The survey showed that 88% of UK companies believe that the most important function of e-business is to build a closer relationship with customers.
Whilst this is undoubtedly an important role of e-business, the survey shows that opportunities are being lost, with almost one in five respondents feeling that e-business provides no opportunity for reducing supply chain costs, and one in six companies feeling that e-business does not provide any access to new business markets.
When the companies that identified that major opportunities were presented by e-business were questioned as to whether or not they felt confident of actually exploiting those opportunities, only 14% felt confident that their company was equipped to exploit shorter supply chain opportunities.
The report also highlights the fact that in the majority of cases, less than 5% of a company’s IT budget is invested in e-business.
Of the companies that do not feel confident of taking advantage of e-business opportunities, 67% stated that the reason behind this is a lack of senior management support.