To address these issues, Intel IT has recently begun adopting an "Off the Shelf" (OTS) model that minimizes or eliminates custom development. The initial adoption of this methodology has resulted in shorter implementation times, easier system upgrades, and an overall reduction in TCO. Although these initial benefits are promising, aspects of the OTS approach further increase the risk of downplaying UX as a critical component of successful deployments. For example, cost and schedule goals are two of the most critical success criteria for project teams and this will be especially true as adoption of the OTS model increases. After all, lower TCO and improved deployment velocity are some of the expected benefits that prompted the shift away from heavily customized development. However, one potential risk associated with focusing too heavily on hitting schedule and cost goals is the minimization of activities perceived to slow velocity or increase spending. On OTS deployments, activities such as usability testing and quality assurance are often overshadowed by the pressure to quickly deploy. Project teams also assume that the vendor has completed these testing activities during the original development and further testing would therefore be redundant. In reality, many third-party capabilities have a significant amount of configuration and deployment flexibility and thus require the same types of testing (usability, system performance, etc.) traditionally performed on more customized applications to ensure end-user effectiveness.

Within the OTS framework, end users can no longer provide "blue sky" requirements, a process where all functionality requests are captured and later prioritized for development. As mentioned earlier, although this method has its own detriments it can provide end users a sense of involvement in the development process, improving adoption rates. Because third-party vendors develop OTS solutions, they will likely be significantly different from the customized applications that end users may be familiar with. In addition, because OTS benefits result from avoiding or minimizing customized development, IT has a limited ability to subsequently design in enhancements if an OTS capability does not meet users' expectations. Due to the increased difficulty of making mid-course development corrections, UX considerations become more critical to the success of OTS deployments than they were with the more flexible customization approach.

The desire to deploy OTS solutions means that organizations and end users must be more willing to adapt to the capability vs. developing or customizing the capability to match user wishes. In many cases, adapting to OTS system functionality can require a significant amount of business transformation. Most often this means changing existing business processes (who does what and when, how communications happen, how decisions are made, etc.) to match how a given capability architecture is designed or can be configured. Companies routinely underestimate the difficulty of managing these business transformations and their impact on individual workers. Even a well-planned change in a business process can disrupt the work routines of experienced employees, and it can have a significant short-term impact on effectiveness and productivity. Poorly planned changes can lead to the overall failure of the business transformation efforts, resulting in significant financial loss [7].

When deploying a new capability, focusing too heavily on one set of considerations while overlooking others is simply not an optimal approach, and this is true on OTS deployments as well. Although a new capability can be technically delivered flawlessly, if it does not deliver end-user value, significant resources will be invested, but the intended return will at best be reduced and in the worst case, offset entirely. Missing or not comprehending the factors that will optimize employee effectiveness places IT management in a situation to make multi-million dollar decisions without all the available data. The long-term success of the OTS approach will be contingent on evenly balancing technical, business, and user considerations.

The Consequences of Overlooking UX

There are various cases from the IT world where UX implications were not considered, degrading the full benefits of deploying an OTS capability. One such Intel IT experience involved an enterprise-wide deployment of an OTS capability where a "zero configurations" approach was utilized. In other words, when deploying the capability into production, all available functionality in the purchased system was activated. It quickly became apparent to end users that certain functionality in the new solution was redundant with other applications they had traditionally used to complete the overall business process. This redundant functionality forced end users to alter the steps they were accustomed to performing, resulting in frustration and significant increases in the time it took to complete tasks. In addition, users found that online help resources were not useful in addressing questions, resulting in a considerable number of technical support calls. Lastly, subsequent survey results and end-user feedback pointed out that pre-deployment communications about what was changing and where to get training on these changes were not clear. In summary, by not accounting for how the new capability differed from existing work practices and the resulting impacts of these differences, a host of UX issues ensued, impacting employees ability to complete activities across the corporation. The time and effort to address these issues were significant, eroding the intended benefits of deploying an industry-standard solution.