iPad 34% Faster Than Workstation or Laptop, For Key ERP Functions

We test the tablet form factor in parts of the enterprise where one might expect it to be faster..and it is!

Up to 40% of corporate users could improve productivity

Used new Enterprise iPad Toolkit from iOptimal

In which parts of the enterprise does the iPad offer the best productivity gains? We set out to find the answer to that question, and the answer is: 20%, 40%, and 34%.

We chose a set of five common data entry screens from a corporate ERP suite – Financials, MRP, CRM, and Human Resources – from vendors such as SAP, Oracle, Lawson, and Salesforce.com. These screens were chosen as a cross-section representing (as best as possible) the thousands upon thousands of legacy database applications used in organizations across the world.

We built “iPad optimized” versions of those screens, which exactly duplicated the data entry functions in the standard Windows/keyboard versions. To build the iPad version we used the new iPad-enterprise prototyping tool just released by our partner firm iOptimal.

We chose these five functions carefully, to represent what we call the “40/20 rule." 40% of corporate users – generally managers, supervisors, and engineers – use only 20% of the ERP functions. By a happy coincidence, those 40% of users – our target audience – are also the ones that most likely to use a tablet, since they are generally people who “move around the office a lot” and have difficulties using laptops and workstations. Also by happy coincidence, the 20% of functions needed by these people are functions which don’t require large amounts of keyboard use, thus are well-suited for mobile tablets.

Converting that 20% subset of of ERP functions to the iPad should create significant time savings and a lot of happy users (and happy IT managers as well, since happy users become enthusiastic supporters for IT departments).

The Results

For our five representative tests, we had people perform the correct functions as fast as possible. We timed them by watching keystrokes and time motion study (using a stopwatch). On average these functions were 34% faster to perform on the iPad, for identical data entered, compared to the laptop or workstation.

Why Faster?

Quite simply, the screens typically used by supervisors and engineer lend themselves well to touchscreen interface. Using iPad user interface standards concepts, we were able to greatly reduce clutter on the screens, use finger gestures to quickly select options (more quiickly and intuitively than the mouse), eliminate almost all keystroke entry, and use location-based optimization to auto-fill and rearrange some fields.

The net result was, faster use.

Easier To Use

In addition, the screens were dramatically more enjoyable to use. Old style ERP is often quite crowded and complex to work with, with multiple layers of menu and complex coding structures; we took the opportunity to clean it up.

Caveats

• Some people might claim that the windows/laptop screens, if they were re-designed and improved, would show a lot of improvement as well. This is likely true. But the fact is, most ERP software isn’t being re-designed. So if the iPad serves as a catalyst to force us to clean up our designs, well, that’s a valid success.


• Note also that this 34% number does not include the fact that users can “carry the iPad everywhere” and would no longer need to walk back to their desks, re-log-in, or deal with charging a laptop. For some users, the iPad is faster simply because it can be carried all day long and eliminates more of the paper forms which still plague many organizations. If this mobility improvement was taken into account, this would add even more to the iPad’s speed advantage for this test. We are working to get an estimate of this number.


• Let’s reiterate that the iPad is unlikely to be faster (and might be slower) for functions that require heavy data entry or typing. For these functions, a keyboard is an advantage, and data-entry users who sit at their desks during the day won’t get much advantage from the mobility of a tablet.


• Finally we should note that these are preliminary results. We'd like to conduct this test again under more rigorous conditions. Nevertheless it does support what many users recognize intuitively: that a touch tablet with a highly tuned interface can increase the efficiency of business users.

Added note (9/14): People say we should do this test again, with a bigger sample set and with more "disinterested observers." Maybe even a media extravaganza! Great idea.

Combine Legacy Corporate ERP With iPads to Get a Big Win For IT Departments

Depending on the industry, 20-40% of any given user population--typically the execs, managers, and engineers--need a mobile tablet for day-to-day use, because they don’t sit at their desk and can’t easily use laptops. These people only employ about 20% of the screens and functions in a typical corporate ERP suite, and by happy coincidence, that 20% is generally not keyboard intensive and thus perfect for a touchscreen interface.

So – this points to a great strategy. Find the right 20% of your ERP functionality, port it to the iPad (and make it look like an iPad app, none of that sneaky Citrix re-hashing of the same old ERP interface). You then become a hero to a group of highly influential users, get better participation in corporate systems, and provide a good starting point for the IT team to learn about mobile.

Strategy 3: Pick Subset of Features for iPad Conversion

How to develop a mobile strategy for your organization, part 3:

Focus resources on a subset of your features

As we said earlier, there is a specific group of high-value users -- on-premises managers, executives, scientists, doctors, etc. -- who are the most likely users for iPad versions of your ERP applications.

