Anna Wichansky, Senior Director, Applications User Experience and Chair, Oracle Usability Advisory Board
On March 30-31, 2009, we celebrated the first anniversary of founding the Oracle Usability Advisory Board by having a strategic meeting in the Oracle Conference Center in Redwood Shores. One year of active participation by our very best customers yielded many examples of sharing and trust at the behest of improving user experiences. Oracle provided information and strategy for future enterprise software technology and products, including:
• collaboration software
• business intelligence
• next generation applications
• applications integration
• service oriented architectures
• business process development tools
• accessibility
Customers brought their issues lists on current application offerings, including PeopleSoft and E-Business Suite platforms. It was time to discuss the question for which we founded the board: what is the next level of enterprise software usability? Board members had a prework assignment to discuss this very question with their organizational colleagues and to come prepared to have an active session in their working groups. Here is some of what they said: One outcome of this exercise is consistent with my past research: when we ask customers what the next generation of products should look like, they typically describe the last generation of products we designed. I used to believe this was because customers were just reflecting what they had in their hands today. However, our customers are pretty savvy, and I think there is more to it than that. We may have designed something into the product that could not be built, based on resources, schedule, or technology limitations. Or, we may have put in a feature that performs that function, but the customer just did not “get it” in the last rendition. Maybe their implementation was not configured to take advantage of that feature. Or, it may have appeared after the system was purchased as an upgrade or enhancement that the customer was not aware of. It is clear that we in the enterprise software business have our work cut out for us. Customers are better informed and more knowledgeable about the user experience than ever before. If enterprise software companies think they are satisfying their customers with the features of current product offerings, customers may have a different perception. In all user interface work, the devil is in the details. If the design or implementation obscures a functional solution to a customer problem, the customer may not perceive that a solution is really in there at all. For more information on how to become an Oracle Usability Advisory Board member, click here.
• The next level of enterprise software should provide a consumer-level user experience. Customers wanted software that was similar to Amazon and Google in user experience style and complexity.
• It should have a collaborative workspace, to take advantage of the wisdom of the Internet community. Customers believe there is significant value in accessing “group-think”, within and possibly beyond their organizations.
• Work processes should be configurable by non-technical users. There is
significant interest in business process modeling tools which could be
used by subject matter experts.
• It should provide dynamic dashboards rather than just static reports. While some customers felt there was a large cultural investment in static reports, others said the next generation software would no longer emphasize printed reports.
• It should provide real-time data. Customers were not satisfied seeing Web sites with data “as of 46 minutes ago.”
• It should solve the pain of upgrades. Customers debated the costs and benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS). While all users automatically get upgrades and improvements at the same time in this model, it can also blow away customizations and cause training headaches.
• The help system should be highly contextual. They wanted enhancements such as user-added content and User Productivity Kit (UPK) videos.
• It should be usable with no training at all, or with a significant reduction in training from today’s offerings. Some customers said this about current professional enterprise applications, such as financials. Training should be more about domain-level tasks, and less about the software itself.
