Microsoft Collaboration Survey
Research Results
Survey of Business and Technology Decision-Makers
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Survey Methodology
DATA COLLECTION DATES:
September 23 – October 12, 2007
METHOD:
Telephone survey
SAMPLE SIZE:
100 Business decision-makers and 100 Technology
decision-makers
SAMPLE:
Decision-makers, manager and above, within HighTech Companies with revenue of at least $150 million
and 500 employees
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Executive Summary
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Executive Summary: Collaboration Tools
• Email and phone are the most popular collaboration tools among
BDMs and TDMs, although TDMs are more likely to use a whole
range of tools
• The vast majority of both BDMs, 78%, and TDMs, 85%, report their
organizations use at least one publicly available collaboration tool
• Organizations that use publicly available tools use them frequently
and it is not limited to one tool more than others
– If they say they use that a publicly available tool to collaborate, more
than likely they are using it often
• Many types of proprietary information is communicated with publicly
available tools, with product plans or technical data being sent most
frequently
– And the vast majority of information is contained in standard Microsoft
Office documents such as Word, Excel, PPT, etc.
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Executive Summary: Maintaining Security
• While most think publicly available tools are secure, only about a third are
sure and almost as many feel they are insecure
– Interestingly, TDMs are more likely to feel strongly that they are secure
compared to BDMs
– Additionally, TDMs especially are concerned about the use of publicly available
tools to send confidential information
• Nearly all report that their organizations have and frequently implement
policies to control confidential information, and these policies are most
commonly designed by legal departments and CIOs, with the security
office, managers and engineers playing secondary roles
• It is unusual for a companies’ proprietary information to be used
inappropriately by a third party and when it happens, few report significant
financial impact
– Additionally, one in three report that the proprietary protection policies of
their companies impact the productivity of technical teams
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Detailed Findings
Collaboration Tools
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Email and phone are the most popular collaboration tools among BDMs and
TDMs, although TDMs are more likely to use a whole range of tools
Q4. From the following list, what types of communications tools
does your department (BDM) (company, TDM) use to collaborate
among its business partners, vendors and suppliers?
Q5. And which one of these tools would you say your department (BDM)
(company, TDM) uses most often to collaborate among its business partners,
vendors and suppliers? (ONLY LIST OF TOOLS CHOSEN IN Q4)
% Used most
% Use at all
TDM
BDM
E-mail
95%
99%
53%
72%
Phone
96%
96%
40%
26%
1%
-
1%
-
1%
-
3%
1%
-
-
-
-
89%
94%
Fax
40%
VPNs (Virtual private networks)
69%
37%
Portals
53%
Instant Messaging
33%
48%
Extranets, such as via RosettaNet or
31%
42%
Electronic Data Interchange or EDI
Blogs
8%
6%
Wikis
6%
9%
BDM
TDM
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The vast majority of both BDMs, 78%, and TDMs, 85%, report their
organizations use at least one publicly available collaboration tool
Q6. Now I am going to read to you another list of collaboration tools. Please tell if your department (BDM) (company, TDM) has ever used
any of these communications tools to collaborate among its business partners, vendors and suppliers? (ACCEPT ALL RESPONSES)
% Use at all
29%
Personal FTP tools, such as WS FTP or Cute FTP
30%
Web-based or public e-mail, such as Gmail or Hotmail
25%
External portals
25%
Personal IM, such as AOL or Yahoo Instant Messenger
18%
Personal Internet-based phone, such as Skype
External or public Wikis
External blogs
26%
43%
40%
32%
Personal Internet-based faxing, such as efax
47%
33%
38%
BDMs at
companies with
fewer than 5001000 employees
are more likely
to report use of
public email
accounts, 37%,
than are those
at larger
companies, 20%
5%
8%
8%
None of these (VOL.)
15%
BDM
21%
TDM
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Organizations that use publicly available tools use them frequently….
Q7. How often would you say your department (BDM) (company, TDM) collaborates with its business partners, vendors, and suppliers
using these types of tools (READ LIST FROM Q6)?
