Ineffective search and discovery strategies are resulting in companies wasting an estimated 10% of their staffing budget, according to new research by IT industry advisory organisation Butler Group.

Its points out that over 50% of staff costs are now allocated to employees who spend the majority of their time on ‘information work’. However, it estimates that the typical information worker spends up to a quarter of their day searching for the relevant information to carry out given tasks.

In Butler’s opinion, ineffective search and discovery strategies are hampering business competitiveness and potentially impairing service delivery. It also concludes that enterprise search and retrieval technologies can enhance an organisation’s ability to manage compliance and regulatory demands as well as dramatically shortening the time employees spend looking for documents and data.

The report sites the example in the US of the retrieval and production of copies of electronic documents in line with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements.