UK lagging behind in intranet deployment - BT

BT's think tank Future Foundation spoke to 1,000 staff of British companies it considered to be potential intranet users and found just six per cent currently use an intranet. 10 per cent had definite plans to install an intranet and 30 per cent expressed an interest. However, almost half of businesses interviewed didn't understand the intranet concept.

While BT estimates that the UK intranet market could be worth £1 billion by the end of the decade, the company said that the lack of understanding could lead British business to be uncompetitive as intranet acceptance gathers pace internationally. The report cites the US, Japan, and even France as Sweden as countires which better understand the intranet model.

"For many businesses intranets ate likely to be of more significance than the Internet but the survey shows there is still a lack of understanding of this new business tool," said Rupert Gavin, BT director of Internet and multimedia services.

BT itself claims to have saved £305 million for fiscal 1996 thanks to its intranet implementation.