MEASURING THE ICT
MATURITY OF SMES
Pham Quoc Trung
Graduate School of Economics
Kyoto University
pham.trung@kt4.ecs.kyoto-u.ac.jp
CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Research process
Literature review
Model for measuring ICT maturity
Road-map for ICT development in SMEs
Indicator of knowledge-oriented
ICT maturity index
Conclusion
1.INTRODUCTION






Knowledge management is very important.
KM depends mostly on the development of Information
Communication Technology (ICT).
To be success, enterprises should prepare a suitable
condition for KM by improving their ICT maturity.
Nowadays, small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
become more and more important.
Helping SMEs to know their current ICT maturity will
make them be more success in knowledge economy.
So that, measuring the ICT maturity of SMEs is very
important for the development of SMEs and economy.
2.RESEARCH PROCESS






Literature review
Model for measuring ICT maturity.
Development road-map of ICT use in SMEs
Indicators for measuring the ICT development
toward knowledge-oriented.
Tool for measuring ICT maturity.
Survey results of ICT maturity of some
Vietnamese SMEs.
3.LITERATURE REVIEW 1



SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) are
enterprises with less than 250 employees
(definition of European Commission)
ICT maturity of SME: is the state of an SME, in
which it reaches fully state of development in
applying information communication technology
(ICT) in doing its business.
5 levels of maturity in an organization toward
Knowledge Management : Default, Reactive,
Aware, Convinced and Sharing. (KM Maturity
Model [15] of V.P. Kochikar)
3.LITERATURE REVIEW 2

From previous work [3] of Europe, a road-map
for ICT development in SMEs as follow:




Inactive - no current use of ICT in company
Basic - including word processing and other
desktop packages
Substantial - extending into the networking of
PCs and several applications
Sophisticated - involving the integration of
applications and exploiting ICT to achieve service
differentiation
4.MEASURING ICT MATURITY1

Model for measuring ICT maturity of SMEs
Enterprise Inside
Law/ regular
Infrastructure
Consumer
Environment
Policy
Application
Supplier
Competitor

ICT
Maturity
Human Resource
4 main factors: ICT Policy, ICT Infrastructure
(hardware, network), ICT Application (software, data,
process), and ICT Human Resource
4.MEASURING ICT MATURITY2

Development trend of 4 main factors :
 ICT Policy: In SMEs, the policy should be more
flexible, easy for cooperation, toward outsourcing.
 ICT Infrastructure: The development trend of ICT
infrastructure in SMEs is shown by the increase in
connectivity and mobility day by day.
 ICT Application: the trend for ICT application in SMEs
is the integration all of their information systems and
business models to create e-business.
 ICT Human Resource: The development of human
resource is shown in the sophisticate level of their
skills as well as the innovation capability of SMEs.
5.ICT DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP1

2 forces that mostly effect to SMEs are:


E-commerce: web become important
environment for doing business: advertising,
marketing, trading and sharing knowledge.
This force would lead to the so-called ‘webbased enterprises’.
Globalization: knowledge workers and
knowledge works become the main source for
innovation and development in globalization.
This force would lead to the so-called
‘knowledge-oriented enterprises’.
5.ICT DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP2

The 5-stage road-map of ICT development :
Inactive: no current use of ICT in company
 Basic: including office and other desktop packages
 Substantial: extending into the networking of PCs
and some applications
 Web-based: extending to e-commerce with many
web-based services
 Knowledge-oriented: integration of applications and
use ICT tools for developing intellectual capital toward
innovation and creation.
With this roadmap, ‘Web-based’ is ready for Level 3
(Aware) and ‘Knowledge-oriented’ is ready for Level 4, 5
(Convinced, Sharing) of Kochikar’s KM maturity model.


5.ICT DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP3
Maturity level
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Main factors
Development
Features
Inactive
Basic
Substantial
Web based
Knowledge
oriented
Infrastructure
Connectivity &
Mobility
Telephone
PC, laptop
Network
Internet
Wireless
ICT HR
Sophisticated &
Innovation
Unskilled
Business
skills
Technology
skills
MIS skills
Learning
skills
Application
Integrated &
Unification
No
application
Office,
E-mail
MIS apps
E-commerce
E-business
Policy
Flexibility &
Mobility
No policy
Standardize
Modernize
Cooperation
Outsourcing
6.INDICATORS OF KNOWLEDGEORIENTED ICT DEVELOPMENT1
Stage
Indicators
Fixed telephone
2
Standard application software
2
Mobile devices
5
Internet use for getting information
4
Number of computers
2
Website
4
Type of Internet access
4
Services for which Internet is used
4
Local network
3
Value of online purchases
4
Internet bandwidth
4
Value of online sales
4
Secure Internet Server/ Hosting
4
E-Marketing
5
Security & backup system
4
E-mail/ IM for communicating
2
Wide area network (WAN, GAN)
3
Social Network for cooperating
5
Wireless LAN/ wifi
5
Remote Meeting/Voice Conference
5
Wap/ i-mode access
5
Intranet/ Extranet
3
Management Information Systems
3
ERP, SCM, CRM
3
Business Intelligent/Knowledge Base
5
ICT Application
ICT Infrastructure
Indicators
Stage
6.INDICATORS OF KNOWLEDGEORIENTED ICT DEVELOPMENT2
Indicators
Indicators
Stage
ICT training
3
ICT investment
3
Share of employee using a computer
2
Quality policy
2
Share of employee using the Internet
4
Privacy policy
4
Royalty payment & receipt
5
Regulatory quality
2
Patent application
5
Security policy
4
Company spending on R&D
5
Piracy policy
5
Capacity for innovation
5
IT expert recruitment/ training
5
IT specified employee
3
Upgrade ICT hardware/ software
3
IT department - CIO
4
Assessment effectiveness
5
Business specified employee
2
ICT use for KM is a priority
5
Self-learning skill
5
Company name
Expertise Reuse
5
ICT Policy
Human resource
Stage
Other
Company size
Company detail (field, location…)
7.ICT MATURITY INDEX 1

