Why SHO Guide vs. Simulation?

At Transcensus, all of our combined learning experience has pointed us to the vital importance of connecting learning and readiness to the immediacy of performing the task. With the dramatic changes that are occurring in the IT training industry and the ever increasing need to embed learning within the process, performance support was clearly the right focus, but existing performance support technology solutions and methodologies were difficult to use, difficult to implement, and/or too expensive.

Software applications are challenged with these same issues. It often seems humanly impossible to do what we desire to do, even with advertised features of the software. Transcensus focused on both problems. We desired to put the "human interface" into software and provide moment of need performance support for the masses. Our focused effort resulted in the development of what we call SHO Technology.

Our patent-pending Scripted Human Operator™ (SHO) technology is an exciting innovation in software performance support and user assistance. It allows content developers to create truly interactive software instructional, assistance and support content that interfaces directly with windows software applications. No programming knowledge is required.

SHO content can be embedded directly within the workflow. While completing job related tasks, workers interact directly with the live software application they are attempting to use, instead of a browser, simulation window or other external training interface. In other words, the actual software application is the training interface. SHO technology can be thought of as a virtual instructor or tutor looking over the user's shoulder and offering step-by-step guidance inside the actual software application the user is attempting to use.

What is EPSS? (continued...)

Each day I get more and more excited about learning more about elearning... or guided help... or any of a hundred other terms for Electronic Performance Support. I'm wrapping up the last blog with "How will Process-Embedded Learning Benefit Your Organization?"

Perhaps some of the most interesting statistics on the benefits of process-embedded learning can be found in a 2006 report of IT learning technology trends produced by Ambient Insight, LLC, which arrives at the following conclusions:

• Rapid e-learning is too slow. Process-embedded learning is, by comparison, very fast.
  
• Process-embedded Learning products reduce content creation and maintenance costs by as much as 60-80%.
  
• Average cost of a help desk call in the U.S. is $125 per incident. Process-embedded learning can reduce help desk calls by 60% to 75%.
  
• Process-embedded learning eliminates lost opportunity costs associated with taking a user out of production to attend a training class or complete an e-learning course.

Following are additional benefits that one can expect from a process-embedded, performance-centric approach to worker instruction:

• Reduced learning time
  
• Higher levels of worker productivity
  
• Less reliance on others when completing job-related tasks
  
• Reduction in implementation costs
  
• Increased worker autonomy
  
• Better knowledge retention
  
• Better customer experiences

The majority of this content is available in our white paper "Learning at the Moment of Need" which is available by contacting us at info@transcensus.com.

**************************************************************************************

Daniel Higbee is the Vice President of Business Development for Transcensus, LLC.

Transcensus, LLC, based in Orem, Utah, is dedicated to the cause of improving software usability through the introduction of a new interactive platform for authoring and delivery of performance support and guided help content. The company's solutions embed learning, user assistance and support content directly in the workflow, enabling an unprecedented level of enhanced usability and contextual learning in software applications. The company is developing solutions that will influence virtually every market segment that relies upon software as a critical component of its operational strategy. For more information about Transcensus, visit http://www.transcensus.com/.

"What is electronic performance support?"

If your reading this there's a good chance you already know the answer but I was asked this question again by a friend, After reading my blog. So, just in case you are asking the same question...

Think about it this way... When you first started at your new job, did you need to learn how to use any new software? An accounting system, customer relationship managment tool, Microsoft product, or otherwise? Do you remember how frustrating it was trying to figure out how to complete your tasks quickly? How many times did you ask different people the same questions so they wouldn't know you forgot.... again...?.?.?

EPSS or Electronic Performance Support Systems are esentiallly designed to provide you with immediate help within the software application your using at the "TIME OF NEED." Allowing you to complete the task immediately vs. asking co-workers or going searching for assistance in help files.

The Problem is finding the Right Information...Downtime due to an inability to find relevant, job task-specific information remains a huge obstacle to worker productivity. Consider these statistics from a recent IDC report:

• Knowledge workers spend an average of 15% to 20% of their time looking for information.
• Success rates are less than 50%.
• Unsuccessful searches in a company employing 1,000 knowledge workers could cost as much as $6,000,000 in time loss annually.

Another survey of technology workers , in this case IT professionals and programmers, concluded that 100% of those surveyed reported having to stop working at one or more times per day to find answers and look for solutions to job-related problems. Of those surveyed, 20% reported having to stop 10 or more times per day. When totaled, this equates to at least 50 interruptions per week.

