UK business lags in IT usage

The latest i2010 strategy report shows that the UK is lagging behind other European countries in its use of some business technologies

UK firms are lagging behind many of their European counterparts in the use of technologies such as broadband, digital signatures and e-government services, according to the latest i2010 strategy report from the European Commission (EC).

The second annual report into the i2010 digital strategy for growth and jobs painted a positive picture of the European IT industry, on the whole. The technology and communications sector contributed almost half of the increase in EU productivity from 2000 to 2004, and continues to grow faster than the overall European economy.

The UK performed well in terms of use of IT in schools, overall broadband penetration and online availability of public services. It topped the rankings for the number of teachers that had used a computer in the classroom at some point during the previous year – 96 percent – as well as for the proportion of workers with IT skills, and the amount of households with digital TV.

However, the UK did not fare so well at a business level. Seventy-seven percent of UK firms had broadband access, not much above the European average of 75 percent and putting the UK tenth in the rankings.

The report also found that only 15 percent of UK companies were using integrated internal business processes, placing the country 24th out of 25 nations. In Denmark, this figure rose to 63 percent.

Meanwhile, only 10 percent of UK firms were using digital signatures for authentication, compared to a third of French firms.

UK businesses also performed badly in their use of e-government services, and were poorly served in this area. Fifty-seven percent of basic public services for enterprises were fully available via the web, compared to a European average of 68 percent and 100 percent in Austria. Just over half of UK firms were making use of the available e-government services, compared to almost two-thirds a cross Europe.

Denmark was one of the top performers in the report, appearing in the top three in 23 of the 45 categories.