We know that many features and functions of enterprise technologies go unused, sometimes simply because employees don't know how to make the most of them. CIOs looking to increase the ROI of IT already in place might consider establishing better training programs--which can improve worker productivity as well.

Forrester Research's Nigel Fenwick offers a simple example: Microsoft Excel is widely used throughout all kinds of businesses, but it contains a number of analysis and reporting features that often go untouched. Fenwick argues that too often IT training focuses on "what buttons to press," failing to teach users how to apply technologies toward business productivity.

Fenwick suggests 10 ways to improve IT training, beginning with not leaving the job entirely up to the HR department. "HR departments are not directly impacted by untrained staff in the way IT is, often resulting in weak measurements of success such as how many employees have been trained, or employee satisfaction measures, and not actually measuring the change in the employee's ability to use the technology," he writes.

Without sufficient training, IT projects can fail outright or they can result in ramped up calls to the IT department for help. Fenwick recommends that CIOs think of training as a means of lowering IT support costs and making employees happier with the technology. 

For more:
- see Nigel Fenwick's post at CIO

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