How Much of Your Software Do You Really Use?

A recent press release from a CRE deal management software vendor has announced a version of its product for investment sales and mortgage brokers. This new spin on the existing software is supposed to combine pipeline tracking, customer relationship management (CRM), market data management, and digital deal marketing for the first time in one bundle.

Is that really the first time all of these can be found in one integrated product? Maybe, or maybe not. There are so many software offerings in CRE that it’s difficult to ascertain such claims. But give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment. Maybe it’s so. If you started using the package, would you employ all the features, or even realize they are there?

Making thorough use of any software is a challenge. There have been estimates about the percentage of features people apply. One figure is an application of the Pareto principle, that 80% of users never get beyond 20% of a package’s features. This may sound reasonable but more likely is a guess based on a common observation. Who tallied the number of features in multiple applications, observed actual use, and then calculated a percentage? Probably no one.

There is another metric tossed around that people rarely if ever use 64% of features in software. “The source for this claim was Jim Johnson, chairman of the Standish Group, who presented it in a keynote at the XP 2002 conference in Sardinia,” wrote Mike Cohn at training firm Mountain Goat Software. He contacted the Standish Group and found that the analysis was a study of four internal applications at the company. Too high? Too low? Who knows?

One way to get a sense is to consider your use of large software packages. After many decades in business, I’ve frequently needed to pull data into a spreadsheet from a website or PDF. Copying and pasting is a time hog. After decades of using Excel, I recently decided to see if there was a faster method. There was — the application can directly connect a spreadsheet to a website or file and import a correctly formatted data table all at once. How long has that feature been in the software? I haven’t the slightest idea. However, I’ve been around technology long enough not to kick myself for failing to ask earlier.

Here’s some advice that might help save money, time, and frustration. Before you buy a new package, check what your existing software can do. Instead of diving for the manual — if there is a comprehensive one — do a web search for the product name and a feature you’d like. Maybe you already have it there. Or there might be a small addition on the market that could get it for you. If you want to move to another platform, go through the extended list of features. If the vendor doesn’t have one, that might be reason enough to stay where you are.