Enterprise Knowledge Workers: Understanding Risks and Opportunities

An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by SAP

Enterprise knowledge workers:Understanding risksand opportunities

The Economist Intelligence Unit 2007

Enterprise knowledge workers: Understanding risks and opportunities

Enterprise knowledge workers: Understanding risks and opportunities is an Economist Intelligence Unit white paper, sponsored by SAP. The Economist Intelligence Unit bears sole responsibility for this report. The Economist Intelligence Units editorial team executed the survey, conducted the interviews and wrote the report. The findings and views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor. Achmad Chadran was the author of the report, and Debra DAgostino was the editor. Richard Zoehrer was responsible for layout and design.

Our research drew on two main initiatives. We conducted a global online survey in July and August 2007 of 565 executives from various industries. To supplement the results, we conducted in-depth interviews with executives from around the world about the nature of the work that they carry out, the challenges that they face and their ideas for improving process efficiency for knowledge workers. Our thanks are due to all survey respondents and interviewees for their time and insights.

November 2007

Preface



Executive summary

odays business environment is defined by collaboration-intensive

knowledge work. Technological advances in data-processing, telecommunications and interactive mediamany associated with the paradigm known colloquially as Web 2.0have fuelled rising expectations for productivity, responsiveness and ready access to data and information. In this environment, business processes straddle the virtual and the physical as geographic and cultural barriers grow increasingly permeable, new communications media proliferate, the volume of information mushrooms and the concept of time zones gives way to a universal expectation of 24x7 perpetual-motion productivity. As diagrammed on corporate whiteboards around the world, enterprise workflows today tend to resemble spiders webs rather than lines with simple bifurcations, as new technologies undo rigid hierarchical corporate structures and facilitate more direct and democratic modes of reporting, information-sharing and problem-solving. In this new information technology (IT)-enabled enterprise environment, workers manage and have access to a broad range of unstructured information and data. Although this creates new opportunities for the enterprise, it also poses new challenges and risks. This paper examines the nature of collaboration-intensive knowledge work, the challenges posed by the current state of IT, the cost implications of these challenges, and the means by which enterprise workers can operate more efficiently and effectively. The major findings are as follows:

l Knowledge work extends broadly across all industrial sectors, and characterises enterprise processes up and down the value chain. This work requires ready access to a variety of different types of information and data, both structured and unstructured, and supports problem-solving, decision-making and decision support processes.l To do their jobs, knowledge workers use the gamut of different media and technology available to them. Driven by the demands of their jobs, enterprise workers will use whatever means availableincluding traditional formats like face-to-face meetings, and more recent innovations such as mobile text messaging (SMS)to seek out, access,

T Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements.I have ready access to all of the information I need to perform my role.

My companys enterprise-wide processes do not adequately address my information needs, so I find a workaround.

I cant access business processes and information through my productivity tools, so I copy and paste data.

My work typically consists of decision-making, problem-solving, or the creation of new analysis and insight.

I cant find relevant information when I need it.

E-mail is not an effective collaboration tool, so Im drowning in messages and am unable to complete my projects.

My effectiveness and productivity suffer when Im travelling on business.

Agree

Disagree

43%

71%

10050

2512+

57%

29%

60% 40%

42% 58%

38% 62%

58% 42%

93% 7%



Emergence of the collaboration-intensive knowledge workplace

hen the term knowledge worker was first coined in 1959

by management theorist Peter Drucker, few could imagine how the concept would evolve. In those days a companys compendium of knowledge resided almost exclusively in paper-based systems, and the term was used mainly to distinguish white-collar workers from blue-collar staff. In the digital age, a new paradigm has emerged in the enterpriseand with it a new kind of

worker. In North America, knowledge workers now outnumber all other workers by four to one, according to Stephen Haag, author of Business Driven Technology and Management Information Systems for the Information Age. With information increasingly accessible thanks to the development of networked computing, digital storage mechanisms and, of course, the Internet, knowledge work now defines the job descriptions of enterprise employees at nearly all levels. No longer adhering to linear

W

process and analyse data. Knowledge workers choose their means of data search, access and processing based not on leading-edge technology but on a more complex set of factors, including quality, immediacy and the availability of information. l While knowledge workers are satisfied with the quality and quantity of information available to them, they feel burdened and frustrated by the amount of time that it takes to collect, analyse and process it. Despite an abundance of information and data within the enterprise, knowledge workers continue to struggle to locate the specific information that they need in a timely manner, convert it into a usable form and manipulate it to meet their needs for effective decision-making or problem-solving.l As a result, knowledge workers often resort to workarounds, extraordinary and unorthodox measures that can create new inefficiencies within the enterprise and introduce new risks to corporate

governance. These workarounds vary in nature and in the degree to which they flout standard corporate practice. At their most innocuous, they dilute the value of existing IT infrastructures and circumvent the beneficial feedback loop by which IT managers gain insight into knowledge workers needs and workflows. In some extreme cases, workarounds can violate company standards and policies (not to mention legal rules and regulations) on the proper handling and retention of information.l To realise fully the contributions of these workers, enterprise IT planners must better understand the needs and problems associated with this new work paradigm. Because it improves their own efficiency and the quality of their work, knowledge workers respond positively to efforts to facilitate collaboration and the search for and access to data and information.



process flows or rigid task sequences, these workers are increasingly asked to come together in cross-functional teams empowered to tackle specific issues, seek out and analyse information, make decisions and then disband to address other issues, often in collaboration with completely different teams. More than 93% of respondents to our survey say that their work typically consists of decision-making, problem-solving, or the creation of new analysis and insight. (See chart, pg 4) As such, knowledge workers routinely rely on disparate sources to obtain key data needed to make critical business decisions. This places unique and complex demands on workers, particularly because so much of the information that they are asked to collect is unstructured, residing in word-processed documents, e-mails and other tools: 47% of our survey respondents report that as much as 75% of the information that they need day-to-day is unstructured.

