The Internet's Impact on Business Productivity and Individual Work Habits

Research Prepared by:

Socratic Technologies

Contents

Many businesses that were early adopters of the Internet used it in a rather simple fashion: to reach constituents via a Web site and as a resource for select employees to conduct research and communicate with others. Its benefits, particularly to the bottom line, were difficult to gauge, taken more on faith than fact.

Today, the Internet is opening up sweeping new opportunities for businesses of all sizes—and beginning to have a dramatic impact on the work habits of the individuals they employ.

With this in mind, Verizon Conferencing commissioned a study of tech-savvy American business professionals to gauge their Internet habits and the subsequent impact on productivity. This report is a follow-up to Verizon Conferencing’s 1998 Meetings in America study, which took a comprehensive look at trends, costs, and attitudes toward business travel and meeting habits.

The important findings of this research effort include:

• Corporate America’s Internet usage boosts productivity. Through increasing use of the Internet, American business professionals are helping their companies reduce costs and increase productivity. Internet technology, combined with evolving workplace practices, is transforming the way businesspeople perform tasks, meet with customers and peers, and balance personal and professional lives.
• American businesses are rapidly embracing the Internet as a tool to facilitate communication and collaborate with others. More than half of the respondents say the Internet is central to their companies’ daily business practices; only 13 percent say their company limits or discourages Internet use.
• Individuals who use the Internet to meet and collaborate say it improves their job satisfaction and reduces stress. In addition to bottom-line business benefits of reduced costs and improved productivity, the Internet is helping to improve the work environment. Applications such as Internet conferencing reduce the need to travel to every out-of-town meeting and are fueling growth in flexible workplace practices like telecommuting. Young business professionals show special interest in using the Internet to improve their work lives.
• Business professionals of all ages are comfortable using the Web for collaboration. Internet-savvy professionals are quite comfortable using the Internet to schedule meetings, exchange presentations, chat online, participate in data conferences, and attend training sessions remotely. Business men and women of all ages, especially those who travel on business, report using the Internet to communicate with others, plan business trips, prepare and arrange for meetings, and manage personal tasks such as banking. Although younger professionals tend to be somewhat more comfortable and interested in using this medium, most older professionals express high comfort levels as well.
• Business travelers actively use the Internet for both professional and personal use. While travelling for business, professionals use the Internet to access a company network (80 percent), purchase products (64 percent), make/revise travel plans (54 percent), bank online (43 percent), and manage investments (26 percent).

1. Trends in Business Internet Use

American Businesses are Rapidly Embracing the Internet as a Tool to Facilitate Communications, Collaborate with Others, and Improve Productivity. When asked to describe their organization’s approach to using the Internet for business purposes, 52 percent of respondents say it is central to their companies’ daily business practices; 35 percent say it is available to most employees and its use is encouraged. Only 13 percent say use of the Internet is not actively encouraged in their organizations.

The Internet is of special importance to smaller companies: 58 percent of business professionals at smaller companies say the Web is central to their daily practices compared with 48 percent at mid-sized companies and 45 percent at large companies.

The Internet is Widely Used for Daily Business Tasks. Internet-connected business professionals use the Web to conduct a variety of tasks. A majority of respondents use it to plan business trips and meetings. Of these, most widespread is the use of the Net for travel planning, including use of Web mapping services (reported by fully 94 percent of respondents) and obtaining flight information (89 percent). Also high on the list is using the Web to conduct research on companies with whom people are meeting (82 percent). Somewhat smaller majorities have used the Web to make a hotel reservation, schedule a meeting, register for a conference or purchase an airline e-ticket.

Business Travelers Use the Internet to Manage Personal and Professional Duties. Use of the Internet during business travel is a common practice, helping professionals to keep in touch with colleagues at the office via e-mail and to perform such personal tasks as online banking and shopping.

As the following chart illustrates, the most common use of the Web during business travel is accessing a corporate network or intranet, reported by 80 percent of respondents. A 54 percent majority report using the Net to make or revise their travel plans. Many business professionals also use the Web for personal reasons during their business trips: two thirds (64 percent) have purchased products online during business travel; 43 percent have conducted online banking; 26 percent have engaged in online investing.

