For productive staff, IT ROI is key

European users are maturing in the way they evaluate their return on investment (ROI) on IT so that they include impact on staff as well as crude financial gauges.

That's according to interviews with over 1,000 directors at European companies with turnovers in excess of E120m per year, carried out by Mori on behalf of Xerox.

Although only two-thirds of businesses interviewed measure ROI on IT, 78 per cent of those that do consider human factors. However, this measurement is important because satisfied, productive staff are generally considered the bedrock of any successful organisation.

The research was carried out across six countries, with those executives believing ROI measures are flawed at their peak in Sweden (41 per cent of respondents) and at a low in France (17 per cent). Over half think IT vendors should do more to make sure ROI is more accurately calculated within the companies they sell to.

Despite generally positive steps towards more all inclusive ROI metrics, and a belief by respondents that IT has made companies more productive (83 per cent), a third said IT has made work more complicated and 39 per cent said it has increased stress. The market with executives expressing the most concern about IT stress was the UK.