Re: The Perpetual Myth of iSeries Obsolescence

On 5/3/06, Christen, Duane J. <dchristen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Tom,

I think using amazon.com as an example of an order entry system is flawed,
yes it may be a very powerful and complex as any green screen order system
and it process millions of orders daily is exceptional but they have
millions of order entry people (customers) entering those orders, and in
general each order entry person enters one or two orders a day. The UI also
has to be built for the lowest common denominator (dumbest customer) so that
they aren't getting tens of thousands of calls to place those orders.

This is EXACTLY my point.  With a modern UI and good programmers, a
complex application can be made simple enough for the dumbest users to
use it, at least for the vast majority of their needs.

With our green screen system we have 50 or so order entry personal trained
on the order entry system, some with specialazations in specific very
complex order types, and we put through 5,000 to 25,000 orders per day.
Heads down green screen order entry by trained personal will, IMHO, always
be more productive than any current GUI. Unless some kind of revolutionary
UI comes into play I don't see that changing for years.

Lets do some math ...

25000 orders / 50 people = 500 orders per person/day
So the order entry clerks process at a rate of ...
500 orders per day = 62.5 orders/hour = 1 order per minute

Can the orders really be that complex that an order entry clerk can
get through one in 58 seconds?  More likely, most of the orders (80%)
are very simple and are handled in 15 seconds by the clerks, and a few
are complex.

More math ...
Lets use 15000 orders/day as an average, the middle of your range.
15000 orders per day * 200 work days/year = 3,000,000 orders per year
50 clerks * $60,000/year/clerk (after benefits) = 3,000,000 dollars
for order entry
--> so you are paying $1 per order just for keying it in.

Where the change is comming, at least at my shop and many/most others, is
the realization that the customer is willing to do the work for us, taking
their time to enter orders etc... for us. So like amazon.com and many others
we are building browser UIs to our systems allowing our customers to become
order entry personel for the company, who pay us to do it.

It is not a zero-sum game.  It is faster and easier most of the time
for me to enter my order myself into amazon.com than it is for me to
call and talk to a person who then enters the order. So I am saving
myself time and saving amazon money.  And this is directly because
amazon's system is so easy to use that I can do it quickly despite
only using it once a quarter.

--
Tom Jedrzejewicz
tomjedrz@xxxxxxxxx