In 2009, 51.6% of Cypriot enterprises with 10 or more employees had a website, according to the annual survey entitled ‘Information and Communication Technologies Usage in Households and by Individuals 2009’ carried out in all EU member states.
The survey found that 95.5% of enterprises use a computer, which was an increase compared with previous years.
All large (250 employees or more) and almost all medium-sized enterprises (50-249 employees) use computers, said the Statistical Service.
* 82.8% of enterprises have local area network (LAN) and 18.4% have intranet.
* 92.2% of enterprises have access to the Internet.
The Internet is used in all large and almost all medium enterprises.
In small enterprises (10-49 employees) there is a continuous increase in Internet usage (from 82.3% in 2004 to 90.7% in 2009).
In the recent years there has been a steady increase in broadband connections to the Internet.
In 2009, 94.3% of the enterprises with access to the Internet had a broadband connection.
Huge potential for supply chains
The survey found huge potential for areas such as supply chain managements.
Only 13.4% of enterprises use Automated Data Exchange, mainly for exchanging information on products.
Only 9.1% of enterprises regularly share information electronically on the Supply Chain Management with either their suppliers or their customers.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is used by 16.0% of enterprises and 19.5% of enterprises have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software applications for managing information about clients.
e-Commerce remains untapped
The percentage of enterprises that accepted orders via computer networks remained stable at 7.6% in 2009.
For enterprises that received electronic orders during 2008, only 10.8% saw the value of such orders exceeding 50% of total turnover.
The survey covered 1,407 enterprises with 10 or more employees in specific categories of economic activity.
Household survey
Meanwhile, a household survey was conducted covering 1,551 households and 3,535 individuals 16 – 74 years old with personal interviews.
The main results of the survey are the following.
*The percentage of households with access to a computer keeps increasing, reaching 61.2% in 2009 compared with 56.3% in 2008.
*A computer is found in 87.4% of households with dependent children, while in households where there are no dependent children the percentage is only 47.6%.
* Internet access in households continues to increase.
In the first quarter of 2009, the Internet was accessed at least once in 52.8% of the households, compared to 42.9% in 2008.
Over the last years there has been a steady increase in broadband connections and a simultaneous decrease in narrowband connections (Modem ISDN).
90.0% of the households with Internet access have a broadband connection.
An increase was observed in the individuals that used the Internet during the first quarter of the year from 38.8% in 2008 to 47.9% in 2009.
Individuals 16 – 24 years old (81.7%) and students (93.9%) are the more frequent Internet users.
Men use the Internet more frequently than women.
Frequent users among men and women are 47.9% and 41.7% respectively.
The most popular Internet activities among Cypriots are finding information about goods or services and sending or receiving e-mails.
Online ordering almost doubles
Online ordering almost doubled this year, as 13.0% of Cypriots made orders of goods or services for private use over the Internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared with 6.8% in the first quarter of 2008.
Tickets for travel and holiday accommodation was what most of the people order over the Internet.
39.1% of Cypriots who ordered goods or services over the Internet in the last 12 months ordered tickets for travel and holiday accommodation.
Providing credit or debit card details over the Internet was the most common method of payment for goods and services ordered over the Internet.
70.1% of the persons that made orders over the Internet between April 2008 to March 2009 provided their credit or debit card details over the Internet to pay.
The main reason why Cypriots 16 – 74 years old do not buy goods and services online is force of habit and loyalty to shops; they prefer to shop in person and to see the product before buying it.
