Working Connected in Business and Society

Transcripción

a series of studies supported by deutsche telekom
2
Working Connected in Business and Society
02 Life Welcome
René Obermann
Executive Board Chairman
of Deutsche Telekom AG”
Dear readers,
Data traffic is expanding at a breathtaking rate, and our networks are
handling more and more applications. The implications are clear: Increasing volumes of data are being transmitted at ever-faster speeds.
In the 90s it was all about kilobit/s, from 2000 on megabit/s was the
reference speed and now gigabit/s has become the gold standard. We
are clearly poised on the cusp of becoming the Gigabit Society.
This development not only shapes our leisure activities, it is increasingly defining the world of work. ICT-based innovations are a key factor
in any enterprise’s ability to remain competitive. This is corroborated by
two-thirds of the IT executives surveyed for this study. More and more
enterprises are accessing services from the “cloud,” with computing
power and IT intelligence coming straight from the net. Forty-six percent of those surveyed expect cloud computing to become widespread
in the next two to five years. Entire sectors and industries are changing
because of networks, for instance telemedicine, traffic control or smart
grids that supply our electricity.
Deutsche Telekom helps enterprises tackle these changes. We regularly
consult with experts and pioneers from the fields of academia and
research who are involved in finding solutions to the key issues and
challenges in our industry. What are the key ICT trends for executives?
What contribution do the experts expect ICT to make to sectors such as
energy or automotive? Professor Tobias Kretschmer has taken a close
look at these and other questions in the “LIFE 2 – Working Connected in
Business and Society” study, and has examined the implications of the
developments and trends we are presently seeing. I sincerely hope you
enjoy reading this study and trust that you will find it insightful and
inspiring!
René Obermann
life Interview 03
Professor Kretschmer, what was the basic idea behind the topics selected for “LIFE 2 – Working
Connected in Business and Society ”?
We wanted to provide a good, clear overview of outstanding future fields. It was important for us to
select a combination of “general” issues which affect all enterprises regardless of their native industry, such as flexibility, collaboration
and mobility, and topics specific to industries that have significant impact on society as a whole, such as transport, energy or health care.
Professor Tobias Kretschmer:
Mr. Clemens, how does T-Systems view the issues examined in this study?
Reinhard Clemens: Prof. Dr. Kretschmer and his team have succeeded in providing a fascinating and concentrated overview of the
most important trends in ICT and its rising importance. Technical innovation drives globalization, and global trade drives technical
developments. Enterprises are increasingly forming networks, both internally and across corporate boundaries. For individuals, the
borders between leisure time and work are blurring, and more people are working while on the road instead of at an office desk.
What makes the LIFE 2 study special?
We chose a very multifaceted approach which allows us to merge a variety of different viewpoints:
The qualitative survey unites the standpoints of academics and industry analysts. These results then flowed into the quantitative survey
of the 1,559 ICT executives, 1,009 ICT users in the enterprises and the 1,336 consumers. This enabled us to illuminate the various trends
from all angles.
What services can Deutsche Telekom provide to get these trends off the ground?
Reinhard Clemens: The keyword and connecting element for us is the “intelligent network.” Look at the results for transport, health
care and energy – nearly all the key future trends are based on connecting the individual elements in the system intelligently with each
other. This is one of T-System’s core strengths, and one which allows us to play a crucial role in delivering solutions to the most pressing
issues in all these industries.
Which results did you find most exciting?
The assessment of the expected growth in turnover and the contribution made by ICT are two factors that I personally consider very exciting, because they provide insight into the macroeconomic dimension of ICT. I could visualize
follow-up studies taking a closer look at this aspect. The recurring indication of the significance of ICT as an innovation driver in enterprises and sectors was also very interesting.
What is the most important insight provided by this study for you personally?
Reinhard Clemens: The study shows that people in Germany are less aware of how important ICT is
for innovation and competitiveness. We need to work to change this. Take, for instance, cloud computing: The significance of dynamic, flexible access to ICT services is fast rising, and with a “Cloud made in
Germany” we can help to strengthen Germany’s position as a leading business location.
Professor Dr. Tobias Kretschmer
is Director of the Institute of Communication Economics at the Ludwig
Maximilian University in Munich.
This study was designed and conducted by Professor Kretschmer
in collaboration with research and
strategy consultants zehnvier.
Reinhard Clemens is a member of the
Board of Management of Deutsche
Telekom AG and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of T-Systems. The publication
of this study, “Working Connected in
Business and Society,“ was supported
by Deutsche Telekom.
04 Life
life 05
Contents
LIFE 2 – Working Connected in Business and Society
1.0 Review of Findings
06
2.0
3.0 4.0
Working Connected in Business and Society – the study
2.1 Structure of the study
2.2 Pioneering, Open-minded and Hesitant – where are we heading?
08
10
12
The significance of ICT for business and society
3.1 The significance of ICT – the macroeconomic perspective
3.2 The significance of ICT in enterprises
14
16
18
Flexibility
4.1 Flexibility and sourcing
4.2 Cloud computing
22
24
24
5.0 Collaboration
5.1 Significance for enterprises
5.2 Innovation through collaboration
28
30
32
6.0 Mobility
6.2 New application fields for mobile solutions
34
36
38
7.0
ICT as a catalyst for future developments
7.1 Business evolution
7.2 Automotive and transport
7.3 Health care
7.4 Education
7.5 Public sector
7.6 Green IT
7.7 Energy
40
42
43
44
45
47
48
49
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index Publication details
51
52
53
54
55
06 Life
1.
1.0 Review
10.
of findings
Our economic system increasingly depends on “digital value
creation”: IT and telecommunications have become essential in
today’s economy and world of
work. They stimulate innovation,
allow costs to be reduced and
provide the basis for better
collaboration. The results of the
LIFE 2 Study “Working Connected in Business and Society” pinpoint current and future trends.
9.
Almost two-thirds of the executives (64%) believe
that ICT plays a key economic role as an enabler of
new business models. In Germany, ICT executives in
some industries expect ICT-generated growth impulses
of up to 11 percent and cost-reduction potential of
up to 17 percent in the next 5 years.
70 percent of ICT executives expect green IT to
play a (very) important role for their enter-
prise in 5 years. Although the majority of
ICT executives (57%) consider the cost-saving
potential of green IT most important, only
24 percent have prepared a business case
study for their company. Consumers are
very interested in smart metering: 68 percent
believe that smart metering will play an
important role in their home in 5 years.
Three in ten ICT executives (31%) in the
health sector believe that the biggest advantage of more ICT in health care will be better
quality of treatment. Three-quarters of consumers
(77%) believe that an electronic health
card will bring significant benefits for patients.
8.
I n the transport industry, ICT executives believe that ICT will make a
great contribution to solving key
challenges in “safety” and “avoiding
overload.” German ICT executives
(automotive) believe that Web-based
in-vehicle entertainment systems will
become standard in future.
life Review of findings 07
2.
79 percent of executives believe that ICT already has very important or important strategic relevance for their enterprise. Significant
influence on the enterprise’s ability to compete: Two-thirds of ICT
executives (67%) believe that ICT will have a significant influence
on their enterprise’s future competitiveness through the lever
“Innovation” ; in the United States 76 percent believe this.
7.
ICT executives expect
new ICT solutions
to bring great change in all the industries
and sectors surveyed, and particularly in
public safety (e.g. by networking public
authorities), education (eLearning), automotive, traffic and transport (e.g. traffic
control systems) and energy (smart
metering, green IT).
6.
3.
ICT execuis a basic
precondition: For more than half of ICT executives (54%)
it one of the top 3 trends. Nearly one-third (29%) consider green IT one of the most important issues.
4.
81 percent of the ICT executives surveyed believe that
cloud computing will establish itself on the market in the
next few years. More than half (51%) expect cloud computing to become the dominant method of sourcing ICT services.
77 percent of the IT executives in whose companies cloud
computing is used expect investment in this area to rise.
5.
will continue to rise:
Six in ten ICT executives believe that the use of virtual
collaboration will substantially reduce development costs
in their company (62%) and significantly reduce their
time-to-market (60%).
Flexibility, mobility and collaboration are for many
tives the key trends in the coming years. IT security
The significance of virtual collaboration
Two-thirds of ICT executives (67%) believe
that the importance of decentralized working
in their enterprise will rise (strongly) in the
next 5 years. Consumers also want more
mobile access. Security strategies need to be
increasingly extended to mobile devices: 66
percent of ICT executives consider role-based
access very interesting or interesting.
08 life
2.0 Working
Connected in Business
and Society – the study
Information and communication technologies (ICT) shape and transform the world
of work. Infrastructure, software and processes are increasingly merging to become
integrated services and solutions that simplify work and deliver new business models. This study takes a closer look at the influence that the increasing use of these
technologies has on the world of work. The topic is examined at several levels: for
the economy as a whole, for individual enterprises and for individual jobs.
“LIFE 2 – Working Connected in Business and Society” is the second study in the
“LIFE” series of studies which look at new trends in telecommunications. This study
was designed and conducted by Dr. Tobias Kretschmer, Director of the Institute of
Communication Economics at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, in collaboration with research and strategy consultants zehnvier.
life Working Connected in Business and Society – the study 09
World of work
Combining perspectives
Microlevel
International
Pioneers
Users
Experts
Trends
Networking industries
Executives
10 life Working Connected in Business and Society – the study
2.1 Structure of the study
The study has a multi-level structure which integrates
quantitative and qualitative elements. The study was
launched with a think tank which ICT experts were
invited to attend. Respected academics and seasoned
industry experts met in Munich to discuss in depth the
latest developments in and around the topic of “Working Connected in Business and Society” The aim of
the debate was to identify the key ICT trends for the
next few years and to analyze special developments in
selected key sectors. The think tank was headed by a
team from the research and strategy consultants zehnvier and the Institute of Communication Economics at
the Ludwig Maximilian University headed by Professor
Dr Tobias Kretschmer (see Figure 2-1).
In the second phase, the emphasis was on empirically mapping the standpoints of business and society
on the issues identified by the think tank. Comprehensive individual questionnaires were prepared and used
to interview three different target groups:
• ICT executives in enterprises with more than 1000
employees.1 This target group included individuals
who are actively involved in information and communication technology purchase decisions (computer
hardware, software and telecommunications) for their
enterprise or who have a say in these decisions.
• IT users in enterprises with more than 1000 employees. This target group included individuals who regularly use information and communication technologies
in their professional work (also called “IT users” or
“employees” in the following).
• Consumers, representative of the online population
of the country in question.2
To provide an international comparison, representatives of these three target groups were selected in five
different countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain represented the typical European markets, which together account for more than 50 percent
of the European gross domestic product. The United
States survey provided insight from the other side of the
Atlantic. In total, 1,559 ICT executives, 1,009 IT users
and 1,336 consumers were surveyed.
All interviews were conducted online. The individual country samples are large enough to allow comparisons between the countries to be made, thus shedding
light on the differences in how ICT is used in the world
1,559
ICT executives who are actively
involved in information and communication technology
purchase decisions for their enterprise or who have a say
in these decisions were interviewed for the study.
Figure 2-1: Structure of the study
LIFE 2 is based on an innovative mixture of think tank and large-scale representative surveys.
Think tank with ICT experts (renowned scientists and industrial experts)
- Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Arnold Picot, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
- Prof. Dr. Claudia Loebbecke, University of Cologne
- Prof. Dr. Roman Beck, Goethe University, Frankfurt
- Prof. Dr. Jonas Schreyögg, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
- Christophe Châlons, PAC Group
- Dan Bieler, IDC
- Matthias Roggendorf, PhD, McKinsey
Survey of ICT executives
-O
bjective: assessment of
executives’ opinion
- Web-based survey
- Total n = 1,559 executives
- Companies 1,000+ employees
In addition: CATI boost interviews
in selected fields
Survey of ICT users
-O
bjective: assessment of user
perspective
- Web-based survey
- Total n = 1,009 users
- Companies 1,000+ employees
Consumer survey
-O
bjective: assessment of consumer
opinion
- Web-based survey
- Total n = 1,336 onliners
-R
epresentative survey of
Web users
Countries: USA, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, France
of work in these countries (see Figure 2-2).
Each survey module captures different perspectives of networked working in business and society. The
think tank and its cross-disciplinary participants from
the areas of academics and business got the ball rolling
by providing important insight into the significance
of information and communication technologies in a
macroeconomic context.
In contrast, the survey of ICT executives aimed to
evaluate the present and future significance of ICT from
a corporate or industry-specific perspective. To do this,
each respondent was asked to assess the significance of
various different aspects of ICT in their company today
and how important they expected these aspects to be
in five years. The focus was on topics that had emerged
as particularly significant in the think tanks and in
secondary analyses. The main areas that were examined
were collaboration, flexibility, mobility and business
evolution, i.e. future fields and industries that have been
and will continue to be strongly shaped by ICT. Other
topics that were examined were green IT and various
facets of the issue of ICT security.
The survey of IT users focused on the actual utilization and the perceived usefulness of a variety of ICT
solutions in everyday working situations. In the context
of the study, this survey examines the micro-level of
each actual job. The focus here was also on “the areas”
collaboration, flexibility, mobility, green IT and aspects
of ICT security.
The aim of the consumer survey was to uncover
potential future uses for new ICT solutions and to
examine consumer interest in and willingness to use
specific services. This allows the present utilization and
fields of application of ICT in companies to be compared with consumers’ willingness to use them.
The combination and comparison of different
perspectives draws a comprehensive picture of the
status quo and development of connected working, and
the significance of ICT for business and society. A key
position for the future development of the ICT sector
is occupied by the user industries. One of the special
focuses of this study is on these industries. One of
the special focuses of this study is on specific serviceoriented user industries; these include the health sector,
public administration and the education sector. The
automotive industry is another sector that uses ICT to a
very high degree. The study takes a closer look at these
four sectors as examples of the user industries.
To examine individual aspects of these four industrial sectors in greater detail, a total of 101 in-depth
telephone interviews with ICT executives in German
enterprises in these industries were also conducted. In
total, 25 executives each from the automotive industry,
the health sector and public administration, and 26
executives from the education sector were interviewed.
The interviews started by asking a few brief questions aimed at recapping the basic parameters of what
role ICT plays in flexibilization, collaboration and
mobility, in order to validate the initial results. The next
set of questions focused on the industry-specific significance of ICT today and in the future. In the automotive
industry further questions were asked to determine the
potential contribution that ICT could make to tackling
the key challenges faced by the industry. Additionally,
the potential of ICT and the Internet for new in-vehicle
service, entertainment and security offerings was
discussed. In the health sector the questions focused on
the role of ICT in key issues such as cost saving, emergency medicine and caring for elderly and chronically
ill patients. The respondents were asked to assess the
advantages and disadvantages of an electronic health
card and the significance of ICT for health insurance
companies. In the public administration sector the focus
was on the potential of ICT for efficiency increases, integrating public offices in networks, electronic citizens’
services, eParticipation, etc. In education one of the key
aspects was the role of eLearning in a variety of sectors,
but also the contribution of ICT to securing education
funding and quality, as well as increasing equality and
comparability in education.
Figure 2-2: Survey of ICT executives – country
split
The 1,559 executives surveyed are distributed across the
5 countries as shown below:
19.9
20.0
Country
20.0
20.1
19.9
DE
FR
UK
US
ES
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n=1,559. Expressed as a percentage.
12 life Working Connected in Business and Society – the study
Figure 2-3: Cluster size according to countries
Particularly high proportion of Pioneers in the USA; high
proportion of hesitant executives in France. Germany is
average.
2.2 Pioneering, Open-minded and Hesitant – where are we heading?
The broad data base used in the study allows cluster
analysis to be used to provide detailed evaluations. The
ICT executives were segmented into three groups on
the basis of a range of different variables. The variables
used for clustering referred both to the present use
of ICT in the executive’s own company as well as the
expected future significance of ICT. Detailed questions
probed the following aspects: The present use of cloud
computing, applications from the field of virtual collaboration, and mobility solutions within the enterprise.
The respondents were also asked to assess the expected
future significance of these three technologies in their
own enterprise.
Based on the results, the ICT executives can be
divided into three groups, which can be roughly labeled
“Pioneers,” “Open-minded” and “Hesitant.”
Pioneers are characterized by the fact that all three
technologies – mobility solutions, collaboration and
cloud computing – already occupy an important position within the company. At the same time, this group
expects the significance of these technologies to keep
growing in the future. The Pioneers group is the smallest of the three segments, comprising one-quarter of all
ICT executives who were interviewed (25%).
Open-minded users also already use mobility
solutions and virtual collaboration. In contrast, cloud
computing plays practically no role, and green IT is of
very low importance. However, Open-minded users
expect these technologies to play a greater role within
their companies in the future. The Open-minded users
are the largest of the three segments that were identified:
43 percent of all ICT executives who were interviewed
belong in this segment.
