One of the main purposes of Information Technology (IT) is to empower the most important resources a corporation has—its people. However, a consistent challenge for IT organizations is how to deploy and maintain valuable capabilities in a cost-effective manner. To address these challenges, Intel IT is moving to an Off the Shelf (OTS) model where third-party applications are purchased to minimize or eliminate custom design and development. This approach is designed to shorten implementation time, allow an iterative implementation approach, and ultimately position IT to respond more quickly and effectively to its business partners.

The risk of this approach is that decisions regarding which capabilities to deploy and how to deploy them will be heavily based on technical considerations and high-level business need without fully understanding the resulting impact to end users. Traditionally, IT departments have under emphasized the importance of User Experience (UX) considerations when deploying third-party systems. By not understanding the implications of a poor UX, potential Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) benefits associated with the OTS method risk being offset through lost productivity, additional training, low adoption rates, and post-deployment design changes. In other words, IT departments can technically deliver an OTS capability flawlessly, but if the user's experience with the solution is poor, TCO benefits will at best be reduced and in the worst case, offset entirely.

Intel IT is beginning to utilize a variety of user research activities, allowing end user considerations to be balanced with technical and business factors. A comprehensive understanding of the context within which employees use technology is valuable across purchase, configuration, and deployment activities, enhancing usability, training effectiveness, user adoption, and the overall efficiency of the business transformation. Therefore, by systematically gathering and employing user research data, IT organizations are better positioned to provide capabilities that enable employees to more efficiently meet business objectives.

After reviewing a case study where UX factors were overlooked on an OTS deployment, we review user research techniques and how the resulting data can be used to reduce the risk of IT deployments. In addition, we examine specific instances that have begun to emerge within Intel IT where user research techniques have been successfully applied to improve UX with OTS capabilities.