Interactions - March/April 2009

on the unmodified (“vanilla”) solution. Overall there were a lot of usability issues, and addressing them proved difficult. For instance, the enterprise could not revise some confusing labels without modification. The usability expert conducted a risk assessment for project management, which documented all the risks in terms of level (high, medium, low). The usability expert also proposed modifications in order to address some significant user experience (UX) issues such as the search function. The supplier was willing to do some quick enhancements. The supplier and the usability expert also discussed detailed user interface design. Intel project management eventually approved the modification approach.

The program, however, was cancelled due to a budget cut. Many key members left the program, and all work ceased. One year later, the program was resumed, and OTS applications were released without any follow-up UX work. The new release did not factor in previous usability work, and significant negative feedback from the enterprise users rolled in.

Companies that have been around for a while have homegrown applications and tools running their various information and business needs. Often, these systems overlap in scope, since different groups in the company, unaware of each other’s work, develop them. Thus, multiple applications that offer similar solutions may be found across the corporation. While specific groups using such solutions may be content with what they are getting, the company at large suffers in efficiency due to duplication of systems. In order to eliminate such redundancy in the corpo-

rate environment, companies may want to integrate the applications into a single enter-prisewide capability by implementing OTS solutions.

While OTS solutions contribute to eliminating or reducing duplicate applications and tools, other issues come into play: those that relate to the users, the enterprise, and the supplier (the OTS solution provider). However, the issues are often interconnected, and it’s important to view them as such (see the accompanying figure).

Enterprise Issues. OTS solutions are developed to fit many business needs and are designed to fit the most general business case. By definition, OTS are standard one-size-fits-all solutions that cannot be customized. However, each enterprise has specific business needs and a specific company culture, with unique characteristics such as the vernacular of people in the workplace. Suppliers of OTS solutions often fail to take these things

into account. Thus, while OTS solutions are intended for enterprise-wide application, there is always the risk of not providing certain capabilities that the company requires. On the other hand, OTS solutions may also introduce certain capabilities that the company doesn’t need, leading to unnecessary cost and maintenance. As a result, new and modified business processes can emerge, ones that may not mesh with existing business processes. And there is always a transition period for a new solution. Due to the generally long implementation and integration period of an OTS solution, the technology may become obsolete— adopting new technologies to make the solution more efficient and effective may require too much time. At the end of the project cycle, testing opportunities often focus on the system design and performance, leaving no room to improve or enhance the end-user input on usability and UX (if such