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This document is prepared as a summary of results from the Hamilton County community technology needs assessment. As a summary, the data presented here is a subset of the complete dataset and some subjective conclusions are drawn. The purpose of this document is to encourage discussion about future allocation of limited resources in a way that best serves the Hamilton County business community. The format of this document is that it is divided into sections for ease of reference. An appendix is included at the end that presents some of the data in a consolidated table format for ease of reference.
Importance of IT
The results of the survey indicate that information technology is perceived as being of major importance for 36% of the companies responding to the survey. An additional 44% rate I.T. as being average or great in importance. When asked to rate the role of I.T. in three years, most respondents believe that I.T. will increase in importance. 47% believe that I.T. will be of major importance while an additional 42% believe that I.T. will be at least average in importance. Overall we can conclude that I.T. is perceived as being an issue of great importance for many Hamilton County businesses.
Labor Force
Of those companies with an I.T. department, 78% reported that it was not easy to hire qualified I.T. employees. Without some type of intervention, this situation is likely to worsen slightly since 58% of respondents indicate they believe their I.T. departments will grow in the next 5 years. However, only one of the companies that do not currently have an I.T. department anticipates adding one in the next three years.
Web
Approximately 2/3 of the businesses surveyed have a Web site. Of those companies that have a Web site, about 43% maintain the Web site internally and 37% use a blended approach with some internal development and some of the work contracted out. Around 20% of businesses with a Web site outsource substantially all of their Web site maintenance. Of those businesses that use a blended approach, about 20% outsource less than 25% of the maintenance, 50% outsource 26% - 50%, and around 30% outsource more than half of the Web site maintenance.
Almost all companies have their own domain name. The top two functions for Web sites are to give customers the ability to contact the companies and to educate the customers about products and services. Less than 5% of businesses make items available for purchase, make use of a shopping cart or accept online payments. When looking at what businesses would like for their Web site to do, the same pattern is found. Most businesses want to communicate with their customers better but relatively few are interested in conducting business online.
Of the companies that do not have a Web site, 20% do not see a benefit to creating a site. 40% can see a benefit but they have other projects that currently have a higher priority. One area of concern is that about one quarter of businesses do not have a Web site because of a lack of knowledge or expertise. While it is perfectly possible that 20% of the businesses surveyed do not need a Web presence, it is somewhat troubling that around 25% feel they would benefit but they don’t have the ability to implement a Web presence. Encouragingly, about half of the businesses without a Web presence intend to add one within the next three years. Of those additional Web sites, it is interesting to note that all of the companies planning to add a Web site plan to either use a blended approach (42%) or to outsource the entire site (58%). A possible opportunity exists for a Hamilton County based Web-development company to prosper. Two-thirds of the companies indicated that they plan to use a Hamilton county based company but very few know of a specific company that offers those services. This represents an opportunity for a local Web development firms to advertise their services and to grow over the next few years or for an outside company to be recruited if there is not an existing development option available.
Internet
Over 96% of the business’s representatives surveyed reported that they had Internet access from work. While this number is probably a little high because of the survey being administered mainly online, it does indicate that Hamilton County businesses are overwhelmingly connected to the Internet. The preferred type of Internet connection appears to be DSL with more lines connected by DSL than any other type of connection across all usage frequencies (see table below). Dial-up is used extensively for businesses with only one line of access. Many area businesses depend upon the Internet as a means of communication with their customers and their suppliers as evidenced by the number of respondents who rate e-mail, information distribution, and research as the three most critical uses. The use of the Internet to buy, sell, or train is seen as important but is clearly secondary.
One area of strength that emerged is that Hamilton County businesses are happy with their Internet Service Provider. No respondents rated service as worse than “Fair” and while 50% thought their service was good 47% rated their service as “Excellent”.
Video Conferencing
Only 9 respondents indicated their businesses use video conferencing. Of those who do use video conferencing, it is fairly evenly split with 5 using a computer with a video camera and 4 using stand alone equipment. The results of the survey indicate that there is not a lot of interest in video conferencing. Whether this is from a lack of need or a lack of away as to the value of video conferencing is not known. The fact that just over half of the respondents did not know that the Edgerton Center had a video conferencing center would indicate that there is a lack of awareness.
Training
When asked to identify how state and local economic development organizations can best meet the technology related needs of businesses and industries in Hamilton County the top identified need was to provide access to training opportunities. Both e-mail and Web page design were identified as urgent by 4 people. No training area was identified as urgent by more than 4 people. Of the area identified as somewhat needed, certification in software was selected by around 38% of respondents. The most commonly identified software applications were Word processing, Spreadsheets, Database, and Presentation software. One area that was selected by over one third of the respondents that was somewhat surprising was “Workshops on business information technology strategies”.
When asked to identify what the greatest technology related barriers will be for the next three years the most common responses were costs and training. On the topic of technology related opportunities for the next three years, the most frequently occurring responses dealt with establishing an online presence that would allow for the delivery of more services and for online sales. When several options were given for barriers to maximizing the use of technology, the top barrier was cost of technology, which was selected by almost half the respondents. Lack of knowledge of new technologies and lack of qualified personnel were the second and third most commonly selected barrier with 19% and 14%. When given a list of possible ways the state and county governments could help businesses, access to training was the most popular choice with approximately 37% of respondents selecting that option. Incentive programs aimed toward tech-based businesses, creation of local tech-based business parks, and partnerships with higher education facilities all received about 20% of the votes.
Potential Development
When asked to identify goods that are purchased outside of the Hamilton County area, software and computers were the two most common choices with 49 people selecting software and 43 people selecting computers. That would indicate that almost 80% of Hamilton County businesses purchase software from outside the county and 70% purchase computers or accessories outside the county. Other items purchased out of county include media (56%) and communications goods (45%). A similar, though not quite as severe story unfolds when examining the services that are purchased outside of Hamilton County. Operating maintenance (39%), computer repair (35%), and network support (29%) are all frequently purchased out of area. It is likely that some of these items and services are purchased from a corporate office but any purchases that are currently made outside of Hamilton County that can be moved into the county would help localize customer service and keep dollars in the area. In instances where the services are not provided locally, recruit efforts could be made to bring in firms to fill the gaps.
Conclusion
One thing to consider when recruiting new businesses to an area is “Why did the existing businesses move there?” When people selected alternatives from a list of what attracted their organization to Hamilton County, the most common responses were all quality of life alternatives (quality of life, small community, rural setting). When looking at the obstacles to overcome the areas of dissatisfaction, a lack of higher education opportunities, difficultly finding qualified workers, and a lack of accessibility of transportation. The areas of dissatisfaction are not as clear as the areas of satisfaction. One possible commonality for two of the three most common responses relates to educational opportunities. Hamilton County might want to consider partnering with a community college or an institution of higher education (disclosure: the authors of this study are employed by UNK). By providing more educational opportunities, it would help relieve some of the employment pressures by improving the skills of Hamilton County residents.
Survey Results Limitations
One limitation of this study is that the respondents were not randomly chosen. There is a bias toward businesses that have Internet access although the research was designed so that businesses without Internet access could complete the survey as well.
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