Information Technology for the European Textile-Clothing Industry: Current IT usage, needs and trends. The findings of the ITEX Project

The main objective of ITEX (Esprit 20905 User Group Reference Project), was to derive Generic User Requirements for the use of advanced IT across the Textile/Clothing/Retail (T/C/R) Industry, which will consequently be developed towards a sector and technology specific European Research strategy. At the conclusion of the project, a permanent body for the promotion of cooperation between the T/C/R chain and the IT industry has been initiated (APITTEX). Two of the main instruments to achieve the ITEX objectives have been: (.)an extensive European survey, in order to record and analyse user requirements. (.)a worldwide survey of IT applications available to the Textile - Clothing - Retail sectors This paper presents some of the main findings of these surveys and attempts to explain these findings.