Hesitant users are the most conservative of these
three segments. They do not currently attach great
importance to mobility, cloud computing or collaboration in their companies, and do not expect the
significance of these technologies in their companies to
increase in future. 32 percent, which is around one in
three of all ICT executives, belong in this group.
Some very interesting differences emerged in the
comparisons between the different countries. In the
United States, for example, the Pioneers cluster is larger
than average – 35 percent of all ICT executives in the
United States who were interviewed belong in this segment, which is a good ten percent more than the average
of all countries. At the same time, the group of Hesitant
users was only 24 percent, which is comparatively small.
In France, the situation was exactly the opposite: There
were noticeably few Pioneers (17%) and a great many
Hesitant users (43%). (see Figure 2-3)
There were also significant differences with regard
to the basic business-to-business sector (B2B), approach
of the companies. In enterprises in the Business-toBusiness sector (B2B) the segment of Pioneers is larger
than average: One-third of ICT executives in the B2B
sector are Pioneers, 45 percent are Open-minded and
only approximately one in five is a Hesitant user (22%).
In enterprises which focus predominantly on businessto-consumer (B2C), this relationship shifts conspicuously towards “Hesitant.” The segment that is least open
to new technologies are non-profit organizations and
associations. Only 13 percent of the ICT executives in
these organizations are Pioneers, and 45 percent belong
in the segment Hesitant users – although non-profit
organizations could benefit particularly from the
targeted use of social media or virtual collaboration
applications, which would provide significant cost and
efficiency benefits. (see Figure 2-4)
A look at the socio-demographics of the ICT executives reveals only negligible differences: The average age
Total:
24.7
US
35.0
UK
26.8
DE
24.5
ES
20.3
FR
17.2
43.3
32.0
41.4
23.6
30.5
42.7
38.7
36.8
53.1
26.6
40.3
42.5
Open-minded
Pioneers
Hesitant
Survey of ICT executives weighted n = 1,559. Expressed as a percentage
Figure 2-4: Cluster size according to line of
business
In companies with B2B focus, the proportion of Pioneers
is particularly high. ICT executives in non-profit organiza
tions are particularly hesitant.
Total
24.7
B2B
33.3
B2C
27.4
45.1
21.7
41.6
Public sector
14.1 43.1
NPO/Associations
13.2 41.7
Pioneers
32.0
43.3
Open-minded
31.0
42.8
45.1
Hesitant
of the Pioneers is 36, the Open-minded user has an average age of 39 and Hesitant users have a median age of
39 years. No conclusions about the individual’s attitude
to ICT applications for mobility, cloud computing and
virtual collaboration can be drawn simply from the age
of an ICT executive.
The size of the enterprise also provides no indication
of whether a company belongs to the Pioneers group
or to a different cluster. In general, the responses of the
ICT executives in the enterprises surveyed are relatively
homogeneous, indicating that there are no qualitative differences in the way ICT is used above a certain
company size. It would be interesting to see in future
studies whether this homogeneity can also be observed
in smaller companies.
On the other hand, there does appear to be a connection between the individual’s assessment of the
present and future significance of these topics and his/
her position within the company: Of all the respondents at C-level (e.g. CEOs and CIOs), the proportion of
Pioneers is particularly high at 46 percent. One in two
ICT executives at top executive level can be assigned to
the Pioneers segment. One in three of the C-level executives surveyed is Open-minded (32%) and only 22% are
Hesitant users. The C-level executives believe that the
technologies which defined the cluster are very important, more so than, for example, middle-management
ICT executives. (see Figure 2-5)
This cluster analysis is a useful starting point for
assessing the future development and potential of ICT.
A closer look at the cluster reveals one central finding: Virtual collaboration is a technology that is firmly
anchored in many enterprises, and has already entered
the mainstream. The use of Web conferencing solutions,
social media applications and tools from the field of unified communications is no longer a defining characteristic of Pioneers; the use of these technologies has become
standard for the Open-minded segment. In contrast,
there is still great potential in the fields of mobility and
cloud computing. The three user segments identified
above differ quite noticeably in their present utilization
and assessment of these technologies: Pioneers already
use these technologies; the Open-minded users utilize
them, but not to the full extent and, in contrast to the
Hesitant users cluster, they believe that the significance
of these technologies will increase in future. On the
basis of these findings, it seems clear that the Openminded segment will play a key role in driving the
future spread of these technologies.
Figure 2-5: Cluster size according to position in
company hierarchy
More Pioneers on C-level.
Board of Directors/Man- 46.1
agement (e.g. CEO, CIO)
Upper management
Middle and other
management
Pioneers
31.5
34.4
18.4
Open-minded
39.1
46.2
22.4
26.4
35.4
Hesitant
14 life
3.0 The
significance of ICT for
business and society
Information and communications technology applications can be found in practically
every area of life; they shape our private lives and our work. But while there is
extensive and detailed media coverage of the changes in private communication,
the significant and frequently far-reaching impact that ICT has on the world of work
receives far less attention. ICT is also becoming increasingly important on a
macroeconomic level. Not only is the ICT industry a steadily growing sector with
a high economic significance, ICT-based solutions and technologies also make
a valuable and very important contribution to value-creation in other sectors, e.g.
trade or manufacturing industries.
life The significance of ICT for business and society 15
Key ICT trends in
the next years
Flexibility
Collaboration
Mobility
Cloud Computing
Flexible sourcing
Virtual collaboration
Open innovation
Enterprise mobility
Internet of Things
General trends:
IT security , Green IT, Business intelligence, Strategic IT alignment
16 life The significance of ICT for business and society
3.1 The significance of ICT – the macro
economic perspective
“Information and communication technologies are
just as essential for modern society as electricity and
water networks. Modern everyday life would be utterly
unthinkable without information and communication
technologies”, said Professor Roman Beck, outlining
the importance of ICT at the think tank meeting at the
outset of this study.
ICT is a key technology and an interdisciplinary
technology; it helps enterprises to reduce costs, improve
processes, boost innovation, and increase productivity.
ICT also makes the public sector leaner, faster and more
citizen-friendly. ICT improves the provision of medical care, increases safety and provides greater quality
of life – this is how the industry association BITKOM
describes the significance of ICT.3
But what happens when one tries to substantiate
these statements with proven figures? What is the true
economic significance of ICT?
Software, IT services and telecommunications are the growth drivers of the German
The software and IT service industry in
Germany has grown steadily to become an independent
economic factor whose gross value creation and impact
on employment is set to rise even further over the next
two decades. The ISI Study published by the Fraunhofer
Institute, which was presented on 03 March 2010 at the
CeBIT in Hanover, provides sound data to prove this
development.4
The study starts from the premise that the industry
will experience an increase in employment of 80 percent
by 2030, which would be equivalent to 452,000 new jobs.
The industry also plays a central role in intelligent networks and technologies which society will be able to use
to tackle the challenges of the future, e.g. climate change
and demographic change. In spite of this, there is a
strong systematic tendency to underestimate the sector’s
influence as a powerful economic force and its integral
function in location and industrial policies.
In the last few years the ICT industry in Germany
outperformed the overall economy and reported a
steady rise in gross value added, revenue, production
volumes and jobs. By 2030 in Germany the sector will
be generating annual gross value added of €90 billion.
economy
In comparison: Experts at Prognos expect sales in the
mechanical engineering industry to be €100.8 billion
and the automotive sector to generate €115.1 billion. The
sectors mechanical engineering and automotive, which
in Germany are generally regarded as being prime economic drivers, will develop less dynamically in the next
15-20 years, while the software and IT service sector is
expected to double its contribution to gross value added.5
The ICT industry not only has direct economic
significance as an independent sector, it also makes
a substantial indirect contribution to domestic economic growth. For instance, modern communication
networks influence economic growth by helping to
spread information and promoting the development and
adaptation of innovations. Current empirical studies
show that on average the per-capita income of a country
rises between 2.7 and 3.9 percent after broadband has
been introduced compared with pre-broadband figures.
In terms of the distribution of broadband infrastructure, a rise in broadband user rates of 10 percentage
points of the population results in an average increase
in per-capita economic growth of between 0.9 and 1.5
percentage points.6
The indirect contribution to economic growth
made by ICT is largely due to the fact that software, IT
and telecommunications services are interdisciplinary
technologies. A great many industrial products and
services depend directly or indirectly on ICT. Christophe Châlons, Chief Analyst of the PAC Group and a
think tank participant, estimates that the ICT sector
accounts for around five percent of the German gross
domestic product. “If you also include the innovations
that are made possible by ICT, then the ICT share of
GDP rises to around seven percent. And if embedded
systems, which also play a decisive role in innovations,
are included, then the ICT share of GDP rises to over
seven percent.”
At the think tank meeting, Professor Roman Beck,
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, summed this development up as follows: “Even in many traditional industrial
sectors it makes perfect sense to refer to “digital value
added” because their business models have evolved and
now take place either fully or to a large extent in digital
networks.” To assess the true economic significance of
ICT it is necessary to look at how these technologies act
and are used as enablers in other sectors. This is precisely the approach chosen by the LIFE 2 Study, and it
FIGURE 3-1: IMPORTANCE OF ICT – OVERALL ECONOMIC
PERSPECTIVE (revenue GROWTH)
In the next 5 years, ICT executives in Germany are expecting substantial growth impulses due to ICT-based solutions
and technologies.
“How would you rate the percentage of revenue growth in
your industry over the next five years?”
“What percentage of this growth do you expect will be the
result of ICT-based solutions and technologies?”
Automotive industry 2.8
Industry & production 2.2
9.4
7.5
Transport & logistics 5.0
11.9
Health, medicine & social services 5.4
14.9
16.2
Education 7.6
Energy & water supply 11.3
29.3
Public sector & associations 4.1
12.5
Financial services 6.4
Insurance industry 3.2
22.7
10.2
Trade & sales 10.0
Other services 3.8
21.0
10.9
Share of ICT in industry revenue growth
Industrial growth
Survey of ICT executives in Germany, weighted n = 310. Expressed as a
percentage; real, inflation-adjusted values
Industrial growth: average values; Share ICT: 5% trimmed average values
FIGURE 3-2: IMPORTANCE OF ICT – OVERALL ECONOMIC
PERSPECTIVE (COST REDUCTIONS)
The ICT executives expect that ICT-based solutions and
technologies will enable cost reductions of up to 17% in
Germany in the next five years.
“What percentage of cost reductions do you expect will be
the result of ICT-based solutions and technologies in your
industry in the next five years?” (Percentage of total costs)
Automotive industry 12.2
Industry & production 10.8
allows a realistic estimate to be made of the contribution
that ICT-based solutions and technologies will make to
future growth.
The study’s starting point was a question; the ICT
executives were asked to state in percent how much
they expected revenue in their own industry to rise in
the next five years. The growth expectations arising
from this question were adjusted to reflect anticipated
inflation, thus yielding real, industry-specific growth
expectations for the coming five years.
The ICT executives were also asked what proportion
of this increase in revenue they expected to be generated
by ICT-based solutions and technologies. By combining
the responses to this question with the industry-specific
growth expectations, ICT-based growth rates can be
calculated for individual sectors, thus determining the
growth in revenue that will be generated by ICT-based
solutions and technologies in the next five years.
The results of this projection substantiate the notion
that ICT will be a crucial growth factor in future (see
Figure 3-1). For instance, the ICT executives in the
automotive industry in Germany expect an overall
increase in revenue of 9.4 percent, or an average of 1.8
percent per year, over the next five years in this industry.
They expect ICT-based solutions and technologies to
contribute decisively to this increase in revenue. In their
opinion, in the next five years ICT will enable an overall
increase in revenue of 2.8 percent, or just under 0.6 percent per year. ICT-based solutions and technologies will
also trigger clear growth impulses in other industries.
In energy and water supplies, for example, executives
expect ICT to lead to an overall increase in revenue of
11.3 percent, or a median annual increase of 2.2 percent,
over the next five years in Germany.
There is also the prospect of significant growth in
revenue generated by ICT-based solutions and technologies in the tertiary sector, e.g. in sales and distribution
or in education. ICT executives in the retail sector
expect revenue in their industry to rise by a total of 21.0
percent in the next five years, which is equivalent to
annual median growth of 3.9 percent. The executives
believe that ICT-based solutions and technologies will
be responsible for almost half of this growth in revenue.
The situation in the education sector is similar: Executives anticipate that ICT will lead to an overall increase
in revenues in this sector of 7.6 percent – equivalent to
annual median growth of 1.5 percent.
The study also shows that in Germany in the next five
years ICT-based solutions and technologies could help
to achieve cost reductions of up to 17 percent. Overall,
the cost saving potential is higher in the service sector
than in manufacturing. In other words: There are bigger
savings potentials in sectors where the “human factor”
is important and the focus is on the exchange of information between people (see Figure 3-2).
ICT as a driver for innovation and growth
One of the reasons that the software and IT service
sector makes a significant contribution to economic
growth is because ICT applications are capable of adding
an “intelligent” functionality to existing technologies.
This enables ICT – which due to its strong focus on
technology and research is itself an innovative sector – to strengthen and enhance innovation in other
economic areas. ICT can rightly be described as a driver
for innovation and growth: With its inherent power for
innovation, ICT stimulates value added and productivity
in other sectors. This opinion is shared by the ICT executives who participated in the survey: Two thirds (64%)
believe that ICT plays a decisive role in the economy as
the enabler of new business models (see Figure 3-3).
On an international scale, 91 percent of the IT users
who participated in the survey believe that information
and communication technology has a very high signifi-
Transport & logistics 13.1
Health, medicine & social services 12.0
Education 14.7
Energy & water supply 16.4
Public sector & associations 14.6
Financial services 14.9
Insurance industry 16.7
Trade & sales 12.9
Other services 12.7
Survey of ICT executives in Germany, weighted n = 310. Open survey,
expressed as % of total costs in this industry; 5% trimmed average values
FIGURE 3-3: IMPORTANCE OF ICT AS AN ENABLER OF NEW
BUSINESS MODELS
Almost two thirds of executives (64%) are of the opinion
that ICT also plays a decisive role in overall economic
terms as an enabler of new business models.
In Great Britain even 72% share this opinion.
To what extent do you agree with the following statement?
“Today, ICT also plays a decisive role in overall economic
terms as an enabler of new business models.”
72.2%
64.2%
TOTAL VALUE
GREAT BRITAIN
55.8%
56.1%
FRANCE
67.7%
usa
GERMANY
69.1%
SPAIN
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559. Expressed as a percentage
of the 2 top-rated boxes “Fully agree” and “Agree”
FIGURE 3-4: STRATEGIC RELEVANCE OF ICT TODAY AND IN 5
YEARS TIME
79 percent of the executives rate the importance of ICT
in their business as being high or very high. 84 percent
of the executives in the survey assume that the strategic
importance of ICT in their business will increase (strongly)
over the next five years.
cance for the current economy. In Germany, 99 percent
of users held this opinion. The exceptionally high significance of ICT for the economy is not only recognized
by enterprises, but also by consumers: 85 percent of the
consumers surveyed in this study believe that information and communication technologies are of very great
or great importance for the economy.
two corporate areas logistics and customer services.
Against this background, with the importance of
ICT rising steadily, it comes as no surprise that six out
of ten ICT executives (58%) expect a (strong) increase
in their company’s IT budget. Three in ten (33%) expect
budgets to remain unchanged. Only nine percent of ICT
executives expect budgets to be cut.
3.2 The significance of ICT in enterprises
ICT executives believe that the greatest influence that
ICT will have on their enterprise’s ability to remain
competitive in the future will be by increasing performance (72%) and achieving cost savings (70%) through
ICT, as well as knowledge management (69%) (see Figure
3-5). In this connection, the participants of the think
tank noted that the debate on building competitiveness
must not be limited purely to cost-savings and exploiting the cost-cutting options that are available, and
neither should ICT be limited to the status of a tool for
reducing costs. At the heart of competitive skills and
ability lies the enterprise’s innovative capabilities, and
these are often also the result of its use of ICT.
This opinion is obviously shared by the ICT executives in the big enterprises. Overall, more than two
thirds of the executives surveyed (67%) believe that it is
through the lever “Innovation” that ICT will have the
greatest influence on their enterprise’s future competitiveness. In the United States 76 percent of the executives who participated in the survey believe this (see
Figure 3-6). And in Spain and France the innovative
potential of ICT and the significant influence of this
area on competitiveness is also acknowledged: Innovation is seen as one of the top 3 areas with a (very) strong
influence on competitiveness. In contrast, German ICT
executives believe that the biggest effect that ICT has on
their enterprise is in the areas flexibility, efficient process
design and customer service.
“Please assess the strategic importance of ICT in your
business today.”
“How do you think the strategic importance of ICT for the
success of your business is going to change in the future
(i.e. over the next five years)?”
79.0
Total
83.6
ES
83.6
88.4
US
81.3
80.9
UK
87.4
85.6
FR
66.0
79.8
DE
76.8
83.4
Strategic importance of ICT today
Change of strategic importance in the next 5 years
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559
Importance today: expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes
“Very high”, “High”. Change of importance: expressed as a percentage of the
2 top-rated boxes “High increase”, “Increase”.