% Total use publicly
available tools often
BDM
TDM
67%
58%
Frequently
27%
31%
94%
89%
Occasionally
BDMs at companies with revenue over $250 million are more likely to report frequent use of public tools, 79%, than are
those at companies with less revenue, 54%
Base: BDM=78, TDM=85
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And it is not limited to one tool more than others; If they say they use that tool
to collaborate, more than likely they are using it often
Q7. How often would you say your department (BDM) (company, TDM) collaborates with its business partners, vendors, and suppliers
using these types of tools (READ LIST FROM Q6)?
% Frequently/Occasionally
BDM
Personal Internet-based faxing, such as efax
Web-based or public e-mail, such as Gmail or Hotmail
Personal FTP tools, such as WS FTP or Cute FTP
Personal IM, such as AOL or Yahoo Instant Messenger
External portals
Personal Internet-based phone, such as Skype
External or public Wikis
External blogs
TDM
69
76
Base=32
Base=38
87
74
Base=30
Base=43
97
75
Base=29
Base=47
64
82
Base=25
Base=33
76
83
Base=25
Base=40
83
73
Base=18
Base=26
40
88
Base=5
Base=8
-
75
Base=8
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Many types of proprietary information is communicated with publicly available
tools, with product plans or technical data being sent most frequently
Q8. From the following list of examples, please tell me if your department (BDM) (company, TDM) has ever communicated any of the
following types of information using these forms of collaboration tools (READ LIST FROM Q6)? (ACCEPT ALL RESPONSES)
68%
66%
55%
Product plans or
technical data
51%
Pricing or financial
data
49%
Contracts, legal
agreements
BDM
Base: BDM=78, TDM=85
53%
62%
57%
46%
44%
Sales or marketing
Product design
plans
schematics/CAD or
Computer-aided
design/CAM
Drawings
TDM
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And the vast majority of information is contained in standard Microsoft Office
documents such as Word, Excel, PPT, etc.
Q9. IF SAID YES TO ANY OF THE CHOICES IN Q8, ASK: When your department (BDM) (company, TDM) communicated this
information using these collaboration tools, was the information contained within standard office based documents such as Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, etc?
BDM
TDM
Definitely not,
Don’t know (VOL.), 2%
6%
Probably not,
6%
Definitely not,
Don’t know (VOL.), 3%
7%
Probably not,
4%
Yes, definitely,
48%
Yes, probably,
39%
Yes, definitely,
56%
Yes, probably,
31%
Total Yes: 87%
Base: BDM=67, TDM=75
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Detailed Findings
Maintaining Security
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While most think publicly available tools are secure, only about a third are sure
and almost as many feel they are insecure; Interestingly, TDMs are more likely
to feel strongly that they are secure compared to BDMs
Q10. Thinking about the list of collaboration tools we have been talking about these last couple of questions (READ LIST FROM Q6), do
you consider these tools to be secure?
Total Think
Secure
Total Think
Not Secure
BDM
22%
TDM
28%
-17% -5%
-22%
Definitely not
-6%
27%
51%
37%
Probably not
Yes, definitely
35%
78%
72%
Yes, probably
BDMs who rank above the director/manager level, 62%, are less likely
than lower ranking BDMs, 87%, to believe public tools are secure
Base: BDM=78, TDM=85
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TDMs especially are concerned about the use of publicly available tools to
send confidential information
Q11. How concerned are you about people within your department (BDM) (company, TDM) using these types of collaboration tools
(READ LIST FROM Q6), to communicate confidential or sensitive information outside of the company?
% Total Unconcerned
about publicly available tools
BDM
43%
TDM
27%
-30%
% Total Concerned
about publicly available tools
-13%
-22%
Not concerned at all
-5%
18%
31%
Not too concerned
58%
40%
41%
Very concerned
72%
Somewhat concerned
BDMs who rank above the director/manager level, 73%, are more likely to be
concerned than lower ranking BDMs, 50%
TDMs at companies with revenue above $250 million are more likely to be
concerned, 86%, than those at companies with less revenue, 66%
Base: BDM=78, TDM=85
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Nearly all report that their organizations have and frequently implement
policies to control confidential information
Q12. To the best of your knowledge, does your company have a specific policy
about controlling the distribution of confidential or sensitive information to third
parties such as designers, foundries, test, packaging, contract manufacturers, etc.?
