Microsoft urges manufacturers to rethink ‘enterprise IQ’

Microsoft commissioned the study by Henley, which surveyed 600 employees from UK industry last month to assess the state of information collaboration in British industry. Other findings included that while the average workgroup of 25 people shared 1,500 documents and emails a week, only 62% had policies advocating ‘search and share’ best practice – and only 42% of policies tackled version control. Respondents estimated that over one in five of documents on their networks were out of date, which could lead to a significant number of useless searches. Henley Management College also found that when organisations can improve the way they find, use and share information, it has an observable impact on organisational performance. 60% of those who say their organisation has improved its recent performance were satisfied with information search and retrieval processes. However, only 23% of those who felt their organisation’s performance was static or poor were similarly satisfied. Paul Stoddard, Windows Client Marketing Manager, Microsoft UK said, “We have an unprecedented ability to search within an organisation for the information we need. However, it is clear that search results are not enough. Those results have to be used and shared easily and appropriately. “Organisations should be thinking about integrating the ‘find’, ‘use’ and ‘share’ tools they provide to their employees if they want to see the most benefit from collaboration. The research shows a clear correlation between organisational performance and the adequacy of tools to find, use and share information.” Microsoft is making six recommendations: 1. Establish and then drive down the overall cost of searching 2. Don’t share for sharing’s sake 3. Abolish the hard drive information culture 4. Think inside-out and outside-in – meaning extend collaboration outside the organisation 5. Celebrate ‘Enterprise IQ heroes’ – those who collaborate best and use their techniques to model best practice 6. Think beyond search’: “Getting accurate search results is the beginning, not the end of the journey to collaborating effectively. Think about developing an infrastructure that deeply integrates the ‘find’, ‘use’ and ‘share’ functionalities to provide your organisation,” suggests Stoddard.