Game mechanics in the Enterprise software

It boggles my mind how we still tolerate all the incredibly stupid apps (B2B or Enterprise software in general) that we use at our workplace everyday. While consumer apps have moved to the 21st century, enterprise software, even the ones that are currently being built (might I say in the process of re-platforming- from Mainframe to Java / .Net), are still in the dark ages. There are a few reasons for these,

1. Strict adherence to specification, hence no room for innovation.
2. Strict focus on correctness of features rather than usability & user engagement.
3. Generational gap (not in literal sense) between the people (developers) who work on enterprise apps vs who work on consumer apps.

Recently I came across a few posts by Brad Feld on the same topic dubbed as Enterprise 2.0. These posts are a bit dated (in 2007/2008). It is now almost the end of 2011. I guess Enterprise is not quite social yet. I would still agree with Brad that the Enterprise software is ripe for disruption more now than ever before. However, I would look at this disruption from a different perspective- usability and engagement than social. In consumer space, apps became social (interaction with friends) first before they became usable and engaging (through game mechanics). While making the enterprise software social (interaction with colleagues; see what I mean here) may seem interesting, I contend that it is not as beneficial as making these apps highly usable and engaging in and of itself using game mechanics.

Here are few trends in usability that enterprise software can easily adopt. Applying game mechanics on the other hand could be tricky and will require analysis of the domain as well as business goals. Nevertheless badges, points, voting,  recommendations, check-ins coupled with clever data visualization can be put together in a way to foster right collaboration and coopetition among employees (in other words encourage right behavior) to achieve business goals faster. In fact, enterprises can tweak these elements in a way to encourage a work culture that is unique, and thereby gain competitive advantage.

I'll end with an example that most of us can relate to. Weekly time & status reporting is a common activity in the corporate world. There will be multiple time entry apps and we have to enter time in all of them! Managers need to track the expenses, accountants need to keep the books up-to-date, employees need to report time spent on different projects/tasks. But nobody likes to do this. There will always be someone who would forget to report time or will report against wrong line item (I never understood why the line items are so cryptic that the person reporting on it has no clue what it means). It becomes a source of stress, frustration, and sometime contention. Depending on the manager and the company culture, the consequence of failing to report time timely(!) and accurately can be from making on the public defaulter list to in person reprimand to actually getting a red mark on the personnel file.

How about we change these time reporting apps such that everybody would love to do time entry? First, track time in one and only place, and make the app usable. Easy, right! Then begins the fun part. Encourage people to enter time "timely and accurately" by awarding points & badges. Encourage coopetition by showing "leader board." Make it engaging by showing interesting stats- "breakdown by time / place / device for time entries," "breakdown by departments & teams" etc. Make it social by allowing conversation around time entries between managers and employees (they have conversation offline anyways when there is a confusion / wrong entry). Last but not least, connect to the big picture- show them how / why time is tracked (budget).

Are you using any application at your workplace that has these features already? Or are you currently working on a project where you are going to implement / experiment with some of these features? Or, I would love to hear how you would incorporate game mechanics in the apps you use at your workplace.