Best Digital Adoption Platforms

Guide to Digital Adoption Platforms

Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are cloud-based software solutions designed to make it easier for organizations to move their products, services and processes into the digital age. DAPs are used to facilitate a company’s transition from physical to digital operations and provide users with an intuitive user interface that enables them to quickly learn new technologies and adapt them to their business needs. A DAP also provides detailed analytics and reporting which allows businesses to track usage, identify areas of improvement and optimize processes as needed.

At its core, a digital adoption platform is an integrated suite of applications and services that help organizations manage their digital transformation journey. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automate routine tasks, such as data entry or customer service inquiries, freeing up resources for other initiatives. In addition, a DAP helps organizations identify areas where they can improve performance by providing in-depth analytics into usage data. This data can be used to improve user experience, enhance customer service and increase operational efficiency.

A key feature of many digital adoption platforms is the ability to integrate with existing third-party applications or systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM). This integration allows business owners the ability to leverage existing software without having to invest in additional infrastructure or training time for end users. Additionally, many DAPs allow for custom integrations with business specific tools such as web analytics or ecommerce portals.

The success of any organization's transition from physical operations is largely dependent on how well employees are able to adopt new technologies quickly and efficiently. With this in mind, many DAP providers offer extensive training programs that focus on teaching employees how best use the platform's features so they can get up and running faster than ever before. These trainings often include detailed instruction videos along with interactive exercises that allow users hands-on experience with the technology they will be using on a daily basis.

Digital adoption platforms provide businesses of all sizes with an effective way of transitioning into the digital age while helping employees stay current on changing technologies so they can remain productive during the process. The comprehensive tools available through these platforms allow businesses access detailed usage information so they can quickly identify areas where efficiency improvements may be possible while creating visualizations so managers can easily track progress towards reaching organizational goals set forth at the beginning of the project

The Importance of Digital Adoption Platforms

Technology is fluid, and its ebb and flow is based upon human activity and need. As such, it never stops evolving. Any business knows that it must evolve and adapt alongside such technological updates to stay relevant, much less thrive. But, that’s not the end. Employees and customers must also be able to quickly, efficiently, and effectively adapt to and adopt these vital technology processes, too. Otherwise, there are serious negative consequences all the way around.

While many systems get blamed for errors, the system itself is only responsible for less than 10% of errors. The other errors are actually related to process, design, and the user.

Statistics like the above are case and point as to the importance of a business’s customers and employees being able to effectively, efficiently, and completely being able to use a system’s software. Otherwise, those serious consequences look like IT ROI failures, wasted time on support tickets, lost productivity, an endless cycle of employee training, reputation harm, lost customers, on- boarding difficulties, and so forth.

How does a business ensure they’re adequately engaging the technology adoption process? In short: The Digital Adoption Platform. This is the ultimate guide to assisting customers and employees of today and tomorrow in seamlessly transitioning through the technology adoption process for a new tech.

There’s an entire broad category specifically designed to address Digital Adoption Solutions (DAS.) Within that category, Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) exist to simplify new technology being integrated into a company’s processes. It’s a software tool that’s particularly relevant to enterprise application software.

What does DAP do? The adoption software overlays the new application to offer a formal supplement of guidance that can be used if needed and ignored if not needed. It acts as a step-by-step guide for users as they interact with the software’s basic processes. Think of it like simplified CliffsNotes laid over a complex book.

Digital adoption platforms are able to seamlessly integrate into the new technology as a guide, not a disrupter. The learner is able to take advantage of immediate supplemental guidance as they encounter usability snags or questions, which enables them to quickly learn and become proficient with new technologies or have a cheat sheet for lesser used processes. That’s a powerful asset in using any new technology.

The best DAPs are 1) highly adaptable guided walkthroughs and 2) applicable to both entry-level and advanced users.

As the user gets inside the enterprise software, the DAP offers simplified, yet detailed, steps for each action the user might need to take. In other words, the digital adoption platform doesn’t just cover the most common user paths. Everything from basic actions, such as changing and recovering a password or username, to more complex actions, such as sales lead logs, are covered by digital adoption platforms The user will simply see a separate pop-up of instructions for each step within a given task. Again, it’s up to the user to use the info or proceed without the extra help.

