The Internet's reputation took a bashing 3 years ago when the dot com bubble burst. The problem was that greed took over and everyone over hyped the Internet. The bubble burst, not because the Internet failed, but because the whole thing was so over hyped that it just had to come back down to earth, which it did in spectacular style. But the underlying technology behind the Internet is sound and becoming increasingly popular. The stock market may have overdone it and overheated but the basics behind the Internet are now showing the signs of success that were forecast for it during the boom years.

The people who got the whole web thing so wrong were companies like Boo.com who raised millions of pounds in the City to sell designer clothing and posh handbags over the Internet. That was never going to happen, but using the Internet as a convenient way of paying your London Congestion charge, now that is a much more sensible idea.

There are now hundreds of transport companies who are using the Internet to both trade and communicate with their customers. Almost 90% of the computer systems that we install now have an Internet related function. We very rarely come across a transport company who does not want to include e-commerce and web based track and trace systems into their computer setup.

The message here is that you need to include the web into your normal methods of communication, payment and trading. Of course, you will have a few customers that do not want to trade via the Internet but it is becoming increasing obvious that many other customers do. Don't think that becoming web enabled means changing everything; Internet services are just an addition to your normal trading methods; they are not a complete replacement. You will always have customers who don't want to use the web and you will increasingly gain customers who do.

Lets face it, if 20% of the London's commuters now prefer to pay over the internet, then it is quite possible that very soon, 20% of your customer base will want the same service from you.