How to save your Enterprise some money

Here is something I have noticed: the people that specify enterprise software requirements and success criteria are rarely the end user. They are business owners and spreadsheet supervisors.

The software produces great reports but the experience to the end user is rarely properly considered. The tendency is to meet the objectives of the business owner rather than the needs of end users.

So this blog post is about saving money. Well, time is money...right? Take an expenses system. If your employees spend their time trying to work out how to use the system, that's time not being spent making money.

Imagine saving every employee 5-10 minute each month. Across 100,000 people, that's 100,000 - 200,000 man hours a year!

Enterprise software pays a reasonable amount of attention to accessibility but not enough to usability. Now I'm no user experience expert but I have been exploring some experience design techniques with Phil recently (for the new ccTiddly macros). I think the correct use of such techniques within the enterprise would make a massive difference. In fact any technique that stops developers thinking so much like developers and more like the poor sod who's going to be relying on the software the better.

Imagine being able to apply the time savings across each of JP's four pillars : Search, Syndication, Conversation and fulfillment.