Italian SMEs still reluctant to exploit Internet - survey
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Italy generally possess poor knowledge of the full potential of the Internet and lack the necessary skills and technical support to fully exploit it, according to a new survey. The GoToWeb survey was carried out using a sample of 500 Italian SMEs. It found that a third of SMEs still have no Internet connection. Almost half of those without connection said that they did not feel it was useful as a business tool and a third felt it was too expensive. Of those companies which did have Internet connection, almost a third had no dedicated person to deal with management of it. And just 15 per cent have used the Internet to purchase online. Of this 15 per cent, only a quarter had bought something connected with business purposes, while forty per cent had encountered difficulties which they said had put them off buying online again. The SMEs in the sample also generally did not see the use of having their own website. Just over a third of the sample had their own website, while 0.5 per cent offered e-commerce services. Those with websites also expressed a general dissatisfaction with quality of their sites.
Countries
Italy