Destination CRM: Act! 2010 CRM Shines in Real World Ease of Use…
Accomplishing more in less time is what we are all looking for…
Act! 2010 CRM leads the field for usability as per standards designed at Digital Equipment Corporation.
December 2009 Destination CRM magazine reveals:
“The focus on streamlining processes and improving the experience for the actual users of CRM technology is being emphasized much more, as companies are being tasked to do more with less, including training and on-boarding. But what does usability really mean? The Usability Professionals Association cites ISO 9241-11: “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.”
Sage, a CRM provider, undertook several benchmark usability tests—including summative usability testing and keystroke level modeling (KLM)—when working on Act! 2010. According to Dean Barker, Sage’s director of user experience, in the past year the company “sought to put the ‘u’ back in user experience.” To Barker, this means having the right philosophy and mindset before using the techniques—best practices and processes for user-centered design.
After a battery of usability tests, Act! 2010 scored 81.7 out of 100 on the System Usability Scale, a 10-question survey developed by John Brooke at Digital Equipment Corporation. The industry average is a 66.2. Using KLM to compare itself against QuickBooks, Maximizer Software, multiple offerings from Microsoft, and Salesforce.com, Act! 2010 ranked first in user productivity and efficiency, averaging 17 percent higher productivity than competitors.
Barker says instead of sitting on its laurels, Sage still more work to do, saying that there is an art to making changes that will resonate with users and improve efficiency. “The most important thing for us from a usability standpoint is to continue to make it better,” he adds. “There is no perfect product. Also, we must strike a delicate balance between making the product easy to use for new users and for our [existing] users.”
COMMON TASKS ASSESSED FOR KLM
- Find information about last meeting with a contact.
- Create a new contact.
- Search for all contacts in a specific area.
- Schedule a call.
- Record notes about a customer/contact meeting.
- View workweek calendar.
- Mark an activity complete and schedule follow-up.
