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By Joey Gardiner, 14 November 2000 18:00

NEWS The findings come from a Microsoft sponsored survey by Mori and the Cranfield School of Management into B2B ecommerce in the UK. The survey found that while firms have realised the importance of B2B ecommerce, and particularly trading exchanges, the actual number of transactions conducted is still very low. More significantly, only two per cent of companies' supplier relationships are conducted over the web, with an overwhelming 92 per cent of supplier relationships are still being maintained through traditional channels. Dr David Grimshaw, Senior Lecturer in IS at Cranfield School of Management - who helped prepare the report - said firms could be worried that exchanges might not survive regulatory scrutiny, so are still holding back. He added: "This move to exchanges is definitely being led by the demand side, where the buyers are pushing the suppliers to get involved." Industry analysts agree that B2B ecommerce is still yet to take off, but are divided as to why. Many put it down to unfamiliarity with a new concept. Tony Hart, ecommerce analyst at Datamonitor, said: "It's the same as B2C consumers, who, at first use the internet to gather information, and only start shopping on the web when they get used to the medium." Existing face-to-face relationships with suppliers are also thought to add significant inertia to the move online. Andy Tanner-Smith, research analyst at Frost and Sullivan, said: "At the moment there is no reason for companies to migrate existing suppliers on to the web. The technology is still very complex, and the reality for most companies won't happen for a long time." The survey follows a report from Gartner last week suggesting the B2B sector may be about to experience the same fall from grace that hit the e-tail market in the spring. Managers from 400 UK corporates, from the manufacturing, retail, financial and public sector, were interviewed for the survey.