Subscribe
Working with our membership, ITAC establishes and sets targets for where Canada's knowledge economy should be compared to key peer/competitor nations. Where we fall short, ITAC determines what we need to do to get there and ensure we do what is needed in areas such as: skills, capital, tax, science & technology, and collaboration.
ITAC believes Canadian businesses should be leaders in the use of ICT for competitive advantage, productivity and growth. Use of ICT by small and medium enterprises should increase towards that of our US counterparts. By partnering with other associations, as well as with Government, we work to ensure public policy supports these goals.
ITAC strives to ensure Federal, Ontario and other Canadian Governments are leaders in ICT use. ITAC positions itself as a trusted advisor to Government. We gather industry leaders and Government together and work to make it easier for our industry to sell to government.
ITAC believes the Canadian healthcare system should be a world-leading user of ICT to achieve superior patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness, as well as fostering development of a world-leading Canadian health ICT industry. ITAC works to correct chronic under-spend on ICT.
ITAC’s view is Canada’s laws should promote leadership in development and use of advanced technology. We want to ensure efficient and cost-effective measures to protect privacy and instill confidence in the e-economy.
ITAC believes that in order for Canada to continue to compete worldwide, we need to promote policies that will ensure a steady supply of talented men and women for our local ICT industry. We work with industry as well as with Federal, Provincial and local governments to establish initiatives to support this goal.
Become a Member
Study Reviews Policy Options to Encourage Technology Adoption
Posted February 4, 2010
Ottawa, February 4, 2010. The under-use of technology by businesses is a problem confronting many jurisdictions around the world. A new study shows that policy makers have deployed an array of measures to try to encourage businesses to make greater use of technology. The study suggests that a combination of these measures might hold the best prospects for substantively changing the technology use patterns of Canadian business.
The paper, “Leveraging ICT Adoption: What Can Work for Business,” was prepared by Jacek Warda on behalf of ITAC, the Information Technology Association of Canada. Tax incentives such as the accelerated capital cost allowance on hardware and some forms of software introduced as a stimulus measure in the last federal budget are widely used. But the paper also notes that direct grant-based measures such as technology voucher programs are gaining popularity, particularly in European countries. The paper notes these, “programs are designed with administrative simplicity in mind… Countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom implemented the vouchers with more attempting to follow this path.” The paper points out that voucher programs can be designed to target specific business segments, such as small and medium-sized businesses, and to cover not only technology investment but investment in training and consulting expertise as well.
The under-use of technology is now understood to be a major contributing factor to lagging productivity. This has been identified as an important public policy challenge for Canada. A recent report from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards shows that in 2008, Canada’s investment in information and communication technology per worker was 62 per cent that of the United States. This troubling rate of technology use is particularly acute among the small- and medium-sized businesses that play such an important role in the Canadian economy.
The paper also suggests other measures to encourage technology adoption, noting for example that public procurement has the “potential to stimulate technology adoption in the private sector. Government can be an influential customer and partner for the private sector through its contracting out of research and procuring innovative products and services from business. Public procurement policies can play an important role and governments are increasingly interested in using this lever to stimulate business demand for innovative products and services.”
The full paper, published by ITAC with support from Accenture Inc., Intel of Canada Ltd., SaskTel, and the Government of Canada, can be found here.
The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is the voice of the Canadian information and communications technologies (ICT) industry. ITAC represents a diverse ICT community spanning telecommunications and internet services, ICT consulting services, hardware, microelectronics, software and electronic content. ITAC’s community of companies accounts for more than 70 per cent of the 572,700 jobs, $155.3-billion in revenue, $6.22-billion in R&D investment, $30.4-billion in exports and $11.8-billion in capital expenditures that the ICT industry contributes annually to the Canadian economy. ITAC is a prominent advocate for the expansion of Canada’s innovative capacity and for stronger productivity across all sectors through the strategic use of technology.
For further information, please contact:
Lynda Leonard
Senior Vice-President, ITAC
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
613-238-4822 (ext. 223)
Brendan Glauser
Manager, Communications, ITAC
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
613-238-4822 (ext. 224)
Share
© 1998-2012 ITAC