Reducing complexity: embracing technology’s golden rule

Beep, beep, goes my phone: a text from the other half. “What do you want from life?”

Wow. That’s pretty deep for 9am on a Monday morning. How do I respond to that?

Am I being judged? I know my bucket list still contains an awful lot of unticked items, but hey, I’ve been busy. The cricket’s not going to watch itself, you know.

Perhaps it’s the precursor to an involved conversation about the future of our relationship? I hope not. I can barely respond to questions about which breakfast cereal I want first thing in the morning, let alone handle deep and meaningful.

Or maybe it’s more of a pep talk: my wife the life-coach, dispensing motivational wisdom via SMS. “Take responsibility for your personal choices! Be the change you want to see in the world! [smiley face]”

No. It turns out that what she actually meant to ask was: “What do you want from Lidl?” Which, of course, is a lot easier to answer. Bloody predictive text.

So what happened here? How did we go from a question about supermarket shopping to a full-blown existential crisis in the short time it took to hit ‘send’? Technology intervened. That’s what happened. Something designed to make communications easier and less hassle for us, the users, actually added an extra dollop of complexity and confusion instead.

It begs the question: as we layer technology upon technology in an effort to automate, how do we ensure we’re not (perversely) adding further complexity, rather than making life simpler?

It’s certainly something that’s proving a concern for a majority of the large enterprises I speak with on a daily basis. Barely a conversation goes by without some mention of the need to reduce complexity, cut through the noise, integrate better, simplify processes and systems, get a single version of the truth – take your pick. And it’s an issue because nothing breeds user discontent like complexity.

“Complexity becomes an issue when it starts affecting what we are able to do with our customers,” confirmed Eric Stoever, CTO at Northeast Savings Bank, on a recent roundtable discussion. “We look at every technology through two lenses: is it worth it to the customer, and is it worth it to the company? It’s a matter of balance, and the value you get out of it.”

It’s a common challenge across the board: striking the balance between implementing new technology designed to enhance productivity and efficiency, and ensuring those who use it can do so properly. “How do we simplify interactions, and make IT accessible to all groups that need it?” asked Craig Ambler, Director of IT at BUPA. “That’s a significant challenge. We have to make IT as easy to understand as possible, for all users.”

That’s good advice. In a recent study of large enterprise customers, IDC found the average annual benefit of reducing complexity is $83 million, or $3610 per user. And while complexity isn’t always a symptom of “things gone wrong” – as IDC puts it, sometimes it’s simply the reality of the situation, part of the cost of doing business – it can prove a barrier to user satisfaction, a key factor in the success (or otherwise) of any IT project.

Technology needs to be both hassle-free and minimise the potential for misunderstanding and mistakes, otherwise it’s just so much harder to love. Take it from me, users don’t like complexity. It makes their heads hurt. Especially first thing on a Monday morning.