Information technology and its impact on productivity remain a frequently discussed concept by corporate and political leaders due to the reported effect on economic growth. In recent years, productivity has become a bellwether economic statistic, and figures prominently in discussions about interest rates, wages and fiscal policy. Net Impact: Latin America studied organizations in the following industries:

• Retail
• Manufacturing
• Financial Services and
• Public sector - comprised of Government, Education and Healthcare.

The guiding assumption in Net Impact: Latin America is that the best practice themes repeatedly identified in U.S. and European studies play a similar role in Latin America. The underlying hypothesis for this work is therefore the same used and substantiated in Net Impact: U.S. Private Sector and Net Impact: Public Sector - that organizations that use network-enabled applications, have more sophisticated network and technology infrastructures, and align business processes with their technology investments, will see greater operating outcomes than organizations that do not undertake these actions.

In addition to tracking Latin American organizations’ adoption of previously identified best-practice themes, Net Impact: Latin America sought to understand:

• The business conditions leading Latin American organizations to invest in technology to enhance productivity
• Perceived barriers to technology adoption and future productivity growth
• Current levels of improvements in business outcomes achieved

One of the key outcomes from this study is not only the ability to compare best practice adoption rates across the Latin American countries, but also to make industry-level comparisons to the adoption rates in the U.S. and Europe where possible. In this way, Latin American organizations have several reference points to benchmark their progress against consistently identified productivity best practices.