Many websites set up by large companies focused only on their own products, or failed to provide a one-stop shop for consumers, Alison Spottiswoode, the global head of e-business at PA Consulting Group, told Reuters in an interview.

"If you take large organisations, quite often they have different parts of their group to deal with a different product. They're not thinking in terms of the customers, thinking in terms of the products," Spottiswoode said. "Really, it is a fundamental shift of thinking to existing companies to deal on the virtual world, and because of the long tradition of doing things it is very difficult for them to be successful on the web. They need to adopt a whole new mindset." A survey by PA Consulting found some 95 per cent of insurance firms in Britain, the United States, Australia and Europewere not selling their products on the web, Spottiswoode said.

She said a large majority of websites were filled with news about the company, chairmen's statements and the latest company results, which were a turnoff to consumers.

"That's the quickest way to turn off a consumer... Maybe it is all right for investor relations but no way to do business on the web," she said.

Jeremy Godfrey, managing consultant at PA Consulting, said many websites lacked the human touch. "If the first thing you see is a big corporate logo and lots of stuff about what the company is doing, you know they are doing it wrong. And if what you see is about you, the visitor, then you know they are on the way of doing it right," he said.

Spottiswoode said some corporate leaders did not understand the Internet which resulted in the slow process of adopting a new mindset in doing business in cyberspace.

"The board, certainly in the UK and Europe, are pretty hostile to IT (Information Technology)," she said. "Probably a lot ofthem have not been on the Internet and don't understand it, and so their willingness to embrace it is hampered by that."

Spottiswoode suggested large companies set up a separate firm to handle e-business and bring in managers who can understand the Internet and know how to compete in cyberspace.