E-business acumen needed for firms to get full Web benefit

City firms are failing to make the most of their e-business potential and Web sites remain a significant untapped opportunity, research published this week has...City firms are failing to make the most of their e-business potential and Web sites remain a significant untapped opportunity, research published this week has revealed.A survey of 25 top UK firms by income including magic circle practices Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Allen & Overy and Slaughter and May and five leading US firms, found that few practices scored well in using Web sites to enhance client relationships.Only 6% offered clients the opportunity to buy services on-line; just 13% offered passworded areas for clients; only 16% provided links to associatede-commerce sites.Few firms (13%) offered visitors the chance to access detailed case studies of completed transactions on-line and just 10% provided detailed financial information.

However, 39% of firms providede-mail services to clients.Peter Scott, director of Horwath Consulting which conducted the survey, said Web casting usinge-mail to inform clients of news or other items of interest was a powerful tool in raising awareness because people usually read their own e-mails.In the area of recruitment, while 77% of the firms surveyed provided details of graduate opportunities, only 32% offered candidates the ability to submit CVs on-line; 23% allowed job applications to be submitted on-line.

Just 10% allowed job applications to be downloaded.Mr Scott, who is also the former managing partner of Eversheds London office, said major law firms would miss out on good candidates who expected to deal on-line.On the customer relations side, 26% encouraged feedback via an e-mail link, while only 10% allowed users to change the language of the Web site.Mr Scott said the main problem was that firms were failing to integrate Web sites into their overall business strategies.Sue Allen