Clarence Dent, ANZ Regional Vice President, WalkMe, tells us how businesses can accurately assess the impact of technologies.
Of all the changes that the global pandemic imposed on businesses, one of the most significant was the bringing forward of planned Digital Transformation projects.
Across the business world, organizations expedited investments in new technologies and equipped staff with the tools and applications they needed to remain productive while working from home. Many achieved in months or even weeks what previously would have taken years.
Interestingly, it’s a trend that is showing no sign of slowing. In fact, research firm IDC predicts spending on Digital Transformation initiatives will reach US$2.8 trillion by 2025, more than double the amount allocated in 2020.
However, it should be remembered that such initiatives need to go beyond simply deploying new technologies. Attention also must be given to how those new technologies are being used and the impact they are having on productivity and the experience of your employees, customers and partners.
Assessing the impact of technologies
Technology vendors are constantly rolling out new platforms, features and functionality that should be beneficial to organizations. Companies continue to buy these technologies, but often don’t focus on how well they are adopted, and whether they are actually using them in the way that was intended.
Indeed, Forbes reports that 84% of all Digital Transformation projects fail because they failed to achieve the anticipated results. That’s a lot of wasted time, money and effort.
With organizations continuing to roll out new digital tools, maximizing the value of these tools requires monitoring and reporting on their adoption and impact. The key is finding an efficient and effective way to do this.
One of the most effective ways is to leverage to show what software is being used, and whether it is being used effectively. Such data can show which solutions have been fully adopted and which are underutilized.
It can also indicate where specifically in an application the users are becoming confused or not using key features, and what new tools would most benefit the organization.
These insights can be used to determine what makes users more productive, and why they abandon certain processes or functions of the software. It can also provide the full picture of where and why usage drops off.
The data can also help to streamline software spend by uncovering unused licenses and redundant systems, or by revealing tools that aren’t being used much at all and are good candidates for phasing out.
The digital adoption platform
Increasing numbers of companies are creating their data-driven adoption dashboards using digital adoption platforms (DAPs). These solutions gather and track KPIs in order to determine the success of Digital Transformation initiatives.
The rich insights they can provide into adoption, usage and user behavior can empower senior managers to make data-driven decisions about how to maximize the impact of technology investments.
One of the most important KPIs for measuring successful adoption is how quickly new employees are onboarded and get up to speed with new software tools. This will be evident by an employee’s ability to navigate new applications quickly and effectively.
For example, the time it takes for a staff member to enter customer details into a CRM system is critical. Sales staff who don’t fully understand how to use the system may not be able to complete those processes due to a lack of training and understanding.
This situation could result in missing leads and setting up a pattern of new hires learning to inefficiently work outside of their technology systems. Data on these kinds of practices across an entire organization using dozens of software systems provides actionable insights for onboarding new hires more effectively. The end result is accelerated adoption and greater employee efficiency.
Strong business leaders always care about employee experience and satisfaction, so it should therefore be measured like any other business metric. The level of employee satisfaction with a new technology will be evident by gauging employee productivity, and by tracking a reduction in the number of requests for help. Other factors to track include user retention, time spent using an application, and engagement with new features.
On-going Digital Transformation
With businesses continuing to select and deploy new technologies and tools in the workplace, digital adoption will continue to be an important issue. Without successful adoption, the full potential of Digital Transformation to help businesses become more efficient and profitable cannot be realized.
By using solutions such as DAPs, organizations can get a clear picture of exactly how those technologies are being used and whether staff are living up to their full potential. In this way the ROI on technology investments can be as high as possible while staff satisfaction and productivity can also be improved.
The real promise of Digital Transformation will have been achieved.
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