News & Insights - AppLearn

The top five barriers to digital adoption in 2024

ella.drimer@nexthink.com (Ella Drimer) — Fri, 03 May 2024 12:55:27 GMT

The five barriers to digital adoption in 2024

Achieving a unified digital employee experience that powers high-order productivity is an ongoing journey. It requires the ready embracement of emerging technologies and an ability to adapt to evolving workforce dynamics.

For several years, the traditional workplace has ceased to be a singular physical location. Today, it is a digital space where simplicity, personalization, and seamlessness converge to create spaces that inspire employees to maximize their potential.

However, in the path of progress lie various barriers. For true corporate digital adoption to be realized, these barriers must be understood before they can be dismantled.

Here, we present the five that we believe must be dismantled with the greatest urgency.

1. Managing distributed teams in a hybrid work model

Balancing the flexibility of remote work with in-office collaboration while maintaining productivity and cohesion is a formidable barrier to digital adoption.

The hybrid model can lead to disparities in information access and team connectivity, risking siloed departments and misaligned objectives. A PwC study revealed that among the top three factors hindering productivity in remote work environments was down to employees encountering obstacles in accessing the information they needed. Sustaining a unified company culture and ensuring equal engagement from both remote and in-office employees also requires effort and innovation. It is a space in which traditional management techniques can falter.

Strategies for Productivity

Combining unified communication tools offering seamless communication, project management, and collaboration features can bridge the gap between remote and in-office workers. By adopting such tools and establishing clear policies and performance expectations on work hours, availability, and communication protocols, all employees, regardless of location, can understand their responsibilities and how their work contributes to broader company goals.

A cohesive hybrid culture can be further promoted by initiating regular check-ins, virtual team-building activities, and inclusive meetings where remote and in-office employees contribute equally. This strategy can be bolstered by a leadership style that values trust, autonomy, and results over physical presence and by providing employees with training on digital tools, self-management techniques, and methods for managing remote teams.

2. Finding time to focus

As companies strive to stay ahead in competitive markets, leaders and employees find themselves tangled in a web of priorities that pose a dismaying barrier to digital adoption.

Amid the daily grind of urgent tasks and short-term objectives, the long-term benefits of digital transformation are often overshadowed, making it difficult to allocate the time and resources necessary for its completion. With finite resources, leaders must balance sustaining current operations and investing in digital innovation.

Strategies to Enhance Focus

Allocating regular, uninterrupted time for teams to focus on digital strategies can help embed these efforts into the core business agenda. This approach is fortified by implementing sophisticated project management tools that help streamline workflows and release valuable time and resources to focus on digital transformation projects.

Mindsets can be further altered by similarly encouraging a culture that values long-term innovation alongside short-term efficiency. Celebrating small digital adoption wins and illustrating their impact on daily operations allow leaders to build momentum for larger transformation projects. Instead of aiming for daunting, large-scale transformations, leaders can focus on incremental changes that gradually integrate digital solutions into the workplace and allow for steady adaptation to new technologies and processes.

3. Email culture: transitioning beyond the inbox

The ingrained email culture often hampers collaboration and efficiency, slowing the embrace of more agile and effective digital communication tools and platforms.

Daily deluges of emails flooding inboxes can lead to information overload. A Forbes survey highlighted that email fatigue could drive 38% of employees to quit their jobs. Critical communications are lost in the noise, causing delays and inefficiencies in decision-making and project advancement. Email's linear and segmented nature also restricts lively interaction, making it challenging to foster the level of collaboration and spontaneity that modern digital tools can support.

However, the comforting familiarity of email can lead to resistance to adopting new communication platforms despite their potential to streamline workflows and enhance team collaboration.

Forging a Path to Enhanced Communication

Educating teams on the benefits and functionalities of modern communication tools is the first step in shifting mindsets. Tailored training sessions and hands-on workshops can demystify these platforms and encourage adoption. Here, leadership plays a central role. When leaders prioritize alternative communication platforms for collaboration and updates, it sets a precedent for the entire organization.

By clearly articulating the advantages of moving away from an email-centric model—such as improved project visibility, faster decision-making, and more cohesive team dynamics—teams can be motivated to explore and gradually embrace new tools.

4. Lack of resources

Time limitations, a pervasive shortage of skilled talent, and stringent budget restrictions collectively form a barrier that can stall or derail digital initiatives. According to a KPMG study, 54% of organizations said they’re not able to accomplish their digital transformation goals because of a lack of technically-skilled employees. Overcoming these obstacles requires a strategic allocation of resources and the pursuit of innovative solutions that can maximize impact.

As digital technologies evolve at an unprecedented rate, the gap between the demand for and supply of tech-savvy professionals widens, leaving businesses struggling to find the expertise needed for digital innovation. Meanwhile, financial constraints, especially in times of economic Uncertainty, mean cost-cutting is prioritized over-investment in digital advancements.

Strategies for Resource Optimization

Effective resource management involves pursuing digital initiatives that align closely with broader strategic goals. Developing a clear, phased plan for digital transformation can help allocate resources to projects with the highest potential impact. Building partnerships with tech companies and other organizations can also help by providing access to expertise and technologies that might otherwise be unattainable.

To address the talent gap, internal comprehensive training , and upskilling programs can empower existing employees to take on digital projects, reducing the need to compete in the tight labor market for digital skills. These new competencies can then be applied to open-source software and cloud-based services that reduce upfront costs and allow businesses to scale their digital infrastructure as needed.

5. White glove expectations: balancing sophistication with scope

Heightened anticipations for a seamless, sophisticated digital workplace experience exert considerable pressure on leaders to deliver top-tier solutions. With the digital workplace becoming a central element of modern business, users—from employees to customers—demand intuitive, efficient, and comprehensive digital interactions.

Striking a balance between fulfilling employee expectations of best-in-class UX/UI in personal interactions and managing the scope and resources of digital projects is a critical task for businesses aiming for digital adoption success. It requires leaders to invest in design and user experience research and overcome digital project complexities that necessitate a broad range of technical expertise.

The pace at which digital technologies evolve also sets an expectation for continuous improvement and innovation within digital workplaces, compelling businesses to adopt an agile approach to digital project development.

Managing Expectations and Project Scope

Establishing clear project objectives and boundaries from the outset can help manage expectations while engaging stakeholders in the scoping process to ensure alignment on feasibility. By implementing digital projects in phases, businesses can deliver value incrementally, adjusting to feedback and expectations iteratively.

Comprehensive research can help understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of digital workplace users. This can further guide the prioritization of features and functionalities, ensuring that resources are allocated to areas with the highest impact on user satisfaction. Incorporating this understanding with user feedback throughout the project lifecycle can enable continuous alignment of digital solutions with user expectations.

How digital adoption platforms (DAPs) can help

Owing to the rise in applications and digital processes, employees switch between an average of 35 separately connected yet business-critical applications more than 1,000 times a day, sometimes to complete just a single process. It’s hardly surprising that users lose confidence, administrative burdens spiral, and adoption rates collapse.

However, it’s also fertile ground on which DAPs flourish . By mitigating these risks and stitching together technology stacks, improvements and consistency are channeled to the digital employee experience (DEX) . From deepening understanding of internal business processes to upgrading specialized tasks that uphold smooth operations, DAPs have become key drivers of ROI and positive DEX .

AppLearn named a Leader in IDC MarketScape for Digital Adoption Platforms

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 13:27:03 GMT

AppLearn has been recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Digital Adoption Platforms 2024 Vendor Assessment (doc #US49786723, March 2024).

The evolving corporate demand for robust digital employee experiences (DEX) and a strategic emphasis on creating cohesive digital workspaces for distributed teams have accelerated the need for platforms that enable seamless collaboration and enhance productivity across various regions.

As digital transformation initiatives continue to shape the modern workplace, digital adoption platforms (DAP) have become indispensable in streamlining operations and improving interactions among employees, partners, and customers. The IDC MarketScape report evaluated 13 vendors, naming AppLearn a Leader.

Organizations seeking to stay nimble and ahead in the race against continual technological change may find a significant advantage in deploying DAPs. These platforms accelerate the process of learning new skills and embracing innovative technologies. Additionally, they offer crucial data that helps organizations to appraise and optimize their business processes, workflows, and outcomes.

"With advanced analytics, cross-application functionality, and context-sensitive on-screen tips and guidance, DAPs help enterprises maximize the value and benefits of their software investments," says Gina Smith, PhD, research director, IT Skills for Digital Business practice at IDC. "When thoughtfully implemented, they can lead to faster training results and higher returns on software investment overall."

Thomas Hammant, Manager Solutions Consulting at AppLearn, said:

“The role of DAPs in supporting organizations with digital employee experience and greater workplace efficiencies is something that is growing year-on-year. We’re delighted to be recognized in this independent report with key strengths of ease of use and learning identified against the backdrop of actionable analytics, and the ability to deliver tangible impact.”

About IDC MarketScape:

IDC MarketScape vendor assessment model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.

