To all,
An interesting and relevant news article follows. This demonstrates the size of the potential market and the urgency for products like Search97.
regards, rpm
Drowning in Information
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Few companies have learned how to cope with information overload. According to a white paper from the Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation, "people are fed up and close to saying enough is enough".
A Reuters survey of 1,300 business people in the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, confirms that the average worker
is not coping well. Approximately 40 percent of those interviewed
feel that their ability to make important decisions is adversely
affected by too much information. Surprisingly, two-thirds of those surveyed want more information -- a clear indication that they are not getting what they need, despite the volume of information received.
People are starting to point fingers at IT, claims the Reuters News Service. Technology is seen as the culprit, and the number of voice-
mail and E-mail messages thoughtlessly copied to automatic
distribution lists is the number one complaint. People report working longer, harder, and ignoring any data they cannot process in a timely fashion.
IT managers are especially vulnerable to information overload. They
spend so much time processing marginally relevant information that
they become less responsive to things that really matter. Few IT executives rely on a secretary to screen telephones. (They claim this
is more trouble than it's worth.) When the IT manager doesn't pick up
his or her own phone, the chances are that voice mail takes the call -
and the manager ends up listening to the entire message.
Unlike paper mail, most executive e-mail is not prescreened for advertisements or non-urgent material by an administrative assistant.
And few managers are willing to trust the emerging intelligent agents
to do screening. While agents potentially are useful for digging
through published material, most technologists are hesitant to use
them. Implementing programmed filters can result in too limited a viewpoint.
As push technologies further contribute to information overload, more
IT managers are likely to be overwhelmed and resort to the "delete
all" key.
*** END ***
Meta Tips, Still Drowning, Computerworld, March 10;
Review by A. J. Vendeland
(ti0326)
COPYRIGHT 1997 VENCORP INTERNATIONAL, INC. |
