A study published by the consultancy firm Advince in Sweden, comparing international ERP packages such as HansaWorld Enterprise, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, SAP and Visma, among others, shows that usability of the business software influences the profitability of the business.
"Judging by the numbers, one could say that a reasonable increase in usability gives cost savings to a company of up to 700 000 euros a year,” says Filip Ekstrand, business development consultant and IT strategist at Advince.
The biggest single failing overall is the degree to which users feel in control of their business system. Often, the typical business system will do things in a way that the individual user cannot understand, or that disrupts the way they normally do things. The real battle is in making business systems more intuitive and allowing the end-users to take more control over the way things are done.
The Software Usability Measurement Inventory used by Advince, which formed the basis of the survey, is a consistent method for assessing the quality of use of a software product from the end-user's point of view.
"One reason why usability is becoming more important is that businesses have new groups of users who are not experts, people who need easy to use systems," says Nigel Claridge, usability consultant at Advince.
Nearly 600 users took part in a software usability survey and their scores on various criteria formed the results of the study.
The study results showed that HansaWorld Enterprise received the highest usability scores.
While the average score was 50, HansaWorld Enterprise scored 66, whereas the second company in line scored as low as 56.
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HansaWorld
HansaWorld provides integrated enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management solutions, together with a wide selection of industry-specific tools, to 70 000 clients in around 90 countries. The products work on all major platforms and support mobile use via laptops, PDAs and Nokia business phones. http://www.hansaworld.com
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