Read this SAPinsider article and learn how American Data Processing Inc. (ADP) speeds collaborative requirements and design process using SAP Application Visualization by iRise, a solution extension from SAP. For more information please visit http://www54.sap.com/lob/it/software/application-visualization/index.html

1. This article appeared in the JAN FEB MAR 2013 issue
of insiderPROFILES (http://insiderPROFILES.wispubs.com)
and appears here with permission from WIS PUBLISHING.
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2. Blueprint
for Faster
Development
ADP Speeds Collaborative Requirements and Design
Process Using an Application Visualization Solution by iRise
by David Hannon, Senior Features Editor
Turnaround is the name of the game when you’re Coronado, are simplicity, intuitiveness, consis-
developing software. Once a client — whether tency, and relevance. The best way to ensure that
internal or external — provides its list of require- those qualities are included in the design process is
ments, the development team’s goal is to visualize to quickly turn around a client’s requirements to
the design and deliver a prototype to the client as provide a prototype for earlier review.
quickly as possible for user-experience testing and The moment that Coronado’s organization
review. Ideally, that prototype should be interac- receives requirements, the clock starts ticking
tive, but in reality, sometimes it isn’t. So when until the team can deliver a prototype to the client
Jose Coronado was first told about a new solution for user testing. Historically, his organization had
that could dramatically reduce the time it took his three options to meet this goal:
organization to go from requirements to an inter-
active prototype, he thought it was too good to be 1. Deliver a very visual, non-interactive set of
true. Fortunately, he didn’t stop there. screens so users can see what the product will
As the Senior Director of User Experience at look like but not actually test the functionality.
human capital management technology and service This option is faster but less interactive than
provider Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), the next two.
Coronado works in an organization that develops
human resource management, benefits administra- 2. Develop HTML prototypes based on the static
tion, payroll, time and labor, and talent manage- screens. This option takes more time but
ment solutions. These business solutions can com- provides some interactivity.
plement employers’ ERP implementations, such as
an SAP ERP rollout. The user experience priorities 3. Develop a more functional prototype stable
for the user interface (UI) of those solutions, says enough to put in front of users for testing.
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3. This third option gives the users a better of weeks or months,” Coronado says. “We
sense of what the solution will do, but could move from requirements to prototyp-
takes more time and introduces the risk ing much faster. My initial skepticism van-
of going too far down the wrong path. ished, and we quickly decided to purchase
licenses and expand our use of this technol-
ADP’s analysts, designers, and developers ogy. The prototypes are so interactive, some
operated in this manner until five years ago of our external clients thought their appli-
when they were approached about testing cation was already built when they saw the
At a Glance
the SAP Application Visualization software demo. Within the first year, we documented
by iRise. Representatives from SAP partner several strong success stories.”
What ADP wanted: iRise told Coronado that the solution could As ADP expanded its use of application
streamline ADP’s prototype analysis and visualization, the impact on the develop-
Reduce the development
design process from months to days and ment cycle became even clearer — the
time to go from require-
provide users with an interactive prototype. process was happening much faster.
ments to a stable and “When I first saw the description of this Building a prototype more quickly leaves
interactive prototype for solution, I was skeptical and thought it must more time for internal review, usability test-
user testing be oversimplifying the process,” Coronado ing, and validation to ensure the proposed
says. “But we decided to go forward with solution is on track to meet client require-
a pilot to evaluate the solution. No matter ments. In addition, internal ADP stakehold-
How ADP is doing it:
what you hear about a technology, you have ers in areas such as training and develop-
Uses SAP Application Vi-
to put your hands on it to validate it.” ment could plan their support better by
sualization by iRise in the getting an earlier look at the solution.
analysis and design pro- Pilot Takes Off And of course, delivering the client a
cess to iteratively validate In 2008, Coronado organized a small pilot of solution that users can touch and interact
a prototype with end users the visualization solution for 30 users over with results in much more useful feedback
the course of six months. At the time, it took earlier in the development process. Accord-
and internal stakeholders
Coronado’s organization an average of 6–12 ing to Coronado, the entire process has be-
weeks to deliver a non-interactive or mini- come more iterative so ADP’s developers
What benefits resulted: mally interactive design to clients so they won’t progress too far down the wrong path
Less time required to build could validate that their requirements were but instead progress more directly to the
prototypes (down from being included. Much of that work was done desired outcome. The amount of rework
months to days), more in Microsoft Visio, PowerPoint, or Adobe required on their designs declined the more
Photoshop. If ADP wanted to deliver code they used SAP Application Visualization,
interactive usability testing,
to clients for testing, the process typically and they received more feedback that they
and revenue growth in
took about several weeks, if not months. were on the right track.
