Start-ups urged to take advantage of ‘data overload’

Nimble start-up businesses can gain a competitive advantage over larger rivals that are suffering from “data overload”, according to a new report.

A survey of 1,700 white collar professionals by LexisNexis found that 49% felt “dejected and frustrated” at being unable to manage all of the information that they have to deal with during the working day.

A further 51% said that they will soon reach a “breaking point” if there is an increase in the amount of information they receive.

Half of Australian white collar workers said that only 50% of the information they receive is actually of any use to their job, while 88% said that they wanted to spend less time organising and more time using the data that comes their way.

LexisNexis said that new, streamlined businesses that understand the damage to productivity caused by a deluge of unnecessary emails could take advantage of this situation.

Marc Peter, director of technology and business development at LexisNexis Asia Pacific, says: “As a nation, we are seeing the increasing need to manage and process more and more information in our day-to-day working lives, and this requirement is adding not only to the personal stress of our workers but is also impacting on both the quality and quantity of the work created.”

“From the figures, we can assume Australians are effectively spending less than two-and-a-half days a week actually doing their job and the rest of the time trawling through emails and other information, over half of which do not have direct relevance to their day-to-day priorities.”

“Australian professionals are resorting to publicly available tools to cope with the increasing demands of this influx of information, yet still they continue to edge toward breaking point.

“However, Australian organisations should see an opportunity here. Businesses that take the initiative and provide their workers with the right technology, tools and training stand to gain a significant competitive edge.”