IT managers are the worst at finding information

IT managers find it harder to find the information they need to do their jobs than other managers, and when they do locate it they are least likely to find it of value, according to new research.

Accenture’s survey of over 1,000 middle managers of large companies in the UK and US reveals that IT managers’ productivity is more severely impacted than other managers, including those in HR, accounting, customer service and sales and marketing, by time wasted sifting through proliferating sources of information.

Nearly half (47 per cent) of IT managers, more than any other department, say they spend nearly 30 per cent of their working week trying to track down relevant information for their jobs.

IT managers (42 per cent) are most likely to say that their ability to find the information for their jobs is hindered because there is ‘too much information’. They said that, on average, less than half (44 per cent) of the information they receive for their job is of value.

Other key findings reveal that only half of all managers believe their companies do a good job in governing information distribution or have established adequate processes to determine what data each part of an organisation needs.

‘People and organisations cannot keep up with the volume of information produced by technological innovation,’ said Royce Bell, chief executive of Accenture Information Management Services.

‘Managers in particular are having great difficulty navigating a rapidly expanding sea of information, and the situation is only getting worse.’

Accenture says part of the problem lies in the way managers are gathering and storing information. For example, the majority say they store their most valuable information on their computer or email accounts, with only 16 per cent using a collaborative workplace such as a company’s intranet portal.

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