FACT CHECKED
It’s a jungle out there.
The digital landscape is rapidly changing, with risks and threats behind every proverbial tree. Many household brands have already fallen, incapable of surviving its unforgiving and unrelenting pace.
Most traditional enterprises would agree, it’s a tough time to be in business.
According to Michael Gale’s research on digital adoption (in collaboration with Forbes), 84% of companies are unable to successfully implement a tech-driven approach.
Barriers to digital adoption
There are plenty of barriers to digital adoption. People don’t like change, for one. This resistance is often embedded within organizational culture.
Lack of strategy and leadership is another common barrier to digital adoption. Employees don’t want to be treated like school kids. They want to be inspired to change and led by example.
Taking a one-size-fits all approach when personalized, contextual learning has been shown to be much more of an effective training method — that’s another barrier.
Despite being in the midst of a very obvious and unrelenting digital revolution, there are still plenty of organizations and decision-makers that don’t prioritize the adoption of digital. This is, bizarrely, still a huge barrier.
Finally, lack of resources is another common barrier to digital adoption. Yes, it can be technically challenging and expensive. That’s why it’s super important to ensure you get ROI.
Digital survival kit: 5 essential digital adoption must haves
- Digital adoption strategy
- Digital Adoption Platform
- VPAs
- Seamless off-site integration
- Digital skills and focus
1. Digital adoption strategy
Strategy is everything. Digital adoption is ultimately a process of behavior change. So it would be wise to employ principles of change management within your strategy.
At a very basic level, you need to address the following:
- How to unpick old habits
- Implementing the change(s)
- How to embed them within culture
From a more technical, granular perspective, you need to:
- Make a plan of the user adoption process for the new software
- Identify what’s needed for the user adoption plan to succeed
- Get buy-in from leaders in order to apply your plan
- Teach users about the new tech – how it’s used and what features are available
- Compose a test for users to see if they remember everything they’ve learned
- Run the test to check how many users are ready to start working on the system
- Evaluate the results: Is your organization ready for software implementation?
- Prepare a final user adoption plan with the users that are directly affected
- Build a help-desk to ensure there will be someone to support users and answer questions at any time
(adapted from WalkMe)
2. Digital Adoption Platform (DAP)
Your digital transformation efforts are in vain if your employees don’t adequately engage with and adopt new technologies.
Implementation is only one half of the equation. You also need to allocate resources to the adoption of that technology. That’s how you’ll get your ROI.
A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) uses AI and machine learning to understand user needs and provide a bespoke user experience (UX) based on their behavior. This is essential for improved user productivity, morale, and performance.
The DAP provides a guidance layer, which understands when and where guidance is needed, how to implement assistance, and who needs it. It can also auto-complete regular tasks and provide smart suggestions.
“One of the leading causes of digital adoption failure is improper training. If employees do not understand how to correctly use newly implemented technology, or are unaware of additional features, it obviously limits the effectiveness of the program.” Manish Dudharejia, business.com
The DAP accelerates and facilitates adoption. It also comes with in-built insights.
Armed with this data, you can get a much deeper understanding of user behavior. More than that, you can discover what adoption issues they’re having. This gives you the opportunity to improve the digital tool and/or user experience.
3. VPA
Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) are essentially chatbots. They are used in communications and commerce scenarios to “improve customer experience, operational costs, and lead to new business opportunities.” (source: Orbis Research)
“While initial benefits are seen in consumer-facing industries, VPAs are anticipated to provide substantial direct and indirect benefits across a wide array of enterprise segments and industry verticals.” Orbis Research via Reuters
Enterprises are also discovering their value internally. VPAs can help out with meeting scheduling, research, note-taking, and task reminders.
One of the newer digital adoption must haves, this technology is ideal for boosting productivity. It’s an exciting and promising tool to have in your digital survival kit.
4. Seamless off-site integration
With more employees working from home, seamless integration between on and off-site is one of our top digital adoption must haves.
And since remote working boosts morale, productivity, and efficiency, it’s a win-win situation for both employees and enterprise.
Seamless digital integration can also help you to attract and retain the right talent. 68% of millennial job seekers told AfterCollege that an option to work remotely would greatly increase their interest in specific employers.
And this leads us (seamlessly) into our final point…
5. Digital skills and focus
To survive the digital revolution, your organization needs to have the right skills and focus in-house. At the end of the day, a business is still only ever as good as its people.
Leading DAP provider WalkMe points out that, often, “the implementation of new technology…demands a new set of nuanced, operational skills.”
The organization as a whole needs to review the focus of its people and identify any skills gaps. Can the required skills can be taught, or do they need to be brought in?
So these are your digital adoption must haves for 2019 and beyond. They are the cornerstone of your digital survival kit. Using these will ensure that you’re crowned king of the digital jungle.