Transforming the digital workplace with a multi-app strategy

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:50:02 GMT

Transforming the digital workplace with a multi-app strategy

In today's rapidly evolving digital environment, the adoption of a multi-app strategy is emerging as a cornerstone for organizations aiming to boost operational efficiency and enrich the digital employee experience (DEX).

It’s a strategy that is rooted in the utilization of a diverse array of applications across various business functions and across various points in the employee lifecycle —from recruitment to retirement.

The essence of this approach lies in acknowledging the intricate and varied nature of modern digital workspaces, where employees may navigate through an overwhelming number of applications to fulfil their daily responsibilities.

Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) play a pivotal role in streamlining this multi-app methodology by offering an overlay that brings together isolated data and creates a relationship across applications, utilizing content, signposts, and tooltips.

Having a multi-app strategy significantly enhances the user journey, elevating productivity and simplifying digital interactions.

The Hybrid Workplace: A Convergence of Diverse Applications

In the hybrid or remote workplace, employees encounter many applications, each with its unique interface, analytics, and support needs, often not aligned with the core business processes.

The digital employee experience becomes a focal point and a multi-app approach takes modern workforce and organisational challenges, positioning the employee at the heart of this digital ecosystem. In this instance the role of a DAP becomes paramount - serving as a digital companion or navigator, guiding employees throughout their digital journey, much like a satellite navigation system in a car.

It's an approach that emphasizes a uniform employee experience, contextual guidance, and the importance of not overlooking employee needs, likening DAPs to flicking a light switch, i.e. you don’t need to see the complexity behind the switch to see something work. With DAPs the complexity behind digital processes remains unseen yet efficiently managed.

Advantages of a Multi-App Approach

Organizations that implement a multi-app strategy through DAPs can reap numerous benefits, including:

Reduced Digital Friction: A unified interface across numerous applications diminishes the learning curve and confusion, fostering a smoother digital experience.
Boosted Productivity: Employees spend less time seeking information or learning different software, significantly impacting efficiency.
Enhanced Engagement and ROI: A seamless digital experience increases software adoption rates, maximizing investment returns and user engagement.
Improved Satisfaction: A unified digital workspace elevates the overall employee experience, leading to greater satisfaction and engagement.

Enhancing digital employee experience and literacy for the long term

The integration of multiple applications presents technical and logistical hurdles, alongside a general lack of awareness of the benefits and possibilities of creating a cohesive app ecosystem. A DAP equipped with a multi-app strategy not only facilitates the seamless integration of various applications but also enables customization and personalization, allowing organizations to tailor the digital experience to meet their unique needs, thus overcoming the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach.

Adopting a multi-app strategy with platforms like AppLearn significantly reduces the friction and frustration associated with using multiple digital tools, thereby fostering a conducive environment for digital literacy. DAPs distinguish themselves by permitting organizations to develop and customize content according to their specific requirements, surpassing the basic support functions of individual apps.

The effectiveness of a multi-app strategy is gauged through comprehensive analytics on usage and user journeys, offering insights into the broader impact of digital adoption efforts.

AppLearn champions a strategic approach to digital adoption, highlighting the importance of establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) that includes digital champions, stakeholders, and C-level executives to ensure cohesive alignment and success.

DEX advocacy - taking ownership

Upon establishing foundational elements, it's important for organizations to enable Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) champions throughout the company, equipping them with the necessary training and resources to advocate, identify, and assess potential applications. Concurrently, crafting a cohesive business case framework should occur, integrating Return on Investment (ROI) estimations for costs, productivity, and engagement metrics.

In its publication titled "How to Successfully Deploy a DEX Tool," Gartner emphasizes the creation of a conducive environment for Digital Employee Experience (DEX) tool implementation. According to Gartner, the emphasis for DEX leaders should be on harmonizing digital settings by placing employees at the forefront, thereby fostering a human-centric experience that guides individuals, teams, and ultimately, the organization towards successful outcomes.

Acknowledging that continual skill development is crucial for success, progressive organizations are investing in professionals specialized in driving digital adoption among employees. Many companies are now appointing dedicated DEX leaders with the responsibility of reviewing and streamlining the digital ecosystem to enhance the workforce's experience. By weaving a 'digital thread' throughout the digital environment, they aim to alleviate software-related frustrations among employees and more clearly delineate paths to success.

Ensuring that employees are proficient in utilizing the continuously advancing technology stacks is essential to prevent the squandering of digital investments. In an ideal scenario, DEX leaders will leverage a DAP to simplify and make it more intuitive for employees to navigate the wide array of software and applications at their disposal.

In the multi-app play setting, a DAP is an example of where DEX leaders can be supported in achieving this goal by offering real-time, in-application guidance through interactive walkthroughs and pop-up messages, which do not disrupt workflows or necessitate shifting contexts.

Where feasible, the strategy should be communicated with principal stakeholders from various departments such as Human Resources, Employee Experience, IT, Security, and the Support Desk.

The DAP helps the DEX leader achieve this objective by providing employees with real-time in-app guidance in the form of step-by-step tours and pop-ups that neither breaks workflows nor requires context switching.

AppLearn receives prestigious SOC2 Type II attestation report

ella.drimer@nexthink.com (Ella Drimer) — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 13:00:57 GMT

AppLearn receives prestigious SOC2 Type II attestation report

We are thrilled to announce that AppLearn has successfully achieved the SOC2 Type II attestation, a significant milestone that underlines our commitment to the highest standards in security, privacy, and compliance. This attestation is a testament to our dedication to maintaining a secure and trustworthy digital environment for our clients and partners.

SOC2 Type II is an extensive evaluation of how an organization manages and protects data across five trust service criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. This attestation means AppLearn has demonstrated a high level of maturity in our systems, processes, and controls, ensuring the utmost security and compliance.

The process of obtaining the SOC2 Type II attestation involved comprehensive internal reviews, policy enhancements, and regular audits to ensure that every aspect of our operations met the stringent criteria set by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).

This achievement is particularly significant in today's digital landscape, where data breaches and security threats are increasingly prevalent. By adhering to the rigorous standards required for SOC2 Type II attestation, AppLearn reassures our clients and partners that their data is protected with the highest level of security.

Building a Culture of Security

"It's not just about having robust technology; it's about cultivating a culture where security is ingrained in every action and decision. Achieving SOC2 Type II attestation is a clear indication of our commitment to this principle" comments Christian Davies, IT, Security and Compliance Manager at AppLearn.

As we celebrate this milestone, we understand that the journey doesn't stop here. We are committed to continually enhancing our security measures, staying ahead of potential threats, and ensuring that our practices meet the evolving needs of our clients.

"We owe this achievement to the tireless efforts of our team, who have consistently upheld and surpassed the standards required for SOC2 Type II attestation" concludes Christian Davies.

For an overview of AppLearn’s security and compliance visit https://trust.applearn.com .

AppLearn launches its Digital Adoption Center of Excellence

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 10:27:38 GMT

AppLearn launches its Digital Adoption Center of Excellence

As part of its mission to enhance the digital employee experience, AppLearn has announced the launch of its Digital Adoption Center of Excellence (CoE).

With the digital employee experience (DEX) becoming a key focus for businesses whose employees interact with multiple applications in a single day, AppLearn has created the new CoE in direct response to client and market demand.

Many organizations utilize more than 120, often siloed, applications. The initiative is designed to unlock value for organizations by facilitating their digital transformation journey, blending comprehensive expertise, hands-on delivery, and customized resources, ultimately helping them realize value from their tech investment.

AppLearn provides its clients with a digital adoption platform (DAP) , enabling users of enterprise applications with in-app guidance and support to drive end-user adoption and knowledge.

Supporting this adoption, and underpinning the growing focus area of DEX, the new CoE initiative redefines how businesses engage with digital tools and platforms. It also champions the role of digital adoption platform advocates and addresses the complexities and challenges of the modern digital workspace.

Early proponents of the CoE include AppLearn customer Mars, utilizing the service as part of a DAP roll-out across its 70,000 global workforce.

AppLearn's CoE Lead and Customer Success Architect, David Carling, emphasized the center’s role in addressing the challenges of managing multiple applications and siloed deployments, alongside eliminating digital friction.

He said: “In an era where a proliferation of digital tools has revolutionized business operations, employees now find themselves navigating through a dense jungle of interfaces, features, and user journeys.

“ The Digital Adoption Center of Excellence is a resource born from a recognition of the critical role of DAPs in digital transformation. It is designed to serve as both a guide and a governance mechanism for our customers’ DAP initiatives, supporting digital transformation, the experience of employees, as well as supercharging personalized support.”

AppLearn is one of the leading providers of DAPs and stands out by focusing on the intricacies of user journeys and workflows, providing a solution to common challenges such as low software proficiency, resistance to technological change, and the underutilization of technology investments. They offer a lens through which businesses can gain insights into application usage, identifying areas of over- or under-investment and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.

The launch of the Center of Excellence comes shortly after the acquisition of AppLearn by global DEX provider Nexthink , bringing together complementary technologies in this evolving space.

For more information on the Digital Adoption Center of Excellence visit here .