One of the biggest benefits to using DAP software is the boost to end-user adoption rates. Many users automatically hold a perception that new technologies and processes are difficult, even when they’re designed to streamline the user’s actions. Having the formal guidance of DAP serves as a safety net for the user. In feeling more confident, the user adopts the technology more completely and quickly.

Features of Digital Adoption Platforms

Digital Adoption Solutions is such a broad category because the breadth of what technology adoption entails amongst various industries and sectors is so vastly different. So “help” is relative. Digital Adoption Platforms aren’t a one-size-fits all approach to that help. It fits in where it’s needed.

DAPs have three main features. Each category is relevant to a different type of help within technology adoption. Let’s look at each.

Built-In Knowledge Base

Once upon a time, it may have taken multiple separate sources of knowledge to learn or accomplish a task at hand. Technology has enabled vast knowledge bases to be condensed into a single, comprehensive source. That concept is at the heart of the self-help category of DAP. It offers a built-in knowledge base for the user’s ease of use.

Users can immediately find solutions to their usage and function questions without waiting around in limbo to consult an outside source of info. Think about the wasted time calling IT support, reading irrelevant manual info to finally arrive at the tiny section of relevant info, etc. Talk about a productivity leach.

DAP self-help integrates and organizes the entity’s existing knowledge base against new info. Info can be categorized by very microscopic topics so that only relevant info pops up/becomes accessible for the user at the most relevant times within the software. Managers can even prescribe what self-help is available to each user based on their role within the company.

Making easily accessible, relevant info, such as walkthroughs, videos, and knowledge-base articles, available to the user within a self-help menu is the ultimate support tool. No wasted time. No wasted energy. No delays. No frustration. No confusion in gathering unvetted outside info and assistance. And, that equals high user adoption rates with greater accounts of accuracy.

Guidance And Training For Existing And New Employees

All DAPs will have two key functions - guidance and training. The importance of these functions in adapting and adopting new technologies can’t be stressed enough.

Guided walkthroughs in DAP are triggered by the user’s end goal. So, a user needs to change a password. The trigger will prompt assistive learning and offer step-by-step directives as the user moves into each section and subsection of the action.

The end achievement goes beyond preventing the user’s frustration and failure to adopt the tech at-hand. One of the biggest keys to successfully integrating new tech into a company is making the user feel that it helps, not slows, them in their work.

In having the guidance and training immediately available, precious productivity time is saved. DAPs also help ensure the accuracy of data as it alerts users in-action if the entered data matches the accuracy of the pre-established criteria. If not, the digital adoption platform alerts the user and offers assistive guidance and direction on how to correct the data, inappropriate field lengths, and/or invalid formats.

Learning the new system becomes manageable on both the user’s end and from an oversight position. Many DAPs feature micro-learning plans. Each plan features a series of small individual tasks within a broader lesson. This may include multiple videos or text steps within the plan, each of which are listed in a lesson taskbar. The system checks off the user once the tasks are completed. Managers can then systematically track any user’s learning progress.

For any change to be productive and beneficial, it must be both communicated and monitored. Digital adoption platforms allow for both. Managers can create alerts with guidance info targeted to all or specific users of changes and new features within the technology they use.

All of these features are designed with user adoption in mind. If the process is transparent and features ease of access to the guidance and training they may need in the moment, then the user has the best chance at quickly, comfortably, and completely utilizing the new processes necessary to their goals.

Do keep in mind that a Digital Adoption Platform isn’t just designed for existing employees. It will also be instrumental in on-boarding new employees and transfer positions into their new roles seamlessly so that they can reach peak productivity quickly.

Analytics For Management

No tool is complete without a method to determine its ROI and effectiveness. This is the analytics category of Digital Adoption Platforms. It assists in continually determining what is and isn’t working so that the DAP content can be adjusted where and how it's needed at any given time.

What areas of the newly implemented software are being utilized most often by employees and/or customers? Are any areas rarely to never being used? Tracking actions like how many times a specific help aspect has been utilized and successful vs unsuccessful keyword searches offer insight on dead space that can be shortened, popular subjects to be expanded, and missing info that should be added. Of course, DAP also enables for direct feedback collection from users, such as a survey, which adds context to the numeric analytic data.