• These users are highly influential within the organization, so it's a great strategy to get their buy-in to this new platform
• They have been frustrated with ERP in the past because it didn't fit well with their fast-moving, professional status
• If IT departments can provide iPad-based systems, these users can be converted from skeptics to champions for the IT agenda, which is a big win for corporate IT
• Finally, these users use a certain subset of features from a typical ERP system. They use features that are "supervisory" in nature, usually not with a high degree of data entry or clerical functions

This is great news, because it points us to a simple, powerful strategy for succeeding with iPad ERP conversions. For your organization's mobile strategy, it makes sense to:

• Pick a subset of features from your ERP, Enterprise, or line-of-business application suite (whether purchased off the shelf from a vendor, or written as a custom application). Pick only those features used by your target group
• Focus on converting those high-value features "first" with your targeted resources
• Focus on quality over quantity; you must make these iPad versions significantly better, or in some cases, completely different from your legacy interfaces

This makes sense because with the iPad we don't want to just do a quick conversion of old, legacy designs. The touchscreen-mobile paradigm is a significant break from the character-based, screen-and-keyboard-based computing. To properly master this paradigm takes concentrated effort and is not straightforward. Our team and others are busily developing basic techniques for this conversion, but every organization will have its special needs that will require careful thought.

By narrowing your resources on a smaller number of features initially, you not only avoid getting too spread out (and rushing through a half-way version) but also get earlier wins with a few targeted, high-value, influential users who will then provide more internal support for the project.
Example: Creating an "iPad version" of an accounts payable system

1. First convert the accounts payable approval functions used by managers and VPs. These users are often mobile. Use the iPad or iPhone features to make this AP approval functions simpler to use and "touch centric". Make the old boring financial software interface better...make it intuitive and instantly understandable.
2. Don't include the payable entry screen in this first version. Payables entry is typically data-entry centric and used by accounts payable clerical workers or managers, and these people are already comfortable using workstations for their workday, and should not be the first choice for an iPad interface.

Strategy 2: iPad/iPhone System -- Greater Than Sum of Parts

How to develop a mobile strategy for your organization, part 2:
Take advantage of linkage between iPad (tablet format) and iPhone (smartphone format)

What is Apple's greatest strength compared to the competition? They offer both a smartphone and a tablet. This is a powerful competitive advantage, because the Phone and iPad form a linked, integrated platform which buyers perceive as a stronger long-term bet compared to other competitors who only offer smartphones. As developer or researcher, we can use this linked system in ways dramatically different from smartphones alone.

This linked system of smartphone + tablet uses a human interface design which is dramatically easier to use. Some consider the lack of a keyboard to be a problem. We consider the elimination of the keyboard to be not only necessary (keyboards are fundamentally useless in tablets) but also an opportunity to free ourselves from old, tired user interface standards which have been holding us back for years.

Now we can design software, which selectively and intelligently employs both form factors -- the tablet, carried as a clipboard by supervisors, managers, and engineers, and the smartphone, carried in the pockets of all employees. I can provide one set of features to a supervisor carrying the tablet, and a different set of features to a set of workers carrying phones, and design those features to optimize the functioning of the entire team.

There is a single common operating system, and a single code base for both form factors, supported by a single common vendor.

This linked system is greater than the sum of its parts. Vendors will soon begin releasing innovative new designs, which fully demonstrate this concept.

And when if Microsoft, HP/Palm, Google, and Blackberry come out with their tablets, following this same philosophy, then they will be more competitive. Maybe at that point we can change the title of this blog to "Tablet ERP Strategies."

A Great Quote: "Laptops are Cumbersome and Artificial"

This quote so perfectly explains why the iPad is so much more efficient than a laptop for a lot of users:

"Have you ever watched a teacher rotate around the room to observe student work with a netbook or laptop? It is cumbersome and artificial. The focus is always in the end on the hardware and not the student work. There is a stop point at which they need to put the machine down and type in it."

Now replace the phrase "teacher rotate around the room" with the following:

• Retail manager work with employees to manage the store
• Physician see patients
• Supervisor work on manufacturing shop floor
• Biologist work in laboratory
• VP of human resources interview a series of applicants

Now we can start to see a very sizable group of potential users. And this is just the start.
Sure there are a lot of professions for whom laptops (or desktops) work just great. For example; software developers, IT managers, accountants, and analysts.
But there are a lot of people (as we've said before, often the most influential people in an organization) for whom laptops and desktops are cumbersome and artificial to use in day-to-day work.

