The User Experience is now more important than ever, especially for internal applications. A good User Experience facilitates adoption, and reduces the organizational change management effort required.

1. IT Must Excel at Creating a Great User Experience
Notthat longago, masteringthe skillsthatallowedauserto interface withanenterprisesystemwasan
acknowledgedaccomplishment. Itwassomethingtoputon a resume,andfrequentlyallowedan
individualtocommandpremiumpayinthe market. (SAPSuperUsers,I’mthinkingof you.) Thencame
the consumerizationof applicationswhichstartedwithsocial applicationsandspreadlike wildfire via
smart phone /tabletapps.
Consumerapplicationdevelopersrealizethattheyneedtoprovide anoutstandinguserexperiencein
orderto drive adoption. A consumerapplicationneedstobe intuitive andthe benefitsof use readily
apparentformost expectedconsumers toadoptit. This meansmakingapplicationssimple enoughthat
the proverbial fifthgrader(orinsome casestoddler) canuse itwithoutanytraining.
A goodexample of howprovidingaconsumer grade interface canimprove performance occurredatone
of ourplants,where supplierswere complainingaboutpurchase ordersnotbeingissuedtimely. Itturns
out the plantmanagerdidn’treally understandhow touse the SAPsystemonhisdesktop,andtherefore
wouldonlyapprove purchase ordersat a certaintime eachweekafterhe had done a review of key
elementsoutsideof the system. We createdanapp that allowedhimtoview all the informationhe
neededonhisphone. Asa result,he startedapprovingrequisitionsduringthe course of eachdaywhen
he had a fewfree minutes. The plantmanagerwashappy,the supplierswere happy,andthe
effectivenessof the purchasingprocessimproved.
Today mostenterprise solutionprovidershave caughtonto the needtoimprove theiruserinterfaces.
Howeverdue tothe complexityof the processestheysupport,makinginterfacesfullyintuitive isstill
oftena challenge. Andthenthere are the applicationsITdepartmentsare creatingtohelprunthe
company. Most of the programmersI knew thoughtaboutthe systemsinputs,outputsandflows,and
not the userinterface.
Three yearsago, TennecodecidedtoadoptSAP’sFiore platformtosimplifythe SAPuserinterface and
enable smartphone interfaceswiththe ERPsystem. We assembledacrossfunctional scrumteamto
developthe newapps. However,the teamquicklyrealizedthattheywere missingakeyskill:auser
experience (UX) designer. While thereis acodingcomponenttothisjob,the keyskillsare oftenmore
relatedtosomeone whocancreate a brilliantmarketingbrochure orcommercial. Inother words, not
skillshistoricallyfoundinITdepartments. Fortunately, Ihada verycompetent directorforthisprogram
recognizedthe gapandaddressedit. This serveduswell aswe starteddeveloping appsforcollaboration
and workflowsutilizingOffice 365. The real payoff wasin seeingwidespreadadoptionof the newapps,
withmuchlesschange managementeffortthatwasrequiredfortraditionalapplications.
There are twolessonsItookaway. Firstisthe needtorecruitand developUXdesigners. Frequentlyi t’s
easiertoteach people whoexcel indevelopingmarketcontenttocode,thanit isteach codersto be
expertcontentdevelopers. Onour teamthe UX designerswhere typicallyworkingwithprogrammers
and businessexpertssocodingcouldbe sharedamongteammembers. Keepinmindasyoudevelop
these skillsthatUXtoolsare evolvingrapidlyas chatbotsandvirtual realitytoolsbecome mainstream.
My secondlessonisthat a goodUX designgreatlysimplifiesthe organizationchange management
challenge butdoesnotmake itgo away. You still needan organizationchange management (OCM)
program whichaddresses:the needforthe application,how the applicationwill impacthow workgets

2. done and whodoes itand identifiesandmitigatesanyresistance tothe new applicationandembedded
processes. While muchlesstrainingistypicallyrequired,becauseenterprise solutionsoftenenable the
executionof processesbypeoplewithadvancedspecializedskill sets,someminimal trainingmaybe
required. Insteadof trainingthe newOCMfocusbecomesawareness,explainingthe change injob
responsibilities,andfosteringadoption.
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