Matthias-W. Stoetzer, unter Mitarbeit von Wolfgang Ruppert und Hans Schedl
Der Einsatz von Mehrwertdiensten in bundesdeutschen Unternehmen: Eine empirische Bestandsaufnahme
Nr. 116 / September 1993
Summary
The paper describes the use of Value Added Services (VAS) in four sectors of the German economy (banking, insurance, capital goods and retail/wholesale) in 1992. The results base on an empirical investigation of several hundreds of enterprises in these business sectors. The outcomes confirm the hypothesis that the forecasts of the development of VAS were much too optimistic. Only some telematic services have reached penetration rates of at least 25 % of the enteprises of a business sector (Online-databanks and videotex for banking and insurances, E-mail and Managed Network Services for insurances, Electronic banking in case of the banks). Looking at all business sectors videotex (Btx) and Online-databanks are the most relevant telecommunication services. Also Electronic Banking prooves to be of a certain importance even in the capital goods industry and with regard to retail wholesale with a penetration rate of 15 and 5 %. Other types of VAS in principle having a broad range of applications show a very limited adaption (Videoconferences and telemetry services exhibit diffusion rates of maximal 3 and 17 % of all enterprises of the business sectors at hand).
Other information technologies that are substitutes e.g. for e-mail have had a comparatively tremendous success. Between 74 and 100 % of the German enterprises use fax devices and call answer machines have a penetration rate of between 21 % (retail and wholesale) and 89 % (insurances).
Looking at the business sectors, financial services (banks and insurances) turn out to be the most relevant user group for VAS. An exemption of this rule is the use of EDI by the banking sector. Furthermore, a more detailed analysis reveals that between insurances and banks a lot of relevant differences exist (comparatively more banks are users of Online-databanks but as to E-mail and EDI insurances are by far the protagonists). Clearly, the capital goods industry and retail/wholesale are lagging behind in their adoption of VAS. Here in 1992 only a tiny fraction of all enterprises use VAS. A certain exemption of this rule are videotex and Electronic banking in the capital goods industry.
In comparison to the on average moderate percentage of all enterprises adopting VAS in 1992 their future use seems to be promising. The enterprises claim a growing use of all types of VAS in the near future. The most definite growth can be expected for Electroning banking and EDI. Here at least 10 % of all enterprises of all business sectors declare a growing use. Also with respect to these services the retail/wholesale sector in comparison to the capital goods industry shows a very tiny growth of use. Hence, the differences between business sectors concerning the diffusion of VAS should be even more pronounced in the future.
Only German language version available.