Professionals Use the Internet to Facilitate Meetings. Many survey respondents report using the Internet to facilitate meetings. Topping the list of such meeting tasks is e-mailing presentations to meeting participants (reported by 75 percent of respondents). A significant number of business professionals have used the Internet for online chats (46 percent), distance learning (40 percent) and data conferencing (37 percent)—defined as participating in a meeting in which someone presents, views or shares documents, such as a PowerPoint presentation, online. In addition, three in ten respondents (30 percent) have participated in desktop videoconferencing and a similar number (29 percent) have joined in a virtual seminar. A significant number of respondents have also placed conference calls over the Internet (23 percent) and used an online reservation system to schedule a conference call (21 percent).

II. The Internet and Business Collaboration: Needs and Challenges

Internet Conferencing Provides Real Business Benefits. Internet applications succeed when they meet real market needs. Internet Conferencing—i.e., using the Internet to schedule, prepare for, and share and present documents during a meeting—meets bottom-line business needs; at the same time, it helps business professionals manage their work loads.

Topping the list of potential benefits are reducing costs (68 percent indicate a strong or very strong need to use Internet Conferencing in order to reduce costs), improving work productivity (65 percent), improving customer service and communications (63 percent), reducing travel (61 percent) and speeding up the production cycle (59 percent). Slightly lower on the list are those where the bottom-line benefit is less apparent, i.e., reducing job stress (54 percent), improving work quality (53 percent) and improving job satisfaction (52 percent).

Internet Usage Reduces Job Stress and Improves Work Quality. Young business professionals are more inclined than their elders to view the Internet as a tool to reduce stress, improve the quality of their work, and improve job satisfaction. These respective needs are reported by 66 percent, 59 percent and 55 percent of 18-35 year olds compared with fewer 35-49 year olds and people age 50 or older. Thus, using the Internet to enhance life on the job—in addition to business benefits—is of import to today’s busy professionals, especially to young professionals.

Business Professionals Would Access the Internet from Virtually Anywhere, If They Could. Web-based conferencing provides a convenient way for people to participate in meetings from virtually any location. It matches with the trend toward telecommuting, as fully 90 percent of respondents say they would participate in Internet conferencing from their homes. Another common location for people to attend cybermeetings is from a hotel (69 percent), 29 percent would access from an airplane, and 17 percent from a car.

One in five respondents (22 percent) would access the Internet to attend meetings while they are vacationing, with single professionals more likely to do so than married people (30 percent compared with 18 percent). Respondents offered some off beat locations from which they would access cybermeetings, including "offshore" and "horse back in Montana."

Internet-Savvy Professionals Are Comfortable Collaborating Via the Internet. Three out of four business professionals rate their comfort level with using the Internet to collaborate with others as either high (33 percent) or very high (40 percent). Another 20 percent express moderate comfort while only 7 percent indicate low comfort using Internet conferencing. Large majorities of all segments express confidence in their ability to use Internet conferencing, but some groups show a greater degree of comfort than others. Not surprisingly, business professionals in the technology industry tend to be most comfortable with this Internet application.

Collaboration Tools Like Microsoft’s NetMeeting are Gaining Acceptance. One reason for the high comfort level is that many business professionals have already used Internet conferencing tools:

• 51 percent of respondents are aware that Microsoft’s NetMeeting is installed on their work computer
• 28 percent have used NetMeeting to share applications or view a presentation
• Another 14 percent (who haven’t used NetMeeting) are likely to do so in the future

Young Professionals Are More Comfortable with the Internet. Younger business professionals show a higher comfort level with Internet conferencing than do their older colleagues. Yet, 62 percent of professionals above the age of 50 indicate a high level of comfort.

Quality, Not Ease of Use, is Biggest Obstacle to Internet Conferencing. As busy professionals pursue the benefits of collaboration via the Internet, they want to know that solutions perform as promised. As the following chart indicates, business professionals are most concerned about transmission quality and potential technical difficulties of Internet conferencing. Only 15 percent of respondents express concern over ease of use.

Subgroup responses indicate that younger respondents (those most comfortable with this Internet application) tend to be most concerned about potential technical difficulties and quality of transmission (56 percent and 57 percent concerned, respectively).

Demand for Web-Based Conferencing Services is Likely to Grow Substantially. Survey findings point to robust demand for Internet-based conferencing in the year ahead. Fully 39 percent of Internet-connected business professionals who are frequent meeting goers say they are "very likely" to participate in Internet conferencing within the next 12 months.

