Finance directors still wary of B2B

Almost one quarter of UK financial directors have no plans to invest in e-procurement, and less than one per cent of global corporations use e-procurement systems, yet UK companies say it is a top priority.

Ninety seven per cent of financial directors surveyed by B2B vendor Clarus agreed that their companies could improve use of procurement supply chains, and 93 per cent claimed further savings could be made through better internal supply processes.

But, in a survey of 100 financial directors, over half said they had been burnt in the past by implementation delays, and 70 per cent said the current trend for billing per transaction rather than a fixed license fee prohibited them from participating in B2B.

Kathy Palmer, Clarus managing director for EMEA said the survey showed that UK companies were increasingly interested in B2B, but industry vendors still had a lot of educating work to do.

She said: "We still need to make a more compelling argument for e-procurement. We've done a good job in getting on to financial director's agenda, but we have to make sure they get onto the IT director's agenda."