The study concluded further that technology workers spend approximately seven hours per week looking for answers and researching solutions to problems. Over the course of a month, this represents more than 31 hours of technology worker downtime. When measured across an enterprise of 500 technology workers, the costs of worker downtime could equate to as much as $7.5 million per year—a staggering impact to profitability.

Addressing the Problem

So how is this problem being addressed? The answer is, simply, not very well. Despite significant research that confirms that most worker learning takes place outside of the classroom, organizations continue to rely largely on costly instructor-led training as a primary solution. A recent Training Magazine industry report provided some interesting statistics pertaining to how training budgets are being allocated. In calendar year 2005:

• $51.1 billion was budgeted for formal training.
• 70% of that budget was allocated to classroom instruction with live instructors.
• $13.5 billion was spent on training products and services, up $.2 billion from the previous year.
• 26% said that training budgets were up from the previous year.

Costs for continuous employee development are enormous. However, in spite of continued trends toward allocation of training budgets to formalized classroom instruction, the tide is now beginning to turn. There is significant discussion and debate in learning circles about the effectiveness of formal learning, and greater emphasis is being placed on more informal, process-embedded approaches to learning among industry thought leaders.

Performance support systems have, whether deserved or not, had the reputation of being rather costly to design and implement, which is one of the primary reasons for their only recent emergence as credible alternatives to established training paradigms. Furthermore, the rapid emergence of performance support is being fueled by recent advances in technology. This is allowing organizations to deliver highly effective, process-embedded resources in ways that were simply not possible just a year ago.

So now you are starting to see the light... to be continued...

A Case for Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) in the Post-Training Era

I thought I would have to write a long description but found that someone else has already provided some very good information so I will simply provide the link... Thank you to:


Lou Roberts
Principal
Christensen/Roberts Solutions

www.crsol.com/home/samples/presentations/lroberts_techlearn2005.ppt

Simulation vs. SHO (Scripted Human Operator)

One of the questions I get on a regular basis is "What's the difference?" What they are asking is what's the difference between your SHO Technology and Simulation. Well the answer I usually give is that simulation is just that, simulation... and SHO walkes the user through the steps within the live application.

Now, I have seen it a thousand times, and once you see it "record and playback" (yes, I think we may need to change our terminology) you will fully understand the difference but until then, here's the scoop.

SHO: User is guided while working inside the actual software application by performing real interactions with the software application instead of simulated interaction.

Simulation: User works in a separate simulation window and must figure out how to apply what was done in the simulation window to the actual software application. The learning environment is disconnected from actual software application.

SHO: User creates real data during the learning or guidance process.

Simulation: User does not create real data during the learning process. Any "data" created in the simulation window is lost once the simulation ends.

SHO: Does not rely on video, animation or screen capture, so visual presentations are dynamic and can adjust to the current appearance and position of the software application and its interface components (toolbars, dialog boxes, etc).

Simulation: Creates static visual presentations of software interfaces that do not adjust to user-defined configurations (toolbar and dialog box placement, interface settings, etc.).

SHO: Majority of content remains viable across new versions of the software application, resulting in longer content shelf life.

Simulation: Visual presentation must be updated with each new version of the software application.

SHO: Reduces bandwidth requirements for remote content.

Simulation: Heavier bandwidth requirements for remote content.

SHO: Visual presentation is language neutral to allow for easy localization.

Simulation: Visual presentation is static and language specific and must be recaptured for other languages.

SHO: Provides intelligent verification of how the user is using the software inside the actual software application.

Simulation: Verifies user interactions with the simulation window only.

SHO: Eliminates the need to switch back and forth between the software application and a training or simulation window.

Simulation: User must switch back and forth between the software application and the simulation window.

SHO: Eliminates the need to resize windows in order to display a separate simulation window.

Simulation: User must adjust window sizes to display both the actual software application and the simulation window.

End User Adoption - Mom's email...

It's amazing to me (and somewhat embarrassing I might add) that for the past 14 years, I've been implementing Enterprise Time and Attendance applications at some of the largest companies in North America and until recently had little to no insight into "performance support."

When Dan Peay (Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Transcensus) first showed me the SHO Guide product I was left speechless, and if you knew me, you would know that is quite a feat. Once I recovered from the initial shock, I began to think about all those years of answering the same question over and over about the same features in our applications.

