IT complexity costs top UK firms dearly

The UK's top 1,000 companies are losing over £4bn per year as employees try to get to grips with complex IT systems, according to a survey by Sqribe Technologies.

The survey claims employees spend 30 minutes each day trying to find information required to do their jobs. Sqribe estimates this costs companies 608,000 lost man hours every year.

David Ogidi, MD at Sqribe, claimed the problem stems from the complexity of IT systems. "Companies invest in different hardware, databases and applications and the users have to be trained to use different databases to find the information," he said.

The survey found that 87 per cent of IT directors recognise the importance of empowering staff to use IT, but Ogidi claimed there is no concentrated effort to simplify the technology.

One solution to the problem could be the use of Web-based technology, as it offers users a single interface. Ogidi said: "Users are familiar with the interface of the Web. They get an experience of how simple it can be. If companies moved forward with a Web-based architecture they could see a strategic difference."