UK firms come last in use of e-government

According to the EU's statistical office, Eurostat

UK firms use e-government systems less than companies in other EU countries, according to recently published research.

According to the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, the UK ranks last for the number of firms that download forms, send completed forms or obtain information from public authority sites. Clive Longbottom of analyst Quocirca said high-profile failures, such as the Inland Revenue's online tax credits scheme, may have discouraged firms from using public authority web sites.

"You might forgive [systems] the first time, it will become a problem the second time and you stop trying after a third," said Longbottom. "It's a mixture of distrust of the systems, and [the fact that] tasks like submitting accounts are often done by people with a background in paper."

The number of UK firms using e-government services may grow as corporates upgrade payroll systems to enable electronic filing, however.

The government should focus more on advertising to encourage firms to use its online services, argued Longbottom, who pointed to the Inland Revenue's online tax assessment campaign as a successful example. "[Government departments] often spend all their money on their web site without allocating [resources] to let people know it's there," he said. "A government portal to pull everything together in one place would also [encourage greater use of the sites]."

Government web sites would appeal more to firms if the sites looked more like familiar applications, and if forms were displayed in user-friendly formats such as HTML or XML, Longbottom added.

The survey covered firms in 25 EU states, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Norway and Iceland and took place in the first quarter of 2004.