Smartworkplace is a concept + methodology + technology for creating the most productive IT system’s human interface.

A Smartworkplace reduces the duration of system tasks by 30% - 70%, resulting in user productivity (including non systems tasks) increase of 20 – 40%.

Smartworkplace brings largest benefit to organizations where a high number of people perform recurring tasks that require accessing multiple IT systems – such as call centres, front-desk processing, process oriented back offices, etc.

If you were to build a school or a hospital, you wouldn’t do it just by asking teachers or doctors and then telling the bricklayer. You choose an architect with previous experience of schools or hospitals, that talks to teachers or doctors to understand technical aspects of the education or medical business.

The usability of an IT system has direct impact on its user’s productivity - the less time a user spends using an IT system to perform an activity, the more he can produce.

Smartworkplace projects have historically yielded 20% - 40% increase in user productivity. Actual impact depends on the balance of time spent with systems compared to overall task time and to gap time between tasks (for instance waiting for the next customer) – the more time is spent with the system the bigger is the potential for overall productivity improvement.

Despite the ASSUMED involvement of usability experts, we find that most human interfaces of IT projects actually deliver far less than their full productivity potential.

BECAUSE

1. Graphical design and page layouts is not it. Real usability starts earlier and includes navigation and program structure
2. The focus of IT projects is on function, not speed. Yet, 'efficiency gains' are almost always in the original objectives
3. IT programmers don’t implement efficient solutions – they implement structured solutions. They rarely think ‘What is the fastest way the user can do this?’
4. Project management is about keeping the project's budget. A project week saved is more important than 100.000 times one minute wasted by users later
5. End users don’t articulate efficient solutions either – they are more about making new IT the same as previous or replicate existing paper based processes

A real efficiency nerd is usually missing from IT projects.