Recent studies by IDC[i], the Working Council of CIOs, the Ford Motor Company, and Reuters found that:

• Knowledge workers spend from 15% to 35% of their time searching for information.
• Searchers are successful in finding what they seek 50% of the time or less.
• 40% of corporate users report that they cannot find the information they need to do their jobs on their intranets.
• Some studies suggest that 90% of the time that knowledge workers spend in creating new reports is spent recreating information that already exists.

Figure 1 shows the considerable amount of time that is spent seeking information. Given the figures detailed above, far too often there is little to show for such expenditures of time.

Source: IDC, 2003

This inability to find what is needed comes at a considerable cost.  A new IDC 2003 report suggests that rework costs an enterprise about $5,000 per person per year for an estimated annual total of $12 million dollars across the U.S. (Figure 2).  Furthermore, not locating and retrieving information has an opportunity cost of $15 million dollars per year.

This study also indicates that in the world of e-commerce, improved search software pays for itself in a short period of time. Companies such as Charles Schwab, Lands End, Staples and Macy’s have increased their e-commerce revenues by $125,000 per month, or 400% on average per customer encounter, due to greater customer search capabilities.  It is interesting that even call center costs were estimated to decrease by 30% with better search tools.

Source: IDC, 2003.

Business practitioners cannot afford to ignore the search technologies that are available today that can add value to their businesses. The key to leveraging these technologies is not only to implement them, but also, of course, for knowledge workers to be trained in how to use them effectively.  For greater insight into how to more effectively use search engines, go to Knowledge Management and the Internet: Harnessing the Power of Search Engines.