What is a DAP Center of Excellence?

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 15:16:13 GMT

What is a DAP Center of Excellence?

Across a digital landscape that has transformed how business happens, the modern workforce has more tools at its disposal than at any other time in history. Intuitive and versatile though these tools and applications often are, their sheer volume has turned the average work day for many into a labyrinth of different interfaces, features, and user journeys.

Against this backdrop, Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) have emerged as a powerful solution, enhancing digital user experience (DEX), streamlining software adoption, and maximizing operational efficiencies. By offering interactive guidance and support directly within applications, DAPs solve critical problems, such as low software proficiency, resistance to change, and the underutilization of enterprise technology investments.

However, optimizing the potential of DAPs is a journey in itself. Organizations worldwide that have implemented a DAP have learned that to truly unleash their power, it is necessary to develop DAP Centers of Excellence.

In this blog, we explore the concept of a DAP Center of Excellence, what they are, how they can be established and advanced, and why your organization should view Centers of Excellence and DAPs as two sides of the same coin.

DAPs are at an Inflection Point

According to research by Forrester , by 2027, 31% of global technology expenditure will be directed at software. Moreover, 66% of technology decision-makers state that they intend to increase investment in digital employee experience (DEX) software over the course of 2024/25. DEX software, designed to enhance how employees interact with their workplace technology and environment, most commonly comes in the form of a DAP.

This upward spend on DAP technology can be explained by the rise of IT estates that comprise a blend of market-ready and highly customized, business-specific software. In isolation, these solutions offer great promise, but they also stand in the way of seamless digital transformation journeys that must account for the likes of growing operational complexities and an increase in remote working.

In short, there is an urgent need for a layer that sits on top of these intricate arrangements of software and applications that can enhance DEX, boost productivity, and accelerate business performance.

Enter the DAP Center of Excellence

As opposed to the various tools and toolkits the market has to offer, which provide little in the way of interactivity, DAPs focus on user journeys and workflows. They bridge gaps in insight, displaying where over- or under-investment occurs in applications, whether applications are being used correctly, and if application usage aligns with compliance demands.

With the financial and regulatory stakes so high, a Center of Excellence framework becomes essential. Apart from creating seamlessness across digital transformation , a Center of Excellence allows a central governance layer to be built around multiple DAP projects and initiatives, with space to bring in expertise when required.

As well as a governance layer, a DAP Center of Excellence also creates a vital centralized guidance layer. With different applications all possessing different interfaces, analytics, chatbots, user journeys, and features, a DAP’s ability to provide personalized guidance at the right time is supercharged. This is especially true when a Center of Excellence supplies the knowledge needed to leverage this guidance effectively.

Developing an Effective DAP Center of Excellence

Campaign, Maintain, and Explain

The starting point for a DAP Center of Excellence should comprise a ‘campaign, maintain, and explain’ approach.

Organizations can begin by rapidly delivering digital adoption in one application with a QuickStart campaign before future-proofing the process for what will become multi-application journeys. Using data-backed objectives and key results (OKRs), the initial use case can then be optimized and maintained to support users and build awareness.

By using analytics and AI to explain the benefits, organizations can begin discovering new opportunities and ways to unlock subsequent applications.

Build a Guiding Coalition

With the Center of Excellence foundations built, organizations should look to empower DAP advocates across the enterprise, with the training and resources needed to promote, identify, and evaluate use cases. This step should be undertaken in conjunction with developing a unified business case framework, which includes ROI calculators for cost, productivity, and engagement.

Wherever possible, the roadmap should be shared with key stakeholders across HR, employee experience, IT, security, and support desk.

Productize Delivery

At this stage, organizations should be ready to agree on an enterprise commercial framework with application owners, finance, procurement, and vendors. It’s advisable to publish a DAP service catalog to support the framework to clear a path for rapid application onboarding, route-to-launch, and business-as-usual support.

Reusable components can then be developed for identity and personalization, browser extensions, and analytics.

A Center of Excellence Framework is Key to Scale

It’s important to understand that DAPs are not entirely a DIY solution. They require dedicated, skilled resources to meet the pace of innovation challenges and to provide effective awareness and education.

The pace of innovation is also why any organization considering a DAP Center of Excellence should move quickly. Leaders know that when starting with a DAP, they must first walk into a cluttered application space. Starting immediately with a blueprint of objectives and critical tasks to be solved will determine the project’s complexity or simplicity. Time spent in this preparation phase is time saved further down the line.

Scaling a DAP with a Center of Excellence requires the development of roadmaps across journeys and systems within those journeys. Cross-functional competencies are also needed to unite people and objectives, with centralized governance established to identify best practices and use cases and scale seamlessly.

Throughout the process of implementing a DAP and building a Center of Excellence to unlock its potential, there is a critical requirement that should underpin everything: executive buy-in. When the entire C-suite recognizes the value of a DAP initiative and all that it entails, that's when the full force of its capability delivers the most formidable results.

To achieve this, make sure DAP and Center of Excellence objectives align with core business objectives. Remember, neither a DAP nor a Center of Excellence is designed to solve just stakeholder problems; both are designed to solve problems that impact every area of the business.

The key takeaways from our recent webinar: 'The key to digital workplace success'

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 15:09:15 GMT

The key takeaways from our recent webinar: 'The key to digital workplace success'

According to a recent Forrester study , by 2027, 31% of global technology expenditure will be directed at software. Moreover, 66% of technology decision-makers state that they intend to increase investment in employee experience (EX) software over the course of 2024/25.

Comprising a large portion of this spend is highly customized software, ultra-tailored to specific business requirements. Transformational though this software is, it amplifies the complexity of already intricate digital workplaces, where employees must deal with multiple application environments and set ups.

To cope with this upsurge in software, digital adoption platforms (DAPs) have grown in popularity and many organisations are using DAP Centers of Excellence to boost their digital transformation initiatives.

In our recent webinar , Vasupradha Srinivasan, Principal Analyst at Forrester, provided a series of reasons for and benefits of building a DAP Center of Excellence, together with guidance around best practices for digital workplace success. Vasupradha was joined by AppLearn CEO, Andrew Avanessian, and AppLearn Solutions Consultant, Dave Carling.

Here, we present the key takeaways from the webinar, including how and why organisations are facing difficulties with digital transformation, the ways a DAP can support organisations to achieve their goals, and the power of a Center of Excellence framework.

Key Takeaways

DAPs are at an inflection point:

Vasupradha described how the upward spend on DAP technology can be explained by the rise of IT estates that comprise a blend of market-ready and highly customized, business-specific software. In isolation, these solutions offer great promise, but they stand in the way of seamless digital transformation journeys. Journeys that must account for the likes of growing operational complexities and an increase in remote working .

There is an urgent need for a layer that sits on top of these elaborate software and application arrangements that’s able to enhance DEX, boost productivity , and accelerate business performance.

Firms are looking for help:

Vasupradha went on to outline the main challenges firms face as they continue on the road to digital transformation. Whether it’s managing distributed workforces or catering for diverse employee needs around remote learning and continuous knowledge delivery, firms want to help employees navigate multiple software and evolving app environments.

All three speakers agreed; leaders know they need to increase employee engagement because the cost of low technology adoption and a disengaged workforce is substantial.

Not all DAPs are created equal:

Not all DAPs are created equal, and tools and toolkits designed for employee productivity are not to be confused with DAPs. Vasupradha, Andrew, and David concurred that, as they have the power to reduce complexity across the entire app stack and drive employee engagement with insights on internal app usage, DAPs have a much larger scope and greater transformative power.

Whereas the various tools and toolkits the market has to offer provide little in the way of interactivity, DAPs bridge gaps in insight , displaying where over- or under-investment occurs in applications, whether applications are being used correctly, and if application usage aligns with compliance demands.

Centers of Excellence need governance and guidance layers:

Andrew made the point that DAPs are not a DIY software. They require dedicated, skilled resources to meet the pace of innovation challenges and provide effective awareness and education. With a central governance layer built on top of their DAP projects and initiatives, Centers of Excellence can be used as a channel to bring in expertise when needed and make digital transformations seamless.

DAP Centers of Excellence also create a vital centralized guidance layer. With different applications all possessing different interfaces, analytics, chatbots, user journeys, and features, a DAP’s ability to provide personalized guidance at the right time is supercharged. This is especially true when a Center of Excellence supplies the knowledge needed to leverage this guidance effectively.

Successful DAP implementation depends on clear objectives:

To ensure a successful DAP implementation, employee training should start with an understanding of the core reasons for using a DAP. It's crucial to approach DAP initiatives with scalability in mind, recognizing that success hinges not just on technology but also on functional expertise and the ability to transition smoothly between use cases.

Learning to utilize insights from user experience and feedback is key to identifying strengths and areas for improvement. Involving the executive team by aligning DAP objectives with overall business goals underscores the importance of treating DAP not as an isolated project but as a strategic, business-wide initiative.

Don’t wait for AI to solve all your problems:

Vasupradha explained that deciding whether to wait for next-generation DAPs or to integrate AI now hinges on understanding that AI, as it stands, may not simplify processes. In its current state, the complexity of AI is not conducive to widespread enterprise use.

Achieving personalization and ease of integration with AI initiatives requires foundational support. Early adoption of support mechanisms like DAPs can pave the way for smoother future integration of AI, suggesting that waiting for next-gen solutions might not be necessary if the groundwork is laid out thoughtfully from the start.

70 20 10: Where do employees receive the most impactful training time?

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:13:48 GMT

70 20 10: Where do employees receive the most impactful training time?

Do you know about the 70 20 10 framework?

It’s been used for decades to optimize performance across organizations. And unlike conventional training methods that focus on formal programs to bridge skills gaps and address performance issues, the 70 20 10 approach integrates workplace context into learning.

The theory goes, that competent employees can be transformed into exceptional ones by offering a variety of learning methods.

A 101 in the 70 20 10 model

The 70 20 10 training model is a popular framework used in learning and development to describe the optimal sources of learning by successful managers. It is based on research suggesting that individuals obtain knowledge, skills, and abilities in their jobs through a variety of learning modalities.

Here is a breakdown of the model:

70% experiential learning : This segment emphasizes learning through hands-on experiences, such as tackling daily tasks, solving problems, and regular practice. Such learning is informal, often self-driven, and allows employees to gain skills directly relevant to their roles. It promotes autonomy and decision-making, fostering a culture where employees learn by doing and grow through addressing challenges and receiving feedback.

20% social learning: This component involves learning through interactions and observations within the workplace, particularly with colleagues and supervisors. Collaboration on projects and overcoming obstacles as a team provides valuable learning experiences. Additionally, mentoring and coaching play a vital role in this segment. For instance, learning negotiation skills is more effective when an employee is guided through a scenario by an experienced peer or manager, combining observation with hands-on practice.

10% formal learning: This traditional aspect covers structured learning experiences like instructor-led training. It is essential for establishing foundational knowledge and is delivered in various formats, including face-to-face sessions like workshops and seminars, and online methods through a learning management system (LMS). This format allows for flexible and trackable learning, accommodating different learning styles and paces.

Addressing diverse learning needs

While the 70 20 10 model emphasizes experiential and social learning, it is important to consider that people have diverse learning needs. By combining these three components, individuals can receive a well-rounded and effective learning experience that caters to their unique requirements.

How can a digital adoption platform take you to the 70% zone?

A digital adoption platform (DAP) plays a crucial role in positioning your people in the 70% experiential learning zone of the 70 20 10 training model.

They align well with the experiential learning aspect of the 70 20 10 model by offering real-time, personalized, and practical learning experiences within the flow of work. They reduce the learning curve of new technologies and support continuous skill development, ensuring employees are proficient and effective in using digital tools as part of their daily roles.

DAPs offer interactive, on-the-job training by providing guidance and support directly within the digital tools and applications employees use daily. This real-time assistance enables users to learn by doing, which is at the core of experiential learning. For instance, if an employee is using a new CRM system, a DAP can guide them through the steps of entering data, running reports, or managing customer interactions, all within the actual software environment.

DAPs are equipped with AI and machine learning capabilities, allowing them to offer personalized guidance based on the user's role, experience level, and past interactions with the application. This tailored approach helps employees learn more effectively, as the information and guidance provided are relevant to their specific context and needs.

They also simplify the process of learning new software applications. By providing in-app walkthroughs, tooltips, and step-by-step instructions, they help users quickly become proficient with new tools. This accelerates the learning process, ensuring that employees spend more time applying the tool effectively in their roles, rather than struggling with the basics of how to use it.

Immediate application of knowledge experiential learning is most effective when the learner can immediately apply what they've learned. DAPs facilitate this by offering on-the-spot guidance. Employees can apply new knowledge right away, reinforcing their learning through direct application in their work.

Many DAPs include analytics features that track user progress and identify areas where users struggle. This feedback is essential for continuous learning and improvement, allowing both employees and trainers to understand where additional focus is needed.

The workplace is dynamic, and software tools frequently update and change. DAPs support continuous learning by providing ongoing guidance, ensuring that employees can adapt to new features or changes in software without needing separate training sessions.

Why AppLearn for optimum training?

In AppLearn's study " The Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience ," which examines the in-app behavior of a million users, a notable trend was discovered. Since March 2020, 58% of employees have seen an increase in the number of business applications, with 76% using these applications for up to six hours daily.

This insight underscores the potential of in-app time for enhancing both usage and training, making digital adoption platforms (DAPs) an attractive solution (i.e. taking you to the 70% zone).

Traditionally, organizations had three training methods for new software or applications: face-to-face training, various training materials, and self-directed learning. Now, DAPs such as AppLearn, have risen as an additional, effective alternative.

They offer comprehensive, in-app support, providing a seamless and intuitive learning experience. They deliver current, easy-to-understand assistance directly within the application.

And features like on-screen pop-ups are designed to address user issues immediately, integrating existing resources into the workflow and focusing on key performance metrics, such as average task completion times. This approach also negates the need for employees to navigate multiple learning interfaces.

Essentially, it means DAPs serve as a personal training assistant for each employee, guiding them through new and unfamiliar features of software and applications. This leads to a swift improvement in skill levels, significantly enhancing productivity.

The AppLearn Journey: From family-run services business to major acquisition

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 14:01:51 GMT

The AppLearn Journey: From family-run services business to major acquisition

Digital adoption platform (DAP) vendor, AppLearn, has this week announced its acquisition by US-firm, Nexthink .

Nexthink are the leaders in digital employee experience (DEX) management software; supporting customers globally with all aspects of digital workplace management.

The move comes as Nexthink celebrate their 20th anniversary as pioneers of the DEX space.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO of AppLearn commented: “This is a huge move that will accelerate the power of DEX, and we’re incredibly excited to be part of it. Nexthink are a fantastic company, and we have a shared vision of eliminating digital friction within the workplace.

“We’ve achieved a lot at AppLearn. If we rewind to 2011, AppLearn was a family-run services business offering digital transformation consultancy. Since then, we’ve received multiple rounds of investment, we’ve transitioned to a product-led model, we’ve acquired another business to accelerate our product capabilities, we’ve secured numerous workplace culture and growth awards, and we’ve been recognized by leading analyst houses. That is something everyone within this business—past and present—should be incredibly proud of.”

The combined offering, integrating AppLearn’s real-time contextual guidance and analytics with Nexthink’s end-to-end visibility, AI-driven automation capabilities, and user sentiment analysis, provides IT with unparalleled control to confidently drive all digital transformation projects and beyond.

Avanessian continued: “Combining two category leaders allows us to bring to market an end-to-end DEX solution designed to eliminate digital friction and drive ROI from software investments. I’m excited to see what the future has in store. On to the next chapter.”

Predicting the digital workplace of 2024

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:55:09 GMT

Predicting the digital workplace of 2024

How do you predict the future for the world of work amidst the backdrop of economic uncertainty and a rapidly changing landscape of technology?

It’s a difficult question to answer, but a good place to start is by asking those who are living and breathing the topic on a daily basis.

In a recent AppLearn roundtable , we gathered digital leaders and covered the topic of the digital workplace and navigating the path of employee experience in the world of hybrid and distributed workforces.

We’ve taken a look at what are the most defined, developed and adopted parts of the digital workplace now, what the basic needs and aspirations are for the year ahead, and the key challenges to overcome to ensure businesses are meeting the objectives of this critical area.

Our discussion touched on the major areas of interest for 2024 backed up with a set of anonymous polls undertaken throughout the roundtable. They uncovered the growing role of adoption of advanced technologies such as automation and AI in the workspace; an increased focus on employee well-being; the continued rise and navigation of remote and hybrid work models; and the ability to self-serve and enhance accessibility and usability for employees.

As we prepare for 2024 and engage in discussions with CIOs and digital workplace teams, we want to understand how these key shifts will unfold in 2024.

The defined, developed and adopted parts of the digital workplace

While businesses move at different paces and have their own unique objectives, it was interesting to understand the baseline position of the parts of the digital workplace that are defined and working now .

In 2024, these businesses will be building on their digital environments that connect distributed teams. Workplaces now transcend geographical barriers, meaning leveraging cutting-edge technology for seamless collaboration and communication have to be commonplace. It also means the tools that support remote work, virtual meetings, and project management are not just well-integrated but are tailored to enhance team cohesion and productivity across different locations.

Unprecedented emphasis has also been placed on human-centric design. It’s the focus on implementing digital tools and workflows that are crafted with a deep understanding of employee needs and behaviors, promoting a more intuitive and engaging work experience. It’s an area with multiple benefits, prioritizing employee well-being and efficiency, leading to higher job satisfaction and performance.

It's a key reason why digital adoption platforms (DAPs) have emerged as a powerful and increasingly widespread solution – a single interface that links application estates across a simple support experience.

