| Enterprise experience of ICT security related incidents, 2018 % | |
| Any ICT related security incident | 17.9 |
| Unavailability of ICT services | 15.7 |
| Destruction or corruption of data | 4.8 |
| Disclosure of confidential data | 2.6 |
| Enterprises could have experienced more than one incident, hence the sum of the different types does not equal the total figure | |
In 2018, 18% of enterprises in Ireland reported to have experienced at least one ICT security related incident. See Headline Table.
The most common incident was an unavailability of ICT services, with 16% experiencing this method. This can include a Denial of Service attack, ransomware attack or software failure.
5% of enterprises reported destruction or corruption of data in the year, with almost 3% noting a disclosure of confidential data. See Figure 1.
| 2017 | 2019 | |
| Any use of CRM software | 34 | 34 |
| To capture, store and make available to other business functions information about its clients | 32 | 32 |
| To analyse information about clients for marketing purposes | 27 | 26 |
34% of enterprises use Customer Relationship Management software
In 2019, 34% of Irish enterprises employing 10 or more persons used Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. This was used to either collect, store and make available information about its clients to other business functions, or to analyse information on customers for marketing purposes.
The use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) remained at 29% of businesses between 2017 and 2019. See Figure 2 and Table 1.
| 2017 | 2019 | |
| Any social media | 69 | 71 |
| Social networks | 67 | 71 |
| Multimedia content | 23 | 35 |
| Enterprise's blog | 33 | 34 |
| Wiki based | 7 | 7 |
Social media used by over 70% of Irish enterprises
In 2019, 71% of Irish enterprises employing 10 or more people used some type of social media.
The primary method of using social media as a way of connecting with customers is the use of social networks, with 71% of Irish enterprises stating they used social networks, up from 67% in 2017. The use of multimedia content sharing websites increased from 23% of enterprises in 2017 to 35% of enterprises in 2019. See Figure 3 and Table 2.
| Other sales | e-Commerce sales | |
| Small (10 to 49) | 71 | 29 |
| Medium (50 to 249) | 71 | 29 |
| Large (250+) | 62 | 38 |
Two thirds of large enterprises conduct sales electronically
An e-Commerce sale or purchase of goods or services can be conducted over computer networks via websites, apps or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange).
In 2019, nearly two thirds (65%) of large enterprises had e-Commerce sales which accounted for 38% of their total sales. Just under 36% of small enterprises had e-Commerce sales which accounted for 29% of all sales in this size class. 54% of medium sized enterprises had e-Commerce sales which accounted for 29% of their total sales. See Figure 4 and Table 3.
| Other purchases | e-Commerce purchases | |
| Small (10 to 49) | 72 | 28 |
| Medium (50 to 249) | 68 | 32 |
| Large (250+) | 58 | 42 |
Half of small enterprises made e-Commerce purchases in 2019
In 2019, 52% of small enterprises made e-Commerce purchases which accounted for 28% of all purchases made by enterprises that employed less than 50 persons, while 63% of medium sized enterprises made e-Commerce purchases which accounted for 32% of total purchases for this size class. 71% of large enterprises made e-Commerce purchases which amounted to 42% of their total purchases. See Figure 5 and Table 3.
| Percentage of enterprises with e-Commerce purchases | Percentage of enterprises with e-Commerce sales | |
| Small (10 to 49) | 52 | 36 |
| Medium (50 to 249) | 63 | 54 |
| Large (250+) | 71 | 65 |
More enterprises engaged in e-Commerce purchases than sales
Across all size classes in 2019, the proportion of enterprises with e-Commerce purchases was higher than those enterprises with e-Commerce sales. Small enterprises had the greatest difference (16%) between e-Commerce purchases and sales. See Figure 6 and Table 3.
| e-Commerce purchases as a percentage of total enterprises | e-Commerce purchases as a percentage of total purchases | |
| Manufacturing | 51 | 35 |
| Construction | 44 | 2 |
| Selected services | 53 | 37 |
Services sector had largest share of e-Commerce purchases
In 2019, Services sector enterprises reported that 53% of enterprises had made e-Commerce purchases, which accounted for 37% of total purchases in that sector. This was slightly higher than the Manufacturing sector which indicated that 51% of enterprises made e-Commerce purchases, accounting for 35% of their total purchases. When looking at the Construction sector, 44% reported making e-commerce purchases, which accounted for just 2% of all purchases made in this category. See Figure 7 and Table 4.