Start now

Many enterprise firms are going full steam ahead with mobile ERP. Others say something like this:

"We're not going to invest effort in the iPad until we see it's a clear winner...and not going to be superseded by an equivalent tablet from Microsoft"

While I understand the caution, in this case, it's misplaced.

Sure, somebody else may come out with a highly competitive tablet that is similar to the iPad and sweeps away the market, in the same way that Microsoft Windows took over the graphical user interface market long ago.

But it doesn't matter. The iPad is the starting point; a very powerful starting point here and now, and it is well worth the investment of time to get a solid understanding of that class of device.

Whichever tablet takes the market, it will surely have the same approximate feature set as the iPad...the mobility, the sensors, the touchpad. The software vendors, who want to have a competitive advantage in the coming mobile-tablet-enabled market, and get the added boost of user participation for their product lines, need to start working now. This platform is a substantial change from the past and will take time to understand.

Prediction: At Least 1.2 Million iPads Sold to Enterprises. Here's Why.

In the past 80 days, 3 million iPads have been sold. Also we know that 40% of iPhone sales have been to enterprise users...so, let's make a prediction that those ratios hold and 40% of iPads are going to enterprise users, translating into 1.2 million units.

1.2 million iPads sold in first 80 days, currently in hands of executives and CIOs, who fully intend to use them to drive new efficiencies and solve real problems.

What efficiencies and what problems? Well as we’ve discussed in past posts, there have been gaps for many years, as large groups of users are not able to effectively use workstations and laptops to maintain enterprise data, causing trouble for both operations and IT departments. The iPad is an opportunity to fill those gaps, resolve those pain points, and get more users participating fully.

Here is a quote, from Tech Republic article from a few months ago. "CIOs say iPad and other slates have a place in business"

Donna Trivison, Director of IT for Ursuline College, said, “Yes, there is a business case which can be made for iPad or other convenient, easy to use tablet computers. The iPod Touch /iPad is instant on, instant off, and instant load. This aspect alone makes a compelling business case. Time is money. Though I’m not sure if that would be considered a function of tablet per se. It is more a function of iPhone operating system and multi-touch user interface, push one button, touch one icon. App loads and performs flawlessly. All apps (a.k.a., software) have a standardized look and feel… Elegant, functional, revolutionary.”

"Time is money." Also, time is an obstacle for millions of users, who don't have the time to constantly walk back to their desks to enter information into their enterprise software. The iPhone has been successfully removing that obstacle for many users, and the iPad is now doubling down on the concept.

Strategy 1: Mobilizing the Non-Mobile User

How to develop a mobile strategy for your organization, Part 1:
Choose the right target population for new iPad project to set the right course for future.

Most ERP tools on mobile devices are focused at “mobile” workers…which is assumed to be mobile maintenance, salespeople, mobile nurses, and others that drive or travel between worksites. Many vendors have built healthy product lines that sell just to these mobile workers.

While this is a great market, we think it’s the wrong place to focus ERP product development for the iPad. We believe that the focus for the next few years should be on:

• High value, professional workers who are on premises
• Work in the facility with have real-time access to Wi-Fi connections,
• Who are not depending on cell-phone connectivity
• Who walk around a lot to do their jobs every day
• Therefore cannot easily use laptops or workstations
• Not desk workers.

This is a big target group...for example:

• Healthcare: Physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators
• Retail: Store managers, supervisors, and employees
• Manufacturing: Workers, technicians, floor supervisors, job bosses, assemblers
• Municipal: Police, Fire, corrections; utilities, compliance, or inspection personnel
• High tech: Engineers, scientists, R&D workers, any manufacturing or prototyping
• Functional: any VP or C-level executives who spend a lot of time walking around the office buildings (in my experience, that means all managers and executives)

Again, we are talking about people who are working on-premises in their building, who are not generally classified as“mobile workers." This group:

• Comprises a significant portion of the user population for ERP/enterprise applications. Published numbers run anywhere from 40-80% of users. We say "approximately 50%."
• Are high-value, influential members of the organization. They are often the engineers, managers, and supervisors who “keep the operation running.”
• Historically have been the least likely to adopt and use enterprise applications software. This is because, again, they are often not at a desk and don't want to carry a laptop (too heavy, too short a battery life) so it's always been difficult for them to use the software properly.
• Are often unhappy with enterprise applications. Why? Because enterprise applications are designed for workstations and are primarily focused on character-based data entry. These high-value workers don’t have time to run back to their workstations during the day, and they don’t do a lot of high volume data entry. As a result they feel frustrated, don’t use the software regularly, and can become negative about the entire concept (which in turn is frustrating to IT managers).
• Are a fantastic opportunity for IT and vendors -- if they can be "converted" into supporters and enthusiasts, by providing them with well-designed iPad versions of the enterprise applications.

