Abstract

Overall IT Spending Status

The majority of micro enterprises in Taiwan used desktop PCs, with an average of 4.1 units per company. The average number of notebook PCs was 0.8; the combined average of desktop and notebook PCs is 4.9.

In terms of the construction of application systems, payroll systems had a penetration rate of 27.9%. Financial accounting and sales and inventory systems had higher penetration rates at 38.4% and 35.2% respectively. Corporate instant messaging system penetration rates were only at 8.8%. More than 80% of application systems established by micro enterprises are package software.

In terms of network connections, micro enterprises in Taiwan mainly use ADSL and cable modems to access the Internet. However, e-mail penetration among employees is still relatively low. WLAN penetration rate was approximately 25.4%, while the rate for VoIP was 26.1%.

At present, approximately 47% of micro enterprises have established external websites. Approximately 12% of micro enterprises have started engaging in e-commerce. 51.2% of these companies' e-commerce activities only account for less than 10% of their overall revenue; 28.1% of these companies have e-commerce activities that account for more than 10% of their overall activities. 2.9% of the surveyed companies said that they have plans to adopt e-commerce in the future. In general, setting up a special website is the most popular method of carrying out e-commerce for micro enterprises.

Regional Difference

In terms of the use of PCs, desktop PCs have a larger share in micro enterprises in all regions of Taiwan. The average number of desktop PCs was higher in the north of Taiwan, with an approximate average of 4.7 PCs per micro enterprise; the figure was the lowest in eastern Taiwan, at 3.2. The combined average number of notebook PCs and desktop PCs was also highest in the north.

More than 30% of micro enterprises in north and central Taiwan have installed payroll systems and 40% have installed financial accounting systems. Sales and inventory systems also had a high penetration rate in the north. Instant messaging systems were not widely used in all regions of Taiwan, with penetration rates below 10% in all regions. In addition, micro enterprises in all areas have preferred using package software with their application systems.

90% of all micro enterprises in all regions of Taiwan have used ADSL and cable modem to access the Internet. Penetration rate of fixed-line access has been higher in the north and central areas of Taiwan. Regardless of the region, there have been few micro enterprises setting up dedicated e-mail accounts for employees and among those micro enterprises where employee e-mail penetration is above 50%, micro enterprises in central Taiwan had the highest share than other regions. WLAN has been used more in north, with usage rates reaching 31.7%, and VoIP has been used most in the east, with usage rates reaching 32.4%.

More than 50% of micro enterprises in the north have established external websites; this figure is around 40% in other areas. Meanwhile, 14.9% of micro enterprises in the eastern part of Taiwan have been engaged in e-commerce business, making it the region with the highest e-commerce penetration rate; share of total revenue held by e-commerce business is also higher in this region. More micro enterprises in the north said that they have plans to adopt e-commerce in the future. In addition, establishment of specialized websites for e-commerce business has earned the highest scores among enterprises having started e-commerce business and companies having planned to do so in the future.

Difference by Number of PCs Installed

Application systems such as payroll, financial accounting, sales and inventory, and corporate instant messaging systems are used most by those companies that have installed the highest amount of PCs. 30-40% of enterprises with four to five and more than six PCs had installed payroll systems; 40-60% of these companies have installed financial accounting systems, and 40-60% have installed sales and inventory systems. The use of corporate instant messaging systems was low in all micro enterprises regardless of the number of PCs they have installed; only those companies with more than six PCs had a penetration rate of slightly more than 10%. In addition, all micro enterprises regardless of the number of PCs they owned all have preferred to use package software, which accounted for 80% of the total micro enterprises in Taiwan.

In addition, regardless of the number of PCs owned by micro enterprises, ADSL and cable modems were the most commonly used Internet access methods. For those micro enterprises with more than six PCs, 6.7% of them used fixed-line Internet services. Employee e-mail penetration rates rose as the number of PCs in a micro enterprise increased, with 55.2% of enterprises with more than six PCs having a penetration rate of higher than 50%.

In terms of WLAN and VoIP construction, those companies with a greater number of PCs used WLAN and VoIP connections more than other companies with fewer PCs. Approximately 40% of micro enterprises with more than six PCs have established WLAN and VoIP networks.  

In terms of external website construction, companies with a greater number of PCs are more likely to have external websites. For micro enterprises with six PCs, 73.8% of them have set up external websites; 75.2% of companies with only one PC have not established an external website.

Only 13% of surveyed micro enterprises have e-commerce activities that account for more than 50% of their revenues. The majority have e-commerce activities that account for 10-50% of their revenues. In addition, micro enterprises with the fewest PCs are more likely to adopt specialized websites to carry out their e-commerce activities.

Appendix

This survey was carried out via telephone and fax, targeting micro enterprises in the northern, southern, eastern, and central Taiwan with an effective sample size of 685. This survey investigates IT hardware, IT software, network communications, and e-commerce penetration among Taiwanese micro enterprises activities so as to gain an understanding of the companies' IT spending.

Survey Methods

Micro enterprises in this survey were defined as companies with less than 20 employees. Telephone interviews were the main source of information and questionnaires were sent via fax when necessary.

The survey was conducted from January to March, 2007 and covered micro enterprises in northern, southern, eastern, and central Taiwan.

Apart from geographic location, data clustering was carried out on the number of PCs installed within companies, so as to ascertain whether or not there were any differences in IT investments among these different groups.

Nearly 50% of the surveyed companies were small companies with less than five employees. In terms of 2006 revenue, 42.4% of the companies had revenues under NT$5 million (US$154,130.7; US$1=NT$32.4). However, 18.9% of the companies had revenues in excess of NT$15 million (US$462,392.1).