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Sweden, Ireland and Britain Leaders in IT - The US in 7th place...
yahoo.com ^ | Mon Dec 13, 2004 | MATT MOORE

Posted on 12/14/2004 2:55:55 AM PST by crushelits

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Businesses in Sweden, Ireland and Britain top the list when it comes to the use of information technology to improve their operations, according to a country-by-country survey. The United States, which was in the top three last year, slipped four places.

The study by U.S. consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, uses its own "Sophistication Index" to determine how eagerly, and capably, countries have embraced information technology, including wireless access and Internet access.

Commissioned by Britain's Department of Trade and Industry, the survey by the New York-based consulting firm was based on telephone interviews from April-July of nearly 8,000 businesses in Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Ireland, South Korea, Sweden and the United States.

Sweden rose from fifth place to first from 2003 to 2004 because of the Scandinavian country's use of technology by businesses, large and small. Ireland was ranked second because of the knowledge workers there have in using information technology, while Britain finished third, four spots higher than in 2003.

British businesses were quick to adopt new technologies early, including voice over IP, or VoIP calling, which replaces a telephone line by making calls through the Internet, as well as desktop video conferencing, the report found.

Germany was ranked fourth, followed by South Korea, Canada, the United States and Australia. Italy, Japan and France rounded out the survey, which covered companies in sectors including manufacturing, construction, retail and wholesale, transport, communications, finance and services, and government agencies.

On a global basis, the survey — released last week — found that more businesses are measuring the benefits of technology instead of its costs on the bottom-line. It also found that instead of touting their ability to provide access to the Internet, companies are using the speed and reliability as benchmarks of success.

"Overall, businesses are taking a more thoughtful and selective approach to deploying technology," said Frederick Knops, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton. "We see a tighter focus on value-added applications, and greater emphasis on measurement to assess the benefits of new technology."


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: 7th; britain; ireland; it; leaders; place; sweden; us
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1 posted on 12/14/2004 2:55:55 AM PST by crushelits
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To: crushelits

Well, this all could be summed up by two words, Weak Dollar.... Obviously European countries are buying IT,(American Technology) because the dollar is weak and they get more for their money right now...


2 posted on 12/14/2004 2:59:34 AM PST by Echo Talon
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To: Echo Talon

Yes i know IT is Information Technology, which is based on the US dollar, and ruled by silicon valley...


3 posted on 12/14/2004 3:03:40 AM PST by Echo Talon
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To: crushelits
"British businesses were quick to adopt new technologies early, including voice over IP, or VoIP calling, which replaces a telephone line by making calls through the Internet, as well as desktop video conferencing, the report found."

Ooooh....

Could it be that the businesses in these countries are simply seeking reliable inexpensive phone service??? Something that is generally unavailable in these countries???

The incentives to move to VoIP here are low simply because our phones work and there's lots of competition forcing costs down.
VoIP is lower quality and lower reliability here while it offers an improvement in both there.
4 posted on 12/14/2004 3:16:28 AM PST by DB (©)
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To: DB

VoIP is slowly coming to life in Britain now.
It is only in the last year that I have heard about it but as I do not pay the phone bill at my place or business I have not considered using it but the costs look very promising.


5 posted on 12/14/2004 3:18:13 AM PST by kingsurfer
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To: DB
VoIP is lower quality and lower reliability here while it offers an improvement in both there.

I have a VoIP crisis on my hands. Our field guys dial in using a modem to upload data at the end of the day. It will not work on VoIP. It's standard Hayes stuff dialing a VPN. I'm anxiously waiting for a test bed and crossing my fingers that not a lot more of our thousands of people will order VoIP in the meantime.

6 posted on 12/14/2004 3:20:53 AM PST by Glenn (The two keys to character: 1) Learn how to keep a secret. 2) ...)
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To: crushelits
I think George Gilder would tell you that it is the FCC, and possibly our antitrust enforcement, which has resulted in the situation where high-speed Internet is more common in South Korea than it is in the US.

If you think about it, the use of cell phones and VOIP should obsolete POTS almost completely, and VOIP should supplement cellular by making it possible to have small cells wherever there is an wireless internet router. And long distance voice should be cost no more than local, nor should international cost a lot.


7 posted on 12/14/2004 3:22:23 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: DB
Could it be that the businesses in these countries are simply seeking reliable inexpensive phone service??? Something that is generally unavailable in these countries??? The incentives to move to VoIP here are low simply because our phones work and there's lots of competition forcing costs down. VoIP is lower quality and lower reliability here while it offers an improvement in both there.

GREAT POINT! It probably is also a factor that in many of these countries, socialism has driven up the cost of labor to the point where it increases the economic necessity of automation and technology to compete. The European labor situation has in effect created a "burning platform" to innovate!

8 posted on 12/14/2004 3:34:37 AM PST by Huber (Let's talk about race and culture honestly and openly!)
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To: Glenn
Our field guys dial in using a modem to upload data at the end of the day

To put in into modem terms, the VOiP gear supercedes flow control no matter what the modems want to do, so I don't think that's gonna' work for you. Also you might look into the issue of modem vs. VOiP latency. The "acceptable" latency on VOiP is 150 ms. which may be unacceptable to your modems. I've not looked into this specific kind of problem, so these are just suggestions.

