Europe has some catching up to do

SMEs in the US are gaining and advantage by maintaining the efficiency of their IT systems

The European Union’s (EU) Lisbon 2010 objective, which was agreed in 2000, has the stated aim of “making the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”. The end of this year marks a staging post in that plan, when the goals of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan should have been met. Many of these revolve around use of IT in the public sector.

Beyond the 2005 target is the aim of establishing a “European Information society in 2010”, an initiative known as i2010. Much of this also revolves around the use of IT by the public sector, but it also recognises the need for all businesses to review the efficiency of their use of IT.

In particular, i2010 notes that IT remains a challenge for many smaller businesses and it worries that “Europe is not investing in productivity-enhancing IT as much as the US”. Is the EU right to be concerned? Does Europe really lag behind the US in its use of IT?

Recent Quocirca research shows that the gap is indeed real and that European SMEs pay a price. The research covered two of the EU’s largest economies, France and Germany, providing a pointer to the differences between the way SMEs in Europe and the US manage IT.

For a start, SMEs in the US are more likely to have skilled staff managing their IT, and they dedicate more time to it. They also have more PCs per employee, although there is little difference in the use of servers and internal networks. The biggest difference lies in the way they manage their infrastructure.

In Europe, SMEs are far more likely to be using older, less secure, versions of Microsoft operating systems. They are less likely to have standard practices for virus control, and are less diligent about checking internet security. This all adds up to the fact that a European SME’s ability to function is more likely to be affected by a security problem.

Furthermore, European SMEs are less likely to have formal backup routines, especially when it comes to PCs. Even when they do, they carry out backups less regularly. This makes recovering from IT problems harder for them, whether these are caused by a security breach or a hardware failure. European SMEs are therefore more likely to lose data. This not only impairs productivity but can prevent them from being able to satisfy the demands of regulators and auditors.

The day-to-day management of IT is a chore. It is not what business people first think of when they have a bright new idea. They might think of how technology can help drive new businesses, but this is the interesting side of IT. Enabling businesses to prosper through good use of IT requires both innovative applications and good management, without which ideas cannot be relied upon.

Good IT management is not that difficult. There are plenty of products out there that help automate procedures. Once they have been put in place, the managers of SMEs can focus on the value IT can bring to their businesses, confident about the safety of the underlying platform.

It is easy to glaze over whenever someone mentions EU initiatives, but there is a genuine concern about European competitiveness behind i2010. There is scope for resellers to work with their SME customers and help fix the problem. And if those SMEs do not want to invest in in-house resources, then this is a service resellers can provide. Using external resources is one area where European SMEs have a lead.

Quocirca’s report, Europe Behind USA in IT Best Practice, is available to readers of CRN free of charge at www.quocirca.com/report_i2010.htm.

Bob Tarzey is service director at Quocirca