DAP allows for customization and modification of a company’s training and guidance features to best serve the user. User-specific insight is a pivotal element in training and on-boarding going smoothly. Knowing the preferred content and learning patterns of users allows for granular changes to and creation within the DAP for best-use engagement. That’s a key adoption caveat that can’t be overlooked.

As this recent pandemic has proven, tech-solutions must also be able to pivot and adjust to sudden shifts in fundamental practices. Questions never before asked and problems never before faced become sudden hot topics in need of quick guidance and training. DAP analytics can quickly bring those areas to light for management. As an overlay, DAP can then enable the supplement guides and walkthroughs to exist on the same scene as the questions and problems.

No matter what the issue at-hand, DAP’s analytics provides a solution to continually improve the use and adoption of the tech employees and customers use within a company.

Additional Features

Additional features of digital adoption platforms include:

• Onboarding Tools – DAPs offer automated onboarding processes that help new employees learn systems quickly, reducing confusion and improving productivity.
• Training Modules – DAPs offer interactive training courses that can be tailored to different teams or individual users. These courses include videos, quizzes, simulations and other formats to help users learn systems faster.
• User Interface Optimization – DAPs leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to detect user behavior patterns and optimize user interfaces accordingly. This helps reduce software complexities and improve user experience.
• Support Ticketing System – Most DAPs have built-in ticketing systems where customers can submit support requests with associated metadata such as device type or product version used when experiencing an issue. This makes it easier for customer support teams to prioritize tickets and resolve issues quickly.
• Chatbot – Some DAPs also offer chatbots which allow users to ask questions in natural language and receive automated responses- saving time on customer service inquiries.

Types of Digital Adoption Platforms

• Enterprise Digital Adoption Platforms: These are platforms that are designed to provide a comprehensive system for digitally adopting enterprise applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. They offer a suite of features, such as automated onboarding and training, easy navigation of complex systems, proactive analytics and insights into user behaviour, reporting and tracking of KPIs, and integration with other applications.
• Cloud-based Digital Adoption Platforms: These platforms offer cloud-based digital adoption services that enable businesses to quickly deploy digital adoption solutions without needing any additional hardware or software. They often include advanced capabilities like automated guidance, step-by-step tutorials, customized paths to success, and data security options.
• Personalized Digital Adoption Platforms: These are tailored around the specific needs of each user, offering personalized digital adoption experiences that focus on individual behaviours, preferences and goals. Features like analytics and usage tracking help identify opportunities for improvement in user experience.
• Learning Management System (LMS) Digital Adoption Platforms: Many LMS platforms have now included features for digital adoption within their offerings – this allows users to learn about new technology through interactive activities such as quizzes or simulations. It also includes comprehensive reports on usage metrics to measure understanding levels across a team or organisation.
• AI/Machine Learning Digital Adoption Platforms: These use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to analyse large datasets in order to optimise onboarding experiences based on user behaviour patterns. This approach can help personalise adoption journeys by providing recommendations on which content would be best suited for each user’s role or situation.

Benefits of Digital Adoption Platforms

1. Increased Efficiency: Digital adoption platforms offer unprecedented efficiency by automating mundane, manual tasks such as logging in to a system, filling out forms, and sorting through data. This reduces the amount of time spent on tedious activities, freeing up employees for more creative endeavours.
2. Improved User Experience: Platforms provide users with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that simplifies access to applications while also providing guides, tutorials and other support mechanisms to help better understand the system. This helps increase user satisfaction and engagement with the platform.
3. Enhanced Productivity: By streamlining processes and allowing employees to focus on more meaningful tasks, digital adoption platforms can tremendously enhance productivity. Additionally, this can be further amplified by integrating AI and machine learning technologies into the platform.
4. Cost Effectiveness: Platforms can significantly reduce operational costs by cutting down on training time as well as manual labour costs associated with traditional methods of managing systems. Furthermore, employing automation tools like robotic process automation (RPA) can also facilitate cost savings during implementation.
5. Upgrades & Updates: Digital adoption platforms are constantly upgraded with new features and updates based on customer feedback which ensures that they remain ahead of the competition while they continue to meet changing user requirements effectively.
6. Accessibility: Platforms allow users to access systems from anywhere in the world via their mobile devices. This allows for more flexibility and convenience during implementation as well as data collection and analysis.
7. Improved Security & Compliance: Digital adoption platforms come with built-in security measures such as encryption, authentication protocols, and access control mechanisms which help maintain user data privacy and protect against potential cyber threats. Additionally, they also help maintain regulatory compliance by providing relevant information about industry standards and guidelines.

