ECIS 2002 • June 6–8, Gdańsk, Poland — First — Previous — Next — Last — Contents — 1607 ELECTRONIC COMMERCE BENEFITS, CHALLENGES AND SUCCESS FACTORS IN THE AUSTRALIAN BANKING AND FINANCE INDUSTRY Joze Kuzic Victoria University, School of Information Systems, PO Box 14468, MC, Melbourne City, 8001, Australia Telephone: +61 3 92481073, Fax +61 3 92481064 joze.kuzic@vu.edu.au Julie Fisher Monash University, School of Information Management and Systems, PO Box 197, Caulfield East, 3145, Australia Telephone +61 399032621, fax +61 399032005 julie.fisher@sims.monash.edu.au Angela Scollary Victoria University, School of Information Systems, PO Box 14468, MC, Melbourne City, 8001, Australia Telephone: +61 3 96885395, Fax 96885024 angela.scollary@vu.edu.au ABSTRACT This paper reports on part of a wider study into electronic commerce (e-commerce) benefits, challenges and success factors in Australian businesses, with particular reference to the banking and finance industry. The findings indicate that the major benefits to this industry sector from adoption of e-commerce are increased sales, business efficiency, competitive advantage, increased automation of processes and retained and increased customer base. The key challenges identified for the sector include the costs of the technology, lack of e-commerce knowledge, budgeting, acquiring IT skilled people and customer service. Secure transactions were not considered a major challenge by this sector; rather they were regarded as one of the success factors, along with support from top management, a functional and user-friendly web site, partnerships with technology providers and an effective project leader. Participating companies correctly estimated the majority of challenges posed by the adoption of e-commerce, however they did not anticipate the difficulties of acquiring skilled staff to design, implement and manage the IT aspects of the transition. 1. INTRODUCTION Electronic commerce as a new way of doing business has significant opportunities. It is fast gathering momentum and becoming a reality in Australia as in other parts of the world. The uptake of e- commerce in Australia however is low with only 4% of sales conducted through the Internet and only 6% of business defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as ‘internet commerce active’ (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2000). Australia lags behind the United States where it is estimated