Why not Experiment with Software during a Recession?

Most of the software that we use in business today far exceeds our normal business usage. Even with normal office products such as Microsoft Word, most of us use very few of the features. Even though I have been comfortable with computers for many years, and always work with multiple products at the same time, I use very few of the functions. I only expand my use when I have a problem and need to do something that I have never done before. Even then, I often use the products and features that I am comfortable with.

This works just fine if I only have to do something once. It isn't worth the time and effort to learn new products and features, when I can do the job faster with the tools that I currently have.

Most businesses are using much more complicated software these days Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software coordinates data from many different parts of the business. These products are designed for many different businesses and provide functionality to support them all. Any single business probably uses a very little percentage of these products. Luckily, many of them are modular, so that you don't have to buy all of the components. However, the complexity still exists.

Implementing an extensive software product is a very painful operation. Everybody has to be retrained and becomes uncomfortable because they no longer can do their jobs easily until they learn the new software. As they become comfortable and learn how to get the job done, they typically stop learning about the functions of the software, even though there may be much easier ways of doing the job if they knew more about the software.

The reason they stop learning is that they are getting the job done. They don't need the extra features and don't have time to learn them because of business volumes. They may also not know how to start looking for additional features. Most software suppliers have a standard training package, that doesn't allow for investigation and/or experimentation.

During a recession, volumes are lower and employees may have time to learn, but don't know how to go about doing it. Where do they start?

I worked with one software company that was receptive to the idea of developing specialized training. I set out to see how we could get much more effective use of the software. I asked them to show us how we could get much better use as well as where they would not recommend it use. It worked very well. Our organization became much stronger for a number of reasons:

• It wasn't their first exposure to the software. They had all used it for over a year.
• They had a lot of questions, that they had been too busy to ask.
• We addressed the business problems and looked at how the software could be used to improve things.

This worked because the supplier was receptive. I have worked with other suppliers that weren't as receptive. Mostly this was because the trainers didn't know the software well enough. This may be one of the criteria. Judging the capabilities of your trainers may be one of the most difficult things.