Companies lose millions chasing data, information

Dive Brief:

Workers’ searches for information across multiple systems is costing companies large chunks of time and money, according to a new report from project management software maker Quickbase.
The report claims that close to 70% of employees spend as much as 20 hours a week chasing information across different technologies instead of doing their job.
In addition, over half of survey respondents shared that they are tasked with projects outside of their primary skill sets either somewhat frequently (43%) or very frequently (7%). This results in what Quickbase calls “gray work,” or work that teams do to create ad-hoc solutions to get by and keep pace.

Dive Insight:

That wasted time adds up — more than half (53%) of respondents said they spend over 10 hours per week chasing information they need from different people and systems. For 22% of people, chasing information takes up more than 20 hours of their work week, according to the report.

As business owners are keenly aware, the loss of productivity has an effect on an organization’s bottom line. Quickbase cited a white paper by market research firm IDC that claims the time workers spend searching for information costs a 1,000-person organization $2.5 million per year.

“The way we work isn’t working. The promise of digital transformation isn’t happening the way it was intended, and employees are frustrated, and organizations are losing money,” said Ed Jennings, CEO of Quickbase, in a press release. “Work is more dynamic than ever before and most software tools just weren't built to manage the influx of data, information and teams, which is impacting everything down to the bottom line.”

Across industries, over 64% of projects experience delays at least 20% of the time, while miscommunication affects 54% of projects to a similar degree. These setbacks result in additional costs, increased time investment and a decreased ability to meet customer expectations, according to the release.

Construction is a prime target for these issues — subcontractor management, scheduling and billing create windows for error on large-scale projects.

This is crucial an industry that often operates on thin margins, and especially in the face of growing spending. U.S. subcontractors, for example, paid $97 billion more for materials and labor than expected in 2022 as profitability dropped.