Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/2003 of 10 November 2015 implementing Regulation (EC) No 808/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on the information society (Text with EEA relevance)

A. Subjects and their characteristics

(1) The subjects to be covered for the reference year 2016, drawn from the list in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 808/2004, shall be the following:

1. ICT systems and their usage in enterprises;

2. use of the internet and other electronic networks by enterprises;

3. e-commerce;

4. e-business processes and organisational aspects;

5. ICT competence in the enterprise unit and the need for ICT skills;

6. barriers to the use of ICT, the internet and other electronic networks, e-commerce and e-business processes;

7. access to and use of technologies providing the ability to connect to the internet or other networks from anywhere at any time (ubiquitous connectivity).

(2) The following enterprise characteristics shall be collected:

1. ICT systems and their usage in enterprises

   1. for all enterprises:

      • computer usage;

   2. for enterprises using computers:

      • (optional) persons employed or percentage of the total number of persons employed who use computers for business purposes.

2. Use of the internet and other electronic networks by enterprises

   1. for enterprises using computers:

      • access to the internet,

      • issuing or sending invoices;

   2. for enterprises having access to the internet:

      • persons employed or percentage of the total number of persons employed who use computers with access to the internet for business purposes,

      • internet connection: DSL or any other type of fixed broadband connection,

      • internet connection: mobile broadband connection via a portable device using mobile telephone networks (‘3G’ or ‘4G’),

      • (optional) internet connection: mobile broadband connection via portable computer using mobile telephone networks (‘3G’ or ‘4G’),

      • (optional) internet connection: mobile broadband connection via other portable devices such as smartphones, using mobile telephone networks (‘3G’ or ‘4G’),

      • persons employed or percentage of the total number of persons employed using a portable device provided by the enterprise which allows internet connection via mobile telephone networks, for business purposes,

      • provision of portable devices that allow mobile internet connection to persons employed, for business purposes,

      • having a website,

      • use of social networks, not solely used for posting paid adverts,

      • use of enterprise's blogs or microblogs, not solely used for posting paid adverts,

      • use of multimedia content-sharing websites, not solely used for posting paid adverts,

      • use of wiki-based knowledge-sharing tools, not solely used for posting paid adverts;

   3. for enterprises having DSL or any other type of fixed broadband connection to the internet:

      • maximum contracted download speed of the fastest fixed internet connection in Mbit/s in the ranges: [0,< 2], [2,< 10], [10,< 30], [30,< 100], [≥100];

   4. for enterprises having a website, information about the provision of the following facilities:

      • description of goods or services, price lists,

      • online ordering or reservation or booking,

      • possibility for visitors to customise or design online goods or services,

      • tracking or status of placed orders,

      • personalised content in the website for regular/recurrent visitors,

      • links or references to the enterprise's social media profiles,

      • (optional) advertisement of open job positions or online job application;

   5. for enterprises that offer their persons employed portable devices that allow a mobile internet connection for business purposes:

      • provision of portable devices to access the enterprise's e-mail system,

      • provision of portable devices to access and modify the enterprise's documents,

      • provision of portable devices to use dedicated business software applications.

3. E-commerce

   1. for enterprises using computers:

      • receipt of orders for goods or services that were placed via a website or ‘app’ (web sales), in the previous calendar year,

      • receipt of orders for goods or services via EDI-type messages (EDI-type sales), in the previous calendar year,

      • (optional) placement of orders for goods or services via a website, ‘app’ or EDI-type message, in the previous calendar year;

   2. for enterprises having received orders placed via a website or ‘app’ in the previous calendar year:

      • value, or percentage of total turnover, of e-commerce sales resulting from orders placed via a website or ‘app’, in the previous calendar year,

      • percentage of e-commerce sales (turnover) to private consumers (Business to Consumers: B2C) resulting from orders placed via a website or ‘app’, in the previous calendar year,

      • percentage of e-commerce sales (turnover) to other enterprises (Business to Business: B2B) and e-commerce sales to public authorities (Business to Government: B2G) resulting from orders placed via a website or ‘app’, in the previous calendar year,

      • (optional) use of online payment systems for sales via a website or ‘app’, i.e. payment integrated in the ordering transaction,

      • (optional) use of offline payment systems for sales via a website or ‘app’, i.e. payment not integrated in the ordering transaction;

   3. for enterprises having received orders for products or services via EDI-type messages:

      • value or percentage of the total turnover of e-commerce sales resulting from orders received via EDI-type messages, in the previous calendar year;

   4. for enterprises having placed orders via a website, app or EDI-type message the following information is optional:

      • placing of orders for goods or services via a website or ‘app’, in the previous calendar year,

      • placing of orders for goods or services via EDI-type messages, in the previous calendar year,

      • placing of orders via a website, ‘app’ or EDI-type message for goods or services to the value of at least 1 % of the total value of purchases, in the previous calendar year.