| e-Commerce sales as a percentage of total enterprises | e-Commerce sales as a percentage of total turnover | |
| Manufacturing | 46 | 40 |
| Construction | 10 | 3 |
| Selected services | 39 | 31 |
Manufacturing sector had the largest share of e-Commerce sales by turnover
Looking at the detailed sectors shows that 46% of Manufacturing enterprises reported e-Commerce sales which accounted for 40% of total turnover for that sector. The Services sector reported that 39% of enterprises had e-Commerce sales which accounted for 31% of all turnover generated in that sector. Just 10% of Construction enterprises made e-Commerce sales which accounted for 3% of total Construction turnover. See Figure 8 and Table 4.
| 2019 | |
| Any difficulty experienced | 5.7 |
| High costs of delivering or returning products | 4 |
| Difficulties related to resolving complaints and disputes | 2.1 |
| Lack of knowledge of foreign languages for communication with customers | 2 |
| Restrictions from business partners | 1.8 |
| Adapting product labelling for sales | 0.9 |
6% of enterprises had difficulties selling to other EU countries
Almost 6% of enterprises reported they had trouble selling to other EU countries via a website or apps during 2019. The most common issue noted was the high cost of delivering or returning products at 4.0%, followed by difficulties solving complaints and disputes at 2.1%. See Figure 9 and Table 5.
| 2018 | 2019 | |
| Have a website or homepage | 79 | 79 |
| Providing links or references to the enterprise's social media profiles | 50 | 51 |
| Facilitating access to online ordering or reservations | 29 | 28 |
| Tracking/status of orders placed | 12 | 11 |
| Personalised content on the website for regular/repeat visitors | 12 | 11 |
| Possibility for visitors to customise or design online goods or services | 10 | 8 |
4 out of 5 enterprises have a website in Ireland
In 2019, 79% of enterprises surveyed reported they had a website. The most common facility provided were links or references to the enterprise’s social media profiles (51%), followed by access to online orders or reservations (28%). See Figure 10 and Table 6.
| X-axis label | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Broadband | 96 | 95 |
| Mobile broadband | 72 | 79 |
| Purchases by internet or EDI | 53 | 56 |
| Sales by internet or EDI | 36 | 41 |
95% of Irish enterprises have broadband
In 2019, 95% of enterprises used a broadband connection to the internet. The survey found 56% of these enterprises used their broadband connection to purchase online, with 41% selling online. See Figure 11 and Table 7.
| Table 1 Sharing information electronically within the enterprise, 2017 and 2019 | ||
| % | ||
| 2017 | 2019 | |
| Any use of ERP1 software | 29 | 29 |
| Any use of CRM2 software | 34 | 34 |
| Use CRM software to collect, store and make available information on customers to various business functions | 32 | 32 |
| Use CRM software to analyse information on customers for marketing purposes | 27 | 26 |
| 1Enterprise Resource Planning 2Customer Relationship Management | ||
| Enterprises can use more than one type of software, hence the sum of the different types does not equal the total figure | ||
| Table 2 Enterprise use of social media, 2017 and 2019 | ||
| % | ||
| 2017 | 2019 | |
| Use of any social media | 69 | 71 |
| Use of social networks | 67 | 71 |
| Use of multimedia content sharing tools | 23 | 35 |
| Use of enterprise's blogs or microblogs | 33 | 34 |
| Use of wiki based knowledge sharing tools | 7 | 7 |
| Enterprises can use more than one type of social media, hence the sum of the different types does not equal the total figure. Question not asked in 2018. | ||
| Table 3 ICT usage by size of enterprise, 2019 | |||||
| % | |||||
| Small (10 to 49) | Medium (50 to 249) | Large (250+) | |||
| Enterprises with e-Commerce sales | 36 | 54 | 65 | ||
| e-Commerce sales as a % of total sales | 29 | 29 | 38 | ||
| Enterprises with e-Commerce purchases | 52 | 63 | 71 | ||
| e-Commerce purchases as a % of total purchases | 28 | 32 | 42 | ||
| Enterprises using broadband | 94 | 99 | 100 | ||
| Enterprises using mobile broadband connection | 76 | 88 | 96 | ||
| Table 4 Purchases and sales via e-Commerce, 2017 - 2019 | |||||||||||||||||
| % | |||||||||||||||||
| Manufacturing sector | Construction sector | Selected services sectors | Total | ||||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | ||||||
| Use of e-Commerce for purchases (as % of total enterprises) | |||||||||||||||||
| by internet or EDI | 48 | 48 | 51 | 37 | 38 | 44 | 48 | 52 | 53 | 48 | 52 | 52 | |||||
| Use of e-Commerce for sales (as % of total enterprises) | |||||||||||||||||
| by internet or EDI | 42 | 38 | 46 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 32 | 35 | 39 | 33 | 35 | 39 | |||||
