Organism : NUTEK

Country : SWEDEN

Postal Address : S – 117 86 Stockholm

Phone : (46) 8681 65 63

 

The purpose of this project is to promote the use of ICT in small and medium sized companies.

By…. 1) gathering information of what´s going on in the different parts of the country concerning projects within the area of ICT and SMEs

2) studying the use of ICT and the attitudes towards ICT in SMEs

3) looking over the visions of the policy makers within the area.we have the ambition to make recommendations on necessary actions.

 

The background is that there is a great number of taxfunded ICT-projects going on all over the country. It is quite obvious that many of them have the same ambition, but those responsible are not aware of the existance of each other.

What also confuses many people is what is beeing done at different levels – and by different partners – in the society to support SMEs in their use of ICT. This also refers to the role of ICT for regional development.

So, to get some sort of picture of the present situation, the members of the project are actually travelling around the country to visit the different regions. In a specific region we try to find out what is beeing done by local and regional authorities, by universities and by organisations representing trade and industry. It might be projects performed by one partner or in collaboration between several partners or regions.

The information is then avalible for the public through a database connected to our website (www.nutek.se/it.smaforetag).

Another area that we focus on is what the entrepreneurs themselves think of ICT – what are their needs?

This has been done through a mayor survey among 3.500 SMEs during the autumn of 1998. The companies represent all industry sectors and are spread all over the country.

The questions been asked are for instance:

- What are their needs concerning ICT?

What do they think about ICT in the future?

In what way do they use ICT in their company?

Is there a point in using electronic commerce?

Do they telework?

Do they find the infrastructure satisfactionary?

etc

The third part of the project is focused on intervjues with policy makers. These may be people at national, regional or local level of the society.

What are their visions concerning ICT for SMEs and regional development? What actions are beeing done for progress in these areas?

After the summer of 1999 we will hopefully have a decent picture of what is going on, of what the SMEs themselves think, and what the intentions are by policy maker. Than these variables will be compared to each other. Do they match? Does the actions beeing taken (very much funded by public funds) towards SMEs correspond to the actual needs?

These matters will then be discussed during a conferens in october where we gather people representing the companies, the policy makers at different levels of the society, and people involved in different on-going ICT-project.

These discussions will then make some sort of a base in the suggestion for measures beeing taken in the area that we will have produced by the end of this year.