Ebusiness tarred by Powergen's brush

NEWS IT blunders like Powergen's data scare will inevitably cause serious repercussions throughout the industry as a whole, according to a spokesman from one of the utility's competitors. Sean Sullivan, ebusiness director at United Utilities, made the comments when he was talking to silicon.com about his company's own online billing payment service, shortly after the scandal was exposed. Sullivan said: "When organisations are rushing out there to get a service up and running, claiming to be at the forefront of technologies, they sometimes leave the back door open. That vulnerability is a price that we all pay" Christopher Upton, director of online accreditation consultancy Clicksure, said it's clear there will be a negative impact on consumer perceptions and it had caused a lot of debate among utility players. He said: "Consumers know it's happened but they don't know why. They think that if it can happen to Powergen it could happen to other companies", he said. But Upton also said that some of its competitors may think Powergen's mistake could give them a competitive advantage, putting them in a favourable position in consumers' minds. "It could go either way particularly given how easy the web is making it for consumers to switch utility suppliers at the click of a button". Sullivan added that although the reputation of the industry has been damaged by the incident, it had not immediately discouraged his own online service customers who had been reassured individually about its watertight security.