The question of the significance of ICT for business and
society is not only an economic issue, it is just as important in a business management context. Information and
communication technologies not only play an essential
role for entire industries and sectors, they are equally
important within individual enterprises. As part of the
LIFE 2 Study, the 1,559 ICT executives were also asked
about the strategic importance of ICT in their company.
A total of 79 percent of the
executives rate the strategic importance of ICT for the
success of their company as very high or high; in the
United Kingdom it is 87 percent, and 77 percent in
Germany, or slightly more than three-quarters of the
participants. For the future the ICT executives expect
the importance of ICT to rise even further: Internationally, around 84 percent of the surveyed executives
state that they expect the strategic relevance of ICT to
increase (strongly) in their company in the next five
years (see Figure 3-4).
The future importance of ICT is rated as being
particularly high in research & development, logistics,
and customer services. In total, 70 percent of the ICT
executives believe that ICT will play a (very) important
role in R&D in the future; 66 percent of the executives
believe that ICT will play a (very) important role in the
Str ategic relevance
Great significance for corpor ate development
“ICT is often viewed merely as a tool to cut costs, but in
reality it is the innovation potential opened up by ICT that
determines an enterprise’s future competitiveness.”
Professor Roman Beck, Goethe University Frankfurt
Key IT trends in the next few years So where
is ICT heading? Which key trends and topics can we
expect when it comes to how information and communication technology shapes and changes our world of
work? Which topics will influence the economy most?
Our think tank experts believe that flexibility, mobility and collaboration will have a prime influence on
shaping our future. Christophe Châlons, Chief Analyst
of the PAC Group, sums up: “Flexibility, mobility and
cooperation are the three big change issues”. This is
backed up by the results of the survey of ICT executives.
Enterprise mobility, i.e. the integration of ICT solutions in the enterprise, is one of the key future trends
in IT for three in ten executives (mentioned by 30%).
Mobility is rated particularly highly in Spain (36%) and
France (31%), but in Germany, the United Kingdom and
the United States mobility is mentioned by more than
one in four of those surveyed as one of the top 3 future
fields in ICT.
Virtual collaboration is mentioned by 23 percent of
ICT executives as one of the three most important IT
trends in the next few years. In France 31 percent rate
it as a top topic, and 28 percent in Spain. In the United
Kingdom it was a top topic for one in five ICT executives
(20%) and in the United States for almost one quarter
FIGURE 3-5: ICT AND COMPETITIVE ABILITY
According to the executives, ICT will be particularly
important with respect to competitive ability in the
fields of “Increasing performance”, “Cutting costs” and
“Knowledge management”.
“How do you rate the future influence of ICT on your
company’s competitive ability in the following areas?”
Increase in performance 71.7
Cost reductions 69.6
Knowledge management 69.1
Flexibility 68.0
Innovation 67.3
FIGURE 3-6: INFLUENCE OF ICT ON INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ABILITY
A total of more than two thirds of those questioned (67%)
expect that ICT will greatly influence the competitive ability
of their company in the future with respect to “innovation”.
In the USA, 76% of those who took part in the survey share
this opinion.
“How do you rate the future influence of ICT on your company’s competitive ability in the following areas?” (“Innovation” broken down into countries)
69.3%
GREAT BRITAIN
67.3%
TOTAL VALUE
Efficient business processes 65.3
Customer service 62.5
Process transparency 58.4
61.0%
63.1%
france
GERMANY
Opening new markets 58.1
Time to market 54.6
75.7%
usa
67.3%
SPAIN
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n=1,559. Expressed as a percentage of
the 2 top-rated boxes “very high” or “high”. Items partially abbreviated.
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n=1,559. Expressed as a percentage of
the 2 top-rated boxes “very high” or “high”.
“Flexibility, mobility and collaboration
are the big change topics.”
Christophe Châlons, Chief Analyst of the PAC Group
(24%). The German executives bucked this trend: Only
13 percent of those surveyed considered virtual collaboration particularly important. Another topic that
belongs under the general heading “Collaboration” is
“open innovation”. Just like virtual collaboration, open
innovation was recognized as a trend in France and
Spain. One in four ICT executives in France (23%) and
Spain (25%) believes that open innovation will be one
of the top topics in the next few years. In the United
Kingdom, Germany and the United States only 14 or 15
percent believe that it will be a key future trend.
In these countries the focus is more obviously
on boosting flexibility, for instance through flexible
sourcing or the use of cloud services. One in four of the
executives surveyed in the United States (25%) and one
in five in Germany and the United Kingdom (22% each)
believe that cloud computing will be one of the three top
trends in ICT in the next few years. Flexible sourcing
is considered a future trend by around 19 percent of
executives in Germany and Spain, and 23 percent in the
United Kingdom.
The ICT executives list a few more issues they
believe are key trends in ICT, and as interdisciplinary technologies these apply to ICT in general. These
general trends include IT security (mentioned by 54%),
FIGURE 3-7: IMPORTANCE OF ICT – KEY IT TRENDS
The most important IT trends over the next few years according to ICT executives: IT security as a “must”, mobility,
collaboration, business intelligence and green IT as future major issues.
“In your opinion, what will be the three most important IT trends in the next few years?”
Flexibility
Cloud Computing
FLEXIBLE SOURCING
18.1
16.3
Mobility
Enterprise Mobility
INTERNET OF THINGS
30.4
14.7
Cooperation
Virtual Collaboration
Open Innovation
23.1
18.0
General Trends
IT SECURITY
Business Intelligence
Green It
53.6
30.5
28.8
Strategic It Alignment 14.8
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559. Total, Expressed as a percentage (Ranks 1–3).
business intelligence (31%), green IT (29%) and strategic
IT alignment (15%) (see Figure 3-7). In Germany the
issue of IT security is a focal topic for executives: Twothirds of German executives (66%) view IT security
as one of the top 3 topics for the coming years. In the
United Kingdom and the United States around 50%
of respondents listed IT security as a top topic for the
future.
Green IT is another issue that is taken seriously
by the executives surveyed: In total, 29 percent of the
executives surveyed thought that green IT would be one
of the most important topics in the next few years. In
France and Germany green IT was rated as the second
most important issue with 35 percent and 31 percent
listing it respectively. In the United States green IT was
the third most important topic on the executives’ future
agenda with 32 percent listing it, in the United Kingdom it came in fourth position (28%). Green IT was less
important in Spain: With only 18 percent mentioning
it, green IT appears in fifth place on the list of the most
important IT future trends.
Significance at individual job level At job
microlevel ICT is also rated as very important: In total,
more than three-quarters of all IT users surveyed (77%)
state that ICT plays a decisive or very important role for
their everyday work. In Germany 81 percent of IT users
hold this opinion. 79 percent of all IT users state that
they depend on the Internet and telecommunications
for their present job.
The new technologies change the way we work,
where we work and how we communicate at work. For
example, one in four of the IT users (28%) state that they
can no longer keep their professional and private lives
strictly separate. In Spain and the United Kingdom 30
percent said that this separation was no longer possible. One in five (21%) often works from home, nearly
as many (19%) frequently work while on the road, e.g.
at the airport or on the train. Around 42 percent of all
IT users surveyed are convinced that mobile working brings or would bring career benefits – an opinion
shared by one in two of IT users in Great Britain. For
every second user (54%) it is important or very important to be able to access the necessary information and
programs anywhere and at all times, i.e. to have mobile
access to these programs and information. The significance of mobile work is particularly high in Spain,
where around 70 percent of the users surveyed state that
mobile work was especially important.
79%
of IT users
depend on the Internet and
telecommunications in their
present job.
54%
of users
consider it important or very
important to be able to access
essential information and
programs anywhere and at all
times, i.e. have mobile access.
22 life
4.0 Flexibility
Flexibility on the market always also means flexibility in one’s own ICT equipment
and systems: Processing power and server capacity need to be able to cope with
short-term demand surges, the infrastructure always has to be up to date, and
security solutions must be state-of-the-art at all times – while keeping as little
capital tied up as possible. However, in many companies it is obvious that ICT
cannot keep pace with the speed of market developments. Instead of providing
optimum support for business processes, ICT becomes a bottleneck in critical
phases. Against this backdrop sourcing, the outsourcing of parts of ICT to external
specialists, can deliver significant benefits for the company. This also applies to
the flexible sourcing of software, processing power or ICT infrastructure services
from the cloud.
A
Ap ri
life Flexibility 23
l
M ay
Ju ne
Ju ly
Aug u
st
S e p te
mbe
r O ct
o
ber
N ove
mbe
r
D e ce
mbe
r
Ja n u
Bandwidth
Capacities
Budget shifts
ar y
Fe b r
Marc
h
A p ril
M ay
June
Platform as a Service
Sourcing
Focus on core business
Location advantage
Software as a Service
Private Cloud
Standardization
uar y
Security
Cloud Computing
July
Au g u
st
Sept
emb
er
Oc to
ber
N ove
mbe
r
D e ce
mbe
r
24 life Flexibility
4.1 Flexibility and sourcing
Flexibility in ICT – for the experts at the think tank this
will be one of the three great change topics in the next
few years. For ICT executives a variable ICT configuration also plays a important role: Two thirds of the ICT
executives surveyed (67%) state that the issue of flexibility already occupies a position of very great or great
significance in their enterprise (see Figure 4-1).
There is an obvious reason for this: Flexibility and
dynamics on the market are often the key factors that
determine whether a company enjoys sustainable success. The full or partial (out)sourcing of ICT can help
to enhance the company’s flexibility, thus allowing it to
react swiftly to market changes. Sourcing enables the flexible provision of additional ICT capacities, e.g. to absorb
and cope with production peaks. Conversely, in slower
times – either due to the general economic situation, current market developments or factors within the company
– the ICT capacities can be reduced again at short notice.
This development puts an end to the era where overdimensioned ICT capacities had to be available for boom
phases. Sourcing also has advantages when it comes to
speed. Reaction times can be dramatically shortened
if ICT resources can be modified within a few days or
weeks, which in turn gives the enterprise far greater agility, for instance when working on client projects.
Research shows that from the enterprises’ point of
view the services offered by large outsourcing providers
are frequently the most attractive. These large providers benefit from economies of scale and specialization
advantages which they can pass on to their customers.
In markets with several large providers the cost and
quality advantages for customers tend to be stronger
than in tightly contested markets with many small
providers.7 That’s the theory. So just how important is
sourcing in day-to-day operations?
61 percent of the ICT executives surveyed for the LIFE
2 Study state that their company’s ICT is either partially
or fully outsourced to external providers, and that they
rely on a cooperation with only one provider (38% of
executives). One in four ICT executives said that their
ICT was outsourced to several providers (28%).
The areas most commonly outsourced are server/
storage and software/applications (43% each), communication solutions (34%) and development/testing
(33%) . It is less common to outsource strategic ICT
consultancy (28%) or ICT management (25%). One
third of ICT executives (33%) state that their company
is planning to outsource (more) ICT services to external
service providers. In Germany alone, this means that
around 600 enterprises with more than 1000 employees
will in future be making greater use of ICT sourcing.
In Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and
the United States, more than 5500 large enterprises are
planning to use the benefits of ICT sourcing.8 The focus
will in all probability be on the areas software, data storage, and development/testing (see Figure 4-2).
“The proportion of ICT expenditure spent
on outsourcing is growing.”
Christophe Châlons, Chief Analyst, PAC Group
4.2 Cloud computing
In the field of ICT sourcing cloud computing is currently one of the biggest topics. Cloud computing is a
delivery model that allows users to rent ICT services
and performance on an on-demand or project basis
through networks (e.g. the Internet or an intranet)
instead of purchasing them. These services can be soft
ware (SaaS – Software as a Service), platforms for the
development and operation of applications (PaaS – Plat-
form as a Service) or basic infrastructure, e.g. storage
space (IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service). So far, there
is no single, universally accepted definition of cloud
computing in the ICT sector, but the following points
serve to define the approach:9,10
• Contr acts with a short term: cloud computing
can cover periods ranging from a few hours , days, or
weeks; in contrast, conventional outsourcing contracts
usually have terms of several months or years.
• On-demand availabilit y: ICT infrastructure and
software can (practically) be scaled in real-time.
• No advance investment necessary: capital
expenditure and installation costs are included in the
rental fees.
• Charged according to utilization.
The key players on the cloud computing market include
providers of Software-as-a-Service, outsourcing and
hosting providers, but also network and ICT infrastructure providers.
Cloud computing is a solution that enables users
to utilize services on-demand and pay for them on the
basis on their actual utilization of these services. Cloud
computing transforms long-term fixed investments
into variable costs because only the actual utilization is
billed. For ICT executives cloud computing is a way of
cutting costs and adapting ICT resources flexibly to current business processes and conditions. Positive effects
can include the improvement of cost structures (by making ICT costs variable and avoiding capital expenditure),
the exploitation of productivity potential, and swifter,
more flexible access to new technologies. ICT departments and executives also have more freedom to focus
fully on their core responsibilities and strategic tasks.
Cloud computing marks the start of a sea-change
in information technology says the industry federation
BITKOM. “Cloud computing will completely and lastingly transform the information industry, its technolo-
life Flexibility 25
FIGURE 4-1: IMPORTANCE FOR THE BUSINESS
FIGURE 4-2: SOURCING
FIGURE 4-3: FLEXIBILITY – CLOUD COMPUTING
For more than two thirds of the executives in the survey,
flexibility is of high or very high importance. In the USA,
flexibility is even more important: Here, 82% of those
questioned assessed the importance of flexibility as being
(very) high.
Today, server and storage solutions as well as software
and communications solutions are mainly outsourced.
Future planning: software, server/storage and
development/testing.
More than half of the ICT executives (51%) in the survey
expect that cloud computing will become the predominant
aspect of ICT. Every tenth person asked assumes that
many companies will completely convert to cloud
computing.
“How important is flexibility (flexibility of the real net
output ratio and variable ICT design) in your business
today?”
77.6%
“Which areas of ICT are (partially or completely)
outsourced to third parties?”
“Which areas of ICT will be (further) outsourced in the
future?”
67.4%
Great Britain
Total value
Software / applications
46.8%
France
67.8%
usa
33.7
Development / testing
33.2
Strategic ICT counselling
27.5
34.0
24.5
29.1
ICT Management
Germany
82.0%
23.3
today*
Computing will become
the predominant sourcing
element of ICT.
10.1
43.3
48.8
42.7
55.2
Server / storage
Communications solutions
“How would you assess the role of cloud computing in the
future?”
41.0
planned**
63.0%
39.0
50.9
Cloud computing will be
another aspect of ICT in
addition to “classical” ICT
sourcing.
Many companies will
convert completely to cloud
computing instead of having
their own ICT.
spain
of the 2 top-rated boxes “Very important”, “Important”
gies and business models,” says BITKOM President,
Professor August-Wilhelm Scheer. In less than ten years
many companies will no longer have their own internal
IT and computing centers, says Scheer. By then, most
companies will be using cloud computing – at least as a
supplement to their existing infrastructure.11 Cheaper
connection charges and increased high-speed bandwidth will help to establish cloud computing.
The experts at the think tank also believe that cloud
computing will become increasingly important and
that it is set to achieve a very high penetration rate.
“There is a quite clear trend towards the increased use of
the external cloud,” said Professor Arnold Picot at the
workshop.
“In future, many applications will be accessed from the external cloud, just like
we get electricity from a socket today.”
Professor Arnold Picot, Ludwig-Maximilian University,
Munich
But how do the executives and users in the enterprises
rate cloud computing? In the survey for the LIFE 2
* Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559. Expressed as a percentage
** Survey of ICT executives, n = 510 ICT executives who are planning to
outsource (further) areas of ICT. Expressed as a percentage.
Study, ICT executives, ICT users and consumers were
asked about their opinion on cloud computing.
Cloud computing has a high significance The
survey showed that cloud computing is a highly relevant
topic in the day-to-day operations of many enterprises.
Almost 17 percent of the ICT executives surveyed are
convinced that cloud computing is already a key issue
for many companies. In the United States this opinion
was held by 27 percent of the ICT executives. Just under
half of the ICT executives (46%) believe that cloud computing will firmly establish itself on the market within
the next two to five years. A further 18 percent expect
the breakthrough to occur in over five years. Only four
percent of ICT executives in the enterprises believe that
cloud computing is a hyped issue which will not gain
widespread acceptance.
In total, around 81 percent of ICT executives believe
that cloud computing will establish itself on the market.
Half of those surveyed (51%) expect cloud computing
to become the dominant sourcing variant for ICT. A
further ten percent believe that it is conceivable that
many companies will do completely without their own
Survey of ICT executives, n = 1,559 persons questioned who expect that
CC will establish itself as part of the market. Expressed as a percentage.