What is your title?

Board member

CEO/president/managing director

CFO/treasurer/comptroller

CIO/technology director

Other C-level executive

SVP/VP/director

Head of business unit

Head of department

Manager

Other

3%

3%

15%

3%

6%

16%

7%

10%

28%

11%

30

15

7+

4

Knowledge worker: One whose job

is defined by the collection, distribution

or analysis of data. In todays marketplace,

knowledge workers can include anyone

who depends on the delivery of data in

order to complete his task. In this sense,

market analysts, product delivery drivers,

supply chain managers and chief executives

may all be considered knowledge workers.

Collaboration: Any structured com-

munication between or among people,

using any medium, whether in real time or

virtually, with the intention of exchanging

data, information or ideas as it relates to a

work-related project or task.

Unstructured data: Information that

either lacks a formal data structure or

is not easily readable by a machine. Such

information is usually found in word-proc-

essed documents, e-mails and web pages.

Despite its amorphous nature, unstructured

data can be highly strategic (as in the case

of competitive analyses) and actionable (as

in the case of customer intelligence).

Structured data: Information that is for-

matted, arranged and classified in a way that

facilitates efficient use, such as in a database

or spreadsheet. In information systems,

data structures often dictate the algorithms

(instruction sets) that may be applied to the

data at a later time. Conversely, however,

certain desired algorithms may dictate the

use of specific data structures.

Workarounds: Procedures that cir-

cumvent standard corporate practices.

Workarounds may involve unauthorised

access to and use of information and data,

the application of technologies or platforms

that are not supported by corporate IT

departments, or collaboration with inap-

propriate persons. Workarounds are usually

well intentioned but ill advised, conducted

as a means of achieving greater efficiency

but at the risk of violating corporate integ-

rity and policy. n

Glossary: Knowledge workers defined

The Economist Intelligence Unit 2007 7


As business models leverage the productivity gains brought about by Moores Law (the dictum that computing power doubles every two years), employees are expected to produce at accelerating rates. As a practical matter, this often means that knowledge workers must devise their own working methods to complete their tasks. They are, in a sense, process engineers and process workers. More often than not, they are also process auditors and trouble-shooters. Moreover, the nature of this work bears scant resemblance to older, task-oriented enterprise processes. Knowledge workers require a wide variety of data and information. The collaboration-intensive knowledge work paradigm is not limited to a particular set of job functions, industries or job titles. These workers operate in fields as different as financial services, healthcare, automotive, telecoms, education, entertainment, agriculture and the public sector. Moreover, they carry out their duties with equal resolve and creativity, whether their companies measure their revenue in millions or tens of billions of dollars. From my standpoint, everything I do is information work, says Erica Fox, an analyst in the People Analytics practice at Google, the Internet search and online advertising giant. Ms Foxs group supplies Google with hiring, retention and employee benefits data and metrics. As such, she is called on to analyse data emerging from various departments around the company. Are we meeting diversity goals? How quickly are we filling open positions? How can we create an environment where good people continue to perform at high levels of productivity? These are the questions I am routinely asked, she says. As problem-solving, decision-making and decision support preoccupy a vast majority of todays enterprise workers, the emergence of knowledge work across the enterprise gives rise to

a workflow paradigm wholly distinct from that of its predecessors. This paradigm, in turn, creates new opportunities and challenges that are completely unprecedented in the workplace.

What is your primary industry?

Financial services

IT and technology

Professional services

Healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology

Automotive

Consumer goods

Manufacturing

Telecommunications

Education

Government/Public sector

Aerospace/Defence

Entertainment, media and publishing

Agriculture and agribusiness

Retailing

Transportation, travel and tourism

Energy and natural resources

Chemicals

Construction and real estate

Logistics and distribution

Other

12%

33%

15%

9%

6%

5%

3%

3%

3%

2%

2%

1%

1%

1%

1%

1%

1%



o do their jobs, knowledge workers use the gamut of different media

and technologies. Ironically, however, although the proliferation of new means to locate and access information has multiplied the amount of information available to these workers, it has also made the efficient dissemination, management and processing of data far more burdensome. To complicate matters further, different collaborative media and technologies present unique value propositions to enterprise workers. When reaching out to colleagues, for example, Richard Manuel, an equities analyst and portfolio

Necessary information resides in silos

Business managers have no incentive to share information

IT infrastructure is inflexible

Access to information is not a top management priority

Information workers have no incentive to suggest changes to processes

Company doesnt understand the value of opportunities and synergies

Corporate culture is secretive

Other, please specify

What are the greatest barriers to information sharing at your company? (Choose the top three)

42%

31%

27%

24%

60

30

15

7+

6%

32%

42%

54%

How knowledge workers obtain information

T

Data obtained from our online

survey bear out some interesting sector-

specific trends, although the small number of

respondents limits the reliability of responses

garnered from several industries. For this

reason, only those industries represented by

20 or more respondents have been included

in this analysis.

