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
• 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
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
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
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
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