Identify 23 Killer Apps

1
Tutorial 7
DIG FOR VICTORY

• Identify 2-3 Killer Apps

It makes a lot of sense to anchor your business
case around some applications that have highly
visible and obvious benefits for both the end
user and the provider communities that serve them
Making the Business Case
2
Why seek killer apps?

• Reason 1 Bums on seats, laddie! (the user
  rationale)
• Aside from delivering your project on time and to
  budget the most important measure of success for
  your portal can be described by use of a simple
  formulaDelta No. of users x benefit per
  userTo put this another way, you can have all
  the benefits you like for each individual portal
  user, but if you fail to get decent user adoption
  rates, you will still fail!
• You must drive a high number of users to the
  portal and the best way to do this is through
  placement of applications that each and every
  user finds indispensable in their day to day jobs
  or life

3
Why seek killer apps?

• Reason 2 Wheres the value? (the provider
  rationale)
• If the portal doesnt deliver direct
  transactional business benefit, then many of your
  natural allies will lose their enthusiasm.
  Remember the formula we just looked atDelta
  No. of users x benefit per userYou may have all
  the users you like, but if there is no
  incremental business benefit to each user
  session, then you will also fail to get the delta
  benefit you want!
• If the portal contains applications that (heavily
  used) would allow parts of your business to
  reduce manpower levels (e.g. less people in
  Finance, HR or Procurement processing areas),
  then it is highly likely your efforts will be
  well-supported.
• Look for some excellent employee self-service
  apps to drive your case

4
Now for the dilemma!

• Often you can have an app users like to use but
  is of no intrinsic value to the organisation (for
  example, weather maps and TV listings)
• Equally, you can have an app that would be very
  useful to providers if used, but no-one is
  interested in using it!
• You can please some all of the people some of the
  time, and you can please some of the people all
  the time - but you can never please all of the
  people all the time.
• The key is to find genuine win-wins - i.e.
  applications that work for both users and
  providers...
• Whilst it may be worth putting either of the two
  types above live at a later date, you have to
  stay focussed on win-wins in your business case
  and early releases.

5
Candidates for Killer App

• I have identified the following 4 areas you could
  look at
• White / Yellow Pages
• Access a directory of all the people in your
  organisation, which could be browsed or searched
  on many different fields (e.g. by organisation
  map or name, job title, location, manager,
  skills, experience, interests, etc.)
• Electronic Forms
• Microsite for high use forms, including visitor
  car parking requests, room catering bookings,
  internal job vacancies applications, leave
  requests, password applications, etc.
• IT Helpdesk on-line
• can access frequently asked questions, hints and
  tips, log faults and track them to completion,
  view status of current service, check planned
  outages, etc.
• e-Learning Application
• access online modules and/or a facility to book
  classroom courses

6
White / Yellow Pages
This is a screen shot of the Novell eGuide
Directory application.. Just one of the many
white pages apps out there

• People Finder
• This is the one thing everyone needs to do almost
  every day and is thus an excellent candidate for
  a killer app
• Chances are you already have one or more apps
  around today that do this job your challenge is
  to significantly improve on the incumbent
  offerings!

7
Electronic Forms
This is a screen shot of an example electronic
forms portal site. from an article about
Housingnet - Camden Housing's Intranet - by
Hilary Simpson.

• Forms for everyday use
• Are often neglected by Portal Project simply
  because they seem too easy (and are thus passed
  over)
• Wrong! In any reasonably sized organisation,
  there are likely to be 200-450 forms used !!!
  Put them online and you will save your users
  hours of wasted time each year!

8
IT Helpdesk Online
This is a screen shot from ieSupport Manager
just one of many cost effective IT Helpdesk apps
with a web interface suitable for an Intranet.

• Online Fault Logging Problem Tracking
• One of the few things that (pretty well) all your
  employees will need to do at least 2 or 3 times a
  year is to contact someone to help solve a
  problem with their PC or phone
• A web interface can be a good way to encourage
  self-help, capture the right information and
  improve customer service!

9
eLearning Application
This is a screen shot of the Docent Learning
Management System. Just one of the many eLearning
solutions (large and small) available today

• Online Learning Solutions
• Traditional classroom learning can be very
  expensive (requiring trainers, training
  buildings, materials, etc.)
• If your business involves a lot of training (e.g.
  a large operational sales force) then eLearning
  is likely to be an area of substantial benefit
  for your business

10
Conclusions

• Killer Apps are a real winner
• When you are showcasing what the portal can do
  (to those who will have to pay for it) it helps
  to show them something practical and of benefit
• You must look for real gems - that benefit both
  users and providers! There is time later for the
  rest!
• Apps that connect people with essentials
• Its got to be stuff that they do each and every
  day (or at the very least once a week)
• Its got to be the route of least resistance -
  i.e. easier than doing it the old way / by phone
  etc. (and dont neglect to make the old way more
  difficult.. or even withdraw it altogether if you
  need to)
• Its got to be available - 99.8 uptime a must
  (or people will give up on it in favour of older,
  more reliable routes)
• The data must be accurate and (hopefully) more
  reliable than alternative ways of doing the same
  thing