Automotive: Knowledge workers in the

automotive industry would like to see bet-

ter analytical and reporting tools. Unfortu-

nately, these knowledge workers tend to

consider their IT infrastructures inflexible,

to perceive their corporate cultures as

secretive and to agree with the statement:

Information workers have no incentive to

suggest changes to processes.

Healthcare: Better analytical and report-

ing tools also rank highly on the wish-lists

of knowledge workers in the healthcare

industry. These workers, too, tend to find

their corporate cultures secretive and do not

consider access to information to be a top

management priority.

Consumer goods: Knowledge workers in

the consumer-goods industry would also like

to see better analytical and reporting tools,

but may not be holding their breath: 42% of

respondents in this industry say that they do

not consider access to information to be a

top management priority, while 52% say that

they work with inflexible IT infrastructures.

Financial services: Siloed information

weighs heavily on workers in the financial

services sector, a perception that may drive

the need for better reporting tools.

Technology: About 69% of respondents in

the IT and high-technology sectors report dif-

ficulties in accessing data due to information

silos. This suggests that even in sectors where

knowledge work is vital for success, substan-

tial work remains to accommodate necessary

collaboration and information accessibility. n

Perspectives: Industry overviews



manager at Fidelity Management and Research in Boston, uses a range of technologies including e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and SMS. But not everyone takes advantage of these technologies. This is not a big IM shop, he says. Lots of people still use e-mail as if it were IM. In fact, when the need arises for collaboration of the highest quality, enterprise knowledge workers tend to turn not to virtual collaboration tools but to a more traditional formatthe face-to-face meeting. Explains Sujit Sinha, senior director of web and mobility solutions at Motorola: My group consists entirely of IT folks who support other departmentsmarketing, internal communications, human resources (HR) and so on. We attend all their staff meetings in order to understand whats coming down the road. Face-to-face meetings, he says, are the best way to ensure that everyone understands what is required. Even in an age of IM and virtual communities, there appears to be no substitute for the direct approach, whereby contextual questions can be addressed quickly. Interestingly, the Internet ranks second among the most common means of obtaining information, followed by one-on-one telephone calls and e-mail (see chart, this page). A different, although equally compelling, perspective on todays workflow patterns derives from the media used by knowledge workers over the past 12 months. The responses to our survey affirm the wide variety of media used by enterprise workers in the course of their work: 97% of respondents cite e-mail use over the past 12 months, 55% cite SMS and 54% cite web conferencing. Other media leveraged by enterprise workers over the past year include instant messaging (49%), workflow systems (41%), message boards (36%) and webcasts (35%). Note the discrepancies between the perceived importance of specific media and technologies and recent incidences of their use, which may indicate

one or more of the following characteristics of information work: l accessibility, rather than quality, drives the selection of media applied in the search for and acquisition of information;l the range of search and acquisition media narrows as the importance of the information desired increases; andl knowledge workers choose different media and technologies depending on the urgency of obtaining a specific piece of information and the need to understand it in contextand sometimes even use multiple media on the same information, as a means of validating and qualifying it.

How valuable are the following means of obtaining relevant data? (Rate on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 = Highly valuable and 5 = Not at all valuable)

Company intranet

Audio/video teleconferencing

E-mail

Fax

In-person meetings

Internal company applications

One-on-one telephone calls/voicemail

Online chat

Instant messaging

Paper media

Internet

Web meetings

1 Very significant 2 3 4 5 Not at all significant

24% 31% 27%

15% 33% 28% 18%

38% 39% 20% 3%

6% 12% 22% 31%

12% 6%

6%

10 The Economist Intelligence Unit 2007


dvances in IT have certainly increased the sheer volume of data

and information available to enterprise employees. But have they made access to or work with this information any easier? Not to the satisfaction of knowledge workers, our survey results indicate. Despite the proliferation of company information, and even in spite of a perception among enterprise employees that this information is of high quality, locating the right information in a timely manner remains a chore, as does analysing and processing it. Challenges associated with data-gathering rank high among knowledge workers: 74% of respondents

to our survey say that data-gathering is a significant or very significant challenge, and 68% say the same thing about data-searching, a task that is closely related to data-gathering. The source of this pain? Stovepiped information and siloed data repositories, in which data are only available to one department. Nearly one-half (49%) of survey respondents say that they often or always face information that is scattered across too many different sources or systems. The challenges are well known but hard to solve, says Peter Vieser, strategic technical vendor manager at telecom services provider Siemens in Munich, such as bringing together structured and unstructured data along various business processes. The data are often kept in proprietary, secure systems that cannot easily be spidered by our search machine. Mobile and remote information workers face special challenges, and need tools that are reliable, sufficiently high-capacity and portable. More than 57% of respondents agree with the statement: I find that my effectiveness and productivity suffer when Im travelling on business. Even when company information is easy to find, knowledge workers say that it takes undue processing to be made useful. More than one-third of survey respondents say that they often or always face situations where information is open to all and easy to find but is poorly organised. Moreover, 35% of survey respondents say that they often or always face situations where information is open to all and easy to find but needs to be reformatted to be useful. To make matters worse, 32% of

The pain points of knowledge work

A

How frequently do you face the following challenges when trying to obtain the information you need to get the job done? The information is

