The 2003 e-readiness rankings -- From the Economist Intelligence Unit

It has been three years since the dot-com meltdown of 2000, but the painful adjustment is not over, particularly in the US, the locus of the internet boom. Financing for start-ups in the US has dried up, and the economy is still absorbing thousands of workers laid off from dot-com flops. The global economic malaise has undercut IT spending and scaled back public infrastructure initiatives. Yet the internet revolution ploughs forward -- in the US and around the world -- chastened and refocused, yet more powerful than ever. The internet is reinventing the way that businesses interact with their customers, with other businesses and, increasingly, with governments. Now in their fourth year, the Economist Intelligence Unit's e-readiness rankings provide an established benchmark for countries to compare and assess their e-business environments.

Now in their fourth year, the Economist Intelligence Unit's e-readiness rankings provide an established benchmark for countries to compare and assess their e-business environments. 'E-readiness', or the extent to which a market is conducive to Internet-based opportunities, takes into account a wide range of factors, from the quality of IT infrastructure to the ambition of government initiatives and the degree to which the internet is creating real commercial efficiencies. Covering the world's 60 largest economies, the rankings suggest areas in which government policy and funds can be focused. They also provide a useful guide for multinationals seeking to invest in technologically innovative countries and tailor their Internet strategies to local conditions.

Nearly 100 quantitative and qualitative criteria, organised into six distinct categories, feed into the e-readiness rankings. Since launching the rankings in 2000, we have repeatedly upgraded and refined our methodology. This year, our model is unchanged from the previous ranking, making direct annual comparison of scores possible for the first time. The majority of data is sourced from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Pyramid Research. Qualitative criteria are assessed by the Economist Intelligence Unit's extensive network of country experts, and their assessments are reviewed by our top economists. (For an account of the criteria used in the ranking and country-by-country scores, see the appendix on page 24 of the downloadable report.)

For both the 2002 and 2003 rankings, the Economist Intelligence Unit worked in association with IBM's Institute for Business Value, a leader in e-business strategy that provides senior executives with insights into today's technology-driven marketplace. IBM worked together with the Economist Intelligence Unit to build the rankings model. The Economist Intelligence Unit is entirely responsible for the rankings and the content of this white paper.

"Dynamic global challenges create uncertain and volatile environments," says Jeremy Andrulis, Public Sector Lead at IBM's Institute for Business Value. "The e-readiness framework provides a mechanism to help business and government executives fuse business and technology decisions to create focused, resilient and responsive organisations."

To read the complete executive strategy report, download the pdf file at the top of this page.