UK plcs lack board level e-control

Despite the growing influence of everything e-related, almost half of UK plcs have no designated board member responsible for the Internet or e-commerce. The Close Brothers survey reveals that the responsibility for e-commerce is usually shifted on to finance or sales and marketing departments.

The lack of board level control for Internet-related commerce is all the more surprising, as 40 percent of those surveyed say that they have changed the way they operate because of the Internet. Another 24 percent claim they use the Internet for business transactions. The majority of those surveyed also expect to increase web revenue over the next two years, from the current average of 1 percent to 12 percent of total revenue.

Brian Condon, a director at Close Brothers, said: “It is clear that the UK industry has yet to take the Internet seriously as a core business process and that the majority of companies still see it as just another selling tool.”