A questionnaire is designed based on above indicators
and used for a survey. The ICT maturity index (ICTMI)
should be calculated by the following formula:
ICTMI  I  A  H  P

0  I , A, H , P, ICTMI  1,
with
ml
nl
4
I 
(
l 1
I
k 1
nl
4
lk
4
)
A
(
l 1
ml
4
ql
pl
 Alk
k 1
        14 
4
)
H 
(
l 1
H
k 1
pl
4
lk
4
)
P
(
l 1
P
k 1
ql
4
lk
)
(Ilk, Alk, Hlk, Plk: indicators of stage l of 4 main factors;
nl, ml, pl, ql: number of respective indicators of stage l)

ICTMI is attached to the ICT development stages as
follow: 0-1/5:Inactive; 1/5-2/5:Basic; 2/5-3/5: Substantial;
3/5-4/5: Web-based; 4/5-1: Knowledge-oriented.
7.ICT MATURITY INDEX 2


ICT policy should be considered firstly in
improving the ICT maturity of an SME. Three
remain factors should be improved
simultaneously.
At each ICT maturity level, SME should invest
more on each different aspect of ICT use, for
example: ICT infrastructure is important for
Inactive to Basic, ICT Application for Basic to
Substantial, ICT policy for Substantial to Webbased and Human Resource for Web-based
to Knowledge-oriented.
7.ICTMI 3 -VIETNAMESE SMES
ID
SME
Field
1
PLC
Trade
2
KQL
3
Type
Infra.
Apps.
HR
Policy
ICTMI
Level
Private
0.2773
0.3033
0.0768
0.0417
0.1748
Inactive
Service
Public
0.4234
0.4533
0.6042
0.2783
0.4398
Substantial
HFL
Service
Private
0.3528
0.4464
0.1083
0.3750
0.3206
Basic
4
QTC
Trade
Limited
0.5639
0.6580
0.7083
0.5568
0.6217
Web-based
5
AHC
Industry
Limited
0.4421
0.3650
0.2045
0.6250
0.4091
Substantial
6
BRT
Service
Public
0.3967
0.4953
0.3667
0.0699
0.3322
Basic
7
TNT
Trade, Service
Limited
0.7431
0.5358
0.3802
0.4722
0.5328
Substantial
8
CVC
Service
Limited
0.5509
0.5736
0.5903
0.6806
0.5988
Substantial
9
REF
Service
Limited
0.6979
0.6408
0.5833
0.8750
0.6993
Web-based
10
TMC
Industry, Service
Limited
0.2576
0.2208
0.3583
0.4306
0.3168
Basic
Average
0.4706
0.4692
0.3981
0.4405
0.4446
Substantial
Hum an Resource
Infrastructure
TMC
TMC
REF
REF
CVC
CVC
TNT
TNT
BRT
BRT
AHC
AHC
ICT maturity index
QTC
QTC
HFL
HFL
KQL
TMC
KQL
PLC
REF
PLC
0.0000
CVC
0.0000
0.2000
0.4000
0.6000
0.8000
TNT
0.2000
0.4000
0.6000
0.8000
1.0000
0.8000
1.0000
1.0000
BRT
ICT Policy
AHC
Applications
QTC
HFL
TMC
KQL
REF
PLC
TMC
REF
CVC
CVC
0.0000
TNT
0.2000
0.4000
0.6000
TNT
0.8000
1.0000
BRT
BRT
AHC
AHC
QTC
QTC
HFL
HFL
KQL
KQL
PLC
PLC
0.0000
0.2000
0.4000
0.6000
0.8000
1.0000
0.0000
0.2000
0.4000
0.6000
8.CONCLUSION




Knowing about ICT maturity is very important for
SMEs to be successful nowadays.
Using this tool, SMEs could know about their
ICT maturity and plan for improvement in future.
Appropriate use of ICT will maximize their
benefits and lead them toward knowledgeoriented enterprises.
Implications for further improvement:
 Appropriate coefficient for ICT maturity index;
 Suitable actions for improving ICT maturity;
 Using this tool for industry, country range.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
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V. P. Kochikar, “The Knowledge Management Maturity Model: A staged framework for
leveraging knowledge”, KM World 2000, Santa Clara, CA, 2000
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
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