In 2003, the year in which Hong Kong's small and medium enterprises are facing extraordinary malfunction as a result of the SARS outbreak, the benefits of Internet-facilitated, remote access solutions, such as IP-VPN, remote video conferencing capabilities and has become even more apparent. In February 2003, the Information Technology Services Department and the Hong Kong Productivity Council released the results of its two-year survey of the progress in the field of e-business adoption in Hong Kong. The survey found that 47% of active companies in Hong Kong did not take and / or do not have plans to take online business opportunities (in even the most basic forms) for six months, prospective dates, an increase of three percentage points from the previous survey . As a result of economic difficulties, a number of companies refused basic possibilities of the Internet, such as e-mail accounts and Web sites of the company as a whole to save on operating costs. Just one month later, many of these companies changed course and fought for the deployment of technology to support the business operations of uncertainty enveloped the region. How were the networking technologies can help small and medium enterprises in the planning? What were the long-term costs and increase efficiency, which can be implemented using the "virtual office" capabilities? Explores how some companies have strengthened their regional presence in Hong Kong and through the deployment of technologies for communication and collaboration. "Hide
by Ali Farhoomand, Amir Hoosain Source: University of Hong Kong, 9 pages. Publication Date: June 4, 2004. Prod. #: HKU328-PDF-ENG