Web sites slammed as ’wallpaper’

The web sites of the UK’s leading companies have been slammed as

’corporate wallpaper’ in a new report.

The report says that the web sites of half the top 100 companies on the

FTSE represent little but on-line wallpaper and make little attempt to

capitalise on the opportunities the internet offers by, for example,

facilitating two-way communication.

Stephen Waddington, a director of Rainier, the agency which undertook

the research, said: ’The findings were fairly shocking. Corporate UK

really has not got its act together in terms of recognising the

potential of the web.’

The main problem uncovered by the survey was that firms are simply using

the net to put brochures on-line, but offer no way to communicate with

the company.

’Many of these companies have freephone numbers connected to call

centres, and they should apply the same logic to the web: some of them

have no address, phone number, e-mail or any way of contacting them,’

said Waddington.

The report found that 26 companies - including Tesco, BAA, CGU and

NatWest - failed to respond to a request for basic information after 100

days.

Less than 25 per cent of companies responded to a web inquiry within the

three-hour period deemed ’acceptable’ by the consultancy.

Six firms, including GUS, Land Securities and Prudential, provided no

contact information at all on their sites.

The only top 100 company without its own web site was British American

Tobacco.