Password-protected and I do not have the password

Too hard to find even though I have access to the sources or systems

Scattered across too many different sources or systems

Accessible by anybody inside my company but is hard to find

Accessible by anybody inside and outside the company but is hard to find

Open to all and easy to find but is poorly organised

Open to all and easy to find but is hard to understand

Open to all and easy to find but needs to be reformatted to be useful

Open to all and easy to find but takes too long to download

Open to all and easy to find but unable to download or print-out the data

Questionable due to lack of data reliability/completeness

Nowhere that I can find it

1 Never 3 Sometimes 4 Often 5 Always

21% 38% 30%

8% 28% 42% 19% 2%

3% 17% 31% 40%

8% 28% 39% 24%

11% 1

1

17% 33% 35% 14% 1

4% 20% 42% 30% 4%

8% 34% 44% 13% 1

7% 20% 38% 30% 5%

9%

36% 35% 10% 2%

17% 41% 31% 9% 2%

5% 21% 43% 27% 5%

9% 33% 38% 18% 2%

612

2550

100

17%

2 Rarely



respondents say that they often or always face situations where information is questionable due to lack of data reliability/completeness. No wonder, then, that the second most significant challenge cited by knowledge workers is the downstream task of data analysis. Barriers can arise even in technically advanced companies. Explains Googles Ms Fox: We warehouse all kinds of data: financial, employee and other information. Different people have different access levels, so I cant always access company financial information even though I may legitimately need it. Then its all about trying to find the right person with the right accessand believe me, that can be a lot of work in and of itself.

In your work during the last year, how significant were the following challenges surrounding the integration of unstructured data with structured data? (Rate from 1 to 5 where 1 = Very significant and 5 = Not at all significant)

Data gathering

Data searching

Data analysis

Data management

Data consolidation

Data sharing/collaboration

Data integration

Data integrity/security

Process compliance


31% 43% 17%

30% 38% 23% 7% 2%

32% 38% 23% 6%

25% 38% 25% 8%

6% 3%

2%

3%

26% 37% 26% 8% 4%

21% 37% 29% 10% 4%

20% 32% 25% 15% 7%

22% 31% 25% 13% 9%

17% 28% 31% 14% 9%

612

2550

100

The challenges of HR management

can be extreme for hot companies in the

fast-growth tornado. This would certainly

apply to Google, the Mountain View, Cali-

fornia-based Internet search and online ad-

vertising giant. By end-June 2007 Googles

payroll had reached 13,748, an impressive

milestone for a dotcom formed just nine

years earlier.

As a company, we have to deal with

more than 5,000 in-bound job applications

per day, says Erica Fox, an analyst in the

People Analytics group within Googles HR

organisation. As part of its strategy for

coping with this flood of information while

maintaining its vision and competitive edge,

Google maintains vast data repositories.

Ms Fox relies on these data to address the

myriad issues that arise in the course of de-

veloping and refining company HR policies.

Lets say an engineering director wants

to know if were hiring enough engineers

to support his five projects, Ms Fox says.

Hed be an internal client for our analytics

services. Everything at Google is quanti-

fied. Everything we doevery performance

review, for exampleyields a score. For

every employeeevery prospective em-

ployeethere is a mountain of data.

Googles corporate culture thrives on

collaboration. Google has developed a lot

of collaboration tools, says Ms Fox. Well

be in a meeting with people in a couple of

different sites, and somebody will record

minutes in real time. Somebody at a dif-

ferent location might chime in, you didnt

capture exactly what I said, ask to access

the document directly and change it right

then and there. Its pretty cool that way.

Fittingly, Googles IT infrastructure has

also been designed to support enterprise-

wide collaboration. Nothing is on our

desktops; everything resides on centralised

servers, Ms Fox says. There are lots of

wiki pages, thousands of groups.

With all of its Web 2.0 innovations,

what more could Google possibly offer

its knowledge-worker employees? Ms Fox

offers one suggestion: It would be great

to have a data-warehousing system that

can take tons of data, and maybe provide

a natural language querying capability that

could actually parse questions typed in

standard English. n

Case study: Google



The risks of poor information-sharing

he need for context arises repeatedly in our research, as a means for both

qualifying and validating corporate data and information. I am not the biggest fan of solely searching for corporate data, says Siemens Mr Vieser. You need a network of people in various communities and responsible departments to help you do the job. This pain is shared by nearly 60% of survey respondents, who agree that data-sharing and collaboration is a significant or very significant challenge. But survey respondents and interview subjects alike view such collaboration as essential in the course of their knowledge work. There are no company rules for collaboration, says Bruno Schmid, chief executive officer of Resource Informatik, an IT solutions provider and outsourcing specialist based in Glattzentrum, Switzerland.

T

When IT planners at the Schaumberg,

Illinois-based telecoms giant, Motorola,

determined that the time had arrived to cre-

ate a mobile, enterprise-wide environment

for its information workers, a large part of

the job fell to Sujit Sinha, the companys sen-

ior director of web and mobility solutions.

The resulting platform, a mobile portal

that can be accessed by all knowledge work-

ers, connects two existing programs: Intranet

2.0, Motorolas web-based collaboration suite,

and Motosphere, an internal platform that

uses custom-built applications to leverage

Motorolas vast portfolio of wireless prod-

ucts. This means that all Motorola employees

can enjoy high levels of connectivity and

information access, and experience a uniform

look and feel to their applications, whether

they are on the road or in the office.

