|
|
|
Are Performance-Support Systems in Your Business’ Future?
BNH interviewed Stanley Malcolm,
a nationally recognized expert on
electronic performance support systems and head of Performance Vision, a consulting firm located in Marlborough.
|
Business New Haven
6/1/1998
By: Clement L. Russo
|
How do electronic performance supports systems (EPSS) differ from computer-based training (CBT)?
The goal of CBT is to fill you up with knowledge, and then put you to work. The approach behind EPSS represents a 180-degree shift in thinking. These systems are designed to provide people with the supports they need - or access to those supports - while they're actually performing some task or work function. With EPSS, you can give people a lot less training, put them to work much sooner, and see high levels of productivity almost from the very first day.
What types of businesses benefit the most from EPSS?
There are so many different applications of it that just about any company can benefit. At the high end are systems designed for sophisticated analytical tasks, like project or business planning, that would be used mostly by managers. At the other end are the systems you see being used in fast-food outlets that guide workers through the process of cooking or ordering a burger. There's also a vast EPSS middle ground of inventory control, customer service and sales support systems, for example, that allow you to achieve consistent performance throughout your organization with little or no advance training.
How can a company determine which support system will
deliver the best results?
First, identify the work task you want to support, then search the market for the software that will do the best job. Read reviews, search the Internet, go to stores and look at interfaces. You may also want to consider software that's specific to your industry or software that's custom-developed. Clearly, a small to medium-size company may not be able to foot the bill for customized software on its own. But it may be worthwhile to join up with other businesses in a consortium mode to either finance the development of new support software or influence vendors to modify their existing systems to accommodate your needs.
What are the most common obstacles you encounter when introducing EPPS?
In my experience, when you show a businessperson examples of performance support, they understand the value of the approach immediately. But IS and training people are generally more conservative - many of them are still wedded to a classroom point of view - and they often feel threatened by it. To overcome their resistance, you have to be prepared to help them understand what performance support is and what it can mean to your business. Another way to bring about a change in mindset is to introduce performance support “tools,” rather than whole systems, so that people can see the benefits of the approach without a major systems overhaul.
How are performance support systems changing, and what can we expect from them in the
near future?
There will be more performance support systems that are designed to enhance the work of groups, not just individuals, more flexible systems that can be altered or added to by the companies that use them, and electronic “sensors” that can automatically change variables that are external to a system, such as interest rates, stock prices or inventories. Overall, what I think you can expect to see are more performance support systems in general, more software applications that have performance support features embedded in them, and more systems to support tasks that haven't been addressed yet.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
