Federal government departments and agencies with E-mail reported on average that 83 percent of their employees are actually using E-mail, while Fortune 2000 companies reported on average 62 percent of their headquarters employees are using E-mail.
Titled "Connecting the Workplace -- Electronic Commerce in Business and Government," the poll sampled opinions from 505 Chief Information Officers or other senior executives responsible for E-mail and electronic commerce in Fortune 2000 companies and state and federal government. Eighty percent of respondents were from business and the remainder represented government. Telephone interviews were conducted in February and March.
Federal government departments and agencies with E-mail reported on average that 83 percent of their employees are actually using E-mail, while Fortune 2000 companies reported on average 62 percent of their headquarters employees are using E-mail.
"Respondents in both business and government anticipate increased usage of E-mail and other forms of electronic commerce in the future," said Jim Ousley, president and chief executive officer of Control Data.
Business executives currently working with government expect electronic transactions with government entities to increase. Only 29 percent expect that two years from now they still will not be conducting business electronically with government agencies or departments.
Two years from now, CIOs expect the average percentage of business conducted electronically to have increased nearly three times to 16 percent. However, relatively large percentages of CIOs were unable to determine what percentage of business with government is conducted electronically today or will be two years from now --16 percent and 24 percent respectively.
"Many respondents in the business community don't seem to be aware that the federal government is gearing up for full-scale electronic commerce in the next two years," said Ousley. "These results suggest that more communication needs to occur."
The survey also indicates that E-mail users in government are bigger users of the Internet than business. For example, 57 percent of government respondents said their E-mail system links to the Internet vs. 44 percent for business. And government organizations are more likely to have a home page on the World Wide Web. Sixty percent of government respondents say their organization has a home page vs. 44 percent of Fortune 2000 companies.
"Respondents who use the Internet tend to be more positive in their assessment of the business benefits of E-mail than those who don't," said Ousley. Internet users, for example, gave high ratings to the speed and ease of client communications as well as the ability to gather input for decision making.
And more organizations plan to link to the Internet in the next few years. Half of those business and government organizations not linked to the Internet will be within two years. Sixty-three percent of organizations not doing so now say they will be \conducting business via the Internet in two years.
"The message from the survey is that E-mail has more value for government and business than simply passing a few messages," says Ousley. "E-Mail can enhance the connection between employees, customers, suppliers, and constituents."
Control Data Systems helps clients in business and government integrate the complex networks and applications required to compete in today's electronic marketplace. A global systems integrator, the Company focuses on the architecture, implementation and lifetime support of electronic commerce, product data management, and client server solutions.
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