Firms still struggle to share information, Microsoft survey finds

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Respondents estimated that over one in five of the documents on their corporate networks were out of date, which could lead to a significant number of useless searches.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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