|
Analysis, ICT, Business, Government, Global: London Business School Professor Leonard Waverman and global economic consulting firm LECG have published a pioneering - and very revealing - report in to the efficiency of governments and business when it comes to ICT.
The Connectivity Scorecard, introduced by LECG and Professor Waverman, is claimed by its creators to be the first index to examine not only the quality but also the quantity of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) usage and infrastructure, whether in the public or private sector.
 Business and Government must exploit their communications and computing infrastructure better if they are to see real results. Where the Connectivity Scorecard comes in is to analyse an individual country's ICT infrastructure and how well it is being used.
The Scoreboard was commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks, who discovered that even the most advanced countries in terms of being "wired" are not utilising communication technology as much as they can - even when state policy and regulation is geared towards encouraging better use.
Innovation-driven countries [as defined by the World Economic Forum] were selected by the report authors to compete in the Connectivity Scorecard. Out of a maximum ten points, the winner was the USA but then only with 6.97 out of ten. A further five countries - none of them developing - also score more than six. To be blunt, there are only three developing markets in the overall Connectivity Scoreboard. Hungary (3.18 out of ten), Czech Republic (3.11) and Poland (2.18) creep in at 14th, 15th And 16th. The Scoreboard criteria range from how much governments, businesses and consumers use connectivity technologies - copper wire, fibre-optics, mobiles and PCs - to enhance social and economic prosperity.
For each component of the Scorecard, countries were benchmarked against the best in class in their tier - a country best in all dimensions would score the maximum 10.0.
It is all too clear that while emerging markets can often put more established countries to shame, there is still room for the newer markets to rethink, invest their resources more efficiently and create more sympathetic commercial environments.
|