ICT, instead shifting their ICT needs entirely to cloud
computing. 39 percent can envisage cloud computing
and conventional ICT sourcing coexisting side-by-side.
(see Figure 4-3).
The advantages and risks of cloud computing
The biggest advantage of cloud computing, say the ICT
executives, lies in the cost savings that can be achieved
through paying purely for on-demand services (60%). In
the United States 70 percent state that cost savings are an
important or very important reason to use cloud computing. This goes hand in hand with the fact that seven
of ten ICT executives (71%) believe that companies will
in future try to keep fixed IT costs as low as possible.
“Cloud computing can play a key role in
helping to cut costs.”
Matthias Roggendorf, Associate Partner, McKinsey
Another very important reason to use cloud computing is the rapid access it provides to new technologies:
59 percent of the ICT executives see this as an important
or very important factor. For German ICT executives
26 life Flexibility
28%
of ICT executives
say that cloud computing is already
used in their enterprise.
this aspect is the greatest advantage of cloud computing: Faster access to new technologies was even more
important for them than the potential cost savings that
could be achieved with cloud computing.
Just over half of those surveyed also believe that
an important or very important advantage of cloud
computing is the better risk protection and the flexible
adaptation of capacities to actual requirements (both in
the top 2 boxes with 55%), in higher energy efficiency
and low capital expenditure (both 53%). Equally important for the ICT executives was the fact that the use of
cloud computing frees up HR capacities and gives internal IT experts more time to focus on strategic topics.
Despite all of these perceived advantages, the ICT
executives also see certain risks in cloud computing.
These are primarily the issue of security in all its various
facets: Many CIOs fear that cloud computing could have
critical security vulnerabilities. One in two ICT executives mentions security issues as one of the three most
important risks of cloud computing (52%). Other potentially negative aspects are data and system loss (44%)
and data protection issues (38%). The latter specifically
refers to the geographic location of servers in cases
where sensitive data is not allowed to leave the country
due to legal regulations. In cloud computing it is not
➟
58%
of the ICT executives
believe that cloud computing will
have a (very) high significance in their
enterprise in future.
always clear exactly where – i.e. in which computing
center – the data are stored and whether third parties
could be permitted to access these corporate data on the
basis of specific laws in the country of storage. Speaking
about security, Professor Claudia Loebbecke from the
University of Cologne points out: “In many cases, the
providers of external cloud services offer higher security standards than the ICT enterprises themselves.”
Less problematic is the relationship between standardized services and individual needs: Only one in
five of the ICT executives surveyed (21%) sees this as
presenting a potential risk. The experts at the think tank
also believe that a certain amount of standardization in
ICT is not a problem. Christophe Châlons, Chief Analyst of the PAC Group: “Only 20 percent of the enterprises positively differentiate themselves through their
ICT. For the remaining 80 percent of enterprises ICT
outsourcing is highly attractive.” Professor Arnold Picot
adds: “The application modules of an external cloud can
be combined to suit all individual needs.”
Cloud computing is an area that is characterized by exceptionally
high growth potential. On one hand, only 28 percent
of the surveyed ICT executives state that their enterPresent and future significance
prise already uses cloud computing. At the same time,
58 percent of the executives believe that cloud computing will play a (very) important role in their company in
the future. For Germany, this means that in the next five
years more than 550 enterprises with over 1,000 employees could start using cloud computing. In Germany, the
United Kingdom, France, Spain and the United States,
there is a total potential of more than 5,100 additional
enterprises with more than 1,000 employees who intend
to use cloud computing in the future.12
The considerable future potential of cloud computing is also emphasized by the results of the cluster
analysis of the ICT executives: Cloud computing is used
by all the Pioneers. The Open-minded users – by far
the largest segment at around 43 percent – have not yet
really started using the cloud. 12 percent of the Openminded segment state that cloud computing has a low
significance for their enterprise at present, 88 percent
rate it as fairly low. At the same time nearly two-thirds
of the Open-minded segment (65%) are convinced that
cloud computing will be (very) important for their
company in the next five years. This result indicates that
it is the segment of Open-minded users and executives
that will play an important role in increasing the use of
cloud computing.
life Flexibility 27
Cloud computing has a very great significance for the
companies where cloud computing applications are
already used: Three-quarters (75%) of all ICT executives
whose companies already use cloud computing state
that this technology is (very) important for their enterprise. 77 percent believe that the investment in cloud
computing this year will be “significantly” or “slightly”
higher than in the previous year. 22 percent expect
investment in cloud computing to remain on a par with
the previous year, and only one percent of those surveyed believe that investment in cloud computing will
be lower than in the previous year.
The executives see the greatest potential for cloudbased implementation within their company in the area
of computing capacity and storage solutions (44% and
48% respectively). Roughly one in three sees potential
for the cloud-based implementation of email solutions
(36%), management information systems (34%) and
standard office applications (33%). One in five (20%)
sees great potential in the field of development plat-
forms; in Spain and France one on four can imagine
using cloud-based development platforms (26% and 24%
respectively).
In terms of the implementation of cloud computing,
the private cloud – the shared use of IT resources within
the enterprise – is the variant favored by ICT executives (the different cloud variants are explained in the
glossary). 59 percent consider this closed form of cloud
computing very interesting or interesting. It is closely
followed in second place by the virtual private cloud:
around 57 percent of the executives surveyed state that
this is an interesting or very interesting option. In third
place of the variants favored by the ICT executives is the
open variant, the public cloud (53%), where a standardized IT service is accessed through the Internet and
billed according to utilization. For the German ICT
executives this is the most favored version of cloud
computing (54% in the top 2 boxes), ahead of the private
cloud variant. Just under half find hybrid cloud models
interesting (49%).
FIGURE 4-4: CONSUMER INTEREST IN CLOUD COMPUTING
Open-minded consumers: The majority of the 1,363 consumers in the survey already uses cloud computing applications or
can conceive of using cloud computing in the future.
“Please indicate whether you already use the following applications on the web, or whether you think you will probably
use these applications on the web in future”:
22.7
Web mail
66.4
Security programs
56.5
Entertainment software
44.1
Archiving photos and music
36.3
Special software
30.9
47.4
Office software
30.9
45.5
Archiving private data
28.7
I already use this
I think I will use this in the future
10.9
31.0
24.3
31.6
37.9
41.1
25.8
21.7
23.6
30.2
I cannot imagine using this in the future
Consumer survey, weighted n = 1,336. Total, expressed as a percentage. Items partially abbreviated
12.5
When it comes to the choice of a provider for cloud
computing services, the enterprises want data and
systems security, for instance through certification,
firewalls etc. 70 percent of the ICT executives surveyed
say that this aspect is “decisive” or “very important”
when selecting a service provider. The cost aspect comes
in second place (68%), followed by physical security of
the computing centers (e.g. through twin-core strategies) to ensure safety and data protection in the event of
accidents or natural catastrophes (62%).
Cloud utilization by consumers From webmail
to social networks and video clips streamed from the
Internet: Cloud computing already plays an important
part in our private lives.13 Private users are very open
to the idea of cloud computing, even more open than
enterprises. The LIFE 2 Study shows that the majority of
the 1,336 consumers surveyed already use on-demand
applications through the Internet. Particularly popular
are email functions (66%) and entertainment software
(e.g. games, 44%). Three in ten consumers (31%) use
cloud-based office software (e.g. word processing or
spreadsheet programs), and just as many state that
they use specialized web-based software, such as image
processing programs. 36 percent of consumers archive
their photos or music on the Internet, and 29 percent
also store their private documents, address books and
backups online.
Many of the consumers who do not already use
these cloud services can imagine using them in the
future. A particularly interesting aspect for consumers
is the use of specialized software and office software.
47 percent and 46 percent respectively can envisage
using these cloud-based services in the future. 41 percent of consumers are open to the idea of archiving
private documents on the Internet (see Figure 4-4).
28 life
5.0 Collaboration
Spurred by increasing globalization and strong market dynamics, more and more
companies are seeking new ways of collaborating in order to boost their ability to
compete and get ahead of the competition. As a cost-effective and efficient alternative to the standard internal and cross-enterprise forms of cooperation (e.g.
project groups, joint ventures or networks) the focus is increasingly shifting to
virtual collaborations. Virtual collaboration is a form of working together which is
based on modern information and communication technology applications which
eliminate physical access and availability barriers. There are three basic variants
of virtual collaboration: first, internal collaboration within the company; second,
external collaboration with upstream or downstream value creation stages; and
third, the collaboration with competitors.14
life Collaboration 29
Availability
Unified Communications
Webconferencing
Crowdsourcing
Competition
Development platforms
Innovation
Time-to-Market
Globally networked
Security
Capacities
Team spirit
30 life Collaboration
FIGURE 5-1: IMPORTANCE OF COOPERATION IN DAY-TODAY WORK
Six out of ten ICT users depend very frequently or
frequently on cooperation with others in order to carry
out their professional duties.
“How frequently do you depend on cooperation with
others in order to carry out your professional duties?”
61.6%
GREAT BRITAIN
63.5%
FRANCE
60.5%
More than half of the ICT executives in the survey already consider virtual cooperation to be (very) important today.
Seven out of ten ICT executives expect that virtual collaboration will be (very) important for their business in the future.
“How important is virtual cooperation for your business today?”
“What do you expect will be the importance of virtual collaboration in your company in 5 years time?”
Total
54.9
70.2
ES
62.7
74.6
US
66.0
79.7
UK
55.8
72.4
FR
41.6
57.4
DE
48.4
66.9
TOTAL VALUE
73.6%
GERMANY
40.0%
FIGURE 5-2: IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUAL COOPERATION TODAY AND TOMORROW
usa
63.5%
SPAIN
Survey of IT users, n = 1.009. Expressed as a percentage of the 2 toprated boxes “Very frequently”, “Frequently”.
Alongside flexibility, cooperation is a key issue in ICT.
At the think tank, Professor Arnold Picot put it as follows: “Work is increasingly becoming communication
work. And virtual collaboration supports and promotes
this process.“
“Work is increasingly becoming communication work. And virtual collaboration
supports and promotes this process.”
Professor Arnold Picot, Ludwig-Maximilian
University, Munich
In today’s working world, six out of ten IT users (61%)
frequently or very frequently depend on working with
others in their jobs. In Germany, three-quarters of
the users surveyed (74%) can only perform their work
in cooperation with others (see Figure 5-1). A total of
44 percent frequently or very frequently work in multisite project teams, and in France and Spain it is even one
in two (53% each). One in three (33%) (very) often works
in cross-enterprise project teams, i.e. collaborates with
Importance today
Importance in 5 years time
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,599. Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Very high”, “High”.
external partners, customers, or consultants.
Many ICT executives are also aware of the significance of virtual collaboration. 55 percent of the executives surveyed for the LIFE 2 Study state that virtual
collaboration has a very high or high significance
within their enterprise. In the United States 66 percent
of all executives hold this opinion. A slightly more
detailed look shows that despite the comparatively high
importance it already has, the significance of virtual
collaboration is set to increase further. 70 percent of the
ICT executives expect that the significance of virtual
collaboration for their company will be (very) high in
five years’ time – with 80 percent stating this in the
United States (see Figure 5-2).
In this connection it is interesting to take a look at
the various different executive segments and the executives who specifically expect virtual collaboration to play
an important role in their company (top box). In the
Pioneer cluster 29 percent state that virtual collaboration is already very important at present, and 41 percent
state that they believe it will be very important in five
years’ time. An even greater section of the Open-minded
cluster believes that its importance will increase in the
future: While virtual collaboration is currently very
important for 17 percent of this segment, 37 percent
expect it to be very important in five years. Against
this background it comes as no surprise that nearly one
quarter of the executives (23%) sees virtual collaboration
as one of the top three ICT trends for the future.
Potential uses of internal and external vir-
There are three basic types of
virtual collaboration: Firstly, the virtual collaboration
within the boundaries of the enterprise, for instance the
collaboration between the members of a project team in
different geographical locations but also the collaboration between several divisions or several sites of the
same enterprise; second, the external virtual collaboration with companies or partners whose company is
upstream or downstream from one’s own company, for
example suppliers, sales partners or customers. Third,
there is also the option of collaborating with competitors. Professor Claudia Loebbecke explains the potential
advantages of the latter collaboration: “Sometimes
it makes sense for competitors to sit down together
‘virtually’ and work on solutions for specific questions
tual collabor ation
or issues. The challenge lies in determining which information and knowledge one is prepared to exchange with
whom, when and under which conditions.”
Three-quarters of the ICT executives surveyed (76%)
state that virtual collaboration technology and functions are currently used in their enterprise. The range
of different options for internal virtual collaboration
across the company (e.g. communication within teams,
for training courses, in project work and in knowledge
management) has been standard for a long time.
There is still untapped potential in the area of
external collaboration, and particularly in the collaboration with enterprises and partners from downstream
value creation stages. But in sales and customer services
the use of virtual collaboration also offers significant
potential, believes Christophe Châlons, Chief Analyst of
the PAC Group and one of the participants of the think
tank.
“In sales and customer services the use
of virtual collaboration still offers great
potential.”
mation and video conferences particularly useful. If one
compares the statements about the perceived usefulness with the actual utilization of these applications in
enterprises, it becomes clear that there is still a great
deal of untapped potential in the area “video conferencing”: While one in two of the IT users surveyed (50%)
considers video conferences useful or very useful, only
29 percent state that video conferences are actually used
with any frequency in their company. The same applies
to web conferences: 48 percent of the users surveyed
consider web conferences (very) useful, but only 26
percent state that web conferences were actually often
used in their company.
The comparison of utilization and usefulness also
shows that unified communications applications, i.e.
applications that connect and network different communication media with each other and with other business processes15, already enjoy widespread acceptance.
In half of the enterprises (52%) they are used frequently
or very frequently. Unified communications are at the
top of the users’ list of favorites with 63 percent rating
them as “very useful” or “useful” (see Figure 5-3).
“Virtual collaboration creates
an important additional channel for enhanced communication and cooperation,” is how Professor Jonas
Schreyögg from the Ludwig-Maximilian University in
Munich put it at the think tank meeting. For both ICT
executives and IT users the most important aspect of
virtual collaboration is saving travel time and travel
expenses. 78 percent of the IT users and 58 percent of
the ICT executives named this aspect as one of the three
significant advantages provided by virtual collaboration
options. Other significant advantages for ICT executives include increased employee productivity (42%)
due to better networking, and greater flexibility due to
enhanced employee availability (35%). Users, on the
other hand, see one of the key advantages of virtual
collaboration as being faster decision-making processes
and shorter project times (39%). Enhanced flexibility
comes in third place (36%). These aspects were also
emphasized by Professor Arnold Picot at the think tank:
“Virtual collaborations can create new possibilities, for
instance by speeding up decisions.”
Both groups, i.e. the ICT executives and the IT users
in the enterprises, believe that the biggest risk that
could result from an increase in virtual collaboration
Advantages and risks
So far, only a third of enterprises (35%) also use the
options available for virtual collaborations in customer
services, although many customers are very willing
to engage in “virtual” contact with businesses . For
example, the majority of the consumers who participated in this survey (66%) can envisage handling simple
requests and exchanges with service providers or public
authorities through the Internet in future, e.g. in a web
conference with a consultant or customer service agent.
The greatest interest in virtual customer services is for
administrative formalities (62% agreement in the top 2
boxes), followed by banking and insurance advice (58%
each). 44 percent can even envisage discussing diagnoses with a doctor through a web link. Consumers in
Spain, the United Kingdom and United States are particularly open to this kind of virtual customer service;
in an international comparison, German consumers
tend to be a lot less open to the idea.
Usefulness of the applications With regard to
the usefulness of various tools for virtual collaborations
the study shows that IT users in enterprises consider
solutions for unified communications, presence infor-
FIGURE 5-3: COOPERATION – EVALUATION OF USEFULNESS
High business potential for almost all applications in the field
of “virtual collaboration” – particularly for web conferencing
and video conferencing.
“Which of the following virtual collaboration tools are
already used in your company today?”
“Without taking into consideration their present availability,
how would you rate the following tools?”
52.4
62.6
Unified communications
41.1
Presence information
SharePoint solutions, CMS
31.0
Instant messaging
30.1
Video Conferencing
28.8
Web Conferencing
Social Media
Use within the company
25.6
20.4
54.4
45.8
46.2
50.1
48.3
33.3
Usefulness
Survey of IT users, weighted n=1,009. Expressed as a percentage of the 2
top-rated boxes “very frequently” / “frequently” or “very useful” / “useful”.
32 life Collaboration
lies in the loss of personal contact with colleagues. Just
over half of the users (53%) and 43 percent of the ICT
executives believe that this is the biggest potential risk
presented by an increase in virtual collaboration. The
technical infrastructure required for virtual collaborations is not generally viewed as problematic. Only
23 percent of the ICT executives see a potential threat
in the technical complexity, and 26 percent mention
the cost of acquiring the necessary technology as a key
disadvantage of virtual collaboration.
