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A strategic objective for the Society of American Florists' (SAF) Technology Committee is to forecast future technology trends that may impact the floral industry. However, during the last meeting in spring 2008, the Committee wanted a way to keep tabs of the current state of the industry's technology adoption. It was decided SAF survey the membership every year about their technology adoption using technologies identified in the Committee's Technology Whitepaper.
SAF's Director of Information and Research, Ira Silvergleit was charged with developing the inaurgural survey so much thanks for his expertise and hard work! The survey was conducted online and emailed to all SAF members that have e-mail addresses in the SAF database. The results were divided by the three largest segments of the floral industry: growers; combined wholesalers, suppliers and importers; and floral retailers
The surveys were conducted in the beginning of August. Response rates ranged from 14 percent for retailers to 24 percent for growers. These are higher than usual for SAF surveys. In terms of sheer numbers, not surprisingly a lot more retailers answered the survey since there are so many more retailers than others in the SAF database.
The number of responses were:
- Retailers = 554 responses
- Wholesalers, suppliers and importers = 45 responses
- Growers = 37 responses
Here are the results - The survey only contained TWO questions - however each question asked about each of 37 technologies identified in the Technology Whitepaper.
SAF Technology Survey Question 1 of 2 - Use this Technology Now?
This is from a question which asked what was the status of each of 37 technologies in their business - Whether they...
- Heard of it, but didn't use it
- Were planning to use it
- Were NOT familiar with it, or
- If they Used It Now!
The next 3 slides show the results for the ‘Use It Now' responses for each segment group. So, these technologies were the MOST USED, according to the survey.
Growers - Technologies Most Used - Slide 1
1. E-mail
2. Accounting software
3. Digital photography
4. Web sites
5. High-speed bandwidth
6. Laptop computing
7. PC/server maintenance
8. Redundancy technology - (RAID, Uninterruptible power supplies, backups)
9. Web site/E-mail hosting
10. Photo editing software
 Wholesalers, Suppliers, Importers - Technologies Most Used - Slide 2:
1. E-mail
2. Digital photography
3. Laptop computing
4. Web sites
5. Accounting software
6. High-speed bandwidth
7. PC/server maintenance
8. Web site/E-mail hosting
9. Redundancy technology -RAID, Uninterruptible power supplies, backups)
10. Desktop publishing
Retailers - Technologies Most Used - Slide 3:
1. E-mail - Note this was #1 for all 3 segments
2. Web sites - in Top 10 for all 3 segments
3. Accounting software - in Top 10 for all 3 segments
4. Digital photography - in Top 10 for all 3 segments
5. Point of Sale (POS) System
6. Web site/E-mail hosting -in Top 10 for all 3 segments
7. High-speed bandwidth - in Top 10 for all 3 segments
8. PC/server maintenance - in Top 10 for all 3 segments
9. Photo editing software
10. Desktop publishing - in Top 10 for all 3 segments
SAF Technology Survey Question 2 of 2 - Want More Info on this Technology?
Then the survey asked, for the same 37 technologies, "How HELPFUL would it be for SAF to provide information on each technology?"
The responses could range from:
- Not at all helpful
- Somewhat helpful
- Moderately helpful
- Extremely helpful
- Or, Don't Know
The next 3 slides show the results for the "Extremely Helpful" responses for each of the segments. In other words, "These were the Top-10 technology issues that members of the floral industry wanted more information about."
Slide 4 - Growers - Top # Technology Issues for Growers
1. Web sites
2. Online reputation management
3. Paperless office
4. Business intelligence analytics
5. Disaster recovery
6. High-speed bandwidth
7. Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
8. Analog and VOIP phone systems
9. Web site analytics
10. Biometrics
Top # Technology Issues for Wholesalers, Suppliers and Importers
1. Search engine optimization
2. Delivery routing/GPS software
3. Email/database marketing
4. Web sites
5. Direct buying (online) platforms
6. Business intelligence analytics
7. Online reputation management
8. Bar coding/GS10
9. Redundancy technology -RAID, Uninterruptible power supplies, backups)
10. Virtualization
Note that this list is very different from the Growers list we saw before. Now for the retailers.
Top 10 Technologies that Retailers wanted information about:
1. Email/database marketing - made 2 of 3 segment top 10 lists
2. Search engine optimization - made 2 of 3 segment top 10 lists
3. Web sites - on all 3 lists
4. Web site/E-mail hosting
5. Digital photography
6. Web site analytics - made 2 of 3 segment top 10 lists
7. Point of Sale (POS) Systems
8. Online reputation management - on all 3 lists
9. Direct buying (online) platforms
10. Photo editing software
SAF's Technology recently updated its Technology Whitepaper. Look for a future post about the update!
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