One in five hand-done returns has a basic error like bad math or an entry in the wrong place, versus one in 100 in electronically prepared returns, said David R. Williams, I.R.S. director of electronic tax administration.
Reporters talked to Dr. Cuthbert C. Hurd, I.B.M.'s director of electronic data processing.
That has resonated with Larry Novenstern, executive vice president and director of electronic media for the media agency Optimedia.
"Not a chance," says Philip Blackwell, who started the Internet Bookshop, which WH Smith bought, and is now director of electronic commerce with Cap Gemini, a consultancy.
"Doubling games are very boring for the first quarter of the board," says Glover Ferguson, director of electronic commerce at Andersen Consulting, a management consultancy.
"We're all really guilty of publishing too much," said Thomas Trivella, the director of electronic research distribution for Credit Suisse First Boston, one of WorldStreet's research providers.
"We are intent on making the Web an easier way to handle business-to-business transactions," said Marie Weik, I.B.M.'s director of electronic markets infrastructure.
Six years ago, he became director of electronic publications for the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which calls itself the oldest such group in the country.
"We see a lot of opportunity to use the Internet to reach out to our mobile passengers," those who use cell phones and palm computers, said Kevin McKenna, Continental's director of electronic marketing.
Michael Looney, the senior director of electronic books at Adobe Systems, which acquired Glassbook last year, said the most obvious difference between Glassbook and eBook Reader was that eBook Reader could display pages side by side.
They are getting better, and Gene Alvarez, the program director for electronic business strategies at META Group, another Internet research company in Stamford, Conn., said shoppers were beginning to go to the sites as they would go to a flea market.
