Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Complicated

David Grenda, Founder, Grenda Computer Consulting

In my work as a software developer, I use the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 product. The product offers over 288,000 objects and features you can integrate into a software package you are writing. My clients use a myriad of software systems, server systems, and databases that they depend on to run their businesses. In typical fashion, the software makers can’t sit still and each new generation of software brings with it a big batch of new features and changes.

It’s the lament of the computer industry that everything is getting so complicated the average end-user is becoming hesitant to use new products because they just finished the learning curve for the product they are using now. We’ve seen the problems with Vista, the operating system intended to simplify and streamline. Think of the software you use. What percentage of the capabilities do you actually use? The average is 15%. 25% if you are considered a power user.

Where I’m going with this is that you have to do a couple of things to mitigate the situation. First, make sure your people are at least trained at a minimum level to feel comfortable with the software you use. Second, don’t skip upgrades on software. Going from version 2.0 to 6.0 in one jump will likely give you heartburn.

There are a lot of online resources to help you with thee training. Visit Microsoft.com to check them out.

If you would like further guidance in considering the options, feel free to drop me an email at david@grenda.com.

Posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 8:23 am and is filed under Business, Computers, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.