A good personal example would be my Mom; she would call me regularly to ask how to open her web email. I would say in a calm helpful voice from 1,500 miles away, “open the browser… no it’s a hyperlink on your desktop, a hyperlink is a … forget that part… no the one that looks like a lower case e, no the blue one…” you get my drift... so when I got a hold of SHO Guide what do you think the first script I ever wrote was??? You got it… Mom’s email, I called it “CLICK HERE FOR EMAIL” and put it on her desktop in the middle of her screen.

Implementations of Enterprise software applications are not only challenging but costly, and end user adoption is much more difficult than showing Mom how to get to her email. Users who simply want to “get it done” without all the “rigamorol…” tend to revert to their old ways while you are pushing to get them to understand the benefits of the new way.

Bottom line, if you can provide a script that walks the end user through their given task or workflow, step by step within the application, you’ve just eliminated the majority of issues with early end user adoption.

Learning at the Moment of Need

Knowledge workers today are required to adapt to ever changing systems and procedures, and the relevancy of this knowledge is often fleeting because of rapid changes in the way companies are doing business in order to remain viable and competitive. From a business standpoint, more important than attaining knowledge for knowledge’s sake is application of knowledge to help workers carry out their job tasks with greater efficiency. As Roger Schank, Director of the Institute of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University puts it, "What you know is trivial. The real issue is what do you know how to do?"

In this short statement, Schank accurately summarizes one of the greatest challenges faced by most organizations today—what do our workers really know how to do? With the substantial technological requirements now associated with most job descriptions, how much knowledge should we realistically expect them to retain? What is the best way to ensure that they are able to gain access to relevant information when they need it to assist them in developing and maintaining their job-related competencies? How do we retain our knowledge pool when there is so much employee attrition, and, therefore, so much need for ongoing training?

An often cited study developed by Dr. Robert Kelley, Adjunct Professor of Business at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon University, puts the knowledge retention dilemma into perspective. Dr. Kelly concluded that in 1986, workers could retain in memory as much as 75% of what they needed to know to perform their job tasks. By 1997, knowledge retention dropped dramatically to 15%-20%. In 2006, it was estimated that as little as 8%-10% of what one needed to know to perform their job tasks could, on average, be retained in memory.

Why the dramatic shift in knowledge retention? One could argue that the primary reason is that there is simply too much to know. We are bombarded with the need for application and procedural knowledge to the point that in many cases, we don’t really want to know more. However, an equally compelling argument for the decline in worker knowledge retention is that workers are no longer really required to know everything related to their job tasks because of all the knowledge access tools that are now available to help them find information.

Search engine Google is a prime example. Although the company is only nine years old, many would be hard pressed to imagine life without Google or other search engine tools, like Yahoo and Live Search. Why? Because they have opened the floodgates to nearly instantaneous fingertip knowledge on a massive scale and in ways that were simply unimaginable and unattainable only a decade ago.

Exciting innovation that is specifically tailored to learning and that is designed to address complex knowledge access and retention challenges head on is emerging very rapidly. In some respects, we are witnessing a new frontier in learning, one that will dramatically shift how organizations develop and maintain their knowledge assets. For more than a decade, significant discussion has been centered on a concept called "process-embedded learning," more commonly referred to as "performance support.." Technologies that surround this concept, commonly referred to as Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS), have advanced, in quite dramatic fashion, to the point at which effective performance support, once unattainable for most organizations, is now an affordable alternative to traditional instructor-led training and e-learning. The purpose of this paper is to explain the concept of performance support while outlining reasons why a process-embedded solution can bring dramatic positive change to an organization by empowering workers with resources that will significantly improve their performance.

(Exerpt from Transcensus white paper "Learning at the Moment of Need")

Performance Support and ROI

An Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) may also be known as electronic performance support, automated job aids, electronic performance support tools, electronic coaches, intelligent online help, performance centered design, embedded support, or enriched learning environments. Performance support systems such as job aids have been a matter of importance to performance technology for a long time. The availability of computer technology, the increasing complexity of the workplace, and the need for increased workplace performance to enable global corporate competition are three factors that have lead to an increased concern about how to most effectively design and develop performance support tools in an electronic environment.

The purpose of EPSS is to enable workers to perform a task or set of tasks better by providing information and procedures when they're needed, in the worker's natural environment. Providing performance support "just-in-time," (JIT) obviates the need for the worker to store knowledge; they can access it as needed, and within context. This is not only more convenient than out-of-context training, but may allow better transfer of learning, because workers often learn better in authentic performance settings.

