Improving Use of IT Systems

Processes, information and technology play important roles in improving corporate
effectiveness, but companies must not overlook the “people” dimension in
addressing financial performance management issues. This point is underscored by
our finding that lack of training is an important (and in our experience, frequently
overlooked) issue.
When it comes to information and analytical tools, our research shows that
companies are not getting the full value of their investments in this area. We asked
participants about the degree to which people use such tools to do their jobs. Only
one in eight (13 percent) said that most people use them all of the time to do their
jobs. One-half (48 percent) said that while some people use them all the time, the
rest use the tools and information occasionally or not at all. Another 18 percent said
most use them occasionally to do their jobs, and 17 percent said few people use
them.
We followed up this question by asking why people use the tools occasionally or not
at all. The largest percentage of responses (41 percent of the total) was that people
are not trained well in how to use them. This response is understandable when we
reflect on how information systems are used and, from a business standpoint,
managed. We find training is at best an afterthought. Among executives and
certainly within IT, there is a tendency to assume that people will find it easy to get
the information they are receiving and to understand its context, or that people will
figure these systems out with minimal training. In practice, that feeling is seldom
justified. Compounding the problem is the reluctance many people have to be trained
in using these systems. They almost always are so pressed for time to do their jobs
that learning how to use these systems seems to take time they cannot spare.
While we do not see a quick or universal solution to the issue of how to train people
better to integrate information and analytical systems into their day-to-day work, we
believe that the first step is to recognize the problem, and the second is to initiate a
company-wide campaign to deal with it. Such a campaign would at least attempt to
quantify areas where better training would have the greatest positive impact and to
develop a realistic implementation plan for improving training.