The ability to customise business applications and integrate multimedia web content can help improve employee productivity and boost collaboration within the company, according to global enterprise applications company IFS.

In a survey of more than 1,000 IT professionals across the US, UK and Scandinavia, the company found that 80 per cent of respondents said that the ability to personalise the software they work with helped them to be more productive.

"No two individuals use a computer or the software installed on that computer in the same way," explained Alastair Sorbie, chief executive of IFS.

"The ability to tailor user screens, adapt menus and access information in a way that supports the routines and roles of each individual is vital to getting the ultimate balance of functionality and usability that makes enterprise applications quicker and easier to use.

Sorbie believes that the findings highlight the move toward the " individualised" business system.

Nearly the same number (78 per cent) said they would like to have the ability to utilise web resources more directly within business applications in their work tasks.

"A combination of information pulled together from different sources to provide a unique service is known as a mash-up," added Dan Matthews, chief technology officer at IFS.

"As our study shows, mash-ups need to become more prevalent within business applications. Third-party information pulled from the web will prove especially valuable when geographical data, addresses, company names and other information held in business applications is leveraged to provide context," he said.

Several major online organisations, such as Google, already offer large amounts of personalisation, including the ability to integrate related data from several sources into a single page.

Taking this further, Matthews reckons that combining data from business applications to provide relevant context not only speeds up information gathering, but can provide additional insight to the user as well.

Furthermore, the IFS report revealed that almost nine out of 10 respondents agreed that better collaboration with colleagues would improve productivity for their organisation.

Sorbie pointed out that the increasingly connected and globalised world that firms operate in means that many users now have to work with structured and unstructured information, sourced both from inside and outside the organisation, as well as with colleagues, suppliers and sub-contractors around the world. He argued that the level of flexibility this requires can only be met by an equally flexible working environment.