However, one of the most prominent discussion topics has been embedding a strong, positive culture within the digital workplace. Organizations have recognized that culture is not confined to physical spaces. Businesses are realizing that frustration-free remote working can impact culture positively. Our delegates showed that through virtual team-building activities, open communication channels, and shared digital experiences, companies are successfully fostering a sense of belonging and community among employees, irrespective of where they are located for work.

Looking ahead: Envisioning the ideal digital employee experience in 2024

With a baseline in place, what does the ideal digital employee experience look like for 2024?

To the digital leaders we spoke with, it was an embodiment of simplicity, user experience (UX), personalization, seamlessness, and adaptability, all designed to accommodate the needs of a distributed workforce. Achieving these ideals requires a delicate balance between current capabilities and aspirational advancements.

In 2024, employees should be effortlessly navigating a digital landscape that prioritizes user experience. Interfaces are intuitive, and applications are designed with the end-user in mind. This simplicity extends to onboarding, training, and daily tasks, reducing friction and boosting efficiency.

Supporting that needs to be systems and processes that are designed to offer personalized experiences tailored to individual preferences and needs. It’s a frictionless experience with minimal obstacles in accessing information, collaborating with colleagues, and completing tasks, making work feel more like a smooth journey than an uphill climb. And it's underpinned with robust communication tools, high-speed internet, and cloud-based platforms that erase the geographical barriers that once defined the workplace.

And while it was more aspiration than immediate requirement, the growing role of AI and automation raised its head. It’s an area our roundtable believed that holds immense promise. Anything from AI-driven support to predictive analytics streamlining decision-making. Organizations strive to harness the full potential of AI and automation to make work smarter, not just more straightforward.

The key challenges to overcome in achieving an ideal digital workplace in 2024

Contributors understood that achieving the ideal digital employee experience is an ongoing journey, requiring a commitment to embracing emerging technologies and adapting to changing workforce dynamics. In 2024, the workplace isn't just a physical location; it's a digital realm where simplicity, personalization, and seamlessness converge to create a workspace that inspires employees to reach their full potential.

However, businesses face a myriad of challenges that can hinder their progress. These challenges encompass a range of factors, from organizational culture to technical limitations. Understanding and addressing these hurdles is essential for a successful digital workplace transformation.

Our roundtable highlighted their main barriers:

Finding time to focus: The relentless pace of business operations often leaves little room for planning and implementing digital workplace initiatives. With leaders and employees juggling multiple priorities, allocating time and resources to focus on digital transformation can be a significant challenge.

Accessibility, IT literacy, and time: Not all employees possess equal access to digital tools, and some may lack the necessary IT literacy skills to navigate them effectively. Bridging these gaps through training and support is vital, but it can be a time-consuming endeavor.

Change resistance: One of the most formidable obstacles in achieving the ideal digital workplace is resistance to change. People naturally resist disruptions to their routines, especially when it involves adopting new technologies and workflows. Convincing employees to embrace these changes requires effective change management strategies.

Security of personal data: As digital workplaces become more prevalent, concerns about the security of personal data rise. Organizations must prioritize robust data security measures and transparent communication to alleviate these fears and build trust among employees and stakeholders.

Email culture: The entrenched culture of relying on email as the primary mode of communication can hinder collaboration and slow down the adoption of more efficient digital workplace communication tools and platforms. Breaking away from this email-centric mindset is a crucial step forward.

Too many IT departments: In larger organizations, the existence of multiple IT departments or fragmented IT structures can lead to inefficiencies and conflicting priorities in digital workplace initiatives. Streamlining IT operations and fostering collaboration across teams is imperative.

Varied levels of connectivity, different collaboration cultures across the world: Global organizations often grapple with the challenge of creating a consistent digital workplace experience. Varying levels of connectivity and cultural differences in collaboration practices across different regions can complicate efforts to standardize digital workflows.

Lack of resources (time, skilled talent, money): Resource constraints, including time limitations, a shortage of skilled talent, and budget restrictions, can impede digital workplace projects. To overcome these barriers, businesses must allocate resources judiciously and seek innovative solutions.

White glove expectations: High expectations for a seamless digital workplace experience can create pressure on businesses to deliver sophisticated solutions. Striking a balance between meeting user expectations and managing project scope is a delicate task.

Budget: Adequate funding is the lifeblood of digital workplace transformation. Without the necessary budget to invest in technology, training, and infrastructure, businesses may find it challenging to realize their ideal digital workplace vision.

Making the digital employee experience a reality in 2024

In 2024, it's clear that offering a great digital experience for employees isn't just a nice-to-have; it's essential. While many have made progress, there's much to do, especially in areas like integrating different systems, designing user-friendly tools, using feedback to improve, supporting both in-office and remote work, and measuring impact on ROI .

Our top tips to make this a reality:

Maximize digital adoption platforms (DAPs)

Digital transformation is a big deal right now, and getting new and current employees up to speed with digital tools is crucial. There's a lot of potential here for businesses to make a quick impact, or conversely be left behind.

In its Market Guide for gigital adoption platforms (2022), Gartner said, "Organizations seeking to accelerate digital transformation must enable employees to adopt new and changing technology easily. Application leaders should examine digital adoption platform providers that enable employees or customers to better adopt technology and perform at a higher level."

They provide ongoing support and learning, helping employees understand and use digital tools better. This leads to better productivity, more use of digital tools, reduced support costs, and an overall better digital experience.

From an onboarding perspective it helps new hires get comfortable with the digital tools they'll use, boosting their confidence and productivity from the start.

Focusing on these areas can give businesses a big return on investment. It not only improves the employee experience but also makes the digital workplace more efficient and effective.

Proactively manage the digital employee experience (DEX)

In the digital age, the lines between customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) are blurring. A better EX leads to better customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In AppLearn’s Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience (research looking into the in-application behavior of 1 million users), 58% of employees said the number of business applications they use has increased since March 2020. Furthermore, 76% reported using them for up to six hours a day.

As few employees can handle every application with expertise, it's easy to see how so many hours of productivity can be lost. Moreover, why one in five employees expressed that they have become more frustrated with business applications.

You may have an amazing culture, but operational activities can negate that fairly quickly. It’s why we’re seeing the rise of the digital employee experience leader (DEX) , and why the likes of Gartner are advocating the role - putting greater focus in boardrooms that lack digital literacy, and ensuring that digital environments put employees at the center, creating a human experience that steers individuals, teams, and, ultimately, the business to successful outcomes.

Unleash actionable insights

In today's data-driven world the intelligent mining and delivery of data are key for business success.

It can be employee experience and insights, or data mining from your systems and applications.

This process involves not just repackaging information but contextualizing it for specific business needs, often using it for delivery and decision-making. This approach fosters a data-driven culture, enhancing operations and identifying new opportunities.

Crucial to this is 'adoption data', which tracks user interactions within software, providing insights for optimizing applications and technology investments. Effectively leveraging this data significantly boosts user engagement and business improvement, demonstrating the importance of actively using data for strategic decisions.

Maximize results with hybrid work

As we adjust to more distributed organizations, we're learning from early attempts at hybrid work. The goal is to balance remote and office work for both productivity and well-being.

One challenge is keeping a strong, inclusive culture in a hybrid environment. Technologies that create virtual "water cooler" moments and maintain regular team communication are key. Empathy and understanding are crucial in leading remote teams. Tools for visual collaboration are becoming increasingly important.

Another issue is managing productivity and work-life balance. In a hybrid setup, it's easy for these lines to blur, leading to burnout. Setting clear boundaries and offering flexibility , along with using tools for project management and productivity tracking, can help.

The well-being of employees is also a priority. We need strong wellness programs and mental health support. A well-managed hybrid model can attract and keep top talent, reduce costs, and encourage innovation.

The challenges are there, but the rewards of adapting to a hybrid work model and leveraging technology are significant.

Final thoughts

With the intelligent integration of automation and data analytics enhancing decision-making and streamlining tasks, it's essential to equip employees with the necessary tools and, importantly, the liberty to concentrate on more strategic and impactful activities.

There's a strong focus on promoting employee wellbeing, a key factor in retaining staff, which intersects with the challenge of effectively supporting and optimizing new, partially unexplored remote and hybrid work models. This situation calls for a greater emphasis on creating work environments that are inclusive and adaptable, recognizing that, even after nearly four years, we are still in the process of fully realizing these goals.

These progressive changes are pivotal in empowering staff, elevating productivity, and fostering a culture that values innovation and resilience among those who adopt them.

As we move into the next year, it's crucial for both leaders and employees to keep an open mind, embrace change, and continue learning. The future of work in 2024 is brimming with exciting possibilities and potential, despite its inherent uncertainties.

The digital workplace in 2024: Impactful strategies for improving the employee experience

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 14:20:53 GMT

The digital workplace in 2024: Impactful strategies for improving the employee experience

Do you know your rubber duck moments from your intentional connections? Is your onboarding process and its impact on your bottom line frozen in the steely gaze of your board? How many sizes do or don’t fit when it comes to your approach to distributed teams and hybrid working environments? How and when do you measure employee experience and engagement?

These were the topics of a deep and far-reaching roundtable discussion hosted by AppLearn, bringing together experts from companies across the globe and a range of industries to debate the issues surrounding the digital workplace in 2024, and impactful strategies for improving employee experience.

