Why Your Organization Needs a User Experience Monitoring Solution

Featured Article by Michael Zuckerman, Knoa Software

Purchasing enterprise software can be both an exciting and terrifying time – the choices in vendor and software selection, the hurdles in implementation and integration and then, finally, user adoption. Throughout the implementation process, progress is tracked very carefully by IT; but once deployed, the monitoring of user adoption all but falls off or is left to the help desk to monitor and manage. But if users aren’t calling, the issues can’t be addressed. Without looking at the actual usage of the applications, how do you know if it’s working and if your investment of time, money and resources has been returned?

Often end users choose not to contact the help desk when experiencing issues with an application.  Knoa testing has shown that approximately only 1 in 8 user errors are reported.  This is because the process is onerous, difficult, and those calling in often feel under attack — they hear “What’s the problem? I don’t see the issue; can you send me a screen shot? Did you reboot the system?” Multiply that by the hundreds of software seats just one organization may have and you’ll quickly see that the information captured by those who actually call in is miniscule compared to what could actually be happening.

This is very serious when considering the sizable investment made in enterprise IT. The lost productivity and time associated with business process error bring considerable economic impact.  Until recently, most of that impact has been invisible to CIOs and line of business executives.  With this in mind, it is very important to think about the following questions throughout the user adoption process:

* What is the total enterprise exposure to system error, user error and master data error?  Do you know?

* How can you tell if users are helping you optimize the business benefits you expect from your enterprise applications?

* How can you identify which people are having difficulty executing transactions?

* Which transactions seem to be most problematic?

* What does it mean when employees say the system is slow?

* How can you acquire the concrete facts you need to separate real problems from subjective opinions and take corrective action?

How User Experience Management Can Help

User Experience Management (UEM) helps IT administrators collect the facts needed to understand how people work and to help them reach the next level of business excellence. While consuming almost no local computing resources, IT can investigate which screens or transactions are used, how long a user spends on each, and the errors they encounter and how they sequence their tasks. UEM can capture the real user experience directly from the end-user’s environment without needing a report from the end user or distributing the end user productivity. UEM is able to identify whether issues are human error or technology-driven as well as how many actual errors are experienced each day.  It helps organizations gain insights at the highest level and provides problem-solving detail at the lowest level.

On the flip side, UEM can identify technology usage that can help improve the business. For example, a contact center found a more productive workaround that lowered overall call resolution times. Identifying the technology usage pattern and implementing a process throughout an organization can have an almost immediate, positive impact.

There are many benefits to gain by implementing a UEM solution such as reduced support costs, shorter resolution times in help desk and functional support, and a clearer picture of employee adoption and usage of enterprise applications. One important way to streamline operations and drive savings is through the efficient and effective use of software by end users. UEM helps IT understand what the issues are.

Michael Zuckerman is chief marketing officer at Knoa Software. He brings more than 20 years of senior-level marketing, sales and operations management experience in software, Internet and related technologies. Before joining Knoa, Mike was chief marketing officer for Queplix Corp. Prior to that, he held positions as senior vice president, marketing, at I-Many, Inc. senior vice president, marketing and senior vice president, general manager for Immersion, and vice president of worldwide marketing at Verity, Inc.