A business software usability study by the Meta Group has shown that inter-enterprise software player SAP enjoys a lead of six to eight months over its nearest rival in the enterprise resource management (ERM) sector.
To share this ease-of-use expertise with other user interface designers and software ergonomists the company is forming a Design Guild Web site.
"In the dynamic, fast-paced world of e-business, business software and applications have to be intuitive and easy to use," says SAP Africa's Simon Carpenter, general manager: mySAP.com components.
"As more and more staff within organisations use business enterprise software daily, user interfaces within this environment are becoming increasingly vital. Easy-to-use and visually attractive screens improve motivation and therefore productivity - we intend to remain in the forefront of delivering for these users," he says.
"As part of our EnjoySAP initiative, developers worked closely with end users to create software that is easy to use and can be personalised to suit the working habits of the individual, generating enormous productivity gains," says Carpenter. "The initiative put the focus of software developers firmly back on the users."
The business software usability study by Meta Group Germany (November 1999) highlights the success of this initiative. The study, which tested J.D. Edwards' OneWorld B73.2.2 System, Oracle Applications 11.0.2, and SAP R/3 Versions 4.0B and 4.6A, showed significant differences in the carrying out of standard business processes and tasks.
The testers had no specific experience of any of the ERM systems involved, but did have a sound business background. They were assigned tasks to fulfill using each of the ERM products, and the time taken was then measured.
"The results show that, in terms of developing the usability of the user interface, SAP R/3 4.6A has a lead of six to eight months over J.D. Edwards and nine to 12 months over Oracle Applications," says Carpenter.
"To keep ahead of the game, SAP is making the experiences and results gained from the EnjoySAP initiative available to a wider audience in the form of a Design Guild Web site.
"This will facilitate communication with user-interface designers while at the same time offering them support," he says. "There are plans to form a worldwide design community, involving SAP, international design experts and GUI developers.
"SAP's goal is to make EnjoySAP synonymous with usability, and constantly improve this by listening to the users."
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The Design Guild Website
The Design Guild Website, at www.sapdesignguild.org, contains toolkits, cookbooks and style guides covering all aspects of software design within the SAP product family in all phases of development, from initial analysis through implementation to usability testing.
There are also 'philosophy' and 'strategies' sections, containing documents that describe the organisational and philosophical changes that need to take place in the development process to produce truly user-focused software. The latter sections will be provided free of charge, as will the discussion boards and content previews. Design resources will be subject to a yearly usage fee to subsidise the web sites costs.
SAP's corporate web site, at www.sap.com, was earlier this year found to be the fastest and easiest to use of the top enterprise software vendor sites.
Research by online publication ZDNet (March 16, 2000) place SAP's web site at the top of its usability list. Describing the web site as 'a pleasure', ZDNet found it to have navigational and design consistency, and optimised text, all of which resulted in quick-loading pages. The SAP site saved an average of four seconds per page compared to competitor sites (details available at www.webcriteria.com)