The Chief Information Officer (CIO) wears many hats these days. Called upon to provide assistance with financial reporting, staffing, and the creation of systems, the CIO and his IT team often forget about a group of very important people—end users.
End users are the driving force in any given business unit, yet their opinions are often ignored. End users will use the new software system on a daily basis. It is the end user who knows and understands the data in the legacy system, who knows how to work around problems within the current system, and who understands how to get their jobs done quickly and efficiently. At the end of the day, unhappy end users make it difficult for the CIO and IT team.
InfoWorld’s recent article offers the following sure-fire suggestions that CIOs can implement to drive end user involvement:
Create Mobile Apps For Your Employees
Many IT organizations look at mobile technology and immediately seek ways to manage it, rather than take advantage of it. That avoidance is sure to keep your organization behind the curve, especially in customer-facing areas where mobile devices are everyday companions that offer solid benefits. Creating apps for internal use is a great way to safely and cheaply experiment with various mobile platforms and APIs.
Test Push And Geolocation Notifications
Take advantage of push notifications in Apple’s Safari for Mac and Google Chrome on any platform — as well as in any iOS and Android apps you may develop — for your internal apps. By doing so, your IT organization will get experience with this modern technology, plus you may be able to help your own staff stay updated on what they need to know.
Make Chrome The Default Browser
By switching to Chrome as the standard browser, you give users a tool compatible with today’s websites, plus one that syncs well across whatever PCs, Macs, iOS devices, and Android devices your users may have. This makes it easier to keep bookmarks, passwords, and so on in sync.
Provide Cloud Storage For Everyone
By offering a managed cloud storage service, CIOs gain more control. Both Box and Dropbox have excellent, enterprise-manageable cloud storage services that work on all popular platforms and with many apps. Google Drive also has broad availability, but it lacks management controls most organizations will want.
For more suggestions on how to engage end users, see the full Infoworld article.
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