4. E-business processes and organisational aspects

   1. for enterprises using computers:

      • (optional) analysis of Big Data using the enterprise's own data from smart devices or sensors as a data source, during the previous calendar year,

      • (optional) analysis of Big Data using geolocation data as a data source, during the previous calendar year,

      • (optional) analysis of Big Data using data generated from social media as a data source, during the previous calendar,

      • (optional) analysis of Big Data using other data sources not specified in this point, during the previous calendar year;

   2. for enterprises that analyse Big Data:

      • (optional) use of enterprise's own employees for performing big data analysis,

      • (optional) use of external service providers for performing big data analysis;

   3. for enterprises using computers:

      • issuing/sending any type of invoice whether in electronic or in paper form to other enterprises, during the previous calendar year,

      • issuing/sending any type of invoice whether in electronic or in paper form to public authorities, during the previous calendar year,

      • issuing/sending any type of invoice whether in electronic or in paper form to private consumers, during the previous calendar year,

      • percentage of all invoices received as electronic invoices, in a standard structure suitable for automated processing (eInvoices), during the previous calendar year,

      • percentage of all invoices received as invoices in paper form or in electronic form not suitable for automated processing, during the previous calendar year;

   4. for enterprises that issued/sent invoices to other enterprises or public authorities, during the previous calendar year:

      • percentage of all invoices issued/sent as electronic invoices in a standard structure suitable for automated processing (eInvoices), to other enterprises or public authorities, during the previous calendar year,

      • percentage of all invoices issued/sent as invoices in electronic form not suitable for automated processing, to other enterprises or public authorities, during the previous calendar year,

      • percentage of all invoices issued/sent only as invoices in paper form, to other enterprises or public authorities, during the previous calendar year.

5. ICT competence in the enterprise unit and the need for ICT skills

   1. for enterprises using computers:

      • employment of ICT specialists,

      • provision of any type of training to develop ICT-related skills for ICT specialists, during the previous calendar year,

      • provision of any type of training to develop ICT-related skills for other persons employed, during the previous calendar year,

      • recruitment or attempted recruitment of ICT specialists, during the previous calendar year,

      • performance of the following ICT functions during the previous calendar year broken down into ‘Mainly by own employees including those employed in parent or affiliate enterprises’, ‘Mainly by external supplier’, or ‘Not applicable’:

        • maintenance of ICT infrastructure (servers, computers, printers, networks),

        • support for office software,

        • development of business management software/systems,

        • support for business management software/systems,

        • development of web applications,

        • support for web applications,

        • security and data protection;

   2. for enterprises using computers and which have recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists during the previous calendar year:

      • vacancies for ICT specialists that were difficult to fill.

6. Barriers to the use of ICT, the internet and other electronic networks, e-commerce and e-business processes

   1. for enterprises using computers:

      • (optional) obstacles limiting or preventing sales via a website or ‘app’ due to goods or services not being suitable for web sale,

      • (optional) obstacles limiting or preventing sales via a website or ‘app’ due to problems related to logistics,

      • (optional) obstacles limiting or preventing sales via a website or ‘app’ due to problems with payment,

      • (optional) obstacles limiting or preventing sales via a website or ‘app’ due to problems with ICT security or data protection,

      • (optional) obstacles limiting or preventing sales via a website or ‘app’ due to problems with the legal framework,

      • (optional) obstacles limiting or preventing sales via a website or ‘app’ due to excessively high investment costs compared with the expected benefits.

