Workers lose half a day a month to IT problems


12 Sep 2007

Nearly half of all workers (49pc) lose at least half a day each month due to problems with their computers, a Citrix survey has revealed.

The biggest frustration for employees is slow application performance, cited by 54pc of respondents, followed by a lack of access to applications and data when working away from company headquarters (43pc) and the time taken by the IT department to remedy problems (42pc).

Nearly three quarters (72pc) of end-users suffering from disrupted workspaces say that these frustrations are stressful and affect their work and home lives; 43pc would not take a job if they perceived the organisation’s IT performance to be poor.

Over a third of respondents (35pc) said they view the IT department as a restrictor rather than a driver of business success and personal productivity.

“The end-user should be the focal point of any operational model,” commented Richard Jackson, area vice-president, Citrix UK, Ireland and South Africa. “Companies need to shift the IT focus from technology and systems to users. In order to deliver on business goals companies need to enable employees to do their work as quickly and effectively as possible by ensuring the delivery, performance, and availability of the mission-critical business applications end-users require every day.”

The study was carried out by Vanson Bourne and is based on 100 interviews of business users in global organisations based in the UK.

By Niall Byrne