The ICT executives do not see the
issue of security as a significant risk. Most of the ICT
executives who participated in the survey (72%) believe
that the virtual collaboration systems used by their
enterprise are adequately protected against the threat of
industrial espionage and the potential disclosure of confidential information. Executives in the United States
feel particularly well protected: 78 percent of those
surveyed state that they feel secure. A variety of security
tools are used to ensure complete security in virtual
collaborations. The most widely used are secure connections, e.g. through VPN tunnels; these are used by
70 percent of the enterprises. 56 percent restrict access
to business and company information according to roles
Securit y aspects
and authorizations, and slightly more than one third of
the ICT executives (36%) use trust center solutions. The
latter are particularly widespread in Germany and Spain
(43% and 44% respectively).
5.2 Innovation through collaboration
An enterprise’s ability to innovate has always been
considered a key success factor. Of the more than 9,300
managers surveyed in the Global Executive Survey by
McKinsey & Company, 43 percent specified innovation as the most important growth lever.16 Despite the
uncontested influence that innovation has on entrepreneurial success, many companies repeatedly find
it difficult to successfully develop new services and
products and launch them on the market. Across a wide
range of sectors, there are reports of dramatic flop rates
of up to 90 percent. Very often, the reason that a product
or a service fails is an information deficit at the “fuzzy
front end”, i.e. at a very early stage of the innovation
process.17
With the aid of virtual collaboration enterprises
can tap into new innovation potential by specifically
integrating third parties, for instance external experts,
suppliers or customers, in the innovation process. The
keywords “crowdsourcing”, “open innovation”, or “prosuming” describe exactly this process: Complementary
knowledge is made useable for the company, partners
and customers are participated in the innovation
process at an early point. Some of the greatest potential
of virtual collaboration lies in the field of innovation
development, a view supported by the members of the
think tank.
“Virtual collaboration presents great potential for creating value, potential that
would be impossible or very difficult to
exploit otherwise.”
Matthias Roggendorf, McKinsey
“Virtual collaboration already occupies an
important position in development and
innovation processes, and particularly in
the automotive industry.”
So how are virtual collaboration applications being
integrated in the innovation process within enterprises?
19 percent of the 1,559 ICT executives surveyed for this
FIGURE 5-4: INNOVATION THROUGH VIRTUAL COLLABORATION (DEVELOPMENT COSTS)
Six out of ten ICT executives are convinced that the use of
virtual collaboration could significantly reduce development costs in their company.
Agreement with the statement “The use of virtual cooperation tools can / could significantly reduce development
costs in our company.“
61.6%
58.5%
study state that solutions for integrating partners and
customers in product development are already implemented within their enterprises. In an international
comparison the United States and Germany emerge
as pioneers in crowdsourcing, open innovation and
prosuming. One in four (25%) and one in five (22%)
companies have already implemented the necessary
solutions. In total, 30 percent of the companies surveyed
are presently planning to implement and use these solutions and technologies.
In Germany alone, just under 700 enterprises with
more than 1,000 employees are currently looking at the
possibility of using crowdsourcing, open innovation and
prosuming. Overall, in Germany, France, the United
Kingdom, Spain and the United States, more than
4,500 companies with over 1,000 employees are in the
planning phase for these technologies.18
A look at the enterprise clusters shows that the
cluster of Pioneers very clearly occupies the top position when it comes to using virtual collaboration in
innovation processes. Of this cluster, 44 percent have
already implemented solutions to integrate partners and
customers in product development processes. A further
37 percent of the Pioneer cluster and 33 percent of the
Open-minded users are currently planning to implement this technology.
With regard to the advantages of virtual collaboration in innovation processes, 62 percent of the ICT
executives believe that the use of virtual collaboration
tools could significantly reduce or reduce development
costs within their company (see Figure 5-4). Almost as
many (60%) believe that virtual collaboration will significantly reduce or reduce the time-to-market for their
products (see Figure 5-5).
This shows that virtual collaboration in innovation
processes within companies is already clearly perceived
as being important. However, the results of the LIFE 2
Study make clear that virtual collaboration in innovation management is not universally utilized – and that
there is still further potential. For example, the study
reveals that in innovation processes (as in other business functions) it is predominantly the internal potential presented by virtual collaboration that is widely
exploited. Of the 676 ICT executives in whose companies virtual collaboration already plays a role in product
development and research, 57 percent stated that virtual
project meetings are used to bring teams together. Just
over half of these ICT executives (53%) state that virtual
project rooms are used for internal development teams
in their companies.
In contrast, external forms of virtual collaboration
(e.g. virtual project rooms or product development platforms used jointly with partners) are mentioned far less
frequently (37% and 38% respectively). The least used of
these options is the integration of customers in product
development through crowdsourcing (25%) or prosuming (20%), showing that many companies still have
enormous information deficits at the “fuzzy front end”
mentioned above. The results of the survey reinforce
the assumption voiced by Professor Arnold Picot from
Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich: “Virtual collaboration with customers is still not very widespread.
There is certainly still quite a bit of potential here.”
TOTAL VALUE
GREAT BRITAIN
59.5%
france
53.3%
GERMANY
70.1%
66.4%
usa
spain
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559. Total, Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Fully agree“ and “Agree“
FIGURE 5-5: INNOVATION THROUGH VIRTUAL COLLABO
RATION (TIME TO MARKET)
Six out of ten ICT executives are convinced that the use of
virtual collaboration tools would significantly reduce the
time to market in their company.
Agreement with the statement “The use of virtual
collaboration tools can / could significantly reduce the
period leading up to the market launch (time to market) of
our products.”
60.4%
59.6%
TOTAL VALUE
GREAT BRITAIN
53.7%
france
55.2%
GERMANY
72.8%
usa
60.9%
spain
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559. Total, Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Fully agree” and “Agree”
34 life
6.0 Mobility
“It would be verging on the negligent not to go mobile.” This statement by Professor
Arnold Picot succinctly sums up the debate in the think tank on the topic of mobil
ity. The experts all agreed that there is no way around mobile ICT solutions for any
company. While mobility is not a new topic for companies, it remains a very current
issue, and one that has many different facets. On the one hand, mobility has firmly
and broadly established itself in specific areas. Mobile communication solutions,
applications for unified communications or mobile order management systems for
sales staff are standard technologies in many companies. Despite this, many enter
prises are struggling with old, gridlocked structures, while at the same time the
boundaries between private life and work are increasingly blurring and large num
bers of employees would like to be able to work with more flexibility and mobility.
The think tank experts are unanimous that the mobile provision of business applica
tions is still in its infancy and that this field offers vast potential.
life Mobility 35
anytime
Role-based access
New business models
Device independent
RFID
Logistics
Business applications
everywhere
Security
Contact
Identification
36 life Mobility
FIGURE 6-1: IMPORTANCE OF mobile work
Mobility is vital: For more than half of users (54%), it
is important or very important to have the necessary
information and work programs available at all times and
in all places.
“How important is it for you in your business to have the
necessary information and work programs available at all
times and in all places?”
54.0%
52.7%
GREAT BRITAIN
TOTAL VALUE
50.5%
FRANCE
47.3%
GERMANY
49.0%
usa
70.4%
spain
Survey of IT users, n = 1.009. Expressed as a percentage of the 2 toprated boxes “Important,” “Very important”
FIGURE 6-2: FUTURE significance of decentralized
work
Work is becoming decentralized: Two-thirds of ICT decision
makers (67%) assume that the importance of work decen
tralization in their company will increase (strongly) over the
next five years. In the UK, as many as three-quarters of ICT
executives share this opinion (74%).
“Increased mobility enables work to be done anywhere –
even at home. How do you expect the importance of work
decentralization in your company to develop over the next
5 years?”
66.6%
74.2%
GREAT BRITAIN
53.9%
FRANCE
TOTAL VALUE
65.9%
GERMANY
71.6%
usa
67.7%
spain
of the 2 top-rated boxes “High increase,” “Increase”
Present and future significance Let’s start with
the facts: For IT executives, mobility remains one of the
three major IT topics. Three in ten of the ICT executives
surveyed (39%) state that enterprise mobility (along with
IT security and business intelligence) will be one of the
three most important IT trends in the next few years.
While mobility is a current topic that still has an
incredibly rich and promising future, it is by no means
a new one. The issue of mobility, i.e. the availability
of information and business programs regardless of
time, place and device, is already highly relevant to
enterprises. In total, 70 percent of the ICT executives
surveyed rate mobility as having a high or very high
significance for their enterprise today. Executives in the
United States rate it even higher, with 81 percent stating
that mobility has a high or very high significance for
their enterprise.
But mobility is not only very important for executives; it also plays a key role for users of these applications. More than half (54%) of the IT users surveyed
for the LIFE 2 Study state that it is decisive or very
important to be able to access all necessary business
applications and data from any location and at all times.
Mobile access is most important in Spain, where seven
in ten (70%) of those surveyed would not want to be
without permanent access to all necessary work documents. In contrast, only 47 percent of German employees put mobility in the top 2 boxes, showing that mobile
access is perceived as being less important here than in
the other countries (see Figure 6-1).
In total, around 21 percent of the IT users surveyed
state that they frequently work from home, which is one
in five employees. In the United Kingdom (29%) and in
the United States (25%), many employees make use of the
option of working from home. This option is far less fre-
quently used in Germany, where only 16 percent occasionally work from home. Working while outside the office,
e.g. at the airport, on the train or in a café, has become
increasingly widespread: Around 19 percent of the IT
users surveyed frequently work from outside the office.
Even more do so in Spain and the United Kingdom; in
both these countries nearly one-quarter of those surveyed
(24% each) state that they often work outside the office.
The option of mobile working is considered by 42
percent of the IT users surveyed as an advantage in their
job. In the United Kingdom, one in two survey participants (51%) sees mobile work as being an advantage for
their work, in Spain this opinion was shared by 47 percent and in the United States by 44 percent. In Germany
and France over one-third of those surveyed also saw
mobile work as an advantage for their job (37% and 33%
respectively).
Two-thirds of the ICT executives surveyed (67%)
believe that the significance of decentralized work will
increase strongly in their company in the next five
years. The biggest increase in significance is expected by
executives in the United Kingdom (74%) and the United
States (72%). In other words, we can expect to see the
significance of mobility for day-to-day work continue to
rise in the future, and with it the demand for the necessary ICT solutions (see Figure 6-2).
ICT solutions The importance of mobile solutions
varies from business area to business area. 41 percent of
ICT executives believe that sales is one of the divisions
where it is particularly important that employees are
able to access and process or edit company data when
out of the office. Mobile access is considered equally
important in customer services (41%). But mobile access
to company data is also considered comparatively
important in the areas of field staff (39%), research and
development (38%) and marketing (35%).
life Mobility 37
In terms of how the significance of individual applications is rated, the survey reveals that ICT executives
consider the mobile accessibility of email applications
very important (73%). Also important from the ICT
executives’ point of view: the accessibility of calendars
and contacts (58%) and office applications which, for
example, enable presentations to be processed outside
the office or from a customer’s office (52%). Four in ten
ICT executives (44%) consider it very important to have
mobile access to management information systems (e.g.
ERP/SAP applications). One-quarter of the executives
surveyed (26%) views mobile access to CRM applications
as an important option and one-quarter (24%) considers
it important to have mobile access to department-specific solutions, e.g. access to joint development platforms.
For the employees – the users of these IT applications – the priority is quite clearly on having mobile
access to email and office applications. Half of the IT
users surveyed already access their emails remotely
(50%) and a further 22 percent would like to be able to
do this. Information systems (e.g. calendars) are used
remotely by 36 percent of those surveyed, and a further
23 percent would like mobile access to this information.
One-quarter of those surveyed (25%) already has mobile
access to documents on company computers, and just as
many (23%) would like to be able to use these documents
remotely (see Figure 6-3).
In order to be able to
use mobile business applications, you not only need the
applications themselves to have mobile functionality,
you also need the appropriate mobile devices. Presently, around one-quarter of the employees surveyed
(27%) uses a web-capable cell phone or a smartphone
supplied by their employer. 38 percent has a company
laptop or netbook. In an international comparison,
employees in Spain are most generously equipped with
mobile devices by their employers: One in two uses a
Web-capable cell phone or smartphone provided by the
company, 45 percent have a company laptop or netbook.
Employers in the United States are the least generous:
Only 14 percent of employees have the use of a company
cell phone/smartphone and around 31 percent use a
company laptop/netbook.
Provision of mobile devices
Securit y consider ations Security should be a
major consideration when using mobile data transfer
and utilization in a corporate environment. This is
backed up by the survey: Eight in ten of the IT users
surveyed say that data protection and security is
FIGURE 6-3: USE OF INDIVIDUAL APPLICATIONS TODAY AND
IN THE FUTURE
An increased number of users would like mobile availability:
One in four IT users would also like to have mobile access to
internal company databases (26%) or be able to use Web 2.0
applications such as internal company Wikis, IM, presence
indication, etc. (24%).
“Which of the data/applications required for your work do
you use outside the office, or which of these would you like
to use outside the office?”
49.9
Emails
21.6
Office information systems 36.3
(e.g. calendar) 22.5
Documents on shared drives
24.8
22.5
Internal company databases 21.2
(e.g. customer data) 25.6
Web 2.0 applications
(Wikis, IM)
Management information sys
tems (financial accounting
systems, ordering systems, etc.)
17.0
23.5
15.5
20.3
I already have
mobile use of this
application
I would like to
have mobile use
of this application
Survey of IT users, n = 1.009. Expressed as a percentage.
Items partially abbreviated
38 life Mobility
FIGURE 6-4: SECURITY considerations
Gaps in security strategies: Not all companies have an endto-end security strategy.
“Does your company have an end-to-end security strategy
which also encompasses mobile terminal equipment and
transmission paths?”
18.9
53.4
27.7
Yes
No
Don’t know
66%
of ICT
decision makers find concepts
that support role-based access
very interesting or interesting.
decisive or very important in their work. Employees in
Germany are particularly sensitive to the issue of data
protection (89%). The French are the least sensitive
to this topic, with only 65 percent agreeing that they
attached “decisive” or “very important” significance to
data protection. In total, 84 percent of users protect the
data on their company laptop with encryption and/or
password protection. Just under three-quarters of the
users surveyed (73%) protect the data on their company
Web-capable cell phone or smartphone with a password
and/or encryption. Users in in the United Kingdom are
especially careful about data protection (95%), while
French users tend to be more lax about data protection,
with only four in ten of those surveyed (41%) protecting
their cell phone with a password and/or encryption.
It appears that ICT executives have some catching
up to do in terms of security: Only half of the executives surveyed (53%) state that their company has an
end-to-end security strategy which also includes mobile
devices and data transmission pathways. 19 percent do
not know whether their company has such a strategy,
and 28 percent are certain that there is no such strategy
in their enterprise (see Figure 6-4). One potential solution for more security, and particularly when accessing
data while traveling, is role-based access: Two-thirds of ICT executives (66%) are very interested or interested in
concepts that support role-based access (e.g. access to
customer information specifically for field sales staff).
6.2 New application fields for mobile
solutions
Internet of things In connection with the steady
progress in microelectronics, communication and information technology, the keywords “ubiquitous computing,” “ambient intelligence,” or the “Internet of things”
are often heard. The exact differentiation between these
concepts is largely academic, says Professor Friedemann
Mattern from the Institute of Pervasive Computing
at ETH Zurich. What they have in common, explains
Mattern, is that they aim to provide “unobtrusive and
yet sustainable support for everyday tasks and complete
automation and optimization of business processes.”19
This is achieved by integrating a multitude of miniaturized processors, sensors and wireless modules in rooms,
environments and everyday objects, plus supporting
infrastructure systems.
In essence, these concepts are all about integrating
everyday items in electronic networks. The idea is to be
able to uniquely identify these “smart objects” (e.g. by
fitting them with RFID tags) and let them communicate
with each other or with their users. This unique identification of objects combined with the option of also
making the information linked to the object accessible
from anywhere and at any time has already led to the
development of efficient processes, new products and
innovative services. If the objects are also fitted with
sensory capabilities and localization options – e.g. with
GPS – then autonomous, quasi-intelligent applications
become feasible; these could also include networked
object-to-object communication, thus going far beyond
the immediate, frequently cited examples of automated
stock-keeping, fridges that refill themselves and supermarkets without cash registers.20
At present, the Internet of things is on the cusp of
jumping from drawing board to reality. The success of
the Internet of things, i.e. the merger of the digital world
with physical objects, will depend to a decisive degree
on just how well new technologies are accepted in business and society.
Present and future significance The LIFE 2
Study shows that the Internet of things is already much
life Mobility 39
FIGURE 6-5: INTERNET OF THINGS – THE FUTURE
The Internet of things is on its way: Two-thirds of the ex
ecutives assume that the “Internet of things” will be (very)
important in the future. ICT executives in the UK (73%) and
the USA (72%) regard the Internet of things as being of the
greatest importance.
