Information workers beware

Majority of Information Workers Admit to Having Made Bad Business Decisions Based on Flawed Data

The widespread use of faulty business data is a dirty little secret in todayís business world, leading to bad business decisions, lost productivity, and increased on-the-job stress. This crisis of confidence in business information is going largely unnoticed by businesses, but can they afford to ignore it?

A recent survey of workers in the U.S., Great Britain, France, and Germany conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the worldís leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, found that up to 75 percent of information workers admitted to having made business decisions that later turned out to be wrong due to incorrect, incomplete, or contradictory business data or information. Additionally, only about 10 percent of information workers said they always have all the information they need to confidently make business decisions. Information workers were defined as employed adults who use data from the following technologies to make decisions in their jobs - spreadsheets, reports, business intelligence software, executive dashboards, and other computer applications used by their employer. To view an executive summary of the survey results, please visit www.businessobjects.com/dataqualitysurvey

Faulty data also contributes to increased on-the-job stress and proves costly to a business. The survey revealed that up to 89 percent of information workers have had the data they use to make decisions in their job questioned or challenged by colleagues or supervisors. The survey also revealed that verifying the accuracy and quality of the data used to make decisions often takes hours. Information workers in the U.S., for example, spend an average of 12 hours per week, or as much as 30 percent of their workweek on this task, representing a major loss of productivity (calculation assumes a 40-hour work week). Productivity loss carries a huge cost. Twelve hours per week spent on verifying data could cost a 1,000 employee company over $600,000 per week (estimating $50 per hour per employee).

ìFor any business, information can either be an asset or a liability,î said Frank Dravis, vice president of EIM product marketing at Business Objects. ìThis survey supports our assertion that many businesses today lack trustworthy data, and they are paying the price for it by making bad decisions and losing productivity. By making accurate, complete, and trustworthy data a top priority, organizations can turn this liability into a powerful asset, and empower their people to innovate and improve their business. To achieve this, customers must leverage enterprise information management (EIM) solutions that encompass a range of software and services, and our countless customer successes demonstrate the positive impact this approach can have on a business.î

ìWe have a data-dependent staff that relies on reports and dashboards every day, and that data must be spot on,î said Jack Garzella, vice-president of data warehousing, reporting and analytics at Overstock.com. ìWe’re a young, quickly growing company and our data quality must be superior. We simply canít afford to be less than 100% confident in our business information. With the help of Business Objects enterprise information management solutions, we know that the data we use throughout our organization is exact, timely, and consistent.î

Business Objects has developed a full set of enterprise information management solutions - including data integration, data quality, and metadata and lifecycle management products - designed to help users ensure that their business information is accurate and current. For more information, see: