Cystat: Eight out of 10 enterprises in Cyprus use social media

Almost eight out of 10 enterprises in Cyprus with 10 or more employed persons use social media, according to a survey published by Cystat.

More specifically, it said that 79.7% of all enterprises with 10 or more employees use social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn, 38.5% use multimedia content sharing websites or apps like YouTube and Instagram, and 22.7% use blogs or microblogs (e.g. Twitter, etc.). Also, 8.5% of enterprises have a mobile application for clients, such as a loyalty program, customer support, etc.

Meanwhile, 96.4% of enterprises have internet connection. The demand for high-speed internet connections (100 Mbit/s or more) has increased significantly over the years. In 2023, 72.1% of enterprises have internet connection speeds higher than 100 Mbit/s compared to 17.1% in 2019.

In 2023, the most popular contracted download speed among enterprises in Cyprus was at least 100 Mbit/s but less than 500 Mbit/s (41.6% of all enterprises). The second most popular download speed was at least 30 Mbit/s but less than 100 Mbit/s (19.3%), followed by the enterprises with download speeds of more than 1 Gbit/s with 16.1% and of at least 500 Mbit/s but less than 1 Gbit/s with 14.5%. The least favourite download speed was less than 30 Mbit/s (4.9%).

During 2022, almost one out of four enterprises (23.5%) received orders for goods and services via computer networks. 22.4% via websites or “apps” and 3,6% via EDI–type messages. 18.2% of all enterprises received orders for goods and services via the enterprises’ own websites or “apps”, while 11.9% received orders via e-commerce marketplace websites or “apps” used by several enterprises for trading products. 20.8% of enterprises received orders via websites or “apps” from private customers compared to 13.2% of enterprises which received orders from other businesses and/or from the government or public authorities.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the most popular business software used by enterprises in Cyprus. ERP consists of one or more sets of software applications that integrate information and processes across the several business functions within an enterprise (e.g. accounting, planning, production, marketing). In 2023, 41.6% of enterprises use an ERP software.

The second most popular business software is the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. It refers to any software application used for managing customer information. CRM collects customer information derived from different channels, integrates it in one database, processes and analyses information related to the customers. The customer is at the centre of the business activity. The press release says that 29.5% of all enterprises in Cyprus use a CRM software.

The third most popular software is the Business Intelligence (BI) software. It accesses and analyses data (e.g. from data warehouses, data lakes) from internal IT systems and external sources and presents analytical findings in reports (summaries, graphs, charts, etc.) to provide users with detailed insights for decision-making and strategic planning. 20.8% of all enterprises use BI software.

The study say says that 26.6% of all enterprises declared that the enterprises’ own employees perform data analytics on any data source, internal (from enterprises’ own information systems, sensors, smart meters, own websites or social media) or external data (from other enterprises, government authorities or publicly available data from websites or social media). 13.6% of enterprises choose to hire a service provider (external enterprise or organisation) to perform data analytics on their behalf rather than doing so themselves.

It adds that 52.9% of enterprises have bought cloud computing services during 2023. The main use of cloud computing services in enterprises is e-mail (e.g. Email Enterprise, Microsoft Exchange Online / Office 365, etc.) (47.4%). Office software (e.g. word processors, spreadsheets (e.g. Microsoft Office Cloud), etc.) is the second most popular service (40.3%) and is followed by security software applications (e.g. antivirus program, network access control) with 39.7% of all enterprises and storage of files with 26.2%.