Using Information Technologies To Raise The Competitiveness Of Smes

Competition plays an important role - it determines, directs and controls the strategy of the business development. Under competition, the company must be able to adapt to the situation and improve itself to remain competitive and defend its market position from the other players on the market. Competition is the driving force that encourages the business to improve its operating efficiency and innovative solutions. In order to achieve higher level of competitiveness, modern companies use a wide variety of different methods, the most prominent being: reorganization of its business and administrative processes, its employee qualification improvement and application of the new technologies to its products and services. Wide availability of the information technologies (further – IT) is considered as one of the biggest achievements and advantages of our time, as it provides the entrepreneurs with an opportunity to improve the competitiveness of their business. Currently, the only entrepreneurs that are already investing into the IT solutions are those entrepreneurs, who are well-informed about the new advantages provided by the IT and are not afraid of taking up the challenge of trying those innovations. Using the solutions provided by the IT, entrepreneurs are able to achieve higher efficiency and organization of their business processes and information flow, as well as provide them with the means of fine control over their resources and administrative expenses. Right now, current situation of the IT market indicates that there are a lot of solutions available that can be used to improve the competitiveness of the business, which will in turn aid its growth and development. The goal of this publication is to identify and assess the key aspects of the SME’s competitiveness improvements and to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of the IT solutions that may affect the competitiveness and development of the business. It will be based upon the situation regarding the SMEs in Latvia in comparison against the situation in Europe. Analysis will be performed using Latvian national statistical data and data provided by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union and there will be also used the system dynamic modeling method for evaluating the introduction of IT Management Information System for SME.