said, but the figure is around 70 percent in places like the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.
Forfas points to other statistics from Internet Consultancy eMarketer which predicts that worldwide e-business revenues will grow to EUR2.4 trillion by 2004. "While this is down from previous estimates of EUR3.5 trillion, it remains the case that the information and communications technologies (ICTs) that underpin e-business are impacting significantly on all sectors," says the report.
Making the case for the use of e-business practices and tools, Forfas said that e-business has the potential to enhance competitiveness, at the level of the firm and nationally, through increasing productivity, reducing costs of production and distribution, increasing management efficiency and information flows. The organisation's report claims that e-business practices can generate revenue increases of 10 percent to 20 percent and can cut costs by 20 percent to 45 percent.
Hughes went on to say that there is a great deal of awareness of the potential for e-business in Irish business. "Thirty percent of companies in Ireland are on-line... but many are still taking the 'wait and see' approach to getting involved in new e-business practices," he said. "Many businesses might have a Web site, but they are not engaging in on-line ordering, and those that are, often do it through their suppliers, not through their customers."
Still, Forfas pointed to a number of commendable achievements with regard to Ireland's take-up of e-business, making note of useful government initiatives such as the Revenue On-Line Service and the BASIS portal. The report also praised the Republic's leaders for the nation's commitment to IT education, roll out of infrastructure and recent e-business enabling legislation.
However the study also said more investment was needed in all of these areas and government should continue to take a leadership role by accelerating progress on e-government, particularly on the development of e-procurement and e-payments.
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