A comparison of ICT use (e-business tools) in companies of selected countries

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are definitely a phenomenon that has changed our world. According to the European Commission (2008, p.13): “ICT is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide array of systems, devices and services used for data processing (the information side of ICT) as well as telecommunications equipment and services for data transmission and communication (the communication side)”. Institutions such as for instance Eurostat deal with statistical monitoring and classification of ICT use at companies. The presented research is focused on the comparison of e-business in selected countries. For the purposes of the research study, the data available from the open electronic database of Eurostat (2013) for analyses of ICT use in a business sector were used. A composite indicator was established and the level of e-business (a notion introduced by the European Commission, 2010) in selected countries in categories: Business information systems, Purchase and sale, Cooperation within SCM, and Education, communication and remote access was monitored. The attention was paid to the differences in monitored categories for SMEs and large enterprises. The contribution of the presented study is to mediate a picture of the implementation of e-business tools in selected EU countries on the basis of the large database of Eurostat (2013). The comparison between the Czech Republic and Germany, but also between other relevant competitors from the Visegrad group shows the Czech level of e-business. The outputs also show that the level of e-business at SMEs is lower than at large enterprises, that is in all selected countries