Britain’s small firms are proving slow to embrace the benefits of new technology, according to research from Lloyds TSB Business and the SERTeam at the Open University. It found 24% saying they find it hard to keep pace with technological change, 13% still do not use email, 30% have yet to use the Internet as a source of information, 47% believe such technology has improved working life, and 18% believe technology has taken the personal touch out of working relationships.
The study also found that IT literacy levels leave room for improvement: only 13% said their staff had an excellent understanding of technology such as PCs and the Internet, with 34% saying their employees had only an average level of literacy, and 6% believe IT skills were not required in their business.
Most small businesses are not exploiting technology to its full potential, with only 35% reporting using the web to generate business and only 28% saying investment in IT has helped them develop new markets.
Interestingly 61% admitted they would not be able to operate without their current level of investment in IT and almost half of those surveyed (47%) said using IT had helped them cut costs.
The survey also showed that 19% do not yet have a broadband connection, 38% do not use computerised databases or mailing lists and 58% do not use IT for presentations
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