Since going live in June 2006, Motoro-

las integrated, mobile-enabled intranet has

grown to encompass some 40 different

programs, including cutting-edge security

technologies and unified messaging platforms.

With a global workforce of nearly 70,000

employees, the scale of this advanced infra-

structure exceeds that of many of Motorolas

carrier customers. Mr Sinha attributes much

of the portals success to Motorolas unique

approach to innovation. As new features

and applications are suggested for consid-

eration, Mr Sinhas group decides in short

order which will be tested and which will be

passed over based on how much timenot

moneyit will require to build. Yet although

this approach initially does away with cost-

Case study: Motorola

Lost productivity

Flawed decision-making

Loss of agility/competitive responsiveness

Inability to optimise processes

Lower quality

Higher costs

Limited/delayed innovation

Limited process compliance

What is the impact on you and your company of inadequate access to the information you need to get your job done? (Choose the top three)

47%

26%

24%

24%

60

30

15

7+

9%

31%

45%

54%



The company relies on its employees to use sound judgment in deciding when e-mail, telephone or face-to-face meetings are most effective. It really depends upon the specific situation, he says. A large part of the problem is not only that data still largely reside in silos, but that business managers have little incentive to share these data. As a result, more than 66% of survey respondents say that they find workarounds to get the data they need. These workaroundsextraordinary measures intended either to circumvent or to overwhelm a procedural obstacleare usually the product of well-intentioned employees who want nothing more than to work efficiently and effectively. A workaround may consist of an act as simple as searching the web for data that cannot be found on the enterprise local area network; leaning on the good graces of a power user, or internal system expert, for an operational statistic; or deciding to cut ones losses and forgo a key piece of information for a report or presentation. According to a Hong Kong-based supply chain manager for a global consumer-goods retailer, If IT systems and work processes are cumbersome, they

may become a significant stumbling block. People will find ways to cut corners, and be non-compliant when they are faced with systems and processes they dont know how to work, or maybe even dont feel

benefit analyses in favour of examining a

technologys potential, the analogy that Mr

Sinha uses is drawn from traditional business

models. Think of it as a venture capitalist.

Youre going to get thrown a lot of innova-

tions, so you want to spend your time on just

a couple of promising ones.

Motorola has also adopted a viral model

for new-technology adoption, short-cutting

painstaking product evaluations and using

the entire enterprise as a real-world proving

ground for new applications and platforms.

Mr Sinhas group can add new applications

and capabilities enterprise-wide with no

fanfare apart from an e-mail bulletin and a

user blog, and can allow an early-adopters

community to play, see what value they

may derive and share their experiences with

others across the intranet.

Needless to say, this approach invites ex-

perimentation with some very unconvention-

al applications. One interesting thing were

playing with is the virtual world thing, similar

to Second Life, says Mr Sinha, referring to

the online universe of avatars and alterna-

tive social networking. Although virtualised,

role-playing applications may seem a far cry

from the business-oriented applications

normally provided on enterprise networks,

Motorola nonetheless sees potential in these

applications ability to improve knowledge

work efficiency, and has made them avail-

able to certain employee communities via its

Intranet 2.0 program. Who knows what you

can do with it? Put them out there and see

what happens, he says. n

I spend an excess amount of time creating workarounds to access the information that I need to get my work done.

Agree 66%

Disagree 34%

There are no company rules for collaboration. It really depends upon the specific situation.Bruno Schmid, CEO, Resource Informatik



work, or dont appear beneficial to them. Unfortunately, from a corporate-governance perspective, such workarounds are far from trivial. At the very least, the repeated application of workarounds usually signals an erosion in the process by which IT departments assess the needs of their knowledge workers, thereby severing an important feedback loop. Moreover, employees who achieve success through unauthorised and undocumented workarounds deprive the enterprise at large of their expertise, and companies risk growing overly dependent on a few individuals adept at navigating the system. Most unsettling is the fact that a corporate culture that overlooks (or even unwittingly rewards) procedural workarounds faces the risk of various workplace violations, including improper accounting or reporting practices, failure to meet regulatory compliance standards or security breaches. Furthermore, results from our survey indicate that knowledge workers tend to give short shrift to issues concerning official company procedures. Asked to rate various challenges that they face in the course of knowledge work, fewer than 17% of respondents

rate process compliance as very significant. When forced to choose between following corporate protocol and getting the work done, corporate protocol all too often goes out of the window.

Approximately what percentage of the information you gather is structured versus unstructured?

Structured 37%

Unstructured 64%

Better tools for knowledge workers

hat, then, are the keys to more effective knowledge work? To

increase productivity and improve decision-making, knowledge workers want tools to help them access data more easily, qualify and ensure the datas relevance to the problem or question at hand, and integrate and analyse the data to develop an understanding of complex relationships. When asked

which IT changes would improve overall decision-making, 46% of survey respondents selected improved ability to integrate and present complex information from various sources, 43% chose more comprehensive integration of IT systems across the enterprise and 42% chose easier access to information from your desktop. In the view of the Hong Kong-based supply

W

Total does not add up to 100% due to rounding.



chain manager, three critical collaborations need to happen between IT support staff and enterprise users. First, be customer-focused and understand the needs and concerns of the end-user. You can build the worlds most innovative system and process, but if done without understanding end-users needs, requirements and concerns, no one will want to use it. Second, engage end-users throughout the development of the internal operating systems to make it easier to get their buy-in. Third, senior management must be aware that in order for people to do their day-to-day jobs properly and effectively, they need to be on board with, and support the development of, the right IT systems and workflow processes. The good news is that a majority of knowledge workers believe that IT will respond to their needs in the near term. When asked how confident they are that their companys technologies and processes will meet their needs within the next three years, more than one-half expressed confidence.