In framing the session, AppLearn’s David Carling, Solutions Consultant, pressed the nine-strong panel - representing some of the largest businesses in the world - of the critical issues in their business, and those that impact the employee experience.

The last four years has seen shifts that have meant every workplace has become a digital workplace. While technology and cultural programmes can take the employee experience so far, we wanted to understand how AppLearn’s customers blended innovative tech with best practice comms.

It’s safe to say organizations will need innovative, fair, and inclusive leadership to navigate new and increasingly complex workplaces in the year ahead.

Managing distributed teams in a hybrid work model

It’s evident hybrid working is here to stay, but employers and employees must overcome a number of challenges for it to be effective.

Every day, organizations are challenged with creating hybrid working policies, environments, and touchpoints that are fair to everyone. In doing so, they have to consider if their company culture is being damaged or if the business might be less productive and therefore less competitive as a result.

Communication is a key enabler wherever your location is.

For Rob Schulz, Senior Director IT at Interfor, a key focus to drive success in a hybrid working world is about being intentional with the connections in your working environment and having greater accountability for your remote teams.

“I found that from a manager's standpoint, we have to be a lot more intentional about connecting with our remote employees,” he said.

“Things we take for granted - we're walking around the office, we're talking in cubicles, or lunch rooms and things like that - it’s there where there’s a natural connection.

“But when people are working remotely, you have to go out of your way to schedule those kinds of interactions. As artificial as that may feel. It's something that needs to happen.”

For one of our attendees - the Group People Technology Manager of a well-known global distributor of industrial and electrical products - who’s an advocate of helping protect the wellbeing and work-life balance, her team supports each other by having what they call “rubber duck moments”.

They’re those pockets of time for short interactions that don’t require a full and formal meeting. Something that can be hard to carve out in a virtual or hybrid environment.

“A rubber duck moment is one of those conversations where we just need to pick somebody's brains because I'm stuck,” she says. “Our team put it into the team’s chat - and if one of the team is free, they’ll join. We call them ‘rubber ducks’. It’s code for needing five minutes that can help unstick people.”

For another of our attendees - the head of service design and transition at a global law firm - there’s a utilization of Teams software in his organization, and working to shared rules around status notifications. Proponents of Teams from pre-pandemic times, it’s a policy that mirrors a respectful tap on the shoulder in the office.

“We've found that using the status on teams works very well - probably similarly to what we have in the office. If someone pops over and says, ‘can I just have a word?’, rather than arranging a meeting, you either say, ‘yes, I'm free, or you say, ‘can you come back in 15-20 minutes?’.

“ In our organisation, I think over the years, people have just got used to respecting what people are putting onto that status. I'm sure we get people gaming the system a little bit by blocking out time in their calendar to make it read so that they don't get disturbed. But you could do that in the office if you went into a meeting booth, suggesting ‘I'm here to make sure that I’m not disturbed’. So I don't think it's any worse. I just think it's a way of making the hybrid experience as close as you can to the office, and all its imperfections as well.”

Ulrika Grip runs a fully virtual team at RS Group - covering 42 global locations - and the business has operated with its distributed workforce for some time. She recognizes the holistic needs of a diverse team, and the fun and non-work related interactions (such as Fika Wednesdays), are as important to the formal sessions.

“Because the whole team is very individual, everybody works differently. So some people need more face-to-face time, while some people want to go away and work on their own. I think as a manager, you need to get to know your team and see how it works with different individuals. So you can't just put one manager style all over the team, you need to put it up differently.”

The employee ‘want’ vs. the employer need

For the Director Digital HR at a well-known multinational home appliance manufacturer, the hybrid approach initially caught his business off guard, leading to a tension between the leadership wanting to bring people back to the office full time, with employees still wanting hybrid work.

And while a 60-40 on-site vs. Teams balance is in place, there’s also the weight of generational expectation.

He said: “I think the manager role has changed quite a bit to be able to manage in a hybrid world. We have people who worked here for 20-30 years, because of how old we are as a company. They struggle in a hybrid world, where maybe a younger generation, or leaders who haven't been around as long, are used to it now.

“Being from a tech background, I found it quite normal. I was just a remote employee from a remote office. So for me, it was just natural when it happened. But if you've been working here for 25 or 30 years, and you've been going to the office every single day for that period, well, then it's different, right?

“So I think company culture is an important aspect of how you are expected to be as a manager in a hybrid world.”

The Group People Technology Manager, representing a global distributor of industrial and electrical products agrees. “Because of the age of your business, you do have those different personas of managers that have been around for many, many decades in some cases, in an obviously pre-pandemic, phase. And they very much build their relationships and great skills. There's been quite a step change for them.

“And then you've got a different group of folk who are perhaps at the start of their management career and are only used to the digital environment and post-pandemic.”

Preparing teams and embedding culture from the outset

While in many instances specific training hasn’t taken place, HR teams have ensured learning content is available for people, and given leaders a framework to work with.

The Group People Technology Manager continued: “We’ve got three key areas in our framework that allow us to think about how we trust. How do we act with passion, humility, and trust? And by using that framework, it helps us to evolve our team thinking, because you're working towards am I trusting my team to do this? Am I doing the things they need for me and that passion, and humility? So why is it about virtual working or not?

“We allowed the team to develop as well. How do they want to work. I think the key here is, we are all individuals.”

For the head of service design and transition at a global law the story was similar. “Partly we've moved to more of an outcomes-based society. So as long as a manager, you understand what is reasonable to expect from an outcomes perspective for your team.

“For me, it just comes down to good management and relationships between the manager and the team to make sure that both the business and the individual are getting what they need out of the relationship.”

There was consensus that a winning culture starts from day one. And that starts with both onboarding and pre-onboarding.

Daniela Clarke-Williams is an HR Technology Advisor at Anglo American. As part of an HR Global transformation program that concluded earlier in 2023, one of the processes in scope for full end-to-end redesign was the onboarding process, introducing case management system ServiceNow.

“ The programme was fundamentally underpinned by that particular technology enabler. It was moving from a multitude of manual forms and processes that you would have to complete on day one.

“Having that kind of technology enabler for new joiners to complete all that information once and electronically before they join, as well as giving them access to the correct systems in order for them to complete any mandatory compliance training safety training before they join, they can hit the ground running when they start.”

It’s an example where time, originally being spent by HR in the wrong place, wasn’t allowing the department to show its value.

By removing manual processes, such as chasing down new joiners, and by giving people the tools to be able to self-serve before they join, valuable time is released back into HR.

“We've also created a new service line in our shared service team who focus on onboarding and offboarding so that they can work directly in ServiceNow to track through the completion of those tasks and support the employee and line managers.”

And with a similar process at Interfor, with onboarding plans prepared for each employee so that they have a self-guided process that they can follow, complete, and be monitored in their first 60 days.

It means hiring managers, through a federated approach, can ensure all new starter requests are completed, and the onboarding experience is as seamless as possible.

Measuring the metrics that matter (and acting on them)

The old adage goes, if you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it. However, pinning down a number and understanding impact can be difficult when it comes to some of the softer moments of the employee experience.

To understand if your digital employee experience works for your people, or could be actively working against them, you need to understand their operating environment. And that means mining and interpreting the right data.

To create a meaningful and actionable digital employee experience that works across your organisation, understanding is required. The challenge is thus to intelligently mine and deliver the necessary data to your business.

It’s where a DAP can add real value and was touched on by our roundtable. would be approached by compiling analytics that identifies common pain points, snags in the user journey and the time consuming tasks.

A DAP layers over software programs, learning how employees use and interact with them and tracking day-to-day engagement. That kind of insight provides the ability to develop digital tools such as step-by-step guides, pop-ups, or directing users to in-app resources when user difficulty is detected.

It exemplifies the value in DAP investment and its role as a critical tool to encourage digital adoption that can enhance a measurable employee experience.

And it’s something that works hand-in-glove with the measures discussed by our roundtable.

Michelle continued, “We are still measuring to try and understand employees. We’re doing exit surveys at the moment to build that picture about why are people leaving our organization. While we can guess, it’s data driven thought processes that we need. We have invested in our technology and our employee lifecycle surveys allow us to measure those moments that matter.

“In our organization it’s called ‘my voice’, and is all about the employee engagement feedback giving us that insight.”

It's an approach that allows the organization to measure how well it’s doing as well as its individual managers. They even receive their own report with actionable learning programmes based on insights, driving upskilling thanks to insights from the metrics.

Meanwhile, frequent pulse surveys for snapshots and sentiment, became commonplace for others during the pandemic, surprisingly easing off in regularity with the move to a more hybrid environment.

With more and more data available around usage of systems, platforms, especially employee voice and feedback, it’s an area that’s growing in importance – agreed collectively with the cohort.

Technology and people

Across a corporate landscape where innovation and agility are critical pathways to success, it is unsurprising that the digital employee experience has become recognized as a pivotal factor, especially in a distributed global workplace.

