[Toronto, CANADA] Canadian small and medium-sized businesses
(SMEs) identify education and information dissemination, lack of
strategic business resources, costs, and security as the four key
challenges they face in accelerating the take-up and use of e-
business in Canada.
These findings are part of a white paper, released today by the
Canadian e-Business Opportunities Roundtable’s e-Business
Acceleration team, led by IBM Canada’s president and chief executive
officer John Wetmore.
The study is based on findings from regional meetings of SMEs held
this year in several Canadian cities.
The results say Canadian small and medium sized enterprises are
wired, yet they are not effectively leveraging new technology to stay
competitive.
A clear majority of Canadian business has Internet access, however,
few are investing resources to explore more sophisticated e-business
applications.
Based on SME feedback, the report makes a number of recommendations:
- Continued information seminars and practical workshops.
- Develop measurements to determine the advantages of using
e-business. - Develop a series of articles targeted towards SMEs on e-business
issues. - Develop an internship program for recent graduates to help small
business leverage the Internet as a business tool. - Create accessible one-stop information/business resources for
SMEs. - Provide a time limited economic incentive (two years) aimed at
driving e-business deployment throughout the economy. - Industry and related business associations need to inform SMEs as
to reliable online security solutions currently available.
“This report gives the business community the opportunity to speak up
and say what it needs in order to leverage the Internet and new
information technology as innovative business tools,” said Nancy
Hughes Anthony, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian
Chamber of Commerce. “Our competitiveness and productivity depends on
it.”
The Canadian E-Business Opportunities Roundtable is a private-sector
led initiative formed in 1999 to develop a strategy for accelerating
Canada’s participation in the Internet economy.
The E-Business Acceleration team was announced in March, 2000 with a
mandate to create a sense of awareness and urgency for Canadian
companies to adopt e-business to compete more effectively in a
networked world.
See New
Group Working to Stimulate Canadian E-Business, March 8, 2000 for more on the team.
