Reineke Reitsma [Posted by Reineke Reitsma]

If you are in the office when reading this blog post, please take a moment to look around to your colleagues and register what they're doing. Are they on the phone? Using their BlackBerry's? Do they have an iPhone on their desk? Are they using the PC? What for?

To understand better how employees perceive and use technology Forrester recently launched a product called Workforce Technographics(R). We surveyed 2,000 people in the US with jobs in which they use a computer covering topics like how much time they spend with their computers and phones, which applications they use daily or even hourly, what applications they find indispensable, who they work with, and much more.

The first report from my colleague Ted Schadler is a quick snapshot of a day in the life of an information worker (iWorker).We see that the interest, uptake and usage of technology differs by generation and type of company. For example, did you know that:

  • Gen X (not Gen Y) is the most likely to use Web 2.0 technology to get their job done?
  • Smartphones are available to only 11% of US information workers?
  • A full 25% of information workers share a computer with at least one other person.
  • Email is still the only application used on an hourly basis by most iWorkers?

IWorker-activities

The data helps to separate fact from fiction about how common each tool is in the workforce, and you could use this information to reach out to your IT department and suggest conducting similar research within your company to better understand employees' IT usage and technology needs and wants.

From a market research perspective it helps you understand how to communicate research effective to the organization. Email still seems the way to go, despite overusage, while Web 2.0 technologies will reach only a certain segment of your colleagues.