Digital experience is central to organizations, and that’s whether that experience is good or bad. The evidence is in the business outcomes and the employee retention (and feedback).

Great organizations with strong leadership know that employees are not just cogs and wheels in a machine – they are the machine. It is their experiences, perspectives, and sense of well-being that determine how efficiently the organisation operates.

Shaping positive employee experiences can be challenging, but with the approach to communication, the overlay of technology, there is demonstrable transformative potential.

In AppLearn’s own Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience research, the in-application behavior of one million users found 58% of employees reporting the number of applications they use increasing since March 2020. And one in five expressed frustration with use. The rise in applications and digital processes means that, on average, employees switch between 35 disparately connected yet business-critical applications more than 1,000 times a day. Sometimes to complete just a single process.

Through this lens, it becomes understandable, why users lose confidence, administrative burdens increase, and adoption rates begin to decline.

It’s another reason behind the growing use of DAPs - protecting against these risks and stitching together technology stacks, bringing improvements and consistency to the digital employee experience (DEX).

From onboarding and becoming attuned to the internal processes of a business, through to more nuanced processes that are critical to smooth operations, DAPs have now have a starring role and are able to drive ROI, but also employee experience.

Whether you’re helping your people navigate the complex, ever-evolving labyrinth of digital tools, ensuring they have a voice in a hybrid world across distributed teams, and communicating with them in a manner that supports both individual and organization, digital experience is core.

Consensus decision-making buying guide in B2B technology

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 08:06:32 GMT

Consensus decision-making buying guide in B2B technology

1. What is consensus decision making and why is it taking place now?

Consensus decision-making describes a pivotal shift in how businesses are beginning to operate and innovate. In essence, it's a collaborative approach where multiple stakeholders, including executives, engineers, product managers, and even customers, come together to make critical decisions.

This inclusive method ensures that the diverse perspectives and expertise of all parties are taken into account and heard and included in the process, leading to more well-rounded and informed choices.

Advancing technology needs multiple minds

Consensus decision-making has gained a marked build-up momentum due to the relentless pace of technological advancement and the increasing complexity of the tech industry, with innovations constantly reshaping the corporate landscape.

As multiple stakeholders can bring different perspectives, from technical feasibility to market demands and ethical considerations, each one is essential in our modern, tech-driven world.

New technologies affect the entire organization

Whereas decisions made in isolation can lead to costly mistakes or missed opportunities, consensus decision-making encourages transparency, fosters trust, and leverages a team’s collective wisdom.

Moreover, technology is no longer confined to the IT department; it has permeated every facet of business operations. Digital transformation initiatives - driven by the need for agility and competitiveness - touch all departments.

As a result, decisions concerning new technologies have far-reaching consequences for the entire organization. They can determine the success or failure of new product launches, impact customer satisfaction, and disturb the bottom line. Consensus decision-making recognizes these interdependencies and aligns the entire business toward common goals.

2. Identifying your digital adoption stakeholders – who are they, and why do they care?

In an area as crucial as digital adoption, consensus decision-making provides the best chance for organizations to arrive at solutions that maximize all operational areas.

For the approach to work optimally, stakeholders involved in critical decision-making processes must be identified, and the reason why they care about effective digital adoption understood.

Here are some key stakeholders you should consider and why effective digital adoption matters to them and their teams:

HR:

HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) platforms have become prevalent across HR departments and enable various functions and processes to be managed. These include employee data management, payroll, benefits admin, recruitment, performance management, and employee self-service.

HR leaders have a vested interest in strong digital adoption because without it, HRIS platforms can lead to:

Difficulty providing user support: Typically, everyone in an organization has access to the HRIS. Inevitably, this often leads to high volumes of user support requests, including FAQs, which should be self-served.
Intrusive user training: The time taken to train all users on the software can become intrusive to the workday, a problem compounded by the fact that around 70% of training is forgotten within 24 hours.
Low user adoption: HRIS platforms often experience high user resistance.
Poor data entry capabilities: Difficulties in entering data to HRIS platforms can lead to poor data quality and extensive re-work, impacting efficiencies and reporting.
Damaged employee experience: Collectively, these pain points result in damaged user experiences of HRIS platforms.

Learning and Development:

L&D departments are responsible for designing and implementing learning strategies, managing training programs, and developing employees’ skills and knowledge within an organization.

As technology continues to advance and touch every area of an organization, L&D leaders need to see high rates of digital adoption to accomplish:

Modern expertise: DAPs allow leaders to remain continually up-to-date with the latest L&D developments and best practice.
Higher digital adoption: By mastering learner engagement, L&D leaders can increase overall employee engagement and technology adoption.
Digital Transformation: Transforming learning for the digital age allows L&D departments to move away from inefficient legacy approaches.
Heightened Employee Experience: By adapting high-quality learning to workflows without interruption, learning is made more relevant to each role within the organization.
A Developed Future of Work Strategy: The building of a culture based on continuous learning and the embracement of digital channels supports learning within hybrid work environments.
Enhanced employee productivity: Data is critical to L&D. With the right training delivered at the right point to the right person, user engagement and productivity increase while dependency on IT support decreases.

Sales:

CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) platforms manage an organization's interactions and relationships with its customers. Particularly used by sales, they are also commonly used by marketing and customer service functions.

Sales leaders care about digital adoption levels because where it is lacking, risks accumulate, including:

Low user adoption: When CRM platform adoption and engagement are lacking, it can lead to incomplete or inaccurate data, missed opportunities, and decreased productivity.
Poor data quality: If low competence with CRM platform usage is common, employees can end up entering data correctly, thereby impacting marketing campaigns, sales forecasting, and customer service.
Inadequate training and support: Both can lead to confusion, frustration, and underutilization of features, resulting in missed opportunities to enhance customer interactions and optimize sales processes.

IT:

IT leaders often have a varied scope across the application estate. However, a typical IT Service Management ITSM team will design, plan, and operate an organization’s IT services, such as incident, problem, and change management, service desk operations, and support.

As a function, IT is commonly impacted by high volumes of support tickets and the strain that comes from numerous users asking for help and guidance. With no digital adoption strategy in place, IT teams are hampered by:

Onerous Support tickets: When multiple users come to the IT department requesting help that could be provided via a DAP, teams are taken away from more mission-critical, value-adding tasks.
Low user adoption: Critical IT transformation projects can be impaired by insufficient user training and support.

Digital Leaders:

Your digital leaders are on the front lines of digital adoption. Responsible for implementing and maintaining digital tools and platforms, their primary concern is the seamless integration and performance of these technologies so that they can generate maximum returns.

With a clear and obvious incentive to boost digital adoption, where it is achieved, digital leaders benefit from:

High user adoption: By ensuring the organization's digital applications are adopted by employees, wasted spend is kept to a minimum and often eliminated altogether.
Improved digital employee experience: Improving UX is a crucial aspect for digital leaders as it allows for seamless multi-app journeys and consistent support across the tech stack.
Boosted productivity and efficiency: More mission-critical and value-adding tasks can be accomplished by reducing time spent on training and troubleshooting.
Enhanced ROI: By ensuring that users employ the full functionality of their software and that nothing 'sits on the shelf,' digital leaders can maximize the value of software investments.
Smoother digital transformations: High digital adoption ensures successful digital transformations and that software investments are neither wasted nor cause issues.

Finance:

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) platforms integrate and manage various core business processes, helping to streamline functions such as finance, accounting, human resources, supply chain management, inventory management, and manufacturing.

As finance, in particular, is so critical to an organization's survival and its ability to thrive, finance teams need high levels of user digital adoption to avoid:

Platform complexity: ERP platforms tend to be complicated, with various modules and customizations required. The subsequent steep learning curves mean users can find it challenging to navigate the system, leading to poor data entry, lost time, and significant investments in support and training.
Poor data quality: As a core business unit, inaccurate financial data entry can have a considerable impact on business operations, leading to higher costs and lost productivity.
Onerous user support and training: The complex nature of ERP platforms routinely demands extensive support and training costs.

Procurement:

Procurement software is a type of ERP that automates and streamlines the procurement process. It includes functionality to support various activities, including vendor management, supplier sourcing, purchase requisitions, purchase orders, and contract management.

Procurement leaders are crucial digital adoption stakeholders and need solutions that can help them get around:

Platform complexity: Procurement ERP users may struggle to use the complex software effectively, resulting in errors, delays, and inefficiencies in the procurement process. This can lead to increased cycle times, missed saving opportunities, and decreased productivity.
Poor data quality: Where user incompetence leads to poor data entry, outcomes can include incorrect purchasing decisions, inaccurate reporting, and inefficiencies in supplier management.
Onerous user support and training : The complex nature of procurement ERP platforms can require extensive support and training costs.
Low user adoption: Low user adoption hinders the ability to standardize processes, capture data insight, and achieve procurement efficiencies.

GRC:

Governance, Risk, and Compliance functions help organizations manage and monitor their adherence to legal, regulatory, and internal policies by providing tools for risk assessment, policy management, compliance tracking, and reporting.

