FACT CHECKED
Whether or not you know the song, I think we can all appreciate the analogy of a bridge over troubled water.
Without the bridge, there’s no hope of crossing to the other side. The water is too dangerous. But with the bridge, getting to your destination becomes easy.
Now, imagine that your destination is successful digital transformation — that’s where you want to get to. Or maybe it’s successful employee or customer onboarding to digital systems. Or perhaps it’s just executing a small technology change of some sort.
Whatever your goal, it’s over on the other side of the water.
The water itself represents all the challenges and barriers associated with digital technology. True digital adoption is the bridge that makes your journey to the other side easy, quick, and cost-effective.
Troubled waters in the digital world
When implementing or onboarding users to technology, there are always hurdles.
Employee resistance during change management
Employee resistance is a major roadblock to any sort or organizational change.
It comes about because when you introduce new software, work processes, or tools to employees, they’re forced to learn new things.
And learning new things equates to additional workload. Employees may be required to:
- Go to meetings
- Attend workshops
- Undergo training
- Contend with unfamiliar work situations
Being removed from their daily responsibilities to undergo training, and bringing the unfamiliar into their work schedule, upsets the balance employees have cultivated in their role.
Not only does productivity drop, but motivation and morale can take a dive too.
True digital adoption counters these problems and should therefore be the priority for change professionals executing any sort of digital transition.
“Unfortunately, digital adoption isn’t simply a matter of subscribing to a bunch of cloud-based applications and then expecting the organization to instantly transform into a powerhouse. Digital adoption demands strategy and meticulous implementation to succeed.”
Techno FAQ
Slow, costly, and ineffective training process
Traditional training methods are completely inefficient. There are huge costs associated with every step in the process, from creating the content to hiring a trainer.
It’s laborious and challenging, particularly for enterprises with employees in multiple locations worldwide.
Perhaps all this could be tolerated if training itself proved particularly effective. Unfortunately however, this is rarely the case.
The Ebbinghaus “forgetting curve” shows us that the majority of training is forgotten soon after it has been delivered. When it comes to learning digital systems, this results in an overwhelming number of IT support tickets and helpdesk enquiries.
True digital adoption simply cannot happen with traditional classroom training methods. Technology is too complex and rapidly evolving for users to keep up.
Training needs to happen in real-time, all the time, for learning to stick, productivity to improve, and true digital adoption to occur.
“[The complexity of modern technology] creates a usability gap where users find it difficult to utilize the digital assets and tools made available to them because of their unfamiliarity and unoptimized user experiences.”
Virtual Strategy Magazine
Expensive technology achieves poor ROI
The above issues result in poor ROI being achieved for expensive technology. And this can really harm the bottom line.
When employees (or customers) are taking too long to learn digital systems, the benefits of that technology are not being felt by the organization.
As the digital revolution gathers speed, traditional enterprises have spent millions on the latest and greatest technology in an attempt to modernize and transform into a digital business.
However, the reality for the majority of these organizations is that they haven’t prioritized user adoption. Therefore their technology has been a cost-center rather than a profitability-boosting asset.
“90% of users stop using an application within 30 days of installation on average. Many of these users do so because they fail to realise the value of these applications.”
Information Age
True digital adoption: the bridge
True digital adoption is the state reached when technology is being used as it should be, to its fullest capacity. Without it, you cannot have digital transformation, effective onboarding, or a successful digital change initiative.
The bridge of true digital adoption is built using a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP). The DAP is an enabler. It’s a piece of software that:
- Accelerates and improves digital training and onboarding
- Facilitates seamless digital change
- Catalyzes digital innovation, modernization, and transformation
The DAP uses AI, machine learning, and advanced automation to transform the user experience of any digital tool to which it’s applied.
It’s platform agnostic; so whether you’ve bought a new piece of software or had a system custom-built for your organization, the DAP can adapt to it.
In summary, the DAP is the ultimate tool to facilitate true digital adoption, without which today’s enterprises don’t stand a chance of achieving their goals.
