Sue F.
Research VP at IDC covering search and discovery technologies and digital marketplace dynamics.
What does information work cost the enterprpise?
To update my document on the costs of information work, could you let me know:
1. Number of hours you spend searching for information for a work purpose on a) Web and b) company intranet?
2. Number of hours pent using email for work? Thanks very much!
Good Answers (22)
Hours/day searching for information: 3-4
Company intranet: N/A
Hours/day using email: 1-2
1. I estimate that I spend 4-8 hours per week looking for information on the internet for work purposes. I categorize my searches as a) documentation on existing products that I use; b) providers of a particular product of service (recently searched for service desk software providers); c) coding examples; d) problem resolution; e) information security threats.
2. I spend at least 1 hour per day on emails. I have not yet gotten a blackberry.
1 a) 5 hours/week b) none
2) 10 hours/weekl
1. Searching via web: 5-10 hours per week
Company intranet: 2-4 hours per week.
2. 15-25 hours per week
Links:
Peter G. also suggests these experts on this topic:
James W.
Founder & Managing Partner at Foresight Information Services
Best Answers in: Lead Generation (1), Sales Techniques (1)
1 - web = avg 2 hrs/day; .5 hrs / day intranet
2 - email for work = 3 hrs/day average including BlackBerry mobile
Searching for work-related information on the web: THREE hours per week (mostly forums on slightly obscure technical issues for Linux, SQL, or hardware -- as RTFM increasingly is impossible or useless!)
Searching for work-related information in a local database (essentially my "intranet"): SIX hours per week (most time is on confirming consistency of database elements against changing real-world conditions: human review of automated reporting that news target URL's changed. Easy to predict when publishers / portals have abandoned all business sense: they start redesigning their site every 120-180 days :-)
Using E-mail for work: FOUR hours per week total. Includes:
~TWO hours per week in tech talk (pings among programming and network ensemble).
+ ONE hour per week managing / administering (rules in iptables, LDAP tweaks, spam filters).
+ ONE hour per week (boring admin stuff, but rarely a help request -- since the service works *sooo* well and intuitively :-)
Jochen L.
Lead Scientist at Thomson Reuters Global Resources | Director at Linguit Ltd
Sue,
The problem is that for a knowlegdge worker, work by and large *is* researching the Web, writing emails and wiki pages and technical reports.
A while back there was an article in C.ACM on secretly measuring the time people spent on e-mail. Ethical worries of this approach aside (it's actually not consistent with ACM's own Code), the problem is that not all emails are equally productive or work-related.
Here's a productivity analysis:
http://ebusiness.mit.edu/research/Briefs/VanAlstyne_Info_Productivity_Final_VI.pdf
Links:
Daniel T.
Principal Data Scientist at LinkedIn
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Search Marketing (1)
1) Probably a total of an hour a day, but it's hard to measure where search for information ends and using information begins. Less time on the company intranet, but that's because it's easier to find things there. It's nice to work for a company that does enterprise search. :-)
2) I've been spending 2+ hours a day on email but am trying to reduce that. In fact, I just blogged about it!
Links:
1. a. 5 hours per week b. 30 minutes per week
2. 10 hours per week
1.a) 6+
1.b) none
2. 2+
Clarification added December 8, 2008:
Daily
Anders H.
Designer and Developer of Software, Software Consultant, R&D Management Coach, Search Technology Specialist
1-a) 5 hours per week
1-b) 0 hours per week
2) 5 hours per week
Steve C.
COO at Basis Technology - Leading provider of text analytics to enterprise and cloud applications
Web: 1 hr
Intra: .25 hr
Email: 2.5 hr.
Per day. The email estimate might be low. You didn't ask, but I probably spend .25 hrs/day getting information via phone (voice calls).
Josh C.
Director of Operations at Web Industries, and Decent Little League Coach
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (50), Job Search (14), Business Development (14), Staffing and Recruiting (12), Organizational Development (9), Economics (8), Career Management (8), Business Analytics (7), Sales Techniques (6), Starting Up (6), Accounting (5), Personnel Policies (5), Public Relations (5), Change Management (5), Small Business (5), Education and Schools (4), Budgeting (4), Government Policy (4), Planning (4), Quality Management and Standards (4), Software Development (4), Occupational Training (3), Compensation and Benefits (3), Internet Marketing (3), Search Marketing (3), Equity Markets (3), Manufacturing (3), Project Management (3), Supply Chain Management (3), Product Design (3), Ethics (3), Professional Networking (3), Energy and Development (3), Blogging (3), Web Development (3), Customer Service (2), Purchasing (2), Mentoring (2), Lead Generation (2), Writing and Editing (2), Philanthropy (2), Biotech (2), E-Commerce (2), Computers and Software (2), Regulation and Compliance (1), Hotels (1), Certification and Licenses (1), Resume Writing (1), Event Marketing and Promotions (1), Conference Planning (1), Corporate Debt (1), Government Services (1), Health Care (1), Exporting/Importing (1), Internationalization and Localization (1), Intellectual Property (1), Employment and Labor Law (1), Property Law (1), Advertising (1), Customer Relationship Management (1), Nonprofit Fundraising (1), Nonprofit Management (1), Personal Debt Management (1), Personal Real Estate (1), Wealth Management (1), Distribution (1), Industrial Design (1), Professional Books and Resources (1), Business Plans (1), Green Products (1), Enterprise Software (1), Information Security (1)
Hi Sue,
For myself, I spend 2 hrs/day on email. Very little time finding stuff internally because we keep it very, very organized. Maybe a half-hour a day searching around on the 'net.
However these two functions comprise just a fraction of the time spent on information work.
Josh.
1.a) 4 hrs / week
1.b) 2 hrs / week
2) 30 hrs / week
Sue, i suspect your question is directed at searching using technology - 'enterprise search' sort of things. At a recent client, we discovered that a good deal of 'searching' time is time an employee will spend using the old 'sneakernet' approach - talking to other employees directly, via phone, or even via email. This company is a major consulting firm, whose employees told us that having a great manager meant being able to tap his knowledge as to who to ask questions of regarding clients, procedures, etc. Many more of these highly paid knowledge workers used their 'personal connections network' for 'search' than the enterprise box on their portal page. Now, perhaps this speaks to the poor quality of search implementations; or it may just be the way companies really do business.
As a VP of Marketing, I spend 1-2 hours per day looking for information. Most is on web for competitive/partner/customer intelligence.
I spend 4-6 hours per day on email coordinating with product, sales and marketing teams.
I don't sleep so the rest of the time I spend in meetings or on the phone actually speaking to people....
a) 4 hours
b) 1 hour
2) 10 hours
1 a) 1 hour per day
b) 1/4 h per day
2) 2 hours per day
Peter V.
Director EMEA at Digital Solutions Cooperative
Best Answers in: Direct Marketing (1), Internet Marketing (1)
Hello Sue,
this question relates to the research we've been talking about some time ago I guess. Look forward to the results!
1a) 2 hours per day
1b) n.a.
2) 1 hour per day
Best regards,
Peter van Teeseling
1a) 5-20 hrs/week
1b) 1-5 hrs/week
2) 5-15 hrs/week
1. Web - average 30 mins to an hour per day. Company intranet - 10 to 15 mins per day
2. Using email - 6 hours per day
Glad to help!
Hello Sue,
I search for information about 30-40% of my time.
About 20-30% of my work time goes for emailing.
Best regards,
Alexander