new areas As Coronado learned, SAP Application “The longer you wait to validate, the
Visualization produces a web-based simula- more work will be necessary to make
tion of the solutions that users can interact changes to the prototype,” says Coronado.
with for testing purposes. The visualization “Modifying something that took a day to
looks and behaves exactly like the desired build is easier — and less expensive — than
solution, so users get a feel for the appli- modifying something that took a month
cation’s design and can provide feedback to build. Building a stable prototype that
before coding takes place. New features or you can click through in just a few hours
improvements to existing features can be or a few days is certainly more in line with
tested for usability by representative end the agile design process for software
users to ensure that the features make development we are seeking.”
sense and add value for the actual people
who will be utilizing them on a daily basis. Top-Line Benefits
“The pilot was very successful. Us- Coronado says ADP’s use of the application
ing this visualization solution, we could visualization technology not only stream-
deliver a prototype in several days, instead lines the development process, but also
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4. “We went from weeks or
months before we could put
new designs in front of a
user, to just a few days.”
— ose Coronado, Senior Director of
J
User Experience, ADP
Company Snapshot
produces real top-line benefits. The project alone contributed about $35
Automatic Data
technology helps ADP bring new prod- million in revenue to ADP’s top line, Processing, Inc.
ucts to market much faster and revital- which provides ROI for the application
(ADP)
izes its existing solutions that need an visualization project in one shot.
updated UI. Headquarters: Roseland,
For example, Coronado says that Learning from Experience New Jersey
the UI on ADP’s international solu- There is one caveat, however. Industry: Human resources
tion suite, which is powered by SAP Coronado points out that using appli- and payroll services and
software, was in dire need of some us- cation visualization speeds the time solutions
ability improvements, but the length to a prototype so dramatically that Employees: 45,000
of such a process always put it on the various internal teams might not be
Revenue: $10 billion
back burner. Using SAP Application prepared for just how rapid the proto-
(NASDAQ: ADP)
Visualization, in just three months, typing is. Teams should be prepped on
ADP defined a blueprint of that solu- the accelerated processes so they can Company details:
tion suite by designing and visualizing appropriately allocate time to conduct • stablished in 1949
E
40 different modules with about 400 internal reviews and perform neces- • wo business groups
T
pages. The blueprint provided a model sary arrangements to get the proto- include Employer Services
for understanding the complexity and types in front of external clients in a and Dealer Services
investments required to revitalize the timely manner. • on the SAP Pinnacle
W
user interface on the solution suite, One of the key benefits to applica- Award in 2011 as Global
so a more detailed timeline and plan tion visualization technology that Outsourcing Services
could be developed. should not be overlooked is the use of Provider of the Year
“Today, we are in nearly 45 coun- accelerator libraries. Assets such as UI • DP pays one out of every
A
tries with that solution suite. The ap- patterns, widgets, graphics, or “prod- six employees in the US
plication showed us the top-line value uct parts” created for a prototype • ne of the world’s larg-
O
of defining the user interface earlier, can be stored within the application est providers of business
demonstrating a large number of the for use in future projects, and deliver outsourcing solutions
solution’s features before the actual significant time savings by reducing • ore than 600,000 clients
M
product is built, and having the visu- duplicate work. New projects can get now use ADP software-as-
alization behave the way the actual off the ground much more quickly. a-service (SaaS) solutions
product will,” he says. “The agility we Coronado offers one last piece of
gained with application visualization advice. “Even if you’re experienced
gave us the opportunity to be signifi- with application visualization, you
cantly more competitive in the global need to continually document your
marketplace.” success stories and make sure that
ADP is using the solution in non- stakeholders and executive spon-
SAP areas of its business as well. sors know about them,” he says. “No
Recently, the company built a simula- single approach resolves all client
tion of a commercial banking solution experience challenges, but visualiza-
in about three weeks that included tion is a critically important tool in
both ADP components and the finan- modeling interactions and behavior
cial institution’s components. That and driving the right outcomes.”
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