Demand for Web-based conferencing services appears strongest among: 18-34 year old business professionals, executives/managers, and mid-sized companies (1,000-9,999 employees).

Research findings suggest corporate America should pursue the following Internet policies and solutions:

• Executives should encourage corporate adoption of Internet conferencing to reduce costs and improve productivity. American business has embraced the Internet as a tool to facilitate communication, collaborate with others, and improve productivity. Survey respondents agree that increased deployment of the Internet through Web conferencing improves workplace efficiencies and saves time and money.
• When implementing Web-based conferencing in your organization, begin with specific applications in functional areas. Businesses that implement Internet conferencing to address a specific need, with tangible goals, will be more successful. Identify applications that will reduce sales or product cycle time (remote training, staff meetings), help you reach customers and prospects more efficiently (Web seminars), facilitate communication within remote work groups (weekly project meetings), or improve investor relations (Web-based quarterly earnings updates, shareholder meetings).
• Organizations already using audio and videoconferencing should add Web-based conferencing to enhance meeting practices. Advances in Web-based technology now make it possible to meet with others via the Web to collaborate on projects, present information, and reach new customers in ways never before imagined. The survey shows that employees are comfortable using the Internet and welcome new collaborative solutions.
• When selecting an Internet conferencing provider, companies should focus on quality as their chief criterion; choose a provider offering solutions that enhance the meeting experience and minimize technical obstacles. The underlying technology should be transparent to the participants. Other requirements, such as ease of use and secure transmission, rank lower on the list of user needs.
• Organizations should establish a policy that requires business travelers to consider audio, video, or Web conferencing as an alternative. If travel is warranted, Internet use while on business trips will help employees manage professional and personal duties, while reducing the stress of travel. Remote access during travel helps professionals stay in touch with the office, manage travel plans, keep in touch with family, and attend to personal tasks such as banking and shopping.
• Remember that technology is simply the means to an end; the real focus is collaboration. Web-based conferencing tools enable us to work in new ways. But collaboration is a process; it isn’t an automatic result of having people connected electronically. Organizations that invest in the technology without a commitment (training, executive-level endorsement, specific objectives, improvement in meeting skills) to new collaborative processes are not likely to reap the benefits of these promising new tools.

Socratic Technologies Inc., a market research consultancy that specializes in interactive market research such as Web-based surveys and usability studies, conducted the survey in June of 1999.

Because of the high incidence of World Wide Web access among the hard-to-reach target population, a Web-based survey was deployed. The sample was drawn from Socratic Technologies’ Socratic Forum® registered database of people who have volunteered to take part in online research projects. Potential respondents were contacted via e-mail and invited to take part in an online survey. All respondents passed a screening procedure to ensure that they:

• hold an executive, managerial or team position
• attend at least four meetings per month that involve business travel and/or tele/videoconferencing

During the 10-day research period in June of 1999, a total of 281 qualified persons responded to the survey. As indicated in the following respondent profile, the survey represents a cross section of Internet-connected American business professionals who frequently attend meetings.

Verizon Conferencing is the fastest-growing conferencing entity in the world, according to Telespan Publishing Corporation. It helps companies meet more effectively, reducing travel costs and increasing productivity. Verizon Conferencing provides audio, video and Net Conferencing, equipment sales and support, as well as Tele-management services to complement customers’ electronic meeting needs. More information on Verizon Conferencing can be found at http://e-meetings.wcom.com/. For more information, call 1-800-475-3555.

Verizon Business is a global leader in communications services with 1998 revenues of more than $30 billion and established operations in over 65 countries encompassing the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions. Verizon Business is a premier provider of facilities-based and fully integrated local, long distance, international and Internet services. Verizon Business global networks, including its state-of-the-art pan-European network and transoceanic cable systems, provide end-to-end high-capacity connectivity to more than 40,000 buildings worldwide. Verizon Business is traded on NASDAQ under WCOM. For more information on MCI, visit the World Wide Web at http://www.wcom.com/.

This study was conducted by Socratic Technologies Inc., a market research consultancy that specializes in interactive market research such as Web-based surveys and usability studies.

This report is a follow-up to Verizon Conferencing’s 1998 Meetings in America study, which took a comprehensive look at trends, costs, and attitudes toward business travel and meeting habits. To view that report in detail, visit http://e-meetings.verizonbusiness.com/meetingsinamerica/.