Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Electronic Performance Support Systems In Business

Last week I had an interesting conversation with a colleague that included a discussion of Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS).

An EPSS is an integrated electronic system that is easily accessible by a user when it is needed. The information provided is individualized and likely in context to the situation that is encountered by the user.

I've always been interested in EPSS as it relates to business, training and support. The basis of my conversation with my colleague was that an EPSS can help lower support costs by providing just-in-time training and information (i.e. - feedback). If the end-user can solve their problem before calling upon support staff to assist or to halt their work to research the problem, they can continue to concentrate on their task at hand and still maintain a high level of productivity while receiving assistance.

You may have encountered an EPSS without realizing it. Do you remember the old Microsoft Office 97 Assistant, Clippy? Annoying as he was, Clippy was actually an embedded EPSS that monitored the performance of the end-user. As the end-user performed certain actions, Clippy would provide feedback, suggestions or assistance to maintain or increase performance.

Imagine how you could provide an EPSS with your technology your workforce uses in your business to maintain or increase performance. If this topic intrigues you as much as me, here are some additional resources for you to investigate the topic further.

No comments: