Firms are still making it hard for employees to share
information, despite
the advent of the web and the proliferation of
mobile devices.
In a bid to measure the state of collaboration within today’s UK
organisations, Microsoft commissioned research from Henley
Management College based on 600 employees from a cross section of
UK industry.
The research identified a number of key issues associated with
finding, using and sharing information, covering technological
barriers, people issues and inadequacies in organisational
processes.
The survey found that while office-based employees often have
good access to find, use and share tools, those employees on the
road as well as trusted partners from the supply chain have a much
harder time.
Only 10% of those that
worked remotely found it easy to access e-mail, for
instance.
The average workgroup of 25 people shared 1,500 documents and
e-mails a week, but only 62% of respondents had policies in place
advocating “search and share” best practice.
Respondents estimated that over one in five of the documents on
their corporate networks were out of date, which could lead to a
significant number of useless searches.
The survey also found that 61% believed that departments within
their organisation were poor at sharing information with each
other. And 52% said sources of inefficiencies in collaboration were
“people-driven”.
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