An EPSS is not a magic bullet, and measuring ROI for an EPSS is as important as for other interventions. The cost of an EPSS is primarily incurred during the initial development. While delivery costs may be lower than that of traditional training, it is more difficult to track them. Performance support occurs at the same time as the employee's performance, in contrast to traditional training, which is normally finite and easier to isolate from the cost of performing the work itself. Because most of the cost of an EPSS is up-front (during implementation), the ROI for an EPSS increases the longer the system is used. An EPSS can also eliminate the costs associated with traditional training, such as travel expense and classroom space.

Hawkins, Gustafson, and Nielsen (1998) created a web-based EPSS ROI calculator for use by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Some benefits of an EPSS tracked in an example web-based ROI calculator were:

New employees:
· reduced time required to learn the task
· reduced supervision hours (answering questions, training the employee, organizing work)
· reduced help from coworkers
· reduced calls to help line
· reduced down time (waiting for help, consulting manuals)
Continuing employees:
· fewer mistakes
· fewer employees needed
· reduced overtime
Quality benefits:
· reduced employee turnover
· reduced grievances
· reduced absenteeism/tardiness (morale improvements)

Reference: * Electronic Performance Support Systems - By Susan Mullen ( http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/pie/Interventions/epss_1.htm )

About Transcensus

Founded in 2004, Transcensus is dedicated to the cause of improving software usability through the introduction of a new interactive platform for authoring and delivery of performance support and job assistance content. In 2007, Transcensus received the Performance Centered Design (PCD) Award for the SHO Technology.

SHO Guide is an advanced authoring tool that allows subject matter experts, managers, software trainers and IT professionals to create, without any programming knowledge, job assistance and performance support content called scripts. These scripts interact directly with live software applications to guide employees and software users through the proper execution of software procedures. An easy-to-use recording feature captures important software procedures as they are performed in real time and converts them into fully-interactive, step-by-step instructions in multiple languages simultaneously.

At Transcensus, all of our combined learning experience has pointed us to the vital importance of connecting learning and readiness to the immediacy of performing the task. With the dramatic changes that are occurring in the IT training industry and the ever increasing need to embed learning within the process, performance support was clearly the right focus, but existing performance support technology solutions and methodologies were difficult to use, difficult to implement, and/or too expensive.

Software applications are challenged with these same issues. It often seems humanly impossible to do what we desire to do, even with advertised features of the software. Transcensus focused on both problems. We desired to put the “human interface” into software and provide moment of need performance support for the masses. Our focused effort resulted in the development of what we call SHO Technology.

Our patent-pending Scripted Human Operator™ (SHO) technology is an exciting innovation in software performance support and user assistance. It allows content developers to create truly interactive software instructional, assistance and support content that interfaces directly with windows software applications.

SHO content can be embedded directly within the workflow. While completing job related tasks, workers interact directly with the live software application they are attempting to use, instead of a browser, simulation window or other external training interface. In other words, the actual software application is the training interface. SHO technology can be thought of as a virtual instructor or tutor looking over the user's shoulder and offering step-by-step guidance inside the actual software application the user is attempting to use.

SHO Guide currently records on many .NET, Java Swing or browser-based software applications. However, we do not guarantee nor do we recommend that it is used with applications that have not been optimized.

Scripted Human Operator (SHO) Technology

What if you could capture the knowledge of your 20+year "subject matter expert" on the software applications you are using in your organization and email it to any user in the organization?

How many calls everyday does your organization get with the same question, "How do I .... again in the ... application? Now imagine clicking a single button and recording the answer and never getting the call again. Seem impossible, guess again.

SHO Guide is a performance support authoring solution that lets you capture important software procedures and workflows in the form of interactive instructions that guide software users inside the real software application, instead of a separate browser, simulation or help window. Simply enable SHO Guide’s sophisticated recording feature and complete the desired procedure inside the software application of your choosing*. SHO Guide automatically
builds fully‐interactive, step-by‐step instructions for you—and inmultiple languages simultaneously.

Try it out... you will be amazed.

• Go to http://www.transcensus.com/SHO_Player.htm and download and install the player (1 Meg – Windows Registered App)
• Then run the “sample scripts” from on that same page…

I'm looking forward to hearing your comments and suggestions. Thanks for taking the time to try it out.

Daniel Higbee