Seventy per cent of UK life and pensions companies say that the key benefit of transacting business electronically is to save processing costs, rather than introduce new business, according to a survey by software solutions vendor Focus Solutions.
Nearly half (45 per cent) of the 30 e-business project managers surveyed are struggling to cost-justify investment in e-transaction technology to their boards of directors.
However, despite the difficulties in getting plans signed off, 40 per cent of respondents believe three to five per cent of their new business will be processed electronically by 2003. Forty five per cent believe that up to a quarter of their business will be processed electronically by 2006.