% Total Yes
BDM
84%
TDM
85%
7%
91%
Q13. IF YES: In your estimation,
how often would you say this policy
is actually implemented?
% Implemented
Every time/Frequently
95%
Base=91
Yes, definitely
8%
93%
87%
Base=93
Yes, probably
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And these policies are most commonly designed by legal departments and
CIOs, with the security office, managers and engineers playing secondary roles
Q14. Please tell me how involved you believe each of the following individuals or departments are with the development of your
company’s proprietary information disclosure policies regarding third parties. (READ AND ROTATE LIST)
Legal
Department
20% 16%
CIO
Security
Office
TDM
Design
Engineer
32% 36%
28%
28%
27% 30%
54% 56%
41% 40%
BDM
Lead
Engineer
24% 15%
20% 17%
56% 58%
Project
Managers
BDM
TDM
BDM
TDM
Very involved
37% 36%
35% 39%
BDM
BDM
TDM
TDM
30% 30%
BDM
TDM
Somewhat involved
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It is unusual for a companies’ proprietary information to be used inappropriately
by a third party and when it happens, few report significant financial impact
Q15. To the best of your knowledge, has any of your company’s proprietary information
ever been inappropriately used by a trading partner or third party such as a contract
manufacturer, foundry, design house, etc.?
Q16. IF YES: How would you
characterize the financial impact this
incident or incidents had on your
company?
% Severe/significant
financial impact
-39%
BDM
-34%
8% 8%
13%
Base=16
36%
TDM
-36%
-46%
Definitely not
Probably not
4% 7%
Yes, definitely
Base=11
Yes, probably
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One in three report that the proprietary protection policies of their companies
impact the productivity of technical teams
Q17. How would you characterize the impact of proprietary protection processes on the productivity of your design engineers, design
managers, production managers and other valuable technical teams?
% Total
Impacted
% Total
Not impacted
BDM
65%
-49%
-16% 6%
24%
30%
TDM
63%
-45%
-18% 5%
25%
30%
No impact at all
Very little impact on their productivity
Severe impact on their productivity
Significant impact but not severe
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Majorities believe that all of these potential functions would be or currently are
valuable to their company, but overwhelmingly so for “being able to manage
user access rights to sensitive documents”
Q18. Please tell me how valuable you believe each of the following functions would be or currently are to your company.
% Total
Valuable
The ability to manage user access
rights to sensitive documents such
as product plans, contracts, etc.
The ability to encrypt email and/or
IM messaging traffic between your
company and suppliers
52%
BDM’s
64%
TDM’s
BDM’s
30%
TDM’s
The ability to view whether
suppliers, partners and internal
employees are online or “present”
for conversations, either phone, IM
or email
BDM’s
TDM’s
28%
46%
28%
43%
31%
46%
Very valuable
92%
68%
38%
28%
88%
36%
74%
71%
77%
Somewhat valuable
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Appendix
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Business Decision-Makers Profile
Revenue
BDM
Job Title
BDM
$150 to $250 million
51
C-LEVEL (CEO, CFO, CMO, ETC)
20
$250 to $500 million
12
Executive Vice President or Principal
3
$500 million to $1 billion
9
Senior Vice President or Vice President
9
$1 to $3 billion
9
Director or Manager
68
Over $3 billion
8
# Employees
Don’t know/refused
11
500 to 999
59
1,000 to 2,499
9
2,500 to 4,999
17
Department
Product development
24
5,000 to 10,000
3
Engineering
8
More than 10,000
12
Manufacturing
9
Operations
35
Supply Chain
8
Distribution
10
Warehousing
3
Logistics
3
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Technology Decision-Makers Profile
Revenue
BDM
Job Title
BDM
$150 to $250 million
69
CIO
9
$250 to $500 million
7
CTO
1
$500 million to $1 billion
5
IT department heads
30
$1 to $3 billion
8
56
Over $3 billion
2
IT middle-management (MIS mgr., IT
director)
Don’t know/refused
9
Enterprise Architects
3
Chief Security Officers
1
Involvement in company in
overseeing or helping
implement collaboration
technologies
Significantly involved
81
Somewhat involved
19
# Employees
500 to 999
73
1,000 to 2,499
11
2,500 to 4,999
3
5,000 to 10,000
5
More than 10,000
8
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