Many companies overlook the impact of spam on productivity.

Nucleus Research, the leading provider of bottom-line focused technology research, today announced the results of an independent study researching the cost of spam on US organizations. "Spam: The Silent ROI Killer" found that the average cost of spam per year per employee is $874. The full report is available at http://NucleusResearch.com

Spam: The Silent ROI Killer

For this report, Nucleus conducted in-depth interviews with 117 employees at 76 different U.S. companies, along with 28 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 3,500 spam messages per year.
• In 2003 the average company will lose one out of every 72 employee's productivity to spam.
• Average lost productivity per year per employee is 1.4 percent.
• Company-wide spam filters only reduce employee productivity loss by 26 percent.
• One full-time IT staff person is required for every 690 employees, just to manage spam and spam-related issues.
• Given the cost of spam per employee and the limited effectiveness of anti-spam technology, large companies may want to consider legal action against spammers as another weapon against spam.

"Companies have been quick to recognize the technology costs of spam but have been slow to understand the impact spam can have on worker productivity," said Rebecca Wettemann, VP of Research of Nucleus Research. "The survey shows spam is slowly eroding the productivity of employees and the loss is only growing. Organizations need to recognize spam as a significant ROI factor and address this issue through spam filters and possibly with litigation. Given the current trend, one can see the day where spam materially impacts the productivity of many corporations."

About Nucleus Research

Nucleus Research is an independent global research and advisory firm that provides CFOs and CIOs with the financial and technology insight they need to make clear, accurate assessments of the returns from their technology investment. The company is the first firm of its kind to blend financial analysis with comprehensive technology expertise to deliver 100% impartial return-on-investment (ROI) information to organizations worldwide. Nucleus Research uses 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, please visit NucleusResearch.com.