| by internet | 20 | 22 | 27 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 27 | 31 | 34 | 26 | 29 | 34 | |||||
| by EDI | 32 | 28 | 34 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 14 | 17 | |||||
| Percentage of purchases by e-Commerce (as % of total purchases) | |||||||||||||||||
| by internet or EDI | 36 | 37 | 35 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 34 | 37 | 37 | 34 | 36 | 36 | |||||
| Percentage of sales by e-Commerce (as % of total turnover) | |||||||||||||||||
| by internet or EDI | 35 | 39 | 40 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 33 | 34 | 31 | 34 | 35 | 34 | |||||
| by internet | 7 | 10 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 14 | |||||
| by EDI | 28 | 29 | 27 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 21 | 20 | |||||
| Table 5 Difficulties experienced by enterprises when selling online to other EU countries, 2019 | |
| % | |
| 2019 | |
| Any difficulty experienced | 5.7 |
| High costs of delivering or returning products | 4.0 |
| Difficulties related to resolving complaints and disputes | 2.1 |
| Lack of knowledge of foreign languages for communicating with customers | 2.0 |
| Restrictions from business partners | 1.8 |
| Adapting product labelling for sales | 0.9 |
| Enterprises can experience more than one difficulty when selling online to other EU countries, hence the sum of the different types does not equal the total figure. | |
| Table 6 General findings of enterprise ICT survey, as a percentage of all enterprises, 2018 - 2019 | |||||||||||
| % | |||||||||||
| Manufacturing sector | Construction sector | Selected services sectors | Total | ||||||||
| 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | ||||
| Use of the internet | |||||||||||
| Have a website or homepage | 90 | 91 | 79 | 76 | 77 | 77 | 79 | 79 | |||
| Purposes of using the internet (as provider) | |||||||||||
| Providing links or references to the enterprise's social media profiles | 46 | 42 | 31 | 30 | 51 | 53 | 50 | 51 | |||
| Facilitating access to online ordering or reservations | 17 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 31 | 30 | 29 | 28 | |||
| Tracking/status of orders placed | 9 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 11 | |||
| Personalised content on the website for regular/repeat visitors | 8 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 11 | |||
| Possibility for visitors to customise or design online goods or services | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 8 | |||
| Table 7 External connection to the internet, as a percentage of all enterprises, by sector, 2018 - 2019 | |||||||||||||
| % | |||||||||||||
| Manufacturing sectors | Construction sector | Selected services sectors | Total | ||||||||||
| 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | ||||||
| Type of external connection to the internet | |||||||||||||
| Broadband | 98 | 98 | 97 | 96 | 95 | 95 | 96 | 95 | |||||
| Mobile broadband connection | 78 | 86 | 74 | 83 | 71 | 77 | 72 | 79 | |||||
| Enterprises with broadband | |||||||||||||
| Purchases by internet or EDI | 49 | 53 | 39 | 45 | 55 | 57 | 53 | 56 | |||||
| Sales by internet or EDI | 39 | 47 | 10 | 10 | 37 | 41 | 36 | 41 | |||||
The Survey on e-Commerce and ICT is conducted to provide harmonised enterprise statistics at EU level. The survey is carried out annually under EU Regulation (EC) No. 808/2004.
The Survey on e-Commerce and ICT was conducted as a wholly electronic survey for the first time in 2013 via the CSO’s e-form system, allowing sampled enterprises to complete and return the survey form electronically. Reminders are periodically sent to non-respondents throughout the year and a telephone campaign is also conducted to ensure that the response rate is sufficient for the survey. The 2019 response rate was 52.4%. Returned survey forms are verified and edited before the data is grossed up to the sample frame population.
A pilot survey was conducted in 2002 and a full annual survey began in 2003. Approximately 6,000 enterprises are surveyed in the first quarter of each year. The sample of enterprises is chosen from the CSO’s Business Register. The overall results are released by Eurostat on an EU-28-wide basis in December each year. The results presented in this release are from the 2019 survey. The results cover enterprises with ten or more persons engaged in the manufacturing, construction and selected services sectors. Enterprises operating in the following NACE Rev.2 classifications were included in the coverage of this survey. NACE coding is a classification system which groups enterprises according to their business activities. Each business activity category is assigned a unique NACE code.
