Knoa measures not just application performance but end user performance, enabling companies to quickly identify needed changes in training or user behavior to maximize ROI from enterprise applications. Just how does an end user get the most from their company’s ERP implementation? By using it to effectively do their job. Knoa is doing what SAP and the other ERP application makers should be doing: verifying that their software is actually usable in a real-world environment.

Companies might spend millions on an SAP or Oracle implementation. Knoa aims to help businesses determine whether they are getting the most from their investment. The New York company is rolling out the 5.0 version of its Experience and Performance Manager product this week. The software uses passive monitoring agents to track how users are interacting with products such as Oracle's Siebel customer relationship management (CRM) application, collecting information ranging from application errors to the workflow patterns users execute.

Knoa Experience and Performance Management (Knoa EPM) seeks to add a new layer to business process analysis and technical metrics for application performance by focusing on measuring how well traditional business applications like Oracle or SAP are delivering value to the business. Such a solution will (eventually) enable enterprises to be sure that the money they have invested in applications and in BPM is providing its intended value. After all, that is why companies have turned to BPM in the first place.

What do you say when the chief executive officer is asking why your company didn't reduce its order-to-cash cycle -- on of the key objectives that drove the investment in a new software application. Even if your company has a robust corporate performance management (CPM) system, chances are you won't have a good answer. This article explains how one industrial hard goods manufacturer used Knoa Experience and Performance Manager to identify the root cause of a key corporate performance shortfall.

Knoa Experience & Performance Manager has creates a strong argument for approaching performance analysis and management from the end user experience perspective. The end-user perspective is a very compelling addendum to traditional metrics that are captured and analyzed in enterprise computing.

Clearly, end user experience management is an area that all of the major performance management/system management companies will like to have as a complementary capability. And Knoa is just scratching the surface of what is possible in this area.

Without a strategy to measure end-user adoption, as well as gather insight about the end-user's experience with their CRM applications, many IT organizations are left with the reality that they can't manage and improve end-user adoption and proficiency. In the absence of comprehensive and representative data, many discussions regarding CRM application deployments are based on reported user impressions, limited visual observations, and occasional stopwatch timings. This results in extrapolations about the performance of the whole system that are inaccurate, and lead to decisions that are not in the best interest of the business.

How do IT leaders really know if enterprise software is being used effectively? Some experts think rather than tapping into traditional systems management solutions, the answer lies in a relatively new class of software. Systems management tools ensure that systems and the network infrastructure are up and running, but what they are missing are measurements of the end user's actual experience.

Enterprise applications like ERP, and CRM and SCM automate complex business processes where high levels of application performance are crucial. Yet many frustrated execs find that despite the small fortune they have spent on products to manage servers, networks and applications, the business constituencies still complain about the performance, usability and availability of those enterprise applications. This article explores how End User Experience Management software stabilizes the three-legged stool of Application Performance Management.

Consider this scenario. It's 12 months after the 'go-live' of your new ERP system. The management team invested to cut costs, bring products to market sooner, comply with regulations, and improve core end-to-end processes, like the order-to-cash process. So, what do you say when the CEO is asking why your company didn't reduce the "order-to-cash" cycle time by 10 percent, as planned?

The CRM value of these applications -- all of which focus on internal rather than customer-facing processes -- is clear for anyone who has interacted with a customer service or sales representative saddled with computer errors, the need to re-enter data, or a necessary workaround. Fixing that employee's user experience ultimately results not only in greater efficiency, but also improved customer interaction. The overall leader is Knoa Software with its Experience and Performance Manager (EPM) product, according to report author Jean-Pierre Garbani, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. "The company's key aim is to provide a technology that is able to cover all the potential needs of an IT organization in terms of end user experience measurement," he writes in the report.

It's the end-users of the enterprise applications who execute the transactions that drive the processes that drive the business. Are employees actually using the right transactions to execute the business process? Are they using them in the right way? Are the employees efficient, or are they making significant errors? Are the transactions effective, or are they cumbersome, requiring employee-invented workarounds? There's a new generation of solutions that can give you those answers: end-user experience and performance and management (EPM).

