Some 53% of businesses across the European Union used specialised e-business software in 2025, new data from Eurostat has revealed.
This includes enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and data analysis and business intelligence (BI) software, Eurostat noted, with larger firms significantly more likely to adopt e-business tools than smaller firms.
ERP systems
ERP systems were the most widely used e-business applications in the EU last year. Usage ranged from 41% among small enterprises to 89% among large enterprises.
The difference was even more significant for BI software, which was used by 11% of small enterprises compared with 69% of large enterprises. CRM software, meanwhile, was used by 25% of small enterprises and 65% of large enterprises.
Eurostat defines ‘small enterprises’ as companies with between 10 and 49 employees, ‘medium enterprises’ as firms with between 50 and 249 employees, and ‘large enterprises’ as businesses employing 250 people or more.
Country by country
On a country-by-country basis, the use of e-business software also varied significantly – Denmark and Finland recorded the highest levels of adoption, with 73% of enterprises using specialised e-business applications.
They were followed by Belgium and the Netherlands (both 70%) and Spain (66%). At the other end of the scale, the lowest rates were reported in Bulgaria (31%), Romania (32%) and Slovakia (34%).
‘ICT has fast become an integral part of enterprise functioning and its extensive and intensive use, combined with new ways of using the internet efficiently, is decisive for the way that enterprises run their business, organise internal communication, share information with business partners and communicate with customers,’ Eurostat noted. Read more here.