Leveraging DAP To Bolster Software Adoption

Whether it’s adoption of technology internally or by customers, DAP overreaches to help leverage the technology investments made by a company. How?

Using DAP Internally

It’s simple. If an employee doesn’t fundamentally understand a new technology, then they’re likely to avoid using it. This avoidance can mean extra effort or shortcuts that hurt a company’s productivity and even reputation.

Take sales reps as an example. Less than half use CRM tools, and the ones that do rarely take full advantage of all the features. Why? The biggest complaint is that these tools are simply overwhelmingly difficult and time-consuming in learning the how-to of using them. At best, it means that a company’s ROI on that tech is far less than its potential.

How can a company bolster technology adoption? Perception. It’s all about how the user views the tech. If they SEE that it's supportive, user-friendly, and positive to work flow, then they will adapt and adopt.

How do they see this? They’re not left to aimlessly explore and learn the software without an immediate, comprehensive help feature. Instead, they have DAP prompting and guiding their learning.

Task lists are excellent guidance points. Managers assign specific tasks to the user based on their role within the company. Progress can be tracked to ensure these new and existing employees are gathering the info they need to successfully utilize the software features available to them.

Speaking of new employees, DAP’s walkthroughs allow on-boarding to become a much faster process. The info physically exists alongside the technology itself versus being an independent learning program that makes a new employee learn X here, memorize it, and then apply it elsewhere.

Self-help features mean that anyone using the software can gather answers to their questions in a fraction of the time it would take to stop and consult an outside source of knowledge. DAP enables the learning process to constantly flow forward, not pause or cease. Such disruptions lower productivity, raise frustrations, and offer a negative perception of the technology.

Using DAP With Customers

Within the first year of enterprise application software, customer adoption rates typically aren’t above 40%. That’s not good news for any business, especially those with extensive competition. Why? Lack of utilization shows customer frustration, and frustrated customers look for easier and more friendly alternatives.

DAP offers the guidance and training to help the customer slide down whatever funnel they’re in smoothly. They’re at ease because they understand what’s being asked of them, how to answer appropriately, and how to get as much out of the interaction as possible. The result? Fewer errors and less frustration for the customer and less customer support tickets for the business.

Of course, even the best laid plans have flaws. That’s why DAP provides a survey feature. With direct customer feedback, managers are able to isolate problem areas and meaningfully adjust the informational text that’s available.

Who Uses Digital Adoption Platforms?

• Business Owners: Business owners use digital adoption platforms to optimize the usage of their software and applications, reducing time on training and increasing customer support.
• Developers/Engineers: Developers and engineers are often tasked with creating digital solutions that align with an organization's needs as well as leveraging existing technology to improve operational efficiency. Digital adoption platforms help them quickly develop these solutions while ensuring users can properly utilize them.
• IT Professionals: Digital adoption platforms provide IT professionals with a platform to manage user experience, application tracking, bug reports, analytics, and other features necessary for keeping systems secure and up-to-date.
• Educators/Instructors: Educators and instructors use digital adoption platforms to create virtual classrooms where they can share lessons, engage in interactive discussions, assign tasks, assess student performance, issue certifications, conduct surveys/quizzes, give feedback on projects etc.
• Trainers: Trainers leverage digital adoption platforms for building effective employee onboarding processes by providing engaging eLearning courses that equip new hires with the skills they need to perform their job functions successfully.
• Employees/Students: Employees and students can benefit from the ease of access that digital adoption provides by being able to learn new processes quickly without disruptions or any manual efforts from trainers or educators. This helps ensure high productivity among all members of an organization or educational institution.
• Administrators: Administrators rely heavily on digital adoption tools to manage user accounts effectively while maintaining compliance with security regulations and standards such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
• Client Service Representatives/Customer Support Teams: Customer support teams leverage digital adoption platforms by creating self-service options such as product tutorials and FAQs that provide customer service representatives quick answers when responding to inquiries in a timely manner.

