Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Internet Use at Work: Necessity or Option?

There have been many ongoing debates regarding Internet use at work. One side views Internet use as a distraction that leads to decreased productivity and can create a legal liability. The other camp argues that allowing employees to use internet can lead to increased productivity by enhancing focus at work as we mentioned in one of our earlier blog posts.

This post at MSDN Blog Postings brings up an interesting twist. Instead of viewing Internet use at work as a way for employees to better organize their lives thereby enhancing their focus at work, maybe a restriction of employee access at work limits timely access to information. It might be that organizations no longer have the option of granting access to the Internet, and instead Internet access may be a necessity to keep up with the fast pace of the world today. As the post at MSDN sums up:

Enterprise 2.0 is much more about leveraging the data on the outside to enhance the data on the inside than the operations guys of today are willing to admit.”

An article, found at cisco.com, concurs. According to them:

“Companies that take advantage of the Internet to maximize their e-business strategies have the potential to increase their productivity levels 5% to 10%. And studies show that companies that have employed e-business solutions and have a networked virtual organization are four times more productive than companies that have not.”

What are your thoughts on Internet access being a tool to seek out information in the fast paced world?

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