Spam causes lost productivity: IDC

Organisations that don't use anti-spam solutions could face US$4.1 million in lost productivity each year, according to research.

A white paper industry analyst IDC, sponsored by vendor Clearswift, found that firms with 5,000 email users could face US$4.1 million in lost productivity each year.

The paper also found email users in organisations without anti-spam solutions lost an average of 10 minutes each day because of spam.

Lindsay Durbin, senior security architect at Clearswift, added that calculating the loss of time for recipients of spam and people administering the email system could be difficult.

"Given that spammers are increasingly sophisticated in their techniques, it is critical that organisations look at all the facets of assessing and selecting a robust anti-spam solution," said Durbin.

Almost 70 percent of organisations in the US had implemented an anti-spam solution in 2003, with 20 percent more expecting to have one in place this year, according to a statement from Clearswift.

IDC estimates that anti-spam solutions reduce the average amount of time spent on spam by email users by 50 percent, it stated.