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“ The way we work isn ’ t working . The promise of Digital Transformation isn ’ t happening the way it was intended , employees are frustrated and organisations are losing money ,” said Ed Jennings , CEO of Quickbase .

The research reveals massive organisational time , revenue and productivity losses caused by outdated work processes and fragmented information systems , like spreadsheets and databases , project management and collaboration tools , point solutions or developer platforms .

Quickbase found that close to 70 % of employees spend upwards of 20 hours a week chasing information across different technologies instead of doing their job . In other words , employees are stuck spending up to half the average work week on ‘ grey work ’, which is creating ad-hoc solutions and workarounds to fit their needs when they run into roadblocks caused by fragmented tools , systems and processes .

Twenty-plus hours a week are lost to fragmented systems

When workers lose more than half of a 40- hour workweek to fragmented systems , their organisations experience significant monetary impact . These inefficiencies directly impact the time available for meaningful work , especially considering the lack of time spent working on projects that drive results .

The consequences of grey work ’ s proliferation are far-reaching . Even in an age of continued innovation and automation , the US has seen the largest decline of productivity since 1974 , according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics .

Productivity challenges are exacerbated in large-scale , complex environments where grey work is most prevalent and disruptive , such as manufacturing , construction , healthcare and other industries that require dynamic workflows and operations .

“ Work is more dynamic than ever before and most software tools just weren ' t built to manage the influx of data , information and teams , which is impacting everything down to the bottom-line .”

Fifty percent of employees take on ‘ grey work ’ outside their primary skillset or organisational systems

One of the critical pain points identified in the research is the lack of synchronisation and integration among various systems , resulting in manual effort to verify and consolidate data .

Respondents expressed frustration over having to check and reconcile data across multiple platforms , highlighting the need for a centralised information repository that eliminates redundancy and streamlines workflows .

Over half of survey respondents shared that they are tasked with projects outside of their primary skillsets either somewhat frequently ( 43 %) or very frequently ( 7 %).

This can result in ‘ grey work ’ – the work that teams do to create ad-hoc solutions to get by and keep pace . Sixty-six percent of respondents address roadblocks by creating workarounds or customising their software tools to fit their needs when they run into roadblocks that their software can ’ t immediately solve .

Majority of complex projects are beset by frequent miscommunication and delays

The survey findings underscore the impact of these challenges on large-scale projects and

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