Nearly 40 percent of office workers believe their IT department is too inundated to respond to their specific requests in a timely manner, according to a Harris Poll survey of more than 700 American office workers.
The survey, sponsored by K2, found that nearly 70 percent of office workers use free or otherwise available online tools outside of those licensed by their IT department to get work done, with nearly one-third of users reporting that they use such tools at least half of the time.
More than half of respondents to the online survey admit they would be likely to look for a free or available online solution before seeking a formal business solution provided by their IT organization.
A majority of office workers also feel in charge of their work environments. Six in ten said they have the flexibility to solve problems across their organization, and 52 percent said they are able to make process changes when business needs require.
“For the vast majority of business organizations the IT department will remain a critical function in supporting the business and helping to execute on its objectives,” Jonathan King, vice president of global technical sales at K2, told eWEEK.
King said email, laptops and fundamental infrastructure will continue to be important, but that the IT department will need to rethink how it delivers business solutions and consider a more customized approach to service.
Less than a quarter believe creating their own business application is easy, while 66 percent said they believe business users, in addition to IT, should have what is necessary to build applications as needed.
More than half of survey respondents said they felt too much time is spent on managing processes, such as approvals, expenses and document management, as opposed to conducting actual business at the workplace. Sixty percent of respondents said they believe that applications are the future of their business.
Among those employed full- or part- time, around one in five (22 percent) say their reliance on IT in their workplace has increased. Four percent say it has decreased, while the majority of respondents said it has remained the same.
The survey also revealed that employed men (26 percent) are more likely to say it has increased than women (18 percent).
Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) of those who work in an office say they use tools such as Google Hangouts, Google Docs, DropBox or Skype, which are outside of those applications licensed by their workplace or IT department.
“IT must lead the way in establishing an infrastructure within the business that serves app users in the creation and consumption of customized solutions,” King explained. “This infrastructure must support the business users’ need to innovate and be underpinned by the information and services that come from systems of record driving the business today.”