It seems if your field folks have the bandwidth for VOiP they should also be using IP to reach the VPN, rather than dialup modems. To test it, buy a cheap VPN appliance for your end, and reconfigure the VPN software on their end to use IP. I think you'll be chucking all those modems after you give it a run.

9 posted on 12/14/2004 3:41:50 AM PST by angkor
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To: crushelits

I'm not clear what variables they use to construct the 'complex' index used in this survey. Until we know what they are, it's difficult to give any comment...


10 posted on 12/14/2004 3:42:01 AM PST by paudio (Four More Years..... Let's Use Them Wisely...)
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To: crushelits; good_fight; KantianBurke; MJG; Semi Civil Servant; SunnySide; t_skoz; AzSteven; ...

Swedish PING!


11 posted on 12/14/2004 3:47:14 AM PST by fdsa2
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To: paudio
The "variable" is whatever it takes to make these other countries feel less inferior...

Cell phones were much more popular in the UK long before they were here as well. Why? The continual search for a phone that works... In other words, it was a necessity...
12 posted on 12/14/2004 3:52:01 AM PST by DB (©)
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To: angkor

Wireless is SO available any more that I can't imagine that you're not moving to that kind of connection anyway. Every hotel I stay in has either wireless, broadband, or both. And you can hook up to wireless outside Kinko's or Starbucks all day long. There's a cost, but you don't have these headaches, and the speed is tremendous, a real productivity kicker. I avoid dial up like the plague unless I absolutely have to use it. Is there something I'm missing here?


13 posted on 12/14/2004 3:56:25 AM PST by Hardastarboard
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To: angkor
I think you'll be chucking all those modems after you give it a run.

Good suggestions, but we have thousands of devices and an InfoSec group that refuses to let anyone on the VPN without an RSA token. Making the device a part of a in-home network also offers challenges. We have serial, USB, BT and 802.11b -- no ethernet. Our next gen device has GPRS which will help eliminate the need for nightly data upload. For the few people that have put themselves on VoIP, we've moved around the problem by allowing them to upload directly via 802.11b when they come back to the facility the next morning.

We'll see how it goes.

14 posted on 12/14/2004 4:02:44 AM PST by Glenn (The two keys to character: 1) Learn how to keep a secret. 2) ...)
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To: DB
Cell phones were much more popular in the UK long before they were here as well. Why? The continual search for a phone that works... In other words, it was a necessity...

Sorry but that's rubbish. In the last 25 years (at four different addresses) I've had one problem with the UK phone system - a cable break that was fixed within 24 hours of being reported. My ADSL service has been unavailable for around four hours in the last two years.
15 posted on 12/14/2004 4:31:35 AM PST by toadthesecond
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
VOIP should supplement cellular by making it possible to have small cells wherever there is an wireless internet router.

It's already there. Vonage supplies a free softphone which installs on any Windows system (laptop or desktop). Once you've connected to an IP network (whether via 802.11 or conventional Ethernet or whatever), your laptop/desktop becomes a VOiP telephone with your own conventional telephone number, and you can initiate and receive conventional phone calls over VOiP.

Bottom line is that you can carry your local (say, Des Moines) telephone number wherever you go, whether it's New York or Singapore or Moscow. Wherever there's IP, your "local" number will work.

Which means your call from Singapore to Des Moine remains a "local" call, and your friends/customers can call you in Singapore from Des Moines at local Des Moines rates.

16 posted on 12/14/2004 4:47:28 AM PST by angkor
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To: Echo Talon
"Well, this all could be summed up by two words, Weak Dollar.... Obviously European countries are buying IT,(American Technology) because the dollar is weak and they get more for their money right now..."

I'm skeptical. The dollar has not been week for long. This survey appears to be measuring more long term trends, and it can take years from the time of request for proposal to operational conversion. But eventually a weak dollar will have an effect on our role in this.

17 posted on 12/14/2004 9:12:08 AM PST by elfman2
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To: crushelits
"Commissioned by Britain's Department of Trade and Industry, the survey by the New York-based consulting firm was based on telephone interviews from April-July of nearly 8,000 businesses in Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Ireland, South Korea, Sweden and the United States."

I'd like more information on how this study was conducted?
Did they contact an equal number of businesses in each country? What types of business?
Realize that some (all)of these countries individually have a GDP that would rank comparably with our lesser producing state economies.
VOIP is not an end all be all technology. It's time will come (is coming fast) but the US has a very reliable circuit switched system that many businesses are, for good reason , slow to give up because of the flaws that still exist even in the best VO/IP products.
I'd wager that there is as much or more (total $ volume) state of the art business technology deployed in NY and LA than the rest of the world combined!
18 posted on 12/14/2004 9:33:14 AM PST by Ramcat (Thank You American Veterans)
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To: crushelits

Rule Britannia!

http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/alwaysengland.Html

;o)


19 posted on 12/15/2004 1:21:27 AM PST by Le Bouledogue Britannique
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To: Ramcat

Booz Allen Hamilton is a top consulting firm, with an excellent reputation.


20 posted on 12/15/2004 4:22:09 AM PST by crushelits
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