Business to Consumer E-Services: Australian Accounting Practices and their Web Sites

Abstract

This article reports on a study involving analysis of the Web sites of 100 accounting practices located in Melbourne, Australia, and subsequent interviews with twenty practices. This article focuses on identifying the level of e-services that they employ. In this regard, Angehrn’s virtual dimensions of Web site spaces were used to classify the various service delivery strategies adopted by the different practices. The results suggest that information technology plays a critical role in the accounting industry and that the use of computer accounting packages is almost mandatory among clients. There is little evidence of the use of Web sites for the delivery of automated e-services. At the moment, the Internet is primarily used to support the delivery of services rather than completely automate it. Overall, the study suggests that Australian accounting firms currently take a fairly conservative approach to Web site use.