Everything you need to know about enterprise UX: Meaning, importance, and process

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Enterprise UX has recently emerged as an essential part of business strategy for companies globally. The field is growing rapidly and has gained traction recently due to its ability to help companies improve their bottom line by providing employees with the tools they need to do their jobs effectively.

In this article, we are going to cover the concept of enterprise UX, its importance, how it stands out from consumer UX, and a typical workflow of enterprise UX. Let’s get started.

Meaning of enterprise UX

Enterprise UX refers to software, tools, products, and services used in a work environment. There are many different types of enterprise UX professionals, including those who work for large companies and those who work for small companies.

The purpose of enterprise UX is to improve the user experience for employees who use technology in their jobs at work.

The goal of enterprise UX is to make it easier for employees to perform their tasks more efficiently, which will help them be more productive and happier with their jobs.

This means that enterprise UX encompasses all aspects of human-computer interaction, including but not limited to:

• Design and development of digital products
• Software usability testing
• Usability evaluations
• User research
• Information architecture design

Why is enterprise UX important?

Enterprise UX is the future of business.

It’s a new way of thinking about how companies connect with their customers and employees, changing how companies do business. Enterprise UX is a critical aspect of any business, regardless of size or industry. Here’s why:

1. Improve your organisation’s efficiency and productivity

Let’s face it: when you’re busy, you don’t have time to waste on clunky products that don’t work well. Enterprise UX can help by ensuring that the daily tools are intuitive, easy to use and make sense for everyone who needs them.

2. Reduce your development costs

The more streamlined and user-friendly a product is, the less time you’ll spend developing it—which means more time and less money spent on other things that matter more to your business.

3. Satisfy your customers’ needs and expectations

Customers expect a lot from your business. They want to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly, they want quality products and services, they want a good experience when they interact with you—and they want it all at a fair price.

Enterprise UX can help you meet those expectations by making sure that your satisfied and productive employees make a website that is easy to navigate, with product information that is clear and easy to find, and that your employee staff is friendly and helpful.

4. Enhance your brand’s reputation

A bad user experience can hurt your brand’s reputation. If people have trouble using your website or app, if they feel like the process takes too long or isn’t user-friendly enough, if their questions aren’t answered effectively or if they think that you’re overcharging them for something… these are all things that will impact the way people think about your company.

And it’s not just about how customers feel about you—it’s also about how employees feel about you. An enterprise UX strategy lets employees know their voices matter in creating a thriving workplace culture.

How is enterprise UX different from consumer UX?

Consider the following table to understand how Enterprise UX is different from Consumer UX:

There is no doubt that enterprise UX is more challenging than consumer UX, and to know more about it, you can review our article on the challenges of enterprise UX and its solutions.

Team involved in enterprise UX

Enterprise UX is important for benefitting company employees by providing the necessary tools. The team involved in designing Enterprise UX includes:

1. UI UX designers

UI UX designers are responsible for creating the interface of a product. This includes the layout, colours, and buttons. They also design how people will interact with the product, such as how it responds when you click an icon or swipe your finger across a screen.

2. Product managers

Product managers are responsible for ensuring that all the steps involved in bringing an idea to market happen efficiently. They work closely with designers, engineers, marketers, and other team members to understand what users want from a product, and then work with them to ensure those features get built into the final product.

3. Engineers (developers)

The developers are the people who build the product. They must ensure that the product is made according to the designs created by the design team. Developers need to be familiar with different types of coding languages and frameworks and adopt whichever is most suitable to meet the needs of the enterprise. They also need to keep up with technological changes to ensure cross-platform compatibility.

4. Sales & marketing

Sales and marketing professionals help companies sell their products by developing marketing campaigns, conducting market research, and building brand awareness.

They are responsible for selling a company’s products or services to customers through various channels, including social media, websites, and more. The sales team often works closely with developers when designing enterprise apps that are easy to use

5. Customer success managers

When new clients are onboarded for SaaS companies, Customer Success Managers (CSMs)/trainers provide insights about the company’s product/service performance, design decisions, etc.

Most organizations track and monitor how their new clients use their products, but the trainers are the ones who know what customers struggle with.

6. Database and system architects

Database and system architects are responsible for building scalable databases, which means that they need to have a strong understanding of how data can be stored effectively so that it can be accessed quickly by users regardless of whether they are accessing it via a desktop computer or through mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets.

The database architect will also need to understand how this data should be structured according to business requirements to be used effectively in various scenarios, such as reporting on sales figures or producing reports.

Applications of enterprise UX

There are different types of enterprise software, and they all have different needs. If you are working on a SaaS or cloud application, it will be implemented by a company, and thus will need a great deal of flexibility in implementation. An internal CRM will have a 360 view of a customer linking to other internal systems to all the central data.

Here we have listed the most common applications of enterprise UX:

1. Customer relationship management (CRM)

CRM is a system that helps businesses keep track of their customers and helps them build a relationship with them.

For eg: A retail store would use CRM to track each customer’s history with the company. This includes information like they purchased an item, how much they spent on it,  whether or not they returned it for a refund or exchange and what type of feedback they left about their experience at the store.

This makes the company understand the view of the user about the products or services being offered.

Pipedrive, Sugar CRM, Insightly, and Fresh Sales are some of the commonly used CRM software.

2. Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

ERP is a system that allows businesses to manage their relationships with their customers, partners, and suppliers. For eg:

An ERP system could help a company know exactly how many hours each employee has worked, how much money they’ve earned and spent in various categories, what kind of projects they’ve been working on, etc.

This information can then be used by managers to make decisions about how best to use their employees’ time or how much money should be invested in a particular project.

Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce Lightning, Netsuite, Zoho and SAP are some of the most commonly used ERP software.

3. Content management system (CMS)

A content management system is a software that allows users to create and manage different types of content in many ways. For eg:

It can help you create new pages on your site or blog quickly and easily. It can help you make sure that all of your written content is consistent throughout your site or blog— whether that consistency is used in the style of writing or a format for displaying images.

Sharepoint, Drupal and WordPress are one of the most commonly used CMS software.

Enterprise UX is important because it benefits company employees by providing them with the necessary tools to make their job easier. Here are some ways enterprise UX can help your business:

4. Calendar and scheduling

Enterprise UX helps improve the calendar and scheduling process by adding a feature to add events. The user can add events like meetings, calls, and deadlines. This feature helps in making the process of development more organized and efficient. Calendly and Time Trade are some of the many examples of calendar and scheduling software.

5. Analytics & reporting

Enterprise UX allows users to view reports based on multiple parameters. It also allows them to compare data from one period to another and find meaningful insights about their business. This helps them analyze their business performance better to make better decisions for their company’s growth. Most companies use Tableau and Google Analytics to find reports and data on the required parameters.

6. Productivity suite

Enterprise UX is important for benefitting company employees by providing the necessary tools for them to work efficiently and effectively. It helps improve productivity by giving users access to applications such as email, calendar, documents, or presentations from any device they use, including laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Microsoft Office 365, Airtable and G-Suite are the best software to use for increasing productivity.

7. Accounting and finance

It is necessary for accounting to have a single and accurate record of all transactions. Enterprise UX can help by providing the tools required to keep track of all trades and ensure no discrepancies in the records. To do the perfect accounting queries, Xero, Quickbooks, Netsuite and Acumatica are four of the right software.

8. Ecommerce

Enterprise UX helps E-Commerce by providing the necessary tools and features to ensure that your customers can easily navigate through your website, find what they’re looking for and make a purchase quickly. Magento, SAP Hybris, and Shopify are some of the best E-Commerce solutions available.

9. Support ticketing

Support Ticketing is vital because it allows you to provide customer service 24/7 and give customers the best experience possible. Enterprise UX can help with this by providing an easy way for customers to submit tickets through their website or app, as well as how long it takes to get an answer back from you. Examples include Zendesk and Jira.

10. Intranet

Enterprise UX can be applied to the intranet or wiki interface, allowing users to access information in a more simplified manner. With the help of enterprise UX, you can optimize the search function and create an advanced search box. You can also use rich media content and images to make your content more attractive and engaging. Confluence and Sharepoint are the two best examples of intranet or wiki interfaces.

11. Point of sale (POS)

The POS system is a critical component of any business as it provides essential information about sales, inventory, and other important data required by the owner or manager. To improve performance, it is necessary to provide users with an intuitive interface that allows them to access information on demand easily. Enterprise UX offers several benefits: reduced training costs, less time spent learning new features, increased productivity, etc. Swift POS, SquareUp and Vend are the best POS software available in the market.

Typical workflow for enterprise UX

The workflow for enterprise UX design revolves more around the employees and their needs in the organization. Additionally, since the product or service is designed for an entire organization, it is important to take all the concerned teams, individuals, and departments on board.

The following steps serve as a guide for enterprise UX design. Just like any other design practice, there is always room for innovation and creativity.

1. Talk to the end-users

The first step in the enterprise UX process is to talk to the end-users—your employees. You want to know what they need, how they use their tools, and what they think of the current setup.

Conducting research for enterprise UX design is as important as conducting for consumer UX. Because the feedback you gain will help you identify pain points in the current environment so that you can address them in your design plan.

2. Take all the concerned teams on board

After talking with your employees, it’s time to bring everyone else on board. Don’t forget that there are many different types of stakeholders in an organization: from executives to managers and even CEOs (if required).

3. Apply the principles of UX design

Now that you’ve got everyone involved and have identified some pain points in your current setup, it’s time to apply the principles of user experience (UX) design. This means helping visitors to find what they’re looking for. This includes focusing on the user, mapping all functionality and information that your website will contain, being consistent (making your product more familiar as to the products they’ve been using in the past), etc.

4. Provide training

To get the most out of enterprise UX, it’s important to train your employees on how to use the new systems. This will help them understand what they can do with these tools and how they can best benefit them.

5. Ensure constant support

Your organization should also ensure that there are people in place who can provide ongoing support as you implement your enterprise UX project. This will ensure that everyone uses the tools correctly and gets maximum value from them.

Conclusion

Enterprise UX is a critical component of the digital transformation process. It’s important to keep in mind that it can’t be done without collaboration from all stakeholders and a clear understanding of the business goals.

The most successful teams will have a user-centred design process that begins with research and ends with testing. This helps ensure that their product is meeting the needs of their users, which is key to their success as well as their continued use of the product.

If your company wants to achieve success through digital transformation, then we highly recommend hiring an enterprise UX design agency like ours today.

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