Improved ability to integrate and present complex info from various sources

More comprehensive integration of IT systems across the enterprise

Easier access to information from your desktop

Addition/improvement of analytical and reporting tools

Addition/improvement of a companywide collaboration portal

Addition/improvement of enterprise data search tools

Greater integration of specialised software applications with MS Office

Easier access to information from mobile devices

Addition/improvement of tools that enable internal real-time dialogue

Of the following IT changes, which do you believe would improve overall decision-making in your company? (Choose the top three)

43%

27%

26%

19%

60

30

15

7+

19%

14%

41%

42%

46%

In your opinion, how well aligned would you say that your organisations IT objectives are with the following objectives?

Providing information workers with ready access to company data

Allowing information workers to collaborate more effectively

Giving information workers the appropriate hardware (PDAs), software, and processes needed to integrate multiple sources of data and information

1 Perfectly aligned 3 Somewhat aligned 4 Not aligned at all

6% 37% 45%

31% 49% 15%

25% 46% 24%

12%

612

2550

100

2 Well aligned

5%

5%

How confident are you that your company has technology and processes that enable ready access to information you need? How confident are you that it will have these in 1-3 years? (Rate from 1 to 5, where 1 = Highly confident and 5 = Not at all confident)

Now

Next 1 - 3 years

1 Highly confident

2

3

45 Not at all confident

11%28%

32%21%

9%

5%

15%41%

29%11%

5025

12.56+



Conclusion

he continued evolution of enterprise processes towards knowledge work

puts a higher premium on holistic IT planning than ever before. Because employees who find resources inadequate resort to workarounds that reduce corporate transparency, executives must develop clear IT strategies to reduce risks and better enable workers. The first step in creating an IT environment conducive to information work is to develop a

broad understanding of the needs of information workers. What kinds of information and data are highly sought after within the enterprise, and how are they used? The answers to these questions will undoubtedly vary, partly in relation to a companys primary activity but also with the job function of the information worker. Motorolas Mr Sinha estimates the number of distinct workflows in his company to be in the hundreds, which suggests

T

The rise of new information search

and handling responsibilities that have come

to define enterprise workflows invites

comparisons with an emerging Web 2.0

paradigm. Web 2.0 refers loosely to the

collaborative, community-based sites that

encompass such newer conventions as wikis,

blogs, aggregators, webcasts and folksono-

mies, many of which have found their way

on to corporate networks, with varying

degrees of success.

As part of our online survey on informa-

tion work, respondents were asked about the

availability of various Web 2.0 conventions on

corporate networks. When cross-tabulated

according to various criteria, their answers

yield a nuanced view of the various collabo-

rative technologies available to knowledge

workers in different industries.

These results may provide insights into the

most effective Web 2.0 conventions that may

be integrated into self-service portals, such as

enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer

relationship management (CRM) and product

lifecycle management (PLM) systems. For

those who have them, knowledge workers

enjoy and appreciate the self-service portals

available to them, and see the potential for

expansions and enhancements. Asked to

choose among several statements describing

their experiences with company self-service

portals, 36% selected I use some self-service

portals provided by my company, and would

like to see their use expanded, while 29%

chose To the best of my knowledge, my com-

pany does not use self-service portals.

Small companies tend not to have portals,

and big companies are more likely to have

more effective portals than small ones.

Interestingly, knowledge workers who use

self-service portals more frequently report

challenges in data-gathering, perhaps because

they have developed higher expectations for

data access and ease of use.

What about the influence of age on the

use of collaborative media in enterprises?

A cross-tabulation of media choices on

the basis of respondents age yields some

notable tendencies among different genera-

tions. However, the distinctions that emerge

challenge tired stereotypes of Luddite baby

boomers and technically savvy Gen X-ers. In

fact, respondents over 25 years old are more

likely to use collaborative tools, e-mail, web

conferencing and workflow systems than are

their younger counterparts. Web conferenc-

ing finds its highest appeal among knowledge

workers aged between 46 and 55 (62%),

while those aged 26-55 report the strongest

inclination towards the use of SMS. n

Enterprise Web 2.0 and self-service media



strongly that information openness and ease of access should prevail over firewalls and stovepipes. Googles approach to documenting and quantifying enterprise workers needs involves an open ticketing system, similar to those used in technical support environments but expanded to include almost any query imaginable, from the request for a new mobile phone to the development of a new search capability on a specific platform. Ultimately, enterprise workers need:l easier access to information across disciplines and functional boundaries, in order to derive full value from the information and the efforts of knowledge workers;l better contextual information, to validate and quantify data in advance and streamline search- and-retrieval efforts;l collaboration tools to facilitate the many forms of communicationincluding virtual, real- time and face-to-facethat knowledge workers increasingly rely on to work effectively; andl automated provisionssuch as obligatory data- classification fieldsto enforce corporate policies designed to protect the integrity and security of corporate data and information.

