Merit Matters Blog

You may read this and think: productivity improvements? Again?

Yes, improved productivity seems to be on every ERP vendor’s checklist of benefits whenever a new product or feature is released. And that’s because inefficient and rigid systems continue to be a major pain for companies and organizations everywhere.

Inflexible systems overwhelm, overload, and frustrate people – the employees, managers, customers, vendors, and partners who are working hard to make things happen and grow their business. According to a report from Forrester, there is a deep-seated dissatisfaction with business applications because they are inflexible, don’t address processes that cross business functions, and don’t match the business’ requirements. (The Future of Enterprise Applications, Forrester 2007).

Indeed, a study from AMR Research (The Enterprise Planning Spending Report 2005-2006, AMR Research 2005) found that only 15% of employees are licensed to use their company’s ERP system and that 46% of licensed ERP seats go unused. And when people don’t use the system, business productivity declines, growth slows, and even business critical processes can be compromised. Because, it doesn’t matter if standard operating procedures are in place if no one in the organization can access, see or enforce them.

Therefore, it’s not surprising when Forrester concludes that “poorly designed user interfaces can profoundly affect the bottom line. The expenses associated with a bad UI, over the course of the application’s lifetime, may end up being many times the cost of the application itself.” (The Future of Enterprise Applications, Forrester 2007)  The report continues on to explain the costly implications of a bad UI, including increased new user training times, a decrease in productivity and poor user adoption.

So why then is Microsoft Dynamics AX different? We claim improved business productivity, too, but does our solution deliver on this promise? And, if so how? What makes Microsoft Dynamics AX so special?

The answer is usability. The easier a software application is to use, the faster employees are able to adopt it and thereby enable the organization to reap the benefits the system provides. A study conducted by the consulting group, Keystone Strategy, found that companies who have successfully deployed IT capabilities throughout the organization – meaning that people are really using the software – have been able to profitably grow their revenues.

At the core of more agile, usable applications is the human experience, or what Forrester calls Design- for-People requirements.

“Design-for-people requirements place the businessperson’s work at the center of business applications’ human interface. The businessperson’s work is the organizing structure for a workplace into which we plug transactions, business processes, content, unified communications, social networking, and tools. Instead of people having to figure out how to apply collaboration tools to their jobs, ad hoc activities are integrated with structured work in these unitary, contextual workplaces.” 

Microsoft Dynamics AX has been designed to meet “people-ready” requirements; specifically, to improve business productivity by improving usability and increasing the reach of the solution so a larger percentage of employees have access to the system.

Learning a new software application or having to learn many different ones can slow down productivity. If a new user is familiar with the application, learning and using new applications becomes much easier and faster. The user interface in Microsoft Dynamics AX has been changed to improve the user experience, the learning experience and leverage the successful design concepts from the popular applications most users spend time in on a daily basis: Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint, Windows, and Internet Explorer. Working in Microsoft Dynamics AX is like working in other Microsoft programs that most people are familiar with. 

Yes, Microsoft Dynamics AX delivers on the promise of productivity – by offering unsurpassed usability, easier collaboration and communication, and comprehensive business insight capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics AX was designed with people in mind – making it easier for them to work, collaborate and make informed decisions more efficiently.

According to a study from AMR Research, on average only 15 percent of employees are licensed to use their company’s ERP solution and 46 percent of ERP licenses remain unused. Because a limited portion of the organization is using the solution, the potential for productivity benefits and growth remains untapped.

Why aren’t ERP solutions adopted more broadly, by more employees, and for more of their daily tasks? Unfortunately, these solutions are often identified as too difficult to use; too rigid; or both. In one of their reports, Forrester Research concluded that “poorly designed user interfaces can profoundly affect the bottom line. The expenses associated with a bad UI, over the course of the application’s lifetime, may end up being many times the cost of the application itself.”

The negative impact of low usability can include increased training times, a lack of user adoption, and a decrease in workplace productivity. Additionally, when people don’t use the ERP system, mission-critical processes can be compromised because there is no access to or enforcement of standard operations and best practices. Furthermore, individuals often track pertinent business information using separate spreadsheets because using a centralized system is too complex and time-consuming.

Although user productivity can be difficult to calculate, it should be a critical factor when evaluating, purchasing, and implementing an ERP solution. Overall, ERP solutions have demonstrably improved user productivity. Research conducted in 2007 by Keystone Strategy included an analysis of widely accepted usability tests, such as Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI), which showed that business productivity is a product of six factors. These factors include:

• Collaboration, including the ability to submit work for review, obtain comments or approval from others, and share information and tasks with trade partners.
• Business insight, including visibility across departments and real-time access to accurate, relevant data in context of the process or decision where it will be used.
• Flexibility, including the ability to depart from transactional tasks to manage problems or exceptions.
• Usability, including easy navigation, the number of steps required in tasks, instructions and prompts that are helpful rather than cryptic, and the user’s overall command of functionality.
• Familiarity, including how easy and intuitive the system is to learn and the sense that information and tasks correlate with the user’s job role and activities.
• Transactional efficiency, including speed and reliability in accomplishing or automating common, repetitive tasks.

Research has shown that after an ERP solution is implemented, users often struggle to learn how to use it and find the information they need. Complaints range from “it’s hard to learn” and “it’s not integrated with my other tools” to “it’s hard to extract information” and “it’s not flexible enough for real-world situations.” Such objections, which are addressed by the six dimensions of user productivity, account in part for the low user adoption rate discovered in the AMR Research study. These challenges are a reflection of solutions designed with a focus on transactional and functional processes, rather than user productivity and comprehensive, end-to-end business processes.

Microsoft Dynamics AX provides the flexibility you need to optimize user productivity, improve organizational agility, and accommodate future growth. Role Centers and the RoleTailored user experience can be easily personalized for individual users to streamline tasks and speed decision-making. A variety of options for accessing business information - including Enterprise Portal and the Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office - make it easy to extend Microsoft Dynamics AX functionality and productivity tools to workers across the entire organization and throughout the supply chain. Full integration with Microsoft technologies and products helps you maximize existing IT investments and minimize user training time, resulting in a low total cost of ownership (TCO). The flexible, scalable platform gives you the ability to easily add users or functionality as your business expands. In addition, the solution is readily tailored and can be extended / adapted precisely to your needs now and in the future.

Learn how you can increase productivity and efficiency with Microsoft Dynamics AX.