The biggest obstacle to Federal government agencies trading electronically is the ability of suppliers to do so, a recent survey has found.
According to a Yellow Pages Small Business Index, almost 60 per cent of small to medium business are connected to the Internet, but only 28 per cent use the Internet to place orders, and only 19 per cent pay through the Internet.
The survey, conducted for the Office of Government Online, also found that more than 95 per cent of commonwealth agencies are paying some portion of their suppliers electronically.
Nearly 90 per cent of the 75 per cent of agencies that responded to the survey reported that they expected to be able to trade electronically using open standards by the end of next year.