MOST small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland are failing to keep up with the digital technology which is crucial to their ability to compete in today's global market-place, a survey has revealed.
The authors of the survey fear this could have a major negative impact on Scotland's future growth and competitiveness.
Early findings of the ongoing State of Digital (Scotland) Survey, backed by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry and Strathclyde Business School, will be presented to the Digital Glasgow seminar on Monday. The two-day seminar, which about 500 people are due to attend, is part of Glasgow for Business Week. More than 1500 people are expected to attend events at Glasgow for Business Week, which is aimed at SMEs and start-ups.
The survey, delivered by digital experts Jim Hamill and Alan Stevenson of Energise 2.0, suggests that while firms have made good progress in their use of digital technology, the pace of change is so rapid that Scotland is falling behind accepted international best practice.
One key finding of the survey so far is that there is a lack of digital strategies among SMEs to tackle internationalisation.
Those behind the survey note SME globalisation is a major public policy objective in Scotland. Only 10% of respondents had made extensive use of digital technology and had a clear digital strategy to support their internationalisation.
Mr Hamill said: "Used effectively, digital technology and social media can help to overcome many of the traditional barriers to SME exporting and lead to a more rapid internationalisation of the sector. However, survey results suggest few Scottish companies are exploiting the full potential of digital and social for going global."
The survey suggests Scottish firms are making good progress in using social media, although Mr Hamill cites a need to accelerate this. Of respondents so far, 90% reported active involvement in social media. But 51% had no clear social media strategy or key performance indicators.
Mr Hamill cited a need for progress in cloud computing.
Only 25% of respondents had a clear strategy for this. Of the rest, 5.8% had "never heard of cloud computing", 20.9% had heard of it but were "taking no action", with 14% "finding out more" about it, 17.4% "experimenting", and 16.3% "using cloud computing but with no clear strategy or objectives".
Mr Hamill said: "With the world economy standing on the verge of a digital technology revolution built around cloud computing, there is a need for urgent action in this area.
"According to various estimates, the cloud is worth $74 billion. In the UK alone, it is expected that spending on the public and private cloud could create 226,000 jobs by 2015."
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