“How do you assess the general importance of the Internet
of things in the future?”
73.2%
GREAT BRITAIN
more than just another industry buzzword. In Germany, 59 percent of the ICT executives surveyed believe
that the Internet of things will in future – and this
means within the next five years – be very important
or important. In the United Kingdom, three-quarters
(73%) of ICT executives anticipate this happening. In
total, a good two-thirds (67%) of the ICT executives who
participated in this survey believe that the Internet of
things will play a (very) important role in future. Only
three percent of those surveyed believe that the Internet
of things will only have very little importance (bottom
box) in the future (see Figure 6-5).
The executives were not only asked to assess the general importance of this technology, but also to state how
important they thought the Internet of things would be
in future, and specifically for their own enterprise. The
results corroborated the results of the initial question:
More than half of all ICT executives (56%) believe that
the Internet of things will be very important or important for their enterprise in the next five years. Executives
in the United States headed the field here, with 62%
percent believing it will play a (very) important role,
followed by Spanish executives (61%). But in Germany,
half of the ICT executives expect the technology to
play a very important or important role in their own
enterprise.
In theory, there are a lot of expectations linked to the Internet
of things, for instance a general increase in the efficiency
of business processes and a reduction of costs in product
logistics and services (by automating and shifting them
to the customer). Other expectations include improved
customer relationships and new business models based
on smart objects and associated services.21
The ICT executives surveyed see one of the biggest
advantages of the Internet of things as being cost reducExpectations for the Internet of things
tion (44%). For 21 percent, the greatest advantage is
better transparency; one in five of the executives (20%)
surveyed believes that the standout advantage will be
the new business models that will result from the implementation of the Internet of things. 16 percent believe
that an increase in consumer protection will be the key
advantage of the new technology (see Figure 6-6).
As a rule, new technologies not only provide
benefits, they also bring new challenges that need to be
tackled. The biggest challenge of the Internet of things is
data protection, according to six in ten of the executives
surveyed (61%). The new technology means that the
wireless messages exchanged through the air interface
between the objects need to be protected against unauthorized interception, manipulation and falsification.
26 percent of the ICT executives believe that the main
challenge will lie in defining common standards. A further 14 percent see environmental aspects as being the
biggest challenge for the Internet of things, i.e. the question of how to deal with all the additional eWaste that is
generated when a large quantity of everyday objects has
been fitted with microchips and RFID tags.
67.1%
TOTAL VALUE
60.4%
france
58.9%
72.3%
usa
germany
70.9%
spain
of the 2 top-rated boxes “Important,” “Very important”
FIGURE 6-6: INTERNET OF THINGS – ADVANTAGES
The greatest advantage of the Internet of things in the
opinion of ICT executives: cost reduction (44% named this
as being the greatest advantage), followed by increased
transparency (21%) and the possibility of developing new
business models using machine-to-machine communication.
“Which do you consider to be the most important advan
tages of an Internet of things?”
COST REDUCTION
44.2
INCREASED TRANSPARENCY (e.g. stock-keeping)
20.6
NEW BUSINESS MODELS
19.6
INCREASED CONSUMER PROTECTION (e.g. expiry dates)
15.6
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559.
Expressed as a percentage, ranked 1
40 life
7.0 ICT
as a catalyst for future
developments
Intelligent ICT solutions not only help to make business processes more efficient,
competitive and innovative through flexibility, collaboration and mobility, many
new and innovative business models are only made possible because of ICT. ICT
influences entire industries and also the social impact of doing business, for instance through overarching trends such as Green IT. Important user industries for
these new ICT solutions include the health sector, the education sector, automotive and transport, and the entire public sector. The LIFE 2 Study takes a closer
look at these industries and sectors. We also examine specific aspects of Green IT
and energy: New technologies offer great potential to improve energy efficiency
and climate protection. LIFE 2 looks at what significance these topics presently
have for enterprises and how much the decision-makers know about these issues.
life ICT as a catalyst for future developments 41
Future
Green IT
Opportunities
Health
Efficiency
Education
Impulses
Smart grid
Public administration
Cost savings
ICT-based innovation
Transport
Security
42 life ICT as a catalyst for future developments
7.1 Business evolution
New ICT applications and ICT-based innovations can
influence the evolution of entire sectors and industries.
There is absolutely no doubt that ICT applications act as
engines, driving economic innovation, and as catalysts
for future developments. But which industries will experience the strongest, most dramatic changes in the next
few years due to the influence of ICT?
The experts at the think tank see great change
coming in particular for the health sector, where they
believe ICT is can make a decisive contribution to cutting costs and optimizing processes. While it will take
a “good ten to twenty years” before the entire population benefits from full coverage with telemedicine, says
Professor Arnold Picot, the demand for telemedicine is
increasing steadily due to demographic change. Professor Jonas Schreyögg shares this opinion: “Developments
like telemedicine or ICT-aided patient files will fundamentally change the health care system. I believe that
this is a vast growth area.”
Changes are also expected for the automotive
industry, manufacturing, the energy sector and in retail.
Matthias Roggendorf, Associate Partner at McKinsey
concretizes this: “Our research shows that industries
like automotive, high tech, i.e. technology industries,
from semiconductor manufacturer to aircraft construction, and retail will experience the greatest shifts in
priorities due to major technology trends.” In particular
the manufacturing segments, like the automotive industry, work in way that requires a lot of resources, which is
why the biggest saving potentials can be unlocked here
through the intelligent use of ICT, particularly in the
sectors research and production.
In the energy sector, digitization and increasing
administration through ICT systems will lead to massive changes. Christophe Châlons, Chief Analyst of the
PAC Group says: “In the energy sector ICT will be an
important topic, especially in the fields of new energy
sources and smart grids.” Professor Arnold Picot adds:
FIGURE 7-1: BUSINESS EVOLUTION – CHANGES IN ALL INDUSTRIES
ICT executives expect to see great changes in all sectors due to the use of new ICT solutions. Especially in the sectors
of public security (e.g. networking of authorities), education (eLearning), automobile, traffic and transport (e.g. traffic
guidance systems).
“How much change you expect to see in the various industries and sectors on account of the use of new ICT solutions?
Please base your assessments on a period of approximately 5 years.”
Public safety
54.6
Education
53.7
Automobile, traffic and transport
53.5
Banks & insurance
53.4
Health
52.6
Energy sector
51.3
Public administration
50.1
Manufacturing industry
49.4
Retail industry
45.3
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559. Total, Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Very great change/revolution”, “Great change”
“ICT can make such a vast contribution to resource
allocation, particularly with regard to energy through
the digitization of the energy sector and, on the other,
through energy-efficient ICT.”
The experts also expect significant changes to occur
in the education sector: ICT will dramatically change
processes and services in the education sector, if only
to keep costs down, and these changes will reshape
education “from kindergarten to school and university
through to life long learning throughout one’s career,”
believes Professor Claudia Loebbecke.
The ICT executives also expect noticeable changes
to take place. More than half of the ICT executives
surveyed anticipate great changes or even revolutions to
take place in many industries in the next five years –
across all the areas and sectors surveyed in the study.
The biggest changes will affect the public security sector (55%), the education sector (54%), the automotive
and transport industries (54%) and the financial sector
(53%). Half of all executives surveyed (50%) also expect
noticeable changes to occur on the public administration sector, e.g. through eGovernment or online elections (see Figure 7-1).
At first glance, it appears that all industries and
sectors will be equally affected by new ICT solutions.
However, a detailed comparison between the countries
surveyed reveals an interesting and very telling difference: German ICT executives expect the biggest changes
to take place in the automotive and transport sector
(55% in the top 2 boxes); French executives believe that
the greatest changes will occur in the finance sector
(60%); in the United Kingdom the biggest changes are
expected to affect public security (53%). Executives in
Spain expect the education sector to be most dramatically affected by new ICT technologies (64%). Executives
in the United States, on the other hand, believe that it is
the health care sector that will experience the greatest changes (57%). The results show that each country
expects the biggest changes to take place in the sector
of business or society that is currently in the focus of
public debate or which is seen as facing the greatest
challenges. It stands to reason that this can be read as
further proof of the great overall economic and social
significance of ICT.
7.2 Automotive and transport
Traditionally, the automotive and transport sector is one
of the industries that relies most heavily on ICT. Electronic braking assistants, stability programs, and cruise
control are standard features in newer vehicles. Many of
today’s cars also come with GPS navigator devices and
multimedia systems are becoming increasingly prevalent. ICT technologies are also widely used in product
development, production control and in customer
services. Transport planning is a further field where the
use of ICT technologies is becoming more and more
important. The experts at the think tank believe that the
automotive and transport sector will in future benefit
very strongly from the use of new ICT solutions.
“Our research shows that industries like
automotive, high tech and retail will experience the greatest shifts in priorities on
account of major technology trends.”
Matthias Roggendorf, Associate Partner, McKinsey
The automotive and transport industry occupies a
particularly important position in Germany: After
the United States, Germany is the country with the
second-highest density of cars. As at January 1, 2010,
there were 50.2 million cars registered in Germany 22,
half of which drove an average of 14,000 kilometers per
year, adding up to around 700 billion kilometers a year
in Germany alone. In addition to privately-owned cars,
the transport infrastructure is also heavily burdened
by commercial vehicles and European transit traffic.
A team of researchers from the University of Stuttgart
discovered that the congestion and gridlocks caused by
high traffic density in 2001 alone had led to unnecessary
fuel consumption of 14 billion liters.23 The European
Commission also believes that around 50 percent of fuel
consumption is directly caused by traffic disruptions
and unfavorable route planning.
What challenges does the industry see itself facing?
Nearly one third of ICT executives from the automotive
and transport industry (30%) mentions the environmental implications of traffic and transport as the key
challenge for the next few years, for example the development of environmentally friendly transport methods
or promoting a more economic style of driving. Equally
important are the safety aspects of driving. This area
covers developments to help avoid accidents or reduce
the damage caused by accidents. 19 percent of ICT
executives in the automotive and transport industry
mention safety issues as the most important challenge.
Another equally crucial issue is the avoidance of congestion (named by 19% as the most important challenge).
Infrastructure funding (17%) and the maintenance and
expansion of the existing infrastructure (15%) are also
crucial industry issues. The executives believe that ICT
can make a valuable contribution to all of these topics;
For instance, one in two ICT executives believes that ICT
will play a very important or important role in helping to
avoid congestion or identifying solutions for safety challenges (see Figure 7-2).
In detail, two-thirds of ICT executives expressed
interest in the idea of sensors that automatically trigger
an emergency call in the event of an accident. Consumer
interest in these sensors is even greater: 78 percent of the
consumers surveyed would like to see safety systems like
this installed in vehicles. There was also very great interest, from both consumers and ICT executives, in the idea
of intelligent navigation systems, which provide current
congestion warnings and provide data from surrounding
vehicles, or systems that automatically regulate the distance between vehicles. Equally popular with consumers
and ICT executives alike are in-vehicle communication
and entertainment solutions: 54 percent of ICT execu-
FIGURE 7-2: TRANSPORT – THE GREATEST CHALLENGEs
According to the ICT executives, ecological challenges,
security aspects and the prevention of traffic congestion
are some of the greatest challenges to be faced in the
field of “Automotive, traffic & transport” over the next
few years. ICT can play a major part in solving all of these
problems.
1) Outer circle: “Which do you consider to be the greatest
challenges to be faced in the next few years in the field of
automobile & transport?”
2) Inner circle: “How important is ICT in your opinion
with respect to the solution of the transport problems
mentioned above?”
15.2
29.5
47.1
44.7
17.1
45.4
50.5
51.1
18.7
19.4
1 2
Ecological challenges
Safety aspects
Avoiding traffic congestion
Financing infrastructure (e.g. toll systems)
Maintenance and expansion of the infrastructure
1) Survey of ICT executives, n = 136 persons questioned who work in
the field of “Automotive, traffic and transport”. Total, Expressed as a
percentage “ranking 1”.
2) Survey of ICT executives, n = 136 persons questioned who work in the
field of “Automotive, traffic and transport”. Expressed as a percentage of
the 2 top-rated boxes “Very important”, “Important”.
FIGURE 7-3: TRANSPORT – INTEREST IN NEW ICT SOLUTIONS
Both ICT executives and consumers are particularly interested in ICT-based safety solutions with respect to automobiles
in general. Over 50% of those who took part in the survey were also interested in entertainment services.
“How interesting do you consider the following possible applications of new information and telecommunication
technologies?”
Automatic emergency sensors
66.0
77.9
Intelligent navigation services
64.5
73.7
Distance control systems
59.6
68.6
Flexible insurance rates
56.2
64.4
Automatic notification of appointed repair shop
54.0
48.5
Email access in the car
53.6
41.4
Web-based entertainment services in the car
51.4
45.9
7.3 Health care
ICT executives
Consumers
Survey of ICT executives, n = 136 persons questioned who work in the field of “Automotive, traffic and transport”. Consumer survey: n = 1,336 people
asked. Total, Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Very interesting”, “Interesting”.
FIGURE 7-4: TRANSPORT – FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
According to German ICT executives (automotive sector), web-based entertainment options in the automotive field will
be part of standard services in the future, possibly within the next five years.
Left-hand diagram: “How do you expect the general acceptance of web-based entertainment services in the automotive
sector to develop in the future?”
Right-hand diagram: “When do you expect ICT-based information and entertainment services to become generally
accepted for use in the car?”
4.0
With around 4.4 million employees and annual revenues of €254 billion, the health sector is currently one
of the biggest business sectors in Germany.24 Health
care as a whole is under enormous pressure to increase
efficiency substantially in future: three in ten ICT executives in the health sector see health care funding as the
most outstanding and pressing challenge in the next few
years (top position with 29% selections), followed by the
far-reaching issue of prevention (19%) and the task of
achieving cost savings while maintaining present care
quality (18%). Around one in ten of the health sector
executives surveyed (11%) sees the main challenge in
the development of eMedicine, i.e. topics such as remote
consultations and remote diagnostics (see Figure 7-5).
This area of ICT-aided telemedicine is also identified
by the members of the think tank as a key future field.
Jonas Schreyögg, Professor of Health Services Management at the University of Munich, sees this as being a
12.0
20.0
tives and 41 percent of consumers are interested in in-car
email access, 51 and 46 percent respectively are interested in Internet-based entertainment services in cars,
e.g. passenger entertainment systems (see Figure 7-3).
According to the ICT executives from the automotive sector who participated in the telephone survey,
these Internet-based entertainment services will very
soon be standard features in vehicles: 64 percent of the
executives surveyed believe that these solutions will
become standard/mainstream features, possibly within
the next five years (see Figure 7-4).
large growth area: “Developments like telemedicine and
ICT-aided electronic health records will fundamentally
Christophe Châlons,
Chief Analyst of the PAC Group, is also certain that ICT
will make a substantial contribution to process optimization and cost reduction in the health care system.
change the health care system.”
16.0
60.0
36.0
48.0
4.0
Standard
Only for premium customers
In 1 to 2 years
In 5 to 10 years
Mainstream
Not at all
In 2 to 5 years
Not at all
CATI, n = 25 ICT executives in the automotive sector in Germany. Expressed as a percentage
“Developments like telemedicine and
ICT-aided electronic health records will
fundamentally change the health care
system. I see this as being a very large
growth area.“
Professor Jonas Schreyögg, Ludwig-Maximilian
University Munich
FIGURE 7-5: HEALTH CARE – MAJOR CHALLENGES
The greatest challenges in the health care sector over the
next few years: financing the health care system (29%),
prevention (19%) and reduction in costs while maintaining
consistent quality (18%).
“Which do you consider to be the greatest challenges to be
faced in the next few years in the field of health care / health
care management?”
Financing the health care system 28.8
Prevention 18.7
77%
of consumers are convinced that electronic health cards will
bring important benefits for patients.
Cost reduction 18.4
eMedicine 11.1
Nursing of elderly/handicapped persons 8.2
Emergency medicine 8.2
Hospital information systems 6.5
Survey of ICT executives, n = 141 persons questioned who work in the field
of “Health care”. Total, Expressed as a percentage, “ranking 1”
FIGURE 7-6: HEALTH CARE – ADVANTAGES OF INCREASED
USE OF ICT
Three out of ten ICT executives (31%) working in the
field of health care are of the opinion that the greatest
advantage of an increased use of ICT in the health care
system is the improved quality of treatment.
“What do you see as being the greatest potential advan
tages of an increased use of ICT in the health care system?”
Improved quality of treatment 30.9
Relief for health care
18.4
workers
Cost reductions for doctors
16.4
and patients
Higher quality of life
12.7
for the chronically ill
More rapid treatment
11.0
for the acutely ill
Time-saving for doctors and patients 10.7
of “Health care”. Total, Expressed as a percentage of “ranking 1”.
“ICT can make a substantial contribution
to process optimization and cost reduction in the health care system.”
