“There’s a saying that 80 percent of users will use only 20 percent of an application’s features. This is probably true of most Office users because they don’t know the features exist. Once they see the features in action, they put them to use.”

There are conflicting statistics out there about the % by which software is underused. By this I mean how much functionality of regularly used software is ignored, unknown or even just not needed. Most of us have a love/hate relationship with our chosen software and probably only skim the surface of their potential. I’m commenting because I watched a client using Excel the other day in a highly skilled, complicated way that was quite mind-blowing. It superceded anything I would ever need from Excel but it was pretty impressive to know that this depth of use was even possible. Most of our software is amazingly brilliant – we just don’t realise it.

docSAFE suffers from under-utilisation similarly to mainstream software products. We release upgrades and updates regularly, nearly always in response to user requests. “It would be great if we could just…” or ‘Have you ever considered adding in…” and so we go away and do the magic to enable our clients to achieve those goals. Chances are that if some clients have requested additional tools, they would benefit all.

So what’s the motivation to get the most from your IT?
• I guess we are driven to learn more about the tools we use once the need arises and there is no alternative but to labour away, working out how to find the solution.
• Seeing others using the software we use, seemingly more effectively, can inspire us to learn more.
• A lazy/easy alternative is to delegate to people who know more than we do – but I know from bitter experience that one day that clever bod will be otherwise engaged when I need something critical that I just can’t fathom. Very frustating!

Ultimately though I think it is a commercially driven decision – I need to do xyz twice a month to help my business, so I’ll spend 2 hours watching a tutorial as I know it’ll be worth it in the end. What are your thoughts? How can we help docSAFE users know more and motivate them to dig that little bit deeper?

Going mainstream here (and we don’t like to do that often!), here are some ‘did you know’ pointers for your Microsoft products…

Some docSAFE tutorial videos are available here – more coming soon…