[mdlug] OT: IT spending

[Robert Meier]

Jeff,

>>> Can someone tell me how much is spent on e-mail every year?
>>> I am trying to get some spending/market figures like that.
> time (salary) wasted by employees sending [non-]work related messages?
> time (salary) spent sending work related messages?

I think you may want to elaborate on those measures.
Unfortunately "waste" and "non-work related" are not well defined.
IIRC, In current accounting practice, any activity that does produce
a measurable return in the current period (usu. 1 month, or 1 quarter)
is considered an expense and equated with "waste", and "non-work related".

IIRC, in many companies, email during design (along with time spent
developing and testing designs) is accounted as "expense" and equated
with "waste" and "non-work related", while unbillable time and
company cars used to repair customers' installation later is accounted
as "cost-of-doing-business" and equated with "work-related".
Similarly, sales email and phone are usually lumped together and
considered "work-related" whether or not any sale is ever made to
the recipient of any particular day's calls, but engineering or
manufacturing, email, phone, and time are daily assigned to projects
and are later identified as "waste" and "non-work related", if the
project is terminated, altered, or rebudgetted.  

To obtain usable data, you would need to know the criteria for
categorization as waste, sufficient to meaningfully combine values.

I'd be interested in hearing what you find.



<humor>
Pavilion Customer to Builder: "Hey, what's all this on the bill
	for foundation and support columns.  I only ordered a
	10,000 sq ft roof to keep the rain off the picnic area.
	Why'd you waste cement and steel putting all those columns
	under it?
</humor>

Good luck,
-- 
Bob

  "#!/bin/bash
   chalk=0
   punishment=100
   while [ $chalk -lt $punishment ]
   do
     echo "I promise not to rush an incomplete answer to the list."
     chalk = `expr $chalk + 1`
   done"
     -- Ollie Dettman 2004