E-business is alive and well in Bermuda, according to Minster of Telecommunications and E-commerce, Renee Webb.

Ms Webb made this statement as she was unveiling her department's E-business Survey 2002 which she said showed Bermuda was poised to catch the second wave of the e-business revolution.

The survey, carried out by Walton Brown's company Research Innovations for an estimated $15,000, also showed that e-business was set to grow in the next two to three years.

"I am pleased to release these impressive and important results," said Ms Webb. "I believe they are very positive for the development of e-business in Bermuda as they show that despite the difficult market conditions being encountered at present, e-business is alive and well in Bermuda."

Information for the survey was collected from 513 Bermuda based companies by a telephone survey which were picked out of a sample of 800 supplied by Government.

The survey was taken of both local companies and exempted companies and included telecommunications, insurance, tourism, retail and financial businesses.

Ms Webb pointed to the overwhelming number of companies with internal e-mail and access to the Internet, 95 percent and 92 percent respectively, and 43 percent already have their own website.

Nigel Hickson, E-commerce Consultant to the Ministry of Telecommunications and E-commerce said that the number of companies with web sites compared favourably with the United Kingdom where about 35 percent of companies had their own web sites.

"But of even more importance are the results from the survey of what those same companies believe they will be doing in two to three years time. For whether we are talking about the use of Internet or e-procurement, the take-up by businesses of each e-business technique will be greater in the future," said Ms Webb.

She said that 90 percent of the businesses surveyed believed they would be into electronic payments while 70 percent would have a web-site for promotion in the next few years.

Ms Webb added: "This is excellent news as it will mean that not only will Bermudian businesses become more efficient and more competitive on the world stage, but that they will also require IT (information technology) and other technological resources that suppliers on the Island will need to respond to.

"In particular this is both a warning and advance notice on the need for broadband telecommunications that these data rich e-business services will require."

When asked about this she said that this survey should encourage telecommunications companies that companies are adopting more and more technology and they should take note of the market forces.

Ms Webb at a press conference yesterday said that for 43 percent taking up e-business in a company was driven by internal efficiencies and 48 percent of those surveyed found that the real benefit was improved customer service.

Companies said that for 50 percent that the reason they did not take on e-business techniques was because there was a real lack of business requirement. Five percent cited infrastructure cost as the reason for not adopting it.

"In concluding the survey results indicate that business in Bermuda is indeed catching the second wave of the e-business revolution. And whilst not all businesses are deploying all the advanced techniques available, they all, without exception, believe they will be doing more in the next two to three years. Thus business in Bermuda, despite difficult trading conditions, clearly see e-business as an integral part of their future strategy. This is good news indeed."

And she said that the new data collected in the survey will be used to monitor the growth of e-business and key areas for future growth.

She added: "This is important as the Island presents itself to the world as a logical platform for e-commerce and related activities."

Ms Webb said that this survey was not to become an annual survey but could be taken every two or so years to check the state of this part of the economy.