Digital adoption: the key to your company's digital transformation

In its study published at the end of 2020, Gartner describes how, by 2025, 70% of organisations will be using digital adoption platforms to overcome user difficulties.

It has to be said that the digital adoption of tools is one of the major challenges facing businesses in their digital transition. It has a proven impact on performance and productivity, and is all the more crucial when you consider that more than a third of installed software is unused (1E report).

But what are these digital adoption platforms? Do they really enable users to get to grips with their new environment more quickly and smoothly? What kind of SPOCs do they offer?

All the answers to your questions are in this article.

Digital adoption: a major challenge

The health crisis of 2020 brought companies face to face overnight with the challenge of maintaining business with everyone teleworking.

This unprecedented context has considerably increased the amount of software used in businesses, to keep productivity up, meetings running and employees engaged.

Unfortunately, in their haste, some companies with little previous equipment were unable to offer their employees sufficient training and support to enable them to adopt this panoply of new, sometimes unintuitive tools.

The result? Employees in difficulty :

• are demotivated
• become disengaged
• and their productivity falls, sometimes with serious financial consequences.

To avoid finding themselves in this situation, platforms dedicated to maximising the rate of software adoption have emerged, helping to alleviate many of the difficulties that users may encounter.

Digital adoption platforms

Definition

A digital adoption platform (DAP) is a piece of software that helps users get to grips with a tool in a contextualised way, directly in the interface concerned. They are often referred to as application GPS, guiding users interactively.

With a hands-on approach, this type of platform can complement software training or documentation, or in some cases even replace it altogether. This is known as 100% learning by doing.

DAPs are used in companies for a variety of purposes:

• onboarding of newly recruited employees,
• job changes requiring the learning of new tools,
• onboarding a new customer.

💡 Do you remember Clippy, Microsoft's paperclip? It's a bit like the ancestor of today's DAPs, and its directions have helped whole generations to get to grips with the Office suite.

How it works

DAP technology acts as an "overlay" on software and applications, without any specific development. It can be configured by the company, which can create customised, contextualised user paths tailored to specific needs:

• the company
• a department
• a team
• a particular type of profile, etc.

Real-time learning and use are simultaneous, because help is offered in the right place at the right time. When users are in the application, they can see :

• highlighted fields to fill in
• pop-up messages and instructions at key points in the journey,
• links to full documentation on a specific requirement,
• new features highlighted and presented,
• advice on how to use the system to improve performance and save time.

DAPs are sometimes based on artificial intelligence, which can be adapted to user behaviour, to provide even more accurate and precise training.

👉 Some of them also offer a module for analysing user usage, enabling indicators to be generated (average time spent, achievement of objectives, acquisition of skills, etc.), and a module for collecting user feedback to identify areas of the course that are not running smoothly and improve them.

Why use a digital adoption platform?

Quick and easy to implement

Installing this type of solution requires very little development, with the aim of making it quick and intuitive to create content and set business rules.

If the software changes, there's no need to take new screenshots and start from scratch: adaptations and modifications can be made quickly.

Makes learning more effective

These platforms provide access to information at the right time and in the right place, making it much more relevant and easier to assimilate. The user's needs are quickly met, and learning is immediate and simplified.

What's more, not all users have the same facility for grasping a tool, depending on their age, experience or type of job. DAP makes it possible to really adapt to each type of profile, from those who need almost complete assistance to those who are at ease and want a few extra tips.

Finally, the content created is designed to be interactive and engaging, which also encourages learning.

Increases the adoption rate

Ease of learning has a positive impact on the adoption rate of digital tools.

By way of comparison :

only 5% of users consult videos or documentation; this rate would be around 85% with a DAP tool

Acxias

Boost team performance and employee well-being

More effective learning coupled with an increase in the adoption rate is not without effect on their productivity, as they are :

• operational more quickly
• aware of how the tool can make them more efficient,
• pleasantly surprised by the fluidity of their work,
• better supported: their needs are heard and met,
• so they're happier and more motivated to improve their performance.

Reducing costs

The savings made by integrating a digital adoption platform can be seen at a number of different levels:

• Reduced training time (multiplied by the number of users, this can represent substantial sums),
• reduced software adoption time
• fewer support requests and therefore less time spent on after-sales service,
• Increased customer loyalty thanks to a higher adoption rate, leading to savings, given that retaining a customer costs 5 times less than acquiring a new one.

Contributes to continuous improvement

Thanks to a module for collecting feedback and analysing the user experience, the company can identify at each stage of the process any difficulties that an employee may have encountered at any point in the process.

Were instructions missing? Not clear enough? Getting to the bottom of these issues allows you to continuously improve functionality or your support on an ongoing basis, and make the journey a little smoother each time.

💡 It's also easier to identify users who need more in-depth support to fully adopt the solution.

Example of a digital adoption platform

Whether your project involves implementing new software, training new recruits or upgrading to a new version, there are a few players on the market to help you. For example:

Find out more about digital adoption platforms and Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Don't overlook change management support

As we have seen, digital platform adoption is becoming more and more essential for companies, as the benefits are so numerous.

However, beware of resting entirely on your laurels in the hope that digital adoption will take care of itself. Many companies have experienced failures in the deployment of tools, often because of sloppy or even ignored support for change. And yet, for adoption to be successful, people must be the priority.

So to give yourself the best chance of success, build a change management strategy tailored to your business and your employees.

Combined with the power of digital adoption platforms, there's no doubt that you'll have a successful transition!

And what about you? Do you use this type of platform? If not, what are you doing to maximise the success of your software deployments?