The acronym EPSS stands for Electronic Performance Support System. By definition, an EPSS is software designed to assist in the performance of job tasks. An EPSS can be thought of as an electronic job aid.

There are two primary kinds of EPSSs, embedded and stand-alone. An example of embedded would be the Help feature built into software such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. A link to an example of a stand-alone EPSS is on this web page. EPSSs can be employed for applications and job tasks where users have constant access to a computer system while performing their job.

Why employ an EPSS?

When job tasks are extremely detailed with workers prone to forget those details, a well designed EPSS can save time and decrease costly mistakes.

An EPSS can eliminate or at least decrease the dependency upon training to support worker performance.

An EPSS (as opposed to print based job aids) can present needed data and instructions much more quickly than searching for answers in documentation or print-based job aids, often with a single mouse-click.

EPSS DEMO

How does the EPSS featured here work?

This simple but efficient EPSS is based on job tasks, or functions, consisting of several steps, as well as those with sub tasks or functions, each having several steps.

Variations of this type of EPSS could be applied to help-desk operations as well as such simple things as an electronic user-guide for a complex in-house telephone system.

This particular demo has two versions.  One is web based and you can access it via the link below.  The other is one that you can download and install on your PC.  When designed to for installation on either a sharable drive or on the users PC, the EPSS that we can produce can have many additional functions built into it.  Some of these include:

A hide/show function can be built into the EPSS.  For instance, the figure below illustrates the Hide button.

When the user clicks the Hide button, the entire EPSS window shrinks to the size of the Hide button and displays a Show button like the one below.

To prevent blocking underlying applications, the user can toggle between Hide and Show as needed.  In addition, both the full-sized window and the Show button can be moved around as necessary by the user.

The PC-version EPSS can be designed so that it is always "on top" of other applications.  (Since the Web Based version is browser based, the EPSS window could get "below" other applications.)  

Sound and/or digital video can be incorporated into the PC-version EPSS.  (Sound and Video can also be included in the web based version, but connection speed limitations may make such inclusions impractical.)  

The PC-version EPSS can be designed so that it checks for updates each time it is started.  (The web based is always the latest version.)

The PC-version EPSS can link to and display other documents including documents on the intranet or internet.

This particular demo occupies a small amount of screen space. However, the screen space actually required for your EPSS could be larger or smaller, depending upon the exact nature of your requirements. The EPSS demo here is a simple EPSS prototype, designed to assist users of a complex in-house telephone system. The EPSS supports five functions with multiple steps and one function that has sub functions, each with multiple steps.

NOTE: To run the web version, you must have a Java Virtual Machine installed on your computer. To run the web version of the prototype, click here.

To see the PC-version, you will need to download a 1.7 meg EXE file and run it to install the demo on our machine.  The installation includes an uninstall program so you can delete everything when you are ready to do so.  To download the EXE file, click here.

For more information and pricing on an EPSS for your application, drop me an email and describe your situation. Include your name, and, if within the United States or Canada, your phone number along with a day and time of day to contact you for more information. Send the email Send the email to Pete Blair.