Once launched, collaboration and data platforms should be audited regularly, as should the higher-level processes that they are intended to support. Finally, IT architects should adopt a mindset of open access and unrestricted collaboration for their IT infrastructures if they are to empower the knowledge workers who have come to dominate their enterprises. In the words of Professor Drucker, the companies that can best strip away everything that gets in their knowledge workers way will benefit from the single biggest factor for competitive advantage in the next 25 years.

Which of the following statements best describes your experiences with your companys self-service online portals?

I use some self-service portals provided by my company, and would like to see their use expanded 36%

To the best of my knowledge, my company does not use self-service portals 29%

My company provides some self-service portals, but none that are applicable to me 15%

My company makes the most effective use possible of self-service portals 11%

My company provides some self-service portals, but I tend not to use them, and prefer to obtain information by other means 9%

Which of the following have you personally used in your role at your company during the last 12 months? (Select all that apply)

E-mail

Text messaging (on phone)

Web conferencing, with live audio sent across a computer network

Instant messaging (on computer)

Workflow systems (allowing people to track progress of a work process)

Discussion forums/message boards (allowing people to post messages or questions on a specific topic)

Webcasts/podcasts/RSS feeds

Centralised online collaboration (allowing people to collaborate on documents and projects in real time)

Wikis (allowing multiple authors to post and edit articles, building up a body of knowledge)

Collaborative tools for designing products

Blogs (allowing people to publish an online chronological journal)


55%

41%

36%

35%

32%

22%

97%

100

50

25

12

18%

17%

4%

49%

54%


Appendix: survey results Enterprise knowledge workers: Understanding risks and opportunities

Appendix: Survey results In July and August 2007, the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a global online survey of 565 senior executives from various industries. Please note that not all answers add up to 100% because of rounding or because respondents were able to provide multiple answers to some questions.

In which region are you personally located?

North America 31%

Asia-Pacific 30%

Western Europe 26%

Middle East and Africa 6%

Eastern Europe 4%

Latin America 3%

What is your primary industry?

Financial services

IT and technology

Professional services

Healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology

Automotive

Consumer goods

Manufacturing

Telecommunications

Education

Government/Public sector

Aerospace/Defence

Entertainment, media and publishing

Agriculture and agribusiness

Retailing

Transportation, travel and tourism

Energy and natural resources

Chemicals

Construction and real estate

Logistics and distribution

Other

12%

33%

15%

9%

6%

5%

3%

3%

3%

2%

2%

1%

1%

1%

1%

1%

1%



What is your organisations global annual revenue in US dollars?

$500m or less 41%

$500m to $1bn 13%

$1bn to $5bn 15%

$5bn to $10bn 8%

$10bn to $20bn 23%

What is your title?

Board member

CEO/president/managing director

CFO/treasurer/comptroller

CIO/technology director

Other C-level executive

SVP/VP/director

Head of business unit

Head of department

Manager

Other

3%

3%

15%

3%

6%

16%

7%

10%

28%

11%

30

15

7+

4

What is your age?

18 to 25 2%

26 to 35 33%

36 to 45 34%

46 to 55 22%

56 to 65 8%

Over 65 1%

What are your main functional roles? (Choose up to three)

Strategy and business development

General management

Marketing and sales

IT

Finance

Information and research

Risk

Operations and production

Customer service

R&D

Human resources

Supply-chain management

Procurement

Legal

Other

24%

36%

34%

20%

18%

17%

14%

12%

11%

11%

6%

4%

4%

3%

4%

40

20

10

5



How satisfied are you with the information available to you to support your primary job responsibilities? (Rate on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 = Very satisfied and 5 = Not at all satisfied)

Quality of information

Quantity of information

Ease of access to information

Ease of use of information

1 Very satisfied

2

3

45 Not at all satisfied

11%35%

32%18%

5%

4%

7%

9%33%

29%23%

6%

9%29%

35%21%

14%40%

28%14%

5025

12.56+

Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements.

I have ready access to all of the information I need to perform my role.

My companys enterprise-wide processes do not adequately address my information needs, so I find a workaround.

I cant access business processes and information through my productivity tools, so I copy and paste data.

My work typically consists of decision-making, problem-solving, or the creation of new analysis and insight.

I cant find relevant information when I need it.

E-mail is not an effective collaboration tool, so Im drowning in messages and am unable to complete my projects.

My effectiveness and productivity suffer when Im travelling on business.

Agree

Disagree

43%

71%

10050

2512+

57%

29%

60% 40%

42% 58%

38% 62%

58% 42%

93% 7%

How confident are you that your company has technology and processes that enable ready access to information you need? How confident are you that it will have these in 1-3 years? (Rate from 1 to 5, where 1 = Highly confident and 5 = Not at all confident)

Now

Next 1 - 3 years

1 Highly confident

2

3

45 Not at all confident

11%28%

32%21%

9%

5%

15%41%

29%11%

5025

12.56+

Work today requires access to different types of information. Which sets of information are most critical to accomplishing your work? (Choose up to three)

Financial information

Research and development

Competitor information

Customer/supplier relationships

Sales/marketing

Internal costs and budget

Human resources (personnel, recruiting, compensation)

Product life cycle

Time reporting

Inventories/availability to promise

Investor relations


40%

34%

31%

16%

15%

12%

42%

50

25

12+

6+

7%

7%

7%

34%

38%



How valuable are the following means of obtaining relevant data? (Rate on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 = Highly valuable and 5 = Not at all valuable)

