23/07-10   -   Press releases

Oracle Research Reveals Workplace Technology is Hindering Business Productivity and Collaboration

Inefficient storage and working practices are costing UK plc up to £900 million a week

News Facts

- Inefficient storage and working practices are costing UK plc up to £900 million a week[1], according to research released today, commissioned by Oracle and carried out by independent research house ICM.

- The research revealed that the equivalent of 30 million hours a week[2] is wasted as people struggle to locate disparately stored documents, and share up-to-date information across systems.

- According to the research, the average employee uses more than five different applications at work on a weekly basis. The use of separate applications in this way means that workers are spending over an hour every week copying and pasting the same information between documents stored in different places and programmes, rather than using a centralised system that can pull together information from wherever it is stored in the business.

- The study, entitled “Enterprise 2.0: Driving creativity, productivity and collaboration" involved a survey of 2,000 adults in the UK

Key Findings

- The average worker spends over an hour (61.55 minutes) a week locating documents or files either from e-mail, personal folders or in the company / shared file servers

- People waste 74 minutes a week copying, pasting and re-entering the same information into different documents

- 80% of workers use their e-mail to store information and files

- 96% are open to the introduction of new technologies to help make their working practices more efficient

- In the past, 44% found insufficient training was a barrier to adopting these new technologies, while one third (35%) did not find them simple or intuitive to use

- 40% of social network users say they are easier to use than workplace software

Supporting Quotes

- Andrew Gilboy, Vice President Director E2.0, Oracle, said, “The findings highlight that while employees are keen to work with Enterprise 2.0 tools in their everyday activities, businesses are yet to take advantage of this and implement them on a wide scale. The real opportunity missed by not adopting Enterprise 2.0 is the ‘business productivity’ gains – as opposed to the gains that can be made in personal productivity – and the ability to accelerate business models."

- Gilboy continued: “Enterprise 2.0 tools and crowdsourcing have the ability to offer a platform for innovation for all employees, customers and partners. Areas that can benefit from this approach include employee induction, creative thinking, product lifecycle management and supply chain management. In addition, collaboration with partners, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders is greatly increased, meaning an organisation can utilise these connections in every aspect of its business. From product development to targeting new geographies and industries, these connections can be used to add to the bottom line."

Supporting Resources

Portal, Interaction and Enterprise 2.0
Oracle Web Centre Services 11g
Oracle Portal 11g

Notes to Editors

- This research was carried out by independent research house ICM in February 2010

- The sample was of 2,000 adults in the UK

- According to the Office of National Statistics, the weekly average salary in the UK of a full time worker in 2009 was £489.00 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285

- This equates to £25,428 per annum, and, assuming a 35 hour week, £13.97 an hour and 0.23p a minute.

- Employment for October to December 2009 was 28.91 million http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=12

- Full-time employment for Oct – Dec 2009 was 21.22 million

- Part-time employment for Oct – Dec was 7.69 million

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