Jakob Nielsen talks about Productivity in the Service Economy:

Usability is key to increasing the service economy's productivity, because only attention to the way humans work can help them work smarter. If we adjust our focus accordingly, we won't just save billions of dollars from productivity gains -- we'll also save millions of jobs and create millions of new ones.

Everytime we develop software it's important to focus not just on what reports managers want or how this fits with some outside information source, but what people need to get their jobs done. Software developed 'right'--that's useful and enhances productivity--saves training and support costs later on because it's being used and it's doing something useful.

...via elearningpost