Company intranet

Audio/video teleconferencing

E-mail

Fax

In-person meetings

Internal company applications

One-on-one telephone calls/voicemail

Online chat

Instant messaging

Paper media

Internet

Web meetings


24% 31% 27%

15% 33% 28% 18%

38% 39% 20% 3%

6% 12% 22% 31%

12% 6%

6%



How frequently do you face the following challenges when trying to obtain the information you need to get the job done? The information is

Password-protected and I do not have the password

Too hard to find even though I have access to the sources or systems

Scattered across too many different sources or systems

Accessible by anybody inside my company but is hard to find

Accessible by anybody inside and outside the company but is hard to find

Open to all and easy to find but is poorly organised

Open to all and easy to find but is hard to understand

Open to all and easy to find but needs to be reformatted to be useful

Open to all and easy to find but takes too long to download

Open to all and easy to find but unable to download or print-out the data

Questionable due to lack of data reliability/completeness

Nowhere that I can find it

1 Never 3 Sometimes 4 Often 5 Always

21% 38% 30%

8% 28% 42% 19% 2%

3% 17% 31% 40%

8% 28% 39% 24%

11% 1

1

17% 33% 35% 14% 1

4% 20% 42% 30% 4%

8% 34% 44% 13% 1

7% 20% 38% 30% 5%

9%

36% 35% 10% 2%

17% 41% 31% 9% 2%

5% 21% 43% 27% 5%

9% 33% 38% 18% 2%

612

2550

100

17%

2 Rarely

I spend an excess amount of time creating workarounds to access the information that I need to get my work done.

Agree 66%

Disagree 34%

If you could access your own companys data directly when you need it, what would be the biggest benefit to you?

Increased productivity 29%

Informed decision-making 22%

More immediate response to changing business demands 14%

Effective time management 14%

Enhanced problem-solving 10%

Improved quality 6%

Greater internal and external communication 4%

Other 1%Lost productivity

Flawed decision-making

Loss of agility/competitive responsiveness

Inability to optimise processes

Lower quality

Higher costs

Limited/delayed innovation

Limited process compliance

What is the impact on you and your company of inadequate access to the information you need to get your job done? (Choose the top three)

47%

26%

24%

24%

60

30

15

7+

9%

31%

45%

54%

Necessary information resides in silos

Business managers have no incentive to share information

IT infrastructure is inflexible

Access to information is not a top management priority

Information workers have no incentive to suggest changes to processes

Company doesnt understand the value of opportunities and synergies

Corporate culture is secretive


What are the greatest barriers to information sharing at your company? (Choose the top three)

42%

31%

27%

24%

60

30

15

7+

6%

32%

42%

54%



Improved ability to integrate and present complex info from various sources

More comprehensive integration of IT systems across the enterprise

Easier access to information from your desktop

Addition/improvement of analytical and reporting tools

Addition/improvement of a companywide collaboration portal

Addition/improvement of enterprise data search tools

Greater integration of specialised software applications with MS Office

Easier access to information from mobile devices

Addition/improvement of tools that enable internal real-time dialogue

Of the following IT changes, which do you believe would improve overall decision-making in your company? (Choose the top three)

43%

27%

26%

19%

60

30

15

7+

19%

14%

41%

42%

46%

How often do you or your team currently collaborate with the following constituencies?

Other functional areas within my organisation

Other geographic locations within my organisation

External suppliers

External customers

External business partners

1 Daily 2 Weekly 3 Monthly 4 Quarterly 5 Yearly 5 Rarely or never

55% 26% 11%

31% 27% 19% 10% 3%

16% 25% 23% 12%

34% 25% 14% 6%

5% 1 3%

9%

19%

18%

13%

4%

3%

20% 31% 20% 12% 5%

612

2550

100

Which of the following statements best describes your experiences with your companys self-service online portals?

I use some self-service portals provided by my company, and would like to see their use expanded 36%

To the best of my knowledge, my company does not use self-service portals 29%

My company provides some self-service portals, but none that are applicable to me 15%

My company makes the most effective use possible of self-service portals 11%

My company provides some self-service portals, but I tend not to use them, and prefer to obtain information by other means 9%

In your opinion, how well aligned would you say that your organisations IT objectives are with the following objectives?

Providing information workers with ready access to company data

Allowing information workers to collaborate more effectively

Giving information workers the appropriate hardware (PDAs), software, and processes needed to integrate multiple sources of data and information

1 Perfectly aligned 3 Somewhat aligned 4 Not aligned at all

6% 37% 45%

31% 49% 15%

25% 46% 24%

12%

612

2550

100

2 Well aligned

5%

5%

Advisor

Evaluator

Purchaser

I dont have any role

What role (if any) do you play in making IT-related purchases? (Select all that apply)

34%

40

20

10

5

35%

20%

40%

Product reviews

Colleagues and friends

Technology media

Vendor websites

General business media

Community/specialty websites (business, solution developers, etc.)

Analysts (Forrester, IDC, Jupiter, etc.)

Trade shows and conferences

Discussion boards

Blogs


What is your preferred method for obtaining information for technology products and services? (Choose three)

41%

30%

26%

22%

60

30

15

7+

22%

12%

7%

4%

35%

35%

43%

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