COMPANIES in Bury who have the lowdown on hi-tech may need to do more to maximise the rewards of adopting information communication technology (ICT).

That's the message from Bolton and Bury Chamber following a report which discloses UK productivity is under threat as companies are significantly failing to exploit the benefits of technology.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey, Using IT: Small Business and Technology, covers the views of 2,500 UK leading managers, including members of Bolton and Bury Chamber. It finds that despite, in some cases, the huge expense companies face getting online, more than half of small firms have not seen an increase in sales leads from their websites.

A further third of firms have not updated their website since it was set up. In addition, larger businesses are more likely to market their websites than their smaller counterparts.

The results also reveal that fear of crime remains a major obstacle in doing business electronically. A total of 61 per cent of companies experienced computer-related crimes in the last year with 93 per cent of these firms suffering from virus attacks.

Commenting on the results, Andrew Ratcliff, chief executive of Bolton and Bury Chamber, said: "ICT has transformed business processes, improved productivity and created major benefits for the customer. The survey identifies the areas where many firms are successfully rising to the challenges of technology, but also reveals the remaining gaps."

He concluded: "It is evident that more needs to be done to enable local and national businesses to gain maximum advantage over their competitors and succeed in global marketplace."