How Much Do Digital Adoption Platforms Cost?

The cost of a digital adoption platform (DAP) depends on the features and functionality that you need to meet your business goals. A comprehensive DAP solution can range from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the size and complexity of the implementation. Generally speaking, though, most organizations tend to find that their return on investment from implementing a DAP is significant—often yielding tremendous cost savings which offset any upfront costs associated with the platform.

The exact cost of a DAP will vary based on your organization’s specific needs and requirements, as well as any customization or onboarding services required. For example, some platforms may include out-of-the-box features such as user analytics or automated process mapping while others may require additional development time or expertise to customize them for your organization’s unique use case. In addition, some vendors offer extended packages which include things like professional services and ongoing support plans in order to ensure successful adoption of the platform.

Finally, it’s important to consider not only the up-front costs associated with implementing a DAP but also the potential long-term cost savings that could be generated by making certain processes more efficient or reducing manual labor requirements. Ultimately, when choosing a DAP solution for your organization it is important to weigh all these factors together in order to determine what kind of value it could provide compared to its associated costs over time.

What Integrates With Digital Adoption Platforms?

Software applications that can integrate with digital adoption platforms are typically software tools that require increased user adoption or onboarding. This includes customer service, marketing automation, and customer relationship management (CRM) software. Additionally, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and human resources (HR) systems can have integration capabilities to link with a digital adoption platform. By connecting these types of software to a digital adoption platform, businesses can streamline their processes and remove unnecessary friction from user interaction with the system. The platform also provides insight on usage trends to ensure users get the most out of the connected apps by providing personalized training and guidance so teams can become more efficient.

Digital Adoption Platform Trends

1. Increased Focus on Targeted Digital Experiences: As businesses continue to drive digital transformation efforts, they are increasingly focusing on creating personalized digital experiences that target specific user needs. By leveraging the power of AI and machine learning technologies, companies can create more tailored digital experiences that are tailored to each user's preferences and interests.
2. Automation of Business Processes: Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are helping organizations automate their business processes by providing automated access to services such as document processing, task management automation, workflow optimization and customer journey analytics. This allows employees to focus on core tasks that require their expertise, instead of spending time performing mundane activities such as updating customer records or tracking inventory levels.
3. Improved User Experience: DAPs provide improved user experiences through an intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to find what they need quickly and efficiently without needing excessive training or guidance. By providing better accessibility and navigability, users can accomplish their tasks faster and with more accuracy while keeping the user experience consistent across all applications in a company’s ecosystem.
4. Enhanced Security: With data breaches becoming more commonplace than ever before, it is essential for businesses to protect their sensitive information from malicious actors outside the organization as well as ones within it. DAPs help organizations keep this information secure by encrypting vital assets and providing authentication measures such as multi-factor authentication which can prevent unauthorized access even if a single credential is compromised.
5. Increased Mobility: DAPs enable businesses to provide their employees with mobile access to critical software tools from any location at any time via native mobile apps or web browsers which help improve productivity significantly compared with traditional desktop solutions. This increases productivity by allowing employees to work remotely on devices of their own choice without sacrificing security or performance levels expected from enterprise systems.

How to Choose the Right Digital Adoption Platform

1. Identify your organization's specific needs: Determine what type of digital adoption you are looking to achieve and the particular features that will be necessary for success.
2. Research available platforms: Read reviews and case studies of various digital adoption platforms to narrow down a selection of potential solutions. Compare digital adoption platforms using the tools on this page and filter by user reviews, pricing, integrations, operating system, features, and more.
3. Assess each platform's capabilities: Analyze whether each platform can meet your organization’s requirements, as well as the level of complexity and customization it offers. Consider the ease-of-use and scalability too.
4. Check associated costs: Estimate costs for implementation, maintenance and upgrades for each platform, to determine which is best value for money in terms of ROI (return on investment).
5. Request demos or trials: Request demonstrations or trials from several vendors so your team can get hands-on experience before making a decision.
6. Ask questions & get feedback: Discuss any queries or doubts with the vendor support staff, while also seeking feedback from senior members of your own organization to ensure the final decision is unanimous.
7. Make an informed decision: With all of the above information in hand, you can now make an informed and confident decision on the right digital adoption platform for your organization.