The survey, carried out by research specialist Vanson Bourne, suggests the growth in transaction volumes has been driven by customer demand for new products and services, and this in turn has led businesses to build and rely on ever-increasingly complex IT environments.

Six out of 10 (57%) of respondents said that delivering bundled products and services and opening new channels to market have increased the complexity of IT.

And 94% of those experiencing such complexity said it had led to occasional or frequent loss of transactions.

Dan Foody, vice president of Actional Products at Progress Software, said, "

"Companies should consider introducing a more streamlined approach to monitoring order flows across their IT environments, delivering the ability to respond to changing conditions and customer interactions as they occur."

The survey also found that:

• 63% feared that processing failures/delays definitely or probably resulted in customer churn.
• 82% said their best customers did not receive the best service on offer.
• 89% felt that processing failures/delays diminished the customer experience.
• And 64% of companies said dealing with transaction failures increased demand on resources.

Richard Abraham, Sales Manager from document management company, Version One, says, "It is vital that organisations implement a few key software systems to support their financial processes and don't install a number of complex systems, which end up more of a hinder than a help. For example, document management integrated into organisations' accounting software is a cost-effective and simple solution to streamlining financial processes."