UK creates over 70 million documents every day new research reveals

Published 20th August 2008

August 19th, 2008 –The UK is heading for a document overload as it creates enough documents to use up an area of woodland the size of the New Forest every 250 days.

FileMaker has today released findings from its online survey “An organised mind saves time in the workplace” investigating employee document usage habits of over 1,200 UK employees.

Key findings from the research included:
· The UK creates more than 70 million documents every day
· Printed off, these documents would use up an area of woodland the size of the New Forest every 250 days
· 77% of all documents created are hidden – saved in places that are not accessible to other employees and colleagues such as inbox, inbox folders, documents folders, removable media, desktop etc
· 58% of the respondents resort to “logical finding” and relying on their initiative when looking for files rather than using a search tool
· 34% of employees will re-create a document from scratch even when they know that templates already exist

Employees will always need to create and send documents but FileMaker discovered the problem comes in the filing, saving and sharing of these documents. Because such a small percentage of people save these documents in a unified, accessible place, colleagues are forced to create their own versions when others already exist in some form, duplicating the efforts of the workforce and often resorting to printing their own version – a practice that costs UK businesses an estimated 10 per cent of their turnover according to recent reports . As a result, companies across the UK end up with millions of unnecessary documents on their systems that are often duplicates or out of date versions.

FileMaker discovered the problem was so severe that if every document created each day was printed, it would require enough paper to use an area of woodland the size of The New Forest every 250 days.

This duplication of effort and over willingness to re-create work that has been ineffectively saved can cause businesses a real problem as Tony Speakman, Regional Manager for FileMaker in Northern Europe explains,

“It’s worrying to see that so many documents are being created each day and as a result the productivity of businesses and employees is being compromised, work efforts are being duplicated and UK businesses are heading towards a state of data overload. If businesses can address these issues early on and create some form of unified system that all employees adhere to when filing and sharing documents, then undoubtedly this problem would be significantly reduced.”

Speakman continued,
“The potential impact these businesses are having on the environment is huge and to a large extent, unnecessary. With a reported 98% of all medium businesses using computers in the workplace, reducing duplicated work and reproduction of documents could potentially make a significant impact on the environment.”