The applications used within GRC teams are often complex, and leaders need improved digital adoption to prevent:

Data inaccuracies: Data quality is crucial to GRC functions. As GRC functions make risk assessment and auditing decisions using data fed into and processed by their applications, data quality is critical. Poor data risks non-compliance, and the receipt of heavy fines.
Platform complexity: With users needing to navigate various workflows and compliance frameworks within GRC applications, errors, inefficiencies, and gaps in compliance efforts become commonplace. This can lead to regulatory violation, increased risk exposure, and potential legal consequences.

3: What is a digital adoption platform (DAP)?

With rampant digitization changing the face of work, organizations of every type and size find themselves walking a tightrope. They must adopt new software and applications in order to flex with market shifts, but they must also ensure that each investment delivers measurable value.

However, when the number of digital tools and applications that employees must use on a daily basis becomes overwhelming, the tightrope begins to fray. Presented with multiple unfamiliar interfaces, each with different levels of usability and navigability, employee morale can slump, and with it, productivity. Elsewhere, data that cannot be mined and transformed into actionable insights impairs progress and suppresses technology’s potential to promote growth.

It is from the reality of this situation that DAPs have surfaced as a formidable and pervasive solution.

One interface to rule them all

Using just one interface that connects different applications across a straightforward support experience, DAPs provide employees with comprehensive in-app guidance that allows instant access to the latest technical support.

Yet, DAPs are more than a helpful in-app guidance tool. With their full capabilities exploited, they can:

Simplify complex change management projects
Support the move to remote or hybrid working models
Enable data-driven decision-making
Promote organizational cultures steeped in learning
Unleash the maximum ROI of new technologies

A new way to train

When organizations needed to train their workforce on new software or applications in the past, there were three options available:

1. Arrange in-person training sessions

Although such sessions can provide adequate learning opportunities, the human attention span is short within legacy teacher-learner dynamics. Any new knowledge is soon forgotten unless it is bolstered by regular practical activities.

2. Produce training resources

Training resources can standardize practice, but when created for an area as rapidly evolving as technology, they age quickly. They are also regarded as an unattractive use of time to employees as navigating them disrupts workflows and impacts productivity.

3. Leave employees to figure it out for themselves

Not only does this approach create a sizeable risk of employees misusing technology, but most would prefer to simply get on with their jobs without becoming mired in unfamiliar interfaces and user experiences. Uniting the three options is their collective inability to supply metrics that allow leaders to reliably determine which software is being used and to what degree of competency.

DAPs as a fourth option

By accessing extensive in-app guidance through a single pane of glass, your people are instantly offered the most up-to-date help presented in the most understandable terms. Pop-ups can be configured to appear on screen and react to user issues in real-time, existing resources can be placed into workflows, a range of metrics can be targeted, such as average task completion times, and the employee need to learn multiple interfaces is eliminated.

Effectively, each employee has their own personal training guide who walks them through unfamiliar software and application features. The result is rapidly enhanced competency levels, which significantly boosts productivity.

4. Digital adoption journey – where do I start?

Embarking on a digital adoption journey can be an exciting, if not daunting, prospect. The benefits are clear – increased efficiency, improved user experiences, and a competitive edge in an increasingly digital world.

However, the path to successful digital adoption can be complex, with numerous stakeholders and technologies involved. So, where do you start, and how do you ensure a smooth journey?

The Role of Digital Adoption Platforms

DAPs are primed to kickstart your digital adoption journey, designed as they are to simplify the process of introducing and integrating new digital tools and applications into your organization.

Here are a few areas they can provide considerable support:

Onboarding and Training:

DAPs excel at onboarding and training users. By providing in-app guidance, step-by-step walkthroughs, and interactive tutorials, users quickly become proficient with the technology. This is invaluable, especially when dealing with complex software.

Identifying Stakeholders:

DAPs can help you identify and engage with your various stakeholders. By analyzing user interactions and behavior, DAPs provide insights into who is using the software and where they might be facing challenges. This knowledge is crucial for tailoring your digital adoption strategy.

Personalization:

DAPs can customize the user experience, delivering contextual guidance based on individual roles and preferences and ensuring each user receives the support they need. Such personalization enhances user engagement and reduces frustration.

Monitoring and Analytics:

DAPs come equipped with analytics and monitoring capabilities, tracking user interactions, adoption rates, and areas where users might struggle. This data is essential for making data-driven decisions and continuously improving the digital adoption process.

Defining Your Digital Adoption Roadmap

With the role DAPs can play established, we can look at the steps needed to define your digital adoption roadmap.

1. Assess Your Current State: Start by evaluating your organization's current digital landscape. Identify the software applications in use, the stakeholders involved, and any pain points or challenges faced in adoption.

2. Set Clear Objectives: Define your digital adoption objectives. What specific outcomes do you want to achieve? Whether it's increasing user engagement, reducing support requests, or improving overall efficiency, clear objectives are vital.

3. Identify Stakeholders: As discussed in previous sections, it is essential that you recognize your digital adoption stakeholders, understand their motivations, and address their concerns regarding digital adoption.

4. Choose the Right DAP: Select a Digital Adoption Platform that aligns with your organization's needs and goals. Look for features that support onboarding, training, personalization, and analytics.

5. Design a Customized Plan: Develop a tailored digital adoption plan considering your organization's unique challenges and objectives. Consider the needs of each stakeholder group and how the DAP will address them.

6. Implementation and Training: Roll out the DAP and provide training to your internal teams responsible for managing it. Ensure that they understand how to leverage the platform effectively.

7. Monitor and Adjust: Continuously monitor the adoption process using the DAP's analytics. Identify areas for improvement, make necessary adjustments, and refine your digital adoption strategy.

Through the implementation of a DAP and by following these steps, your journey towards successful digital adoption will be much smoother.

Remember, it's not just about adopting new technology; it's about ensuring that your organization can harness its full potential, and there are few allies more valuable than DAPs in achieving this goal.

5. Checklist: addressing consensus decision making in your business.

AppLearn reinforces position in 2023 Digital Adoption Platform PEAK Matrix®

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:11:59 GMT

AppLearn reinforces position in 2023 Digital Adoption Platform PEAK Matrix®

AppLearn has once again been recognized as a Major Contender in the Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP) PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2023 report from independent research firm Everest Group.

AppLearn has demonstrated remarkable progress, significantly enhancing its influence in terms of market impact and vision and capability criteria. This positioning solidifies AppLearn as one of the foremost providers among the other DAP companies assessed in the 2023 DAP PEAK Matrix.

In the independent assessment, Everest Group noted AppLearn’s center of excellence, consultative approach and creation of a partnership ecosystem. When highlighting advancements to the product, they referenced upgrades to analytics and dashboarding as areas of strong development.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO of AppLearn said, "We continue to witness remarkable growth in the DAP market in 2023, and we are delighted to once again feature prominently in Everest Group's comprehensive market assessment. We take pride in the recognition of our analytical insights and the robust support we provide to our valued customers."

Everest Group has been at the forefront of evaluating the DAP landscape for several years. As the market continues to mature, they note in particular the focus on the wide range of use cases a DAP can bring to an organization, showing the value of a DAP for organizations looking to improve their digital adoption.

A complimentary abstract and the full report are available on the Everest Group website .

Digital adoption platforms: 9 reasons why they are the key to long term success

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 08:01:46 GMT

Digital adoption platforms: 9 reasons why they are the key to long term success

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, businesses are constantly adapting to new technologies and software solutions. Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) have emerged as a critical technology in ensuring the smooth integration and on-going success of these tools within an organization’s digital landscape. Embracing digital adoption platforms not only enhances software onboarding, but also paves the way for improved operational efficiency, reduced employee frustration, and overall business success. In this article, we delve into the key benefits of digital adoption platforms and explore how they can revolutionize the way organizations operate.

1. Efficient software onboarding

One of the foremost advantages of a digital adoption platform is its impact on software onboarding . Traditional software implementation often leads to extended learning curves and decreased productivity as employees struggle to grasp the intricacies of new tools. With a robust digital adoption platform in place, companies can streamline the onboarding process. Interactive walkthroughs, tutorials, and real-time guidance ensure that employees can swiftly navigate and utilize software applications, significantly reducing the time and effort required for training.

2. Enhanced employee productivity

Digital adoption platforms empower employees by providing them with the necessary tools and resources to harness the full potential of digital applications. This, in turn, leads to heightened productivity across the organization. As employees become proficient in using software applications, tasks are completed more efficiently and more accurately, deadlines are met with ease, and overall operational output improves.

3. Reduced employee frustration

Complex software interfaces, navigating between multiple applications , and frequent updates can lead to employee frustration, impeding their ability to perform at their best. Digital adoption platforms mitigate this frustration by offering real-time support and guidance within and across your applications. By providing a single support layer across your entire application estate, coupled with step-by-step instructions and in-app support, employees can overcome challenges without experiencing the overwhelming frustration that often accompanies technological changes.

4. Optimized ways of working

Digital adoption platforms enable organizations to allocate their resources more effectively. When employees spend less time grappling with software intricacies