Taking care of business – at home

Australian workers are confused by complicated business software and spend five hours a week at work trying to figure it out, according to a new survey.

The research, taken for printing software company Global Graphics, also shows that out of a sample of 1010 office workers, more than 69% say they find business software difficult to use.

The two most common complaints are that business software applications offer too much functionality, and that workers do not receive enough training on how to use them. Up to 93% of workers waste five hours as a result of over-complicated software, the survey shows.

 “The lesson to developers of business software is clear,” says Gary Fry, chief executive of Global Graphics. “Take a leaf out of the consumer world and make your software easier to use.

” Make sure it quickly and easily does exactly what the user wants, and focus on that instead of adding more and more features and functions for only a handful of ‘power-users’.”