NACE Rev.2 categories used in the ICT survey
| Section C (10-33) | Manufacturing: Food, beverages, tobacco, textiles, wearing apparel, leather, wood, printing and paper products (10 to 18); Petroleum, chemical, pharmaceutical, rubber and plastic products (19 to 22); Other non-metallic mineral products, basic metals and fabricated metal products (23 to 25); Computer, electronic and other equipment, repairs and installation, other manufacturing (26 to 33). |
| Section D, E (35-39) | Electricity, gas and steam, water supply, sewerage and waste management |
| Section F (41-43) | Construction |
| Section G (45-47) | Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles |
| Section H (49-53) | Transportation and storage |
| Section I (55-56) | Accommodation and food service activities |
| Section J (58-63) | Information and communication |
| Section L (68) | Real estate activities |
| Division M (69-74) | Professional, scientific and technical activities (selected sectors) |
| Section N (77-82) | Administrative and Support Service activities |
| Group (95.1) | Repair of computers m, water supply, sewerage and waste management) |
Results are based on the survey of Survey on e-Commerce and ICT by an enterprise, which was conducted in the first half of 2019. This survey covers enterprises with 10 or more persons engaged in the manufacturing, construction and selected services sectors.
The Survey on e-Commerce and ICT usage is carried out across all member countries of the EU-28. Each national country designs its own enterprise survey, using a template questionnaire issued by Eurostat, and incorporating some optional modules.
National results are transmitted to Eurostat annually and subsequently published by Eurostat in December of each year. Published results for Ireland may differ slightly from those in the Eurostat tables due to rounding. Further information on Eurostat tables and comparable results across member countries of the EU-28 are available online at
Broadband: High-speed, always-on internet access running with a speed of greater than 128Kb/sec (Kilobytes per second).
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): Digital Subscriber Line technologies are designed to increase bandwidth available over standard copper telephone wires. Includes IDSL, HDSL, SDSL, ADSL, RADSL, VDSL, DSL-Lite and xDSL.
Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce): Transactions conducted over IP (Internet Protocol) based networks and over other computer mediated networks. The goods and services are ordered over those networks, but the payment and ultimate delivery of the goods or service may be conducted on or offline. Orders received via telephone, facsimile and non-interactive e-mails are not counted as electronic commerce.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Electronic exchange of forms, such as for orders, between geographically dispersed locations.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Enterprise Resource Planning consists of one or a set of software applications that integrate information and processes across the several business functions of the enterprise.
Extranet: A secure extension of an intranet that allows external users to access some parts of an organisation’s intranet.
Intranet: An internal company communications network using IP-based communications within an organisation.
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN): Integrated Services Digital Network is the digital version of the old telephone system. ISDN offers many services such as private virtual networks, high-speed facsimile (fax), video-conferencing and most importantly, high speed communications.
LAN: Local Area Network. This relates to your company’s computer network, usually within an office, building or closed geographical area.
Modem: Device that converts outgoing digital signals from a computer to analogue signals which can be transmitted via a conventional copper telephone line and which converts incoming analogue signals to digital.
Social Media: Use of social media refers to the enterprise’s use of applications based on internet technology or communication platforms for connecting, creating and exchanging content online with customers, suppliers, partners or within the enterprise. Enterprises using social media are considered to be those that have a user profile, an account or a user licence depending on the requirements of the social media type.
Social networks e.g. Facebook, Linkedln, Xing, Viadeo, Yammer, etc
Blogs or microblogs e.g. Twitter
Multimedia content shared websites e.g. YouTube, Flickr, Picassa, SlideShare
Wiki based knowledge sharing sites e.g. Wikipedia
| Member states of the EU-28 |
|---|
| Austria |
| Belgium |
| Bulgaria |
| Croatia |
| Cyprus |
| Czech Republic |
| Denmark |
| Estonia |
| Finland |
| France |
| Germany |
| Greece |
| Hungary |
| Ireland |
| Italy |
| Latvia |
| Lithuania |
| Luxembourg |
| Malta |
| Netherlands |
| Poland |
| Portugal |
| Romania |
| Slovakia |
| Slovenia |
| Spain |
| Sweden |
| United Kingdom |
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Show Table 1 Sharing information electronically within the enterprise, 2017 and 2019
Hide Table 1 Sharing information electronically within the enterprise, 2017 and 2019