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Non-Instructional Intervention - Performance Support Systems

This article excerpted with permission.  McGavin, Scot. (10/20/2002). A look at performance support systems. Document posted to Boise State University IPT560 course, Fall 2002.


Performance Support Systems as

Non-Instructional performance intervention solutions

 

The term Performance Support was new to me, but, as I now understand the concept better, the mechanisms are more familiar than I realized.   Performance Support Systems (PSS) and their electronic counterparts (EPSS) are one of the newest intervention tools in the HPT field, according to Stolovitch and Keeps (p.443).  So new, in fact, that the concept does not have a standardized definition and very little research exists to substantiate the value and methods of these interventions.  It is a rapidly changing area of performance enhancement, highly integrated and leveraged with technology.  Stolovitch and Keeps describe a PSS as “an optimized body of coordinated on-line and off-line methods and resources that enable and maintain a person’s or an organization’s performance” (p.443).

The EPSS is perhaps the fastest growing and most changing type of performance support system.  The definition of an EPSS, like that of the general PSS, also remains unfixed, but a few stabs have been taken at it.  EPSS Central, a website devoted to providing information and links relating to EPSSs and other performance solutions, defines an EPSS as “..any computer software program or component that improves employee performance by 1) reducing the complexity or number of steps required to perform a task, 2) providing the performance information an employee needs to perform a task, or 3) providing a decision support system that enables an employee to identify the action that is appropriate for a particular set of conditions.”  (http://www.pcd-innovations.com/what_is_epss.htm)

With this growing understanding of performance systems, I recognized a project that I helped implement several years ago as an EPSS that nearly perfectly fit the description and characteristics of typical EPSS solutions.  The project, called “Bridges” was an intervention designed to solve problems of timeliness, and data accuracy, and the related problems these issues created within a mid-sized wood products company. 

The Bridges project was large-scale and very complex and spanned virtually all levels within a segment of the company’s product manufacturing and sales organization.  The major problems it was designed to solve were an 8% error rate in product ordering (and thus mis-manufacturing), and a leadtime lag of over 200%.  These performance problems resulted from a number of problem areas in the sales, order placement, and manufacturing queuing processes.  Based upon a Lotus Notes that was highly customized to meet the carefully assessed and systematically organized needs of the people involved in these processes, the Bridges project was an EPSS custom built for these complex performance problem issues.  The end result met the five I’s criteria put forth by Stolovitch and Keeps (p.444):

  • Intuitiveness – The project was designed after careful analysis of end-user needs and capabilities.  Most users were not technologically adept and often had no prior computer background.  As such, it did not require much “re-training” for users familiar with different application idiosyncrasies than Lotus Notes had.  The terminology they were familiar with using was incorporated into buttons, links, and icons to simplify their use of the tool.
  • Integration – The Bridges project incorporated a Lotus Notes application that integrated into a sales ordering system that had been previously created (another EPSS*) to simplify product selections by sales people.  That sales front-end app had an automated data-dump into the Notes database.  The Notes database was replicated across a 12-node WAN.  Users at other sites (manufacturing for example) could utilize the data and even had back-end tools in some cases to pull orders into other processing systems already in place.
  • Immediacy – Icons, links, and text were online instantly for use by the users that needed the data.  Replication was automated to ensure up-to-date information.
  • Individualization – Several levels of users and corresponding profiles were implemented so that different users’ needs were better met.  They were able to access only the data they needed and were not buried with things they did not have any use for.
  • Interactivity – The level of interactivity was relatively high, based upon how many users at other sites used the system.  They could bounce back requests for more information using the Notes replication process.  Interactivity with the EPSS was not particularly strong.

 

*          The sales front-end app that Bridges relied on was in itself an excellent example of a smaller EPSS.  Updated periodically with new product information, this software application was created to 1) provide easy access to the myriad products the sales force needed to be familiar with, and 2) categorize, price, and characterize (for structural capabilities) the products in an order process.   The nature of the sales job was one of needing to be highly familiar with the structural problems faced by clients wanting to design buildings with these engineered wood products, and how the products would meet their needs.  This tool gave ready access to this critical information as well as providing a level of error checking for product matching (and mis-matching) based upon type and characteristics.  This tool alone accounted for a major turnaround in ordering errors.  When combined with the integration into the Bridges database, additional errors due to lost or unreadable faxes, incomplete orders, etc. were drastically reduced.

I was involved only in the implementation at initial roll-out of the Bridges project and left the company shortly thereafter, before it had been fully implemented and long before the results had shown themselves as to its ROI.   However, my expectation based upon the success that the tools appeared to have initially is that it was likely to bring returns that would far exceed the project cost.  The care taken during the analysis and design phases was evident.

Another example of how EPSS tools can significantly increase knowledge support and performance improvement is illustrated by Cisco Systems at http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/may2002/schneble.html.  Cisco had the goal of hiring 250 service and support managers (SSMs) over a period of 18 months and needed a tool to help bring new SSMs online quickly and effectively, managing the myriad data they would be exposed to.  The knowledge management system approach they chose was developed through a systematic process of analysis, design, development (prototype first), formative evaluation (with feedback integration), and finally implementation with ongoing evaluation.  The online solution fits the description of an EPSS.  VisionCor, the product developer, describes the solution as one that ”provides a guide for organizing information, learning, and knowledge into smaller pieces called knowledge objects and building meaningful relationships between those objects. As a result, the end-user can locate the critical information needed to improve productivity and performance more quickly and easily.”  The resulting knowledge portal was an online knowledge management tool, “a growing collection of knowledge and experience “.  The tool was well received and is considered a major benefit by those SSMs surveyed.  “Basically, this site just makes my job easier and gives me more time to focus on serving my customer” said one SSM.  The ROI on this type of EPSS tool comes from customer satisfaction and loyalty and as such is hard to quantify directly, but nonetheless, is crucial to success.

 

These examples of Performance Support Systems are but two of the many, many ways that technology and innovation are improving performance.  Experts such as Jakob Nielson, Don Norman, and Bruce Tognazzini are focusing their efforts for EPSSs on user design and efficiency.  Gloria Gerry and Craig Marion are well known for their specialties in performance software design and development.  Geary Rummler, Donald Tosti, and many others have provided the foundations of what performance improvement is all about.   Stan Malcom and others have put their focus toward interactivity (ITSSs) in performance.  Other key areas where PSSs are growing include knowledge management, e-learning, and various internet implementations of EPSS tools.   Performance support is a rapidly growing and changing field.   Success stories will continue to emerge as these powerful performance tools become more widely implemented.

 

References  

EPSS  Central, referenced 10/2002, http://www.pcd-innovations.com/what_is_epss.htm.

Stolovitch, H., & Keeps, E. (1999).  Handbook of human performance technology (2nd ed.), San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer.

 

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