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To: stockman_scott who wrote (132865)	6/15/1999 8:39:00 PM
From: Dorine Essey	Respond to of 176387

E-business boom is a myth, study says June 15, 1999 08:04 PM PALO ALTO, Calif., June 15 (Reuters) - For all the talk of the Internet simplifying business transactions, the overwhelming majority of companies still have no effective online systems to permit seamless transactions with other businesses, a new study finds. Only nine percent of a sampling of global companies enable other business customers to initiate a transaction online, according to the study to be released Wednesday by Shelley Taylor & Associates, a management consulting firm in Palo Alto. The majority of companies, such as Cisco Systems Inc CSCO , allow only existing customers who have established accounts to initiate transactions online, the study found. Brand new customers who hope to do business on these sites are often told they cannot proceed without a valid purchase order number. The study, which uses Cisco to illustrate both the benefits and limits of e-business today, said that company has dramatically reduced customer support costs by using the Internet. "The problem with the Cisco model is that their site provides no opportunity for prospective customers to indicate an interest in a particular product," the study says. The study praises the Dell Computer Corp DELL Web site for accommodating both prospective and established customers, but says Dell is still the exception, not the norm. "The truth is that the bulk of sales attributed to business-to-business e-commerce begins with the traditional land-based channels and most customers are acquired in the traditional land-based process," the study said. ((andrea.orr@reuters.com, Palo Alto newsroom (650) 846-5400)) REUTERS