7. Access to and use of technologies providing the ability to connect to the internet or other networks from anywhere at any time (ubiquitous connectivity)

   1. for enterprises having access to the internet:

      • provision of remote access to the enterprise's e-mail system, documents or applications,

      • payment of advertisements on the internet,

      • use of cloud computing services, excluding free-of-charge-services;

   2. for enterprises that pay for advertisements on the internet using any of the following targeted advertising methods:

      • advertising method based on webpages' content or keywords searched by users,

      • advertising method based on the tracking of internet users' past activities or profile,

      • advertising method based on geolocation of internet users,

      • any other method of targeted advertising on the internet not specified above;

   3. for enterprises having access to the internet and buying cloud computing services:

      • use of e-mail as a cloud computing service,

      • use of office software as a cloud computing service,

      • hosting the enterprise's database(s) as a cloud computing service,

      • storing files as a cloud computing service,

      • use of finance or accounting software applications as a cloud computing service,

      • use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a cloud computing service,

      • use of computing power for running the enterprise's own software as a cloud computing service,

      • use of cloud computing services delivered from shared servers of service providers,

      • use of cloud computing services delivered from servers of service providers exclusively reserved for the enterprise.

(3) The following enterprise background characteristics for all enterprises shall be collected or obtained from alternative sources:

• main economic activity of the enterprise, in the previous calendar year,

• average number of persons employed, in the previous calendar year,

• total value of turnover excluding VAT, in the previous calendar year.

B. Coverage

The characteristics specified in headings A(2) and (3) shall be collected for the following categories of enterprises:

1. Economic activity: enterprises classified in the following categories of NACE Rev. 2:

   NACE category	Description
   Section C	‘Manufacturing’
   Section D, E	‘Electricity, gas and steam, water supply, sewerage and waste management’
   Section F	‘Construction’
   Section G	‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles’
   Section H	‘Transport and storage’
   Section I	‘Accommodation and food service activities’
   Section J	‘Information and communication’
   Section L	‘Real estate activities’
   Divisions 69-74	‘Professional, scientific and technical activities’
   Section N	‘Administrative and support activities’
   Group 95.1	‘Repair of computers and communication equipment’.

2. Enterprise size: enterprises with 10 or more persons employed. Enterprises with less than 10 persons employed may be covered optionally.

3. Geographical scope: enterprises located in any part of the territory of the Member State.

C. Reference periods

The reference period is 2015 for the characteristics referring to the previous calendar year. The reference period is 2016 for the other characteristics.

D. Breakdown of data

The following background characteristics shall be provided in respect of the subjects and their characteristics listed in heading (2) of Part A:

1. Economic activity breakdown: according to the following NACE Rev. 2 aggregates:

   NACE Rev. 2 aggregation

   for possible calculation of national aggregates

   • 10-18

   • 19-23

   • 24-25

   • 26-33

   • 35-39

   • 41-43

   • 45-47

   • 47

   • 49-53

   • 55

   • 58-63

   • 68

   • 69-74

   • 77-82

   • 26.1-26.4, 26.8, 46.5, 58.2, 61, 62, 63.1, 95.1

   NACE Rev. 2 aggregation

   for possible calculation of European aggregates

   • 10-12

   • 13-15

   • 16-18

   • 26

   • 27-28

   • 29-30

   • 31-33

   • 45

   • 46

   • 55-56

   • 58-60

   • 61

   • 62-63

   • 77-78 + 80-82

   • 79

   • 95.1

2. Size class breakdown: data shall be broken down according to the following size classes by number of persons employed:

   Size class

   • 10 or more persons employed

   • 10 to 49 persons employed

   • 50 to 249 persons employed

   • 250 or more persons employed

   where covered, a breakdown of the data shall be provided in accordance with the following table:

   Size class

   • Less than 10 persons employed (optional)

   • Less than 5 persons employed (optional)

   • 5 to 9 persons employed (optional)

E. Periodicity

The data required by this Annex shall be provided once for the year 2016.

F. Deadlines for transmission of results

(1) The aggregate data referred to in Article 6 and Annex I (6) of Regulation (EC) No 808/2004, where necessary flagged for confidentiality or unreliability, shall be transmitted to Eurostat before 5 October 2016. By that date, the dataset shall be finalised, validated and accepted.

(2) The metadata referred to in Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 808/2004 shall be forwarded to Eurostat before 31 May 2016.

(3) The quality report referred to in Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 808/2004 shall be forwarded to Eurostat by 5 November 2016.

(4) The data and metadata shall be provided to Eurostat in accordance with the exchange standard specified by Eurostat using the Single Entry Point services. The metadata and the quality report shall be provided in the standard metadata structure defined by Eurostat.