Costs and number of messages received more than double from one year ago; Can-Spam Act and spam filters largely ineffective

Nucleus Research, a global provider of ROI-focused research and advisory services, today announced the results of its 2nd annual independent study researching the cost of spam on US organizations. "Spam: The Serial ROI Killer" found that the average cost of spam per year per employee more than doubled from the previous year to $1,934. The full report is available at NucleusResearch.com.

For this report, Nucleus conducted in-depth interviews with employees at 82 different Fortune 500 companies – the same companies interviewed a year ago, along with IT administrators responsible for managing e-mail and other corporate applications. Some of the key findings in the report include the following:

• The average employee receives nearly 7,500 spam messages per year, up from 3,500 in 2003.
• Average lost productivity per year per employee is 3.1 percent, up from 1.4 percent in 2003.
• Companies using spam filters report that on average they are able to filter only 20 percent of the incoming spam, down from a reported 26 percent in 2003.

"As spam continues to spiral out of control, so do the associated costs to organizations, and weak legislation has not had a strong impact on reducing the amount of spam clogging inboxes every day," said Rebecca Wettemann, VP of Research of Nucleus Research. "Filtering technologies are doing their best to lessen the impact and do deliver a clear ROI, but the exponential growth of spam limits their effectiveness. Corporations need to continue to lobby for stricter laws and join industry leaders like Microsoft and Yahoo to file law suits and make it unprofitable for illegal spammers."

About Nucleus Research

Nucleus Research is an independent global research and advisory firm that provides CFOs, CIOs and their staffs with the financial and technology expertise they need to evaluate and manage their information technology investments the same way they evaluate and manage other capital investments. Nucleus Research is the first firm of its kind to blend financial analysis with comprehensive technology expertise to deliver 100% impartial return-on-investment (ROI) data and financial analysis services to organizations worldwide. Nucleus analysts use an uncompromising set of processes and tools to evaluate the financial return on IT assets throughout a technology's life cycle, from selection and deployment to upgrade and retirement. Nucleus Research's ROI assessment methodology can be applied to virtually any technology investment. For more information visit: NucleusResearch.com.