Archive - Edition 8: User Productivity

back To Overview of User Productivity Edition

Leading and General Articles

User Productivity Topics

More User Productivity

 

Increasing User Productivity to Lower TCO – The Smart Thing to Do

By Gerd Waloszek, SAP AG, SAP User Experience – November 19, 2004

German Version • This article has also been published in SAP INFO 122

How to increase employee productivity is a thorny problem for every company. SAP is helping – with a User Productivity group. Along with SAP's user interface designers in the applications, the group is developing concepts and processes for usable, intuitive, self-explanatory software.

A few years ago, only specialists used computers. To start a process, you entered long sequences of letters, characters, and numbers. Now, PCs are an everyday tool. But not every problem has been solved. Incomprehensible error messages, the necessity of continually entering the same input, and important functions described in confusing terms – these everyday annoyances make the user's job harder.

SAP is looking for ways to increase the productivity of users, under the banner of "user productivity." Shai Agassi, the member of the SAP Executive Board with responsibility for SAP NetWeaver, says: "Teaching people to work with computers is just not the smart thing to do. We have to teach computers to work for and with people."

The key phrase is "task orientation" – how appropriate a solution is for the task in hand. If a piece of software is ideally tailored to the task, rather than primarily to the requirements of software technology, users are not forced to take unnecessary steps or make unnecessary input. Instead, they can complete their tasks quickly and without errors.

Much effort is being made in this area, but it will achieve the desired end only when taken as a whole. It includes such obvious topics as defining and introducing terminology that the user is familiar with. All too often, the importance of the terms used in programs is underestimated. Programs must "speak the language of the users" rather than technical jargon. Cryptic error messages that do not tell how to actually solve a problem fall into this category.

Intelligent save processes prevent data loss and the need for duplicate work. Consistent, standards-based software meets users' expectations, enables them to apply their experience to their work, and makes it easier to learn how to use new programs. At SAP, interface standards and extensive work in maintaining terminology in all languages into which SAP software is translated ensure that users' expectations are met as far as possible.

Software interface designers have a range of tools for designing software to improve usability. However, to ensure user productivity, they must use these tools and invest the necessary effort. Also, the many tricks of the trade must be incorporated into a systematic method that will allow customers' needs to be identified and sticking points to be discovered. With this in mind, SAP has introduced the UI First process (see UI First – Placing Users at the Center of the Design Process).

 

Increasing Potential

Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a major argument for or against any IT investment, especially in times of shrinking budgets. Several models calculate the total cost of a purchase over its life cycle. However, these models do not take user productivity into account, since it cannot be expressed in exact figures: The user component is embedded in several technical components and difficult to isolate.

However, this situation will probably change in the future. The more users work with IT solutions, the more important it will be to clearly answer the question, "What productivity gains can I make with this software?" The contribution of user productivity to TCO includes both qualitative and quantitative elements. The qualitative elements provide enlightening information on content, but it is difficult to quantify them. This in turn makes it hard to determine the benefit of an investment; the costs, on the other hand, are relatively easy to identify. Gartner Group points out that value, as well as cost, must be taken into account: "The value of an investment arises from achieving the right balance of costs, risks, and benefits."

It may be cheaper to acquire software whose vendor invested little in designing its user interface. But the follow-up costs will be significantly higher, and user productivity will decrease rather than increase. Focusing on user productivity means doing everything possible to ensure that high productivity is promoted and facilitated. The software vendor must do two things: recognize and remove "productivity blocks," and recognize and leverage productivity-increasing potential. Work-process design for productivity is indispensable at every level – from the individual desktop, to smaller subprocesses within working groups, to innovative, company-wide process chains.

 

Increasing Total Productivity

Increases in overall productivity cannot be attributed solely to the increased productivity of individual workers. It is more important that business processes be optimized so that business transactions can be processed more quickly. This is partly because the transactions are handled by the computer rather than a human being, and partly because they are processed automatically, without the need for human intervention.

If a user encounters an error in a particular application, valuable work time is lost. In the worst-case scenario, the user cannot complete the task. The time required to solve this kind of problem amounts to between five and 10 percent of total working time. Usable applications can reduce this figure to one percent – a significant contribution to reducing TCO.

Several design tools can help make applications easier to learn, leading to reduced training time in the introductory phase of a new application, and for new employees. Users can then work productively with the system more quickly and experience success earlier on. Occasional users also benefit from easy-to-learn applications and thus save valuable time. Moreover, if applications support users in solving problems and are easy to learn, the users need less external help – which also reduces costs.

Reducing the level of maintenance required for a software system likewise helps keep costs down. Studies show that at least 80 percent of the total costs in the life cycle of a software system result from maintenance. Eighty percent of these costs are caused by unfulfilled or unanticipated user requirements, 20 percent by programming errors and reliability problems. Self-explanatory applications that support the user in learning their functions help increase efficiency.

Most users use less than half of an application's available functions. Task analyses and user analyses can help determine the required functions even before development begins. This approach helps avoid the development of superfluous or incidental functions, another cost-saving factor. Users accept usable software – this is an important prerequisite for effective use. If they do not accept the software, the developer has to reckon with anything from high levels of initial resistance to total failure of the project.

It is therefore worthwhile to take these factors into account when planning an IT investment, especially in these times of high cost pressure. It makes sense to weigh the costs and benefits over the lifetime of the product to identify the potential of the IT investment and to use this potential to increase productivity.

Why are we investing in user productivity at SAP? To enable our users to become truly more productive in carrying out their daily tasks.

 

top top