Inefficient storage and bizarre working practices are wasting UK Plc money at a point where it can ill afford the expense.
According to research carried out by ICM on behalf of Oracle £900m a week is being wasted as a result of the wasted hours it takes for staff to find stored information and work through different applications.
The average employee users more than five different applications a day and 30m hours is wasted a week as people try to find information from stored documents.
One potential answer is the willingness employees show towards using technology to make their lives easier with 96% open to the introduction of new IT to make working practices more efficient, according to Oracle's Enterprise 2.0: Driving creativity, productivity and collaboration report.
Andrew Gilboy, vice president E2.0 at Oracle, said that the research showed staff wanted to work with web 2.0 tools but there was an opportunity being missed by not using the latest technology.
"Enterprise 2.0 tools and crowdsourcing have the ability to offer a platform for innovation for all employees, customers and partners," he said.
"From product development to targeting new geographies and industries, these connections can be used to add to the bottom line," he added.
Hi,
Trying to find information through files has always been a problem. I know you can use Google Desktop to search for content which is quick.
It is time for companies to tag all new documents and have a standard taxonomy which can categorize them properly. Information can be stored in a database where tools can easily search for information.
Alternatively, every quarter, companies must filter and archive old documents which are for historical purposes only and leave a leaner document set. Companies should also centralise all documents as much as possible, so there is only one version. Versions of documents exist on intranets, file systems, email servers, desktop which causes an issue for control and time wasting.
Gene Da Rocha
Voxstar.com