“Knoa Software’s solution in this market is grounded in its vision of fulfilling all the end user experience measurement needs of IT organizations. Knoa is an especially good fit for buyers that want a product that crosses IT operation and application development boundaries. In an integrated IT organization that cares for the end user experience, it is probably as important to create applications that are easy to use and minimize usability issues as it is to provide good online performance. Knoa's product allows the whole IT organization to work together on improving end user productivity.”

Get ready for a third stakeholder: IT, Business and now, the End-User. Traditional monitoring and management tools manage factors that impact end user experience, but they are blind to the actual end user experience. Excellent tools for measuring application availability, they provide no insight into real application performance from the perspective of the end user. The time has come to expand performance management horizons to include the end user experience.

Some of the software projects that companies implement fail. Stuart Smith has a method for saving them. When BT rolled out Oracle's Siebel CRM software to 12,000 call center workers in 30 locations 18 months ago, he also bought monitoring software from Knoa. "We now understand how people use the systems that we build," he said. "And this has allowed his team to identify and fix problems before they cause users to rebel against the system."

Kimberly-Clark's experience points to an issue that sometimes gets forgotten in the discussion of lengthy ERP implementations: the toll and time it takes to get people to use a new system, and use it properly. A huge help to Kimberly-Clark, said company representative Kay Chase, was the use of software from Knoa Software that monitors how employees use the system, called Knoa Experience and Performance Manager for SAP.

Without a strategy to measure end-user adoption, as well as gather insight about the end-user's experience with their CRM applications, many IT organizations are left with the reality that they can't manage and improve end-user adoption and proficiency. See how one financial services organization leveraged insight into end-user experience to ensure that all end users adopted their CRM application and were executing key processes effectively and efficiently -- the key to achieving business value and ROI from the application investment.

New developments promise to make the new application rollout experience somewhat easier than the corporate equivalent of root canal. Knoa Experience and Performance Manager helps automate the tedious process of gathering data about what the end user is actually experiencing when using an application. The Knoa system provides monitoring technology that eliminates the clipboard-and-stopwatch approach so developers can more readily see what part of the application has an awkward interface or convoluted workflow process.

Technology editor, J. Bonasia, interviews industry analysts and Knoa's CEO about End User Experience Management software. Forrester expects the market for End User Experience Management software to grow by 10% in 2007. "End user monitoring does more than just find the source of software problems," said Cameron Haight, a Gartner analyst. "Such systems collect data to report on the overall health of the business".

"If you think you're hearing a lot about management software lately, you're not mistaken. Knoa Software CEO, Thad Eidman says more and more business executives are starting to see the potential of software to enhance end user experiences." Technology reporter Gian Trotta, interviews Knoa's CEO in this ebizQ podcast. Listen to the podcast, read the transcript, or read Gian's review.

End User monitoring software can improve end user experience and performance to drive adoption of critical business applications. For the business executive and CIO who need to drive the highest possible levels of adoption; efficient and effective use of core enterprise applications; as well as drive return on investment, Experience and Performance Management systems are becoming a priority.

Adoption and problems with efficient and effective use of your software are not just your customer's problem. An insidious new form of 'invisible shelf-ware', a condition where partial adoption and non-compliant use of enterprise applications is the hidden cause behind unrealized ROI, is threatening software execs especially because it directly attacks the ISV business model and impacts the maintenance renewals, expansion and cross sale opportunities. End-User Experience and Performance Management (EPM) software can protect your revenues and profits.

"The insight into actual end-user experience gives us benefits across the board, helping target response time issues, solve end-user problems faster, identify usage and adoption issues, and even make priority decisions on ongoing application investments," said Stuart Smith, Director of CRM Application Performance at British Telecom.

"A new user performance management package from Knoa Software Inc is capturing CIOs attention for its ability to boost worker productivity and optimize application performance. Knoa's Experience and Performance Management suite lets IT departments measure employee response times, distinguish between system and user errors and monitor work-flow process – all in real time…"