Almost half of the Republic's top 500 businesses have no website and are not active in e-business, according to a new survey.

The survey, by Plaut Consulting, found 48 per cent of the leading 500 companies were not yet active in e-business. All of these companies claimed they would be active within the next 12 months. Of the remaining 52 per cent which claimed to have some current e-business activity, most confined this to a basic website, Intranet and traditional electronic data applications only.

The financial and professional services sectors lead the way, with manufacturing lagging behind.

Since starting to develop an ebusiness strategy 70 per cent of companies spent more than £100,000 (€126,974) and 40 per cent spent more than £250,000, the survey found.

Those companies which had spent the least, below £100,000, seemed cautious about further expenditure.

Conversely, those companies which had spent most, demonstrated a clear intention to extend their e-business systems and make further investments.

Business strategy was the motivating force behind the adoption of e-business initiatives for 65 per cent of companies already engaged in e-business. However, 35 per cent said they were approaching the process in a less planned way.

Overall, 10 per cent of respondents said IT strategy alone was the motivating force.