European businesses are missing revenue due to inefficient technology, Ricoh study shows

Ricoh Europe, a global technology specialist leader, has revealed the results of a study which analyses the scale of missed revenue from poor technology access for European mid-sized businesses.

The results show that 90% of business decision-makers from companies in the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain identify lack of technology access as a cause of missed revenue. The average amount of potentially missed revenue for each organisation is €13mn.

All-in-all, European mid-sized businesses thought that a mean of 15% of revenue was missed due to insufficient access to technology. The percentage of missed revenue across nations varied as follows:

• Italy – 18%
• UK – 15%
• Germany – 18%
• France – 11%
• Spain – 13%

The main reason for the lack of access to technology was, according to respondents, inefficient deployment and training. 42% said this was a key issues.

Other issues include technology vendors not offering the right products and services (33%), while 32% thought their IT teams didn’t identify new and interesting products and services.

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The biggest issue came down to the technology itself and the support offered, with 12% of respondents stating their business didn’t have access to better technology thanks to cost constraints.  

Javier Diez-Aguirre, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Ricoh Europe said: “Despite the vast range of technology that is available to organisations, it is clear that mid-sized businesses across Europe do not feel like they are getting good value from their choices. Improved efficiencies and better collaboration and communication between staff are crucial constituents of making a successful business. Our research makes clear that the tech industry has a responsibility to help mid-sized businesses realise these benefits in full.”

It’s not all doom and gloom for mid-sized businesses in Europe: 79% achieved or exceeded sales targets at mid-year. Nearly all respondents also felt technology had contributed to their success, with improvements in collaboration between staff cited as the biggest reason for success (59%) followed by helping to save money (53%).

For businesses that didn’t achieve their targets, the main reason was the macro-economic environment (33%).

For more information, visit Ricoh’s website: www.ricoh-europe.com