All software publishers are faced with the same challenges. Usually the ones that keep the publisher up at night revolve around meeting release dates and how many bugs will bite. At Ascendix, we have a few other things that keep us up. They revolve around you, our potential customer. We want to make you successful. We want your users to love using our products. We want you to become a loyal, raving fan. In order for you to consider your investment a success, we’ve learned that you must have a balance of three basic building blocks.

Building Block I

Your Users Should Benefit

Also known as “WIIFM” (pronounced wif ’- em) or “What’s In It for Me.” The system should be designed so that it adds direct value to the person using the system. While this is a very simple and obvious idea, many systems are designed without taking the interests of the end user to heart.Application usability is a key focus – if the users don’t use it, the system will be useless to your organization.

What are end-user design strategies?

	Understand the plight of the user of the application. What are their roadblocks? What is a “day in the life” of this person? What separates the great from the good, and can we capture the essence of the great and somehow incorporate it into the application?
	Simplify and/or automate repetitive and redundant tasks (literature fulfillment, quoting, letter writing, reporting, lead assignment)
	Deliver information to help the user’s day-to-day decision making process (information related to prior product sales, service history, performance, product inventory, contracts, etc.)
	Increase efficiency through intuitive, easy-to-use relationship management
	Leverage a pleasing, simple-to-use interface – the user should be able to do almost anything in three clicks or less. "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." – Albert Einstein

Building Block II

Executives & Managers Should Benefit

Usually most investments in business applications focus on or emphasize the benefits to the executive and management staff, rather than users. While extremely important to the success of the system, it is ineffective if the first factor is not given primacy. That being said, it is still a critical factor for success and must be given priority. Those running the organization must be given the right information at the right time to lead effectively. Information is like oxygen, and it must be plentiful and delivered when and where the organization needs it the most.

What are Executive-centric design strategies?

	Provide easy access to data – Be it a robust reporting engine or just a way to present information to decision-makers, the application must be open for effective consumption.
	Deliver accurate forecasting data for revenue predictions – Executives must have insight into the revenue pipeline.
	Profile customer interaction touch points – How often and in what ways are you interacting with your customer base? Are you spending too much on your “C” customers and not enough on your “A’s”? Does it take five touch points with a customer to close the deal when it could take two?
	Measure employee effectiveness – If your revenue plan dictates a certain number of customer touch points, your system should tell executives/managers where their coaching time is best spent.
	Deliver response rates for marketing intelligence – Can you target your messaging for a more effective response rate? What messaging is working and what isn’t? Are you spending your marketing dollars wisely?

Building Block III

Your Customers Should Benefit

This is the single most important predictor of the success of your investment. While perhaps a simple and obvious concept, a sobering number of business applications are not actually intended to benefit the "end" customer (except for those types of applications that are directly customer facing, such as kiosks or e-commerce sites).

Even if the system is not customer facing, or ever seen by or interacted with by a client, the design goals of the system should in fact take the revenue cycle into account.

For example, the usual primary design goals of business applications may be for internal cost reduction, increased efficiency/productivity (do more with same number of employees), or to simply to gain visibility of employee activities or revenue forecasts.

What about goals to reduce customer churn and/or increase revenue or satisfaction per customer? Our design team focuses on strategies that will add value directly to your end customer.

What are Customer-centric design strategies?

	Reduce customer churn – Our applications give you the tools to keep you in front of your customers. Communicate new product information, leverage system alerts to react quickly to the needs of your customers and prospects.
	Increase penetration (or revenue) per customer – Continuously educate your customers on your products and services. Let the system help keep things from falling through the cracks.
	Increase customer satisfaction – More easily deliver on your promises: whether it is quickly resolving a reported issue or getting back to your customer with their request for more information, let the system be a tool for providing great service.
	Remove barriers to doing business with your customers – Take repetitive or monotonous tasks such as proposal generation or literature fulfillment and make it minutes instead of days.