The introduction of an electronic health card would
lead to cost savings, which according to conservative
estimates could be in the region of several billion euros
in Germany alone. The new chip card could be used
to network doctors, pharmacists, hospitals and health
insurance providers, thus helping to reduce paperwork
and benefiting the entire health care system.
Not only the health care system would benefit from
the introduction of electronic health cards: There would
also be tangible benefits for patients, say both the ICT
executives and the consumers. 77 percent of both of
these groups are convinced that electronic health cards
will bring important advantages for patients. In Spain
91 percent of consumers believe in the advantages of the
electronic health card, 79 percent each in France and
the United States, and 75 percent in the United Kingdom. The ICT executives and consumers surveyed in
Germany were a little less enthusiastic, with 61 percent
agreement in the top 2 boxes.
One of the most interesting aspects of the electronic
health card in the opinion of the consumers is that it
would allow emergency services and paramedics to
access relevant medical data (e.g. previous illnesses and
conditions) or help to avoid being prescribed the wrong
drugs by storing information about allergies or intolerances on the card (chosen by 85% and 83% in the top 2
boxes). For 80 percent of consumers avoiding multiple
repeat examinations is another interesting benefit of
the electronic health card. However, consumers are
skeptical about the security aspects of these cards: Only
46 percent believe that electronic health cards are secure.
According to the ICT executives, the advantages
of the increasing use of ICT in the health care sector
lie in a better quality of treatment (selected by 31%),
lower workloads for health care professionals (18%) and
general cost savings for doctors and patients (16%) (see
Figure 7-6).
7.4 Education
One in two ICT executives (54%) states that the education sector will be dramatically or greatly transformed
by the use of new information and communication
technologies in the next few years.
FIGURE 7-7: EDUCATION – IMPORTANCE OF ICT IN THE FIELD
OF EDUCATION
Experts in all sectors of the education system consider ICT to
be important or very important.
“How do you assess the importance of the opportunities
and advantages of new information and communication
technologies in the following sectors of the education
system?”
51.9
Pre-school sector
48.4
School
75.8
68.8
Higher education 83.5
/ universities 84.9
Vocational 80.9
training 78.5
FIGURE 7-8: EDUCATION – FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
The use of ICT in the field of education ensures the
comparability of examinations and guarantees access to
education. In the opinion of the ICT executives, the quality
of education would also increase.
“What is the importance of the role of ICT in …”
... comparability of examinations? 69.2
... access to education in general? 65.4
... increasing the quality of
61.5
the education system?
... increasing equal opportunities
46.2
in the education system?
Continuing pro 78.0
fessional training 71.0
ICT executives
FIGURE 7-9: EDUCATION – FUTURE IMPORTANCE OF ICTSUPPORTED LEARNING
Practically every second person employed in the field of
education is of the opinion that traditional learning and
ICT-supported learning will be of equal importance in the
future. About a quarter of the ICT executives and one fifth
of the IT users are of the opinion that ICT-supported learning will replace many traditional learning methods.
“How do you evaluate the importance of ICT-supported
learning in the future?”
Traditional learning methods 25.9
will predominate 28.0
... will be of equal impor- 49.2
tance 52.7
ICT-supported learning will rep lace 24.9
traditional learning methods 19.4
ICT executives
IT users
IT users
Survey of ICT executives, n = 152 persons questioned who work in the
field of “Education”. IT users, n = 93 persons questioned who work in the
field of “Education”. Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes
“Very important”, “Important”.
“For cost reasons alone, processes and
services in the education sector will be
dramatically changed by ICT, from kindergarten to school and university through to
life long learning throughout one’s career.“
Professor Claudia Loebbecke, University of Cologne
From the point of view of people working in the sector,
the biggest challenge lies in securing high teaching
standards and quality in schools and universities, an
opinion shared by consumers (selected by 30% as the
key challenge) and executives (28%). The issue of funding the education system is seen by 26 percent of users
and 17 percent of executives as an important topic.
Other important challenges which need to be tackled in the future include further education / life long
learning (14% of users, 19% of executives) and the issue
of “safety in schools” (9% and 13% respectively).
The greatest potential and advantages presented by
the use of new information and communication technologies will be, say the survey participants, felt in the
area higher education / universities; 84 percent of the
executives and 85 percent of IT users who work in this
CATI, n = 26 ICT executives in the field of education in Germany.
Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Very important”,
“Important”. Items partially abbreviated
Survey of ICT executives, n = 152 persons questioned who work in the
field of “Education”. It users, n = 93 persons questioned who work in the
field of “Education”. Expressed as a percentage. Items abbreviated
sector expect ICT to have a very great or great influence
here. But two-thirds of those surveyed also believe that
ICT will play an important role in other areas of the
education system, from schools to corporate training
(see Figure 7-7).
The telephone interviews conducted for the study
with ICT executives in education institutions show quite
clearly that a key contribution of ICT in the education
sector is seen as being the technology’s ability to open
up education for all levels of society, and improving
equality, opportunities and transparency in the education system, (see Figure 7-8).
Professor Andreas Breiter25, Professor of Information and Knowledge Management at the University
of Bremen, mentions in this connection the trend for
combining different forms of education (dual study
courses, dual universities, vocational academies etc.)
where students learn in several places, e.g. at home, in a
business and at school. He believes that ICT can make
an enormous contribution here: The use of eLearning,
distance learning and blended learning will become
far more widespread, says Breiter, and will in future be
used to offer masters or PhD degree courses with a great
practical focus for higher management.
All of these developments are still very much in
their infancy, with the majority of the consumers
surveyed in the LIFE 2 Study stating that they have
not yet had any experience of eLearning (61% in total).
Nevertheless, there is a very good chance that traditional learning and ICT-aided learning will in future be
both perceived as full equals – nearly half of the people
who work in the education sector who were surveyed for
the study (49% executives and 53% users) firmly believe
that this will happen. Roughly a quarter of the ICT
executives and a fifth of the IT users go even further and
believe that ICT-aided learning will replace traditional
forms of learning in many areas (see Figure 7-9).
ICT stands not only to make an important contribution to the actual teaching side of things; it will also help
with the organizational tasks in the education sector.
School administration in Germany, for instance, is still
largely paper-based. Professor Andreas Breiter believes
that a highly attractive market will develop over the
next five to ten years for applications such as timetable
planning software, student and teacher administration, budget and resource planning, a market which is
FIGURE 7-10: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – CONSUMER
INTEREST IN ICT SOLUTIONS
There is a very high level of general interest in ICT
solutions in the public administration sector: first
and foremost, there is very high consumer interest in
electronic appointment reservations (76%) and the use of
electronic applications for documents (78%). Two-thirds
of all consumers (67%) would also be (very) interested in
having a single phone number for public authorities.
“How interesting do you consider the following possible
uses of new information and communications technologies
for the ‘authorities and administration’ sector?”
already flourishing in other countries. Cloud computing also has a vast potential: “The school authorities in
Germany will be able to reduce their maintenance time
and expenditure enormously,” says Breiter.
7.5 Public sector
For the public sector the key challenges in the next few
years will be coping with the financial pressure resulting from high national debts. Reforms must deliver
efficiency increases and cost reductions, says Isabella
Proeller25, Professor of Public und Nonprofit Management at the University of Potsdam. But alongside
these objectives, it is also important not to forget about
providing better services for customers.
The LIFE 2 Study shows that these two key requirements – efficiency and customer focus – can be
combined. For 36 percent of the ICT executives and
37 percent of the consumers surveyed for this study efficiency is the most important characteristic of customerfriendly administration. In second place is accessibility:
32 percent of the consumers and 26 percent of the ICT
executives say that a high degree of accessibility is the
most important characteristic of customer-friendly
administration. In comparison: Only 17 percent of consumers and 19 percent mention friendliness as a decisive
characteristic.
These two key areas, efficiency and accessibility, are
also the ones where both consumers and ICT executives
see ICT having the greatest influence. Three-quarters of
the ICT executives (75%) believe that information and
communication technology has a (very) high significance for the efficiency of public administration. 71 percent of executives believe that ICT has a high or very
high influence on accessibility in public administration.
And what about consumers? Are they ready for more
ICT in administration? The LIFE 2 Study shows
that electronic appointment reservations (76%) and
electronic document application (78%) are both very
interesting aspects for consumers. Two-thirds of consumers (67%) find the idea of a single, standard public
administration telephone number (very) interesting.
Secure transmission of legally valid documents over
the Internet is an option that 61 percent of consumers
would welcome. More than half of consumers could
envisage virtual consultation meetings with public
authorities (56%). Consumers are open to a “virtualization” of public services (see Figure 7-10).
In Germany, the United Kingdom and the United
States, half of the consumers surveyed have already
used an eGovernment application, e.g. downloaded an
application form from a website, filled in an electronic
tax return form etc. In France and Spain eGovernment
is more widely used: More than three-quarters of those
surveyed for the study have used eGovernment applications (75% in Spain and 77% in France).
“IT’s role as an enabler of innovations in public
administration is truly vast. Most of the developments
of the past ten to 15 years were only possible because
of IT.” (Professor Isabella Proeller, Chair of Public and
Nonprofit Management, University of Potsdam)
Increasing efficiency in customer services is not the
only potential that ICT offers for public administration;
greater use of ICT applications within administration
processes is another highly promising field. ICT executives in this sector see plenty of scope for optimization
in electronic document management and resource
planning: 69 percent and 63 percent respectively of ICT
executives in public administration believe that the
potential for the use of ICT in these fields is very great
or great (see Figure 7-11).
Electronic applications for documents 78.1
Electronic appointment reservations 76.3
Single phone number for public authorities 67.2
Electronic passport 65.8
Online voting 62.6
Exchange of legal documents per email 60.5
Virtual counselling/support 55.9
Consumer survey, weighted n = 1,336. Expressed as a percentage of the
2 top-rated boxes “Very interesting”, “Interesting”.
Figure 7-11: Potential use of ICT
The use of ICT is seen as having particularly high potential,
especially with respect to electronic document management (68%) and in resource planning (63%).
“How high do you rate the potential of the use of ICT in the
following sectors?”
Electronic document management 68.4
Resource planning (ERP systems) 62.9
E-participation 56.9
Logistics (e.g. fleet management) 55.8
of “Public Administration”. Total, Expressed as a percentage of the 2 toprated boxes “Very important”, “Important”
48 life Vernetztes Arbeiten in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft
FIGURE 7-12: GREEN IT – CONTRIBUTION OF ICT
TO RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
Six out of ten ICT executives (62%) are of the opinion that
ICT can play an important or a very important part in
resource efficiency and climate protection.
In Germany, 52% believe this, in Spain, Great Britain and
the USA almost 70% share this opinion.
“What general role do you think ICT can play in resource
efficiency and climate protection?”
61.5%
68.5%
Total Value
Great Britain
48.3%
france
69.5%
usa
51.6%
Germany
69.4%
spain
of the 2 top-rated boxes “Very important role”, “Important role”
7.6 Green IT
Green IT allows resources to be used in a sustainable
manner, both within the sector and in other branches
of the economy. ICT solutions offer important opportunities and potential in the areas of climate protection
and resource efficiency. The buzzword Green IT has
been doing the rounds for a few years now. The current
SMART 2020 Addendum Deutschland Study documents just how important ICT is for climate protection
and resource efficiency: According to the study, by 2020
ICT in Germany alone could help to save 207 megatons
(Mt) of CO2 equivalents. This could be achieved directly,
i.e. by using hardware and computing centers with
greater energy efficiency, and indirectly through the
influence of associated industrial sectors, e.g. through
intelligent power networks in the energy industry,
optimized transport and logistics processes or through
“smart buildings” with ICT-controlled climate management systems.26
FIGURE 7-13: GREEN IT – IMPORTANCE IN THE COMPANY
Increasing importance of green IT: on an international scale, 50% of ICT executives say that green
IT plays a (very) important role in their company today. 70% expect that green IT will play a (very)
important role in the future. Greatest increase in importance: Germany (from 42% to 70%).
“How important is the role of green IT in your company today?”
“And what do you expect will be the importance of green IT in your company in 5 years time?”
Total 53.8
69.8
ES
50.6
66.4
US
70.8
83.6
UK
71.3
76.3
FR
30.1
53.0
DE
46.6
69.8
Importance of green IT today
Importance of green IT in 5 years time
Survey of ICT executives, weighted n = 1,559. Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Very important role”, “Important role”
“[ICT systems] develop an astounding
leverage for the energy efficiency of the
entire economy.“
BITKOM President August-Wilhelm Scheer
Enterprises are also aware of the great significance that
ICT has for climate protection. The LIFE 2 Study shows
that six in ten ICT executives (62%) believe that ICT can
make a great or very great contribution to better resource
efficiency and climate protection. In the United States 70
percent of the executives surveyed hold this opinion, in
Spain and the United Kingdom it was 69 percent respectively (see Figure 7-12). From the point of view of ICT
executives, the most important role of ICT technologies
is virtualization (selected by 66% in the top 2 boxes).
Internationally, more than half of the executives (54%)
state that green IT already has a great or very great
importance in their enterprise. The “greenest” executives are those in the United Kingdom and the United
States (both 71%); the issue has the least importance in
France where only just under a third of the executives
(30%) state that green IT is important. However, 70 percent of executives expect green IT to play an important
or very important role in their company in the future.
The biggest increase in the significance in green IT
is expected in Germany: Green IT currently only has
(very) great importance for 47 percent of the German
ICT executives surveyed, but 70 percent expect it to play
a (very) important role in the future (see Figure 7-13).
If one asks why green IT is interesting for enterprises, or could be interesting in future, the following picture emerges: The most frequently mentioned
reason, given by 57 percent, are the cost savings that
can be achieved by green IT. 43 percent give the positive
influence of green IT on the enterprise’s public image
as an important reason. A further 42 percent state that
a sense of social responsibility is why their enterprise is
interested in green IT. 24 percent of ICT executives state
that green IT is important for their enterprise because
it is something their customers demand. The aspect of
securing a competitive advantage through the use of
green IT was comparatively unimportant, with only
17 percent of the executives selecting it as a reason.
It seems clear that by and large the central aspect
in the issue of green IT for most companies is the cost
aspect. The think tank experts also share this opinion,
FIGURE 7-14: GREEN IT – KNOWLEDGE IN THE COMPANY
Specific knowledge is limited: Very few ICT executives are
aware of the power costs incurred by their company for IT applications (22%). Only 24% of the companies have compiled a
business case study concerning the possibilities of cost reduction through IT. Leading the way: The United Kingdom (31%).
Left-hand diagram: “Are you aware of the (approximate)
power costs incurred by your company for IT applications?”
Right-hand diagram: “Has your company ever compiled a
business case concerning the possibilities of cost reduction
by Green IT?”
and came to the conclusion in their debate that green
IT is primarily an important future topic because it not
only contributes to environmental protection, but also
offers cost reduction and performance increases. The
experts say that it is this dual advantage that makes
green IT so attractive for enterprises.
However, the LIFE 2 Study also shows that the
awareness of the savings potential that can be unlocked
through green IT is still patchy: Only one in five of the
ICT executives (22%) knows approximately how high
electricity consumption for IT is in his or her enterprise.
Although 25 percent of the executives in Germany know
how much electricity their enterprise uses annually for
IT, and 28 percent in the United States, in France only
11 percent of ICT executives knows how much electricity their IT consumes. Only one in four (24%) of all the
companies with more than 1000 employees surveyed
for this study has ever prepared a business case study
on their enterprise’s potential cost savings through the
use of green IT, indicating a certain lack of information
with regard to the issue of green IT (see Figure 7-14).
The ICT executives surveyed see the greatest energy
saving potential in workplace systems, e.g. desktops
and laptops. 58 percent of the ICT executives believe
that this area offers great or very great savings potential.
Other high potential is seen in IT networks (56%) and
computing centers (54%). There is slightly less focus on
the savings potential that could be unlocked by green
IC through processes such as supply chains, production
control etc., with 53 percent of the ICT executives naming this aspect in the top 2 boxes.
However, it is precisely here, in the use of ICT solutions to indirectly avoid or decrease emissions in other
industries and sectors, that the greatest reduction potential lies. The current Smart 2020 Study, for instance,
identifies a direct savings potential for Germany of
around 13 Mt CO2; in contrast, the indirect savings are
potentially around 194 Mt CO2 . The indirect savings
are not only significantly higher than the direct savings,
they are also eight times the total emission volume of
the entire ICT industry in 2007, the reference year.27
The introduction of comprehensive measurements is
essential, particularly if the enterprises wish to fully
exploit the cost savings potential they are targeting by
using green IT. In order to make the success of a green
IT strategy visible, it is important that the relevant operating figures (e.g. the energy consumption of individual
departments or the power consumption of the computing center) are clearly detailed.
7.7 Energy
The use of smart meters plays an important role in
indirect CO2-savings through ICT. In future, electronic
smart meters will replace the conventional mechanical meters in private households and businesses,
thus bringing fresh impetus into the energy sector.