Advantage of iPad: Immediacy

Another important quality of the iPad/iPhone system—which will make it a powerful change agent for the enterprise application market – is the immediacy of mobile devices.

Human beings in a fast-paced work are constantly prioritizing and building to-do lists, sometimes in their heads, sometimes on paper. As we mention in another blog post, there is a tendency in complex organizations (we use hospitals as an example) to carry clipboards with paper forms, because of the enormous quantity of complex information that organizations must process.

It’s not just “carrying” information, it’s also logging information. In hospitals for example, there are an enormous number of items that have to logged, tracked, checked, unchecked, underlined, added to care plans, to-do'd, and remembered. For the average doctor or nurse, this quantity of planning is enormous. To fight this tsunami of decisions, successful people learn to be immediate.
Immediacy is the foundation of personal efficiency. High performing professionals have this lesson pounded into their heads for years. This is part of doing the job. Anything you can do now, do now.

Why is immediacy so powerful? An action taken immediately is almost always more accurate and more effective. “Done while it is fresh in your mind”.

An action postponed till later is not done as accurately or as well, because by later you have forgotten much that you know about that issue, or you lose momentum, or you are tired or distracted.

If we can provide professional workers a system that allows them to instantly act on every problem they encounter, this increase their effectiveness significantly.

This is why physicians and other professionals are adopting the iPhone. Because it allows them to:

• Instantly see the latest data
• Not be required remember to pick up the right information and carry it to work, or walk back to the library
• Avoid writing notes and reminders
• Avoid the risk of forgetting something important
• Avoid the need to sit in the office at the end of the day, or on weekends, re-entering written notes
• Write emails, prescriptions, instrucdtions, designs, and other action items, immediately

The point of all this is…interface designers, time management pundits, and old-time time and motion engineers know, that simply making human work more direct, and more immediate, can have a potent and measurable effect on efficiency.

This is why mobile tools the iPhone and iPad are so popular. This is why we predict the iPad will be such a catalyst for revolution in the enterprise market.

The problem with the enterprise market is that most enterprise software is *not* in any way immediate. For most users, data entry or logging in enterprise terminals happens “later”. For many workers-- doctors nurses, maintenance workers, teachers, managers, store clerks, casino managers, truck drivers, floor supervisors, biotech scientists, etc, access to computers is something they can do only at the end of the shift.

It's the problem with enterprise software -- lack of immediacy. People hate to sit and enter “end of the day” data. They know it’s not accurate. They don’t have the mental bandwidth remember details at end of day, when they are tired and frustrated.

So if we can:

• give them a mobile tool which is fast, sleek, with an astoundingly easy and intuitive interface
• which is linked to the their enterprise applications
• that cuts out the junk they have to enter

then we are making their workday more productive.

Design 1: Not Just "As Good" But Dramatically Better

Designing ERP software for the iPad, part 1:

Make iPad version dramatically better than legacy systems.

ERP apps that are being ported over to the iPad/iPhone platform shouldn't aim to just duplicate the functionality of windows/keyboard platforms. iPad versions should be dramatically better, in the sense that they should leverage the unique features of this unique platform. They should take advantage of:

• Mobility
• Real-time business optimization
• Mobile capable workflow
• Slick user interface
• Form factor
• Location-based optimization of all types
• Bar code scanning, bluetooth data collection, video, audio, and photo

We hope to get into more detail in later posts.
Does this mean that any and all types of corporate applications should be converted to excellent iPad versions? Probably not. There is a certain class of users who are well suited to tablets. These target users have a certain set of functions they need. Any vendor porting enterprise applications to the iPad needs to start by choosing those target user functions, and create a "mini" version of the application for iPad.

Link: Why the iPad Absolutely Matters

Great article on ZDNET called "Why the iPad absolutely matters."

Although it's an educator, it applies to business as well. This clearly describes both the personal and organizational improvements of a mobile computer tool that travels easily and records data in "real time."

With the iPad, teachers can now easily walk around and record the information on an ongoing basis. Have you ever watched a teacher rotate around the room to observe student work with a netbook or laptop? It is cumbersome and artificial. The focus is always in the end on the hardware and not the student work. There is a stop point at which they need to put the machine down and type in it. With the weight, design, and simple kinaesthetic input, teachers literally can input 3-4 taps and have recorded all of the student’s information while maintaining focus and providing verbal feedback to the child.