According to a new survey commissioned by IPsoft, the leader in enterprise AI, IT issues impacting productivity equate to an estimated £62.4 billion in revenue. UK business is wasting an estimated £6.9 billion in salary costs, while staff are hindered or unproductive for over seven days a year as a result of IT failures.
The study finds business users calling for a simpler way of having IT issues resolved, with 66% stating it should be as simple as asking ‘Siri’ a question. In an age of digital transformation, it is more important than ever for technology to accelerate the pace of doing business.
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In 2018, this will take the form of more IT automation, cognitive computing and artificial intelligence.
The study shows the need for more intelligent systems as business users still have IT issues that hamper their productivity for more than 52 hours a year – equating to more than six full working days. Furthermore, each user loses 15 hours a year due to IT issues completely preventing them from doing their job – equating to nearly two full working days.
Brand loyalty is vital for business success, yet in the last 12 months, 58% of all respondents to the study had an IT issue that prevented them from providing service to a customer.
Additionally, half of the respondents had an IT issue that caused them to miss a deadline. In an attempt to stay productive, 42% of users would rather try to find a workaround instead of contacting IT to fix their problem, with 33% asking their colleagues if they know how to fix the issue before approaching IT.
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Chetan Dube, CEO, IPsoft, said, “IT is both the accelerator for digital transformation and paradoxically the stumbling block for digital strategies. These findings show that business users want an all-together different experience from their interactions with IT and the processes it supports. Business users want to be able to talk to their IT applications and have the applications solve their problems or requests, thereby disintermediating large segments of classic IT operations and ticket generating systems.”
Business users prefer to speak through their IT issues in simple language, and often try to find work-arounds to the formal procedures IT departments have in place to fix their issues.
Users say they find it easier to verbally describe their IT issues rather than write them down (51%). Nearly half (49%) of respondents feel their IT requests go into a black hole and they want to be kept better informed of progress.
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Furthermore, 64% feel frustrated if their work IT systems are down for just five minutes. The survey also shows that more than half of respondents have greater problems with their work IT systems than the ones they use in their personal lives (57%).
“We are addressing these issues through the launch of 1Desk™, which layers cognitive competence on top of an autonomic backbone to provide business users with an intelligent interface to a digital agent who can diagnose problems, fulfil requests and execute tasks across shared services functions including IT, HR, finance. No matter which channel business users find most convenient– messenger tools, phone, online chat – using simple, plain language we ensure end-to- end automation provides them quick turnaround times and delivers high NPS satisfaction scores,” concluded Dube.