Compared with their predecessors, smart meters are
equipped with a range of additional functions, including remote readings of current consumption, a (graphic)
display of current and historic power consumption,
charts displaying electricity costs in relation to current
prices and the option of remotely switching external
devices.
More than two-thirds of the ICT executives surveyed for the study (68%) state that saving energy or
electricity has great or very great importance for their
company (see Figure 7-15) and more than half of the
executives surveyed say that transparency in the power
consumption of individual production areas plays an
important or very important role for the company.
Accordingly, 56 percent of the ICT executives say that
smart metering is important or very important for their
22.3
29.4
46.7
23.8
77.7
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Survey of ICT executive, weighted n = 1,559. Expressed as a percentage
FIGURE 7-15: ENERGY – FOCUS ON RESOURCES
When it comes to saving resources, energy (68%) and
paper (67%) are the focus of attention. However, it is also
important to save in terms of kilometres traveled (62%).
“Which potential savings of resources does your company
focus on? Please indicate for each resource the importance
your company places on careful use of this resource.”
Energy/electricity 67.9
Paper 66.9
Kilometres TRAVELED 62.0
CO 2 51.0
Water 48.1
“Important”
FIGURE 7-16: ENERGY – IMPORTANCE OF SMART METERING
IN BUSINESS
FIGURE 7-17: ENERGY – THE CONSUMER VIEWPOINT
The executives expect a further increase in importance in
future. In the UK, three quarters of those questioned (74%)
expect this to be (very) important in future.
Three in four consumers consider it important or very
important that individuals and companies use energy
sparingly. Sparing use of energy is least important to
consumers in Great Britain and the USA (66% respectively).
“How high do you rate the importance of smart metering
for your company today?”
“How important is it to you that individuals and companies
use energy sparingly?”
“And how high do you rate the importance of smart
metering for your company in the future?”
Total
ES
US
UK
FR
DE
55.8
62.7
53.1
59.6
62.3
69.3
63.2
73.8
45.8
50.9
54.6
59.9
Importance of smart metering today
Importance of smart metering in 5 years time
65.7%
Great Britain
74.9%
france
usa
Consumers expect an increase in importance in future.
68% assume that smart metering will play an important
role in their household within the next five years.
“And how important do you expect smart metering to be
in your private household in future, i.e. in about five years
time?”
73.8%
Total Value
70.9%
Great Britain
67.8%
Total Value
65.8%
france
77.7%
Germany
65.5%
FIGURE 7-18: ENERGY – IMPORTANCE OF SMART METERING
IN PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS
84.7%
spain
“Important”
Consumer survey, weighted n = 1,336.
Expressed as a percentage of the 2 top-rated boxes “Important”,
“Very important”
company. Smart metering is considered most important
in the United Kingdom (63%) and the United States
(62%). In future, 63 percent of the executives surveyed
expect smart metering to play an important or very
important role (see Figure 7-16).
This standpoint is also shared by consumers: Just
under three-quarters of the consumers surveyed state
that they consider it decisive or very important that
both individuals and enterprises take a conscious
approach to energy consumption. (see Figure 7-17).
For the future, around 68 percent of consumers
expect Smart Metering to play an important or very
important role in their household (see Figure 7-18).
Nearly half of the consumers (46%) believe that the
biggest advantage of smart metering is that it raises
awareness of resource consumption and encourages
people to use energy more economically. Nearly one
quarter of the consumers (24%) believe that greater cost
transparency is the biggest advantage, 22 percent mention financial advantages, e.g. provided by using cheaper
off-peak power, as the most important reason to use
smart metering.
When asked about concrete applications, three
quarters of the 1,336 consumers surveyed for the LIFE
2 Study (74%) say that it is very important for them to
know how much electricity the electronic appliances in
their household consume. 70 percent would, in principle, welcome a function which automatically switches
on household applicances when power is cheapest.
Nearly as many, 69 percent, would like to be able to
control their household appliances remotely, e.g. switch
the heating on or off with a remote control.
By controlling electricity and power networks,
ICT can also make a vast contribution to tackling the
challenges that will emerge in the next few years. The
Smart 2020 Addendum Deutschland study lists a few
examples, including the integration of fluctuating power
sources (e.g. offshore wind energy parks) and the rapid
growth of decentralized power generation capacities
(e.g. through micro power plants, solar panels and wind
turbines). The use of information technology and bidirectional data communication could be used to create a
smart grid which would offer considerable advantages
compared with conventional power networks in terms
of energy efficiency, transparency, operation costs and
system stability.
66.7%
usa
68.0%
Germany
67.7%
spain
Consumer survey, weighted n = 1,336.
“Important”
Conclusion
The LIFE 2 Study focuses on the question of whether
and to what extent information and communication
technologies (ICT) shape and change the world of work.
The status quo was just as important in this context as
the position and significance of ICT in five years. To
sketch a broad picture of the role of ICT in the world of
work, the study combines qualitative and quantitative
elements. One of the main emphases was on illuminating the topic from different angles: Academics were
interviewed, as were industry experts and executives
representing the enterprises.
Listening to the standpoint of the users was equally
important. One of the key findings of the study is that
ICT plays an incredibly diverse role in how we work,
influencing countless parameters in the business world.
ICT is particularly interesting from an economic point
of view due to its contribution to growth. The ICT sector
itself has grown faster than average in the past years and
its contribution to value creation and employment is
steadily increasing. But ICT also acts as a growth driver
in other industries and sectors by creating the basis for
innovation and new business models. The results of this
study show that the macroeconomic influence of ICT
will continue to increase substantially.
From the point of view of the enterprises, the two
main aspects in using and assessing the significance
of ICT are growth and cost reduction. ICT can, for
example through virtual collaboration solutions in
research and development, considerably strengthen an
enterprise’s innovative capacity. ICT-based solutions
and technologies, such as connecting everyday objects
in electronic networks by using RFID tags, also enable
new business models. But alongside its role in enabling
innovation, ICT is also seen as a crucial cost lever. A
cost-effective approach to designing a company’s ICT
infrastructure, e.g. by using flexibly sourcing or cloud
computing, is only one of many aspects. Equally important from the corporate point of view are savings that
can be unlocked through the intelligent use of ICT, for
instance by using ICT-supported process design within
the company, or saving travel time and expenses by
using virtual collaboration technologies, or cutting back
energy costs by embracing green IT.
At individual job level ICT primarily has an influence on the perceived quality of work: Mobile working,
decentral work, virtual collaboration and shorter project times are the main keywords here. The many different priorities and standpoints of the groups that were
interviewed sketch a picture of ICT as a key technology
and enabler for a wide range of industries and sectors
at many different levels. Academics, business representatives, professional IT users and consumers are all
unanimous that it is in this role that ICT will continue
to have a decisive and ever-increasing influence on the
way the business world develops in future.
52 Life
Glossary
The rental of infrastructure,
software and bandwidth usage with predefined service
terms that can be flexibly changed to meet the customer’s needs.
Cloud computing
The act of outsourcing corporate
tasks and functions to an undefined, usually very large
group or community of users outside the company.
Activities that are suitable for crowdsourcing include
innovation (the creation of new knowledge), but also
operative tasks (e.g. marketing collaboration or help
with configuring a product). What makes crowdsourcing new is that it alters the production process by giving
customers and users an active role in co-creating the
resulting product.
Crowdsourcing
CSR (Corpor ate Social Responsibilit y) A voluntary, self-regulating and committed approach to corporate activities which takes the social, environmental and
economic impact of the company’s actions into account.
Microprocessors and other computer elements which are integrated in machines and
devices to perform specific tasks.
Embedded systems
All IT solutions that generate energy savings
within a company. The term comprises hardware, software and services.
Green IT
A link between two or more clouds
using suitable security systems. Hybrid clouds enable
several enterprises to work together securely.
buildings – need to be fitted with processors or RFID
tags which can communicate with other objects.
tag; responses (e.g. a unique identification number) are
transmitted as a wireless signal.
IT outsourcing Full transferral of IT functions or
business processes requiring a lot of IT to legally independent, i.e. external, service providers for a predefined
period of time.
Smart grid
Opening up the enterprise’s innovation potential with the aim of actively using communities outside the enterprise to increase one’s own
innovation potential.
Open innovation
Shared use of IT resources within
an enterprise by using virtualization technologies in
a shared service. The exchange usually takes place
through the company’s intranet, with only limited
exchange occurring on the Internet.
Private cloud
Prosuming A neologism combining the words production and consume which describes the inclusion of
consumers in the production process.
Standardized IT services (service, software or infrastructure) are rented on-demand through
the Internet and are billed according to usage. There is
no limit to the potential number of cloud users; theoretically all private and business customers can buy and
use the services of the public cloud.
Public cloud
Hybrid cloud
Internet of Things A name used to describe an electronic network of everyday objects. In order to create an
Internet of things, as many objects as possible – from
retail goods to items of furniture through to actual
This term is used to describe an information and communication network which links and
controls power generators, electricity consumers and
network operation points in electricity transmission and
distribution networks.
A technology which allows objects to be remotely identified. The
most commonly used RFIDs are the electronic labels
which operate without their own batteries. These tags
contain a transponder which picks up a high-frequency
signal that is decoded and also acts as a source of power
(based on the principle of magnetic induction) for the
RFID (R adio Frequency Identification)
A technology based on
the concept of the integration of communication media
in business processes. UC systems are a new class of
systems which emerged from the convergence of information and communication technology and business
software. UC systems integrate (traditional and new)
communication media (telephone, fax, email, instant
messaging, VoIP, video) and devices with new presence
information and a range of other cooperation functions
(e.g. conferences, group work)
Unified communications
Shared use of IT resources by
a preselected community of users.
Virtual private cloud
VPN (virtual private network) A computer
network which transmits private data through a public
network, e.g. the Internet. Encryption is generally used
when sending data through the public network.
life 53
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Research (Fraunhofer ISI). Berlin, Karlsruhe 2009.
Honsel, Gregor: Dramatische Flopraten. In: Technology Review, Issue 11/07, 66-71.
Kretschmer, Tobias / Hecker, Achim: Outsourcing decisions: The effect of scale economies and market
structure. In: Strategic Organization 8(2), 155-175.
Holger:
Marwaha, Sam / Seth, Parul / Tanner, David W.:
What global executives think about technology and
innovation. In: McKinsey on IT, Number 5, Fall 2005,
18-21.
Mat tern, Friedemann: Die technische Basis für das
Internet der Dinge. In: Das Internet der Dinge – Ubiquitous Computing und RFID in der Praxis, edited by Elgar
Fleisch and Friedemann Mattern, Berlin 2005, 39-66.
Mattern, Friedemann / Floerkemeier, Christian:
Vom Internet der Computer zum Internet der Dinge.
In: Informatik-Spektrum, Vol. 33, No. 2, April 2010,
107-121.
Picot, Arnold / Riemer, K ai / Taing, Stefan:
Unified Communications. In: Enzyklopädie der
Wirtschaftsinformatik – Online Lexikon, edited by Karl
Kurbel, Jörg Becker, Norbert Gronau, Elmar J. Sinz and
Leena Suhl. München-Oldenbourg, 11.12.2008.
Reichwald, R alf / Möslein, K athrin: Auf dem
Weg zur virtuellen Organisation. Wie Telekooperation
Unternehmen verändert. In: Zukunftsperspektiven der
digitalen Vernetzung, edited by G. Müller et al. Heidelberg 1996, 209-233.
Roehrig, Paul: Market Overview Of Cloud IT Services From Major Telcos. Forrester 2009. Smart Studie 2020: SMART 2020 Addendum
Deutschland. Die IKT-Industrie als treibende Kraft
auf dem Weg zu nachhaltigem Klimaschutz. Study
published by the Boston Consulting Group for Deutsche
Telekom, Huawei, SAP and Siemens. Supported by the
Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).
54 Life
Index
1 To
ensure that the results from each country could
be compared internationally, all the executives in this
category were representatives of enterprises with more
than 1000 employees.
2 The
consumer survey was structured to ensure that the
results are representative of the Internet population of
each country. All figures provided in connection with the
consumer survey are based on the Internet population
of the country in question and the following age groups:
Germany 18 to 64 years, France 15+ years, Spain 16 to
64 years, United Kingdom and USA both 18+ years.
3 BITKOM
(2009)
4 Fraunhofer
(ISI) (2010)
5 Fraunhofer
(ISI) (2010)
6 Czernich,
Nina / Falck, Oliver / Kretschmer, Tobias /
Woessmann, Ludger (2009)
7 Kretschmer,
8 Own
Tobias / Hecker, Achim (2010)
projection on the basis of the study results.
9 Craig-Wood,
10 Roehrig,
Kate (2009
Paul (2009)
11 BITKOM
12 Own
(2010)
13 Eriksdotter,
Holger (2008)
14 In
the following the terms virtual cooperation and virtual collaboration are used as synonyms.
15 cf.
Picot, Arnold / Riemer, Kai / Taing, Stefan (2008)
16 cf.
Marwaha, Sam / Seth, Parul / Tanner, David W.
(2005)
17 Nikolaus
Franke, Professor of Entrepreneurship at
Wirtschaftuniversität Wien, quoted in Honsel, Gregor
(2007)
18 Own
19 Mattern,
20 Federal
21 Mattern,
22 Data
Friedemann / Floerkemeier, Christian (2010)
from the German Federal Office for Motor Vehicles
23 Berner,
24 Data
Friedemann (2005)
Ministry of Economics and Technology (2009)
Fritz / Benz, Thomas (2001)
from the German Federal Ministry of Health
25 In
addition to the think tank, in-depth interviews were
also conducted with selected experts.
26 Smart
27 The
Studie 2020 (2009).
emissions of the ICT sector are exclusively the
result of the power consumed by ICT hardware and the
necessary infrastructure. Emissions from computing
centres are generated by the operation of servers and
the necessary infrastructure (cooling units, storage and
networks). On average they contribute 23% of the total
CO2 emissions of around 23 Mt in ICT. Emissions at the
workplace are caused by the use of desktop and laptop
computers, monitors, and other hardware devices. In
total, these emissions account for around 49% of CO2
emissions caused by ICT. Telecommunications devices,
such as cell phones, landline phones and routers cause
emissions due to the power they use when switched on
or in stand-by mode. The CO2 emissions are on average
10%. Emissions from telecommunications networks
are caused by the operation of landline and cell phone
systems, which together account for around 19% of the
average ICT CO2 emissions. Source: Smart Studie 2020,
Addendum Deutschland.
life 55
CREDITS
The LIFE 2 study offers a combined survey and summary
of expert and consumer opinions, online questionnaires
and telephone interviews. The study was designed and
produced by Professor Dr. Tobias Kretschmer, Director of
the Institute of Communication Economics at the Ludwig
Maximilian University in Munich, in conjunction with the
strategic consultancy zehnvier. In total, 1,559 ICT executives, 1,009 IT users and 1,336 consumers from five countries were surveyed. In addition, 101 telephone interviews
were conducted with executives from the areas health
care, transport, automotive and the public sector.
The publication of the study’s results was sponsored by
Deutsche Telekom AG.
“WORK – Working Connected in Business and Society”
c/o Deutsche Telekom AG
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 140
53113 Bonn
Germany
Local court: Bonn HRB 6794,
Company headquarters: Bonn
WEEE Reg. No. DE50478376
www.studie-life.de
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2010 by Deutsche Telekom AG
This document and all aspects of it are protected by
copyright.
Professor Dr. Tobias Kretschmer
(Director of the Institute of Communication Economics
at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich)
Dr. Kerstin Bolliger
Dr. Clemens Koob
(zehnvier GmbH)
Any reproduction of this document, outside of the strict
limitations of German copyright law, is only permissible if prior written approval is obtained from Deutsche
Telekom AG. This applies to translations, duplications, and
microfilming, as well as storage and editing on electronic
systems.
Editorial staff:
This study was originally published in German. In cases of
doubt, the German wording shall prevail.
Design and conception:
CRN: 642 200 186 (German)
CRN: 642 200 187 (English)
Picture credits:
Concept/Study/Surveys:
tra
cli
m
en
eu
ate
C l i ma t
. c om
Tax No. DE 123475223
l by f i r s t
Michael Schlechtriem
Björn Muscheid
Katja Brösse
G+J Corporate Editors GmbH
Cover and chapter images: Neumann und Rodtmann
P. 02, 03, 19, 20 Deutsche Telekom AG
P. 04 Fotog/Tetra Images/Getty Images, ponton/plainpicture, Cultura/plainpicture, Chris Alan Wilton/Image Bank/
Getty Images, L. Clarke/Corbis, Neumann und Rodtmann (9)
P. 09 Allan Baxter/Image Bank/Getty Images,
P. 13 Fotog/Tetra Images/Getty Images, Chris Alan Wilton/
Image Bank/Getty Images
P. 41 Bertold Steinhilber, Neumann und Rodtmann
P. 42 istockphoto (5)

Working Connected in Business and Society

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