Business ICT utilisation and

broadband demand

Recent survey findings - Scotland

Raakhi Odedra

Scottish Government

June 2011

Overview

• Research aims and methodology

• Take-up and speed

• Broadband Applications

• Future Uses and Demand

Research aims and methodology

• How do SME businesses in Scotland

currently utilise broadband and ICT

applications?

• Is broadband availability/speed constraining

business growth and productivity?

Survey design

• Telephone survey of

1,000 Scottish SMEs

(including micro firms)

Source: Scottish Corporate Sector Statistics 2010

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Enterprises Employment

Micro Small and Medium Large

Enterprises and employment by business size (%)

• Survey took place in

September and

October 2010

• Re-design of previous

e-business and

internet use survey

• Contracted to EKOS

GEN, Targeting

Innovation and

Research Resource

Full report is available on the Scottish

Government website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/02/23091236/0

Internet take-up and speed

Trends in internet and broadband take-up

UK Households

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

UK Households with Internet

UK Households with Broadband

% of households

Scottish Households

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Scottish Households with Internet

Scottish Households with Broadband

% of householdsInternet and broadband connection, businesses in Scotland

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Access to the internet

Broadband uptake

2002-2007: Scottish Enterprise e-Business Survey;

2010: EkosGEN Research on Broadband and Business in Scotland (report for

Scottish Government)

2010: SMEs

only

% of businesses

UK Households

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

UK Households with Internet

UK Households with Broadband

% of households

Internet take-up 2010

72%

95%

78%

73%

62%

56%

62%

83%

79%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Micro-

businesses

10+ Urban Accessible

rural

Remote rural Production Construction Manufacturing Service

Business that don’t currently use the internet

7%

13%

36%

39%

4%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Very likely Quite likely Not very likely Not at all likely Don't know

Likelihood of connecting to the internet in the next three years

Pe

rce

nta

ge

of

res

po

nd

en

ts

Reasons for not using internet

82%

19%

13%

1%

Limited benefit to our business

Insufficient skills

Too costly

Broadband not available in our area

% of non-users

Broadband speeds (Mbps)

Download speed Upload speed Latency

Mean Median Mean Median Mean Median

Urban 5.83 5.38 .82 .45 88.12 72.0

Accessible rural 5.47 4.77 1.34 .37 77.05 74.0

Remote rural 3.61 2.42 .34 .36 123.13 72.3

Total 5.56 5.21 .86 .38 89.5 73.0

Use of internet and broadband

Applications

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Video-conferencing

Employee timesheet management

Customer relationship managed software

Extranet

Conference calls/ IP telephony calls

Supply chain management

Intranet

Remote access to company file systems

Social media tools

Internet

Email

Percentage users

Current use Likely to use in 2 years time

SME views on speed of current broadband

connection

60%

25%

11%

4%

Not constrained at all

Slightly (i.e. our use of software could bemore efficient if we had access to fasterbroadband);

Significantly (i.e. there are manyprogrammes and processes that we wouldlike to adopt but cannot because ofinsufficient broadband speeds)

Don't know

Future use and demand

Use of broadband and its applications is

anticipated to grow

Greater range of functions

61%

Same range of functions

33%

Lesser range of functions

2%

Don't know

4%

Growth ambitions and future use

74%

76%

70%

50%

20%

15%

16%

27%

45%

50%

9%

7%

4%

7%23%

% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Don't know - 54

Grow substantially - 45

Grow moderately - 347

Stay the same size - 271

Become smaller - 30

Gro

wth

am

bit

ion

Greater range of functions Same range of functions Lesser range of functions Don't Know

One third of SME’s are willing to pay for a

faster broadband connection

55

9 9

45

17

46

9 9

6

10

20

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Nothing Up to £5 £5-£9 £10-£14 £15 + Don't know

WTP for a connection that is twice as fast WTP for a connection that is ten times as fast

Perceived benefits of faster broadband

Summary – the SME base

20% 5% 4% 25% 45%

Adoption

leaders

Internet adopters

25% 48% 19% 8%

25% 75%

None

More functions Same functions

Significant Slight Not constrained or don’t know

Inte

rnet

Co

nn

ecti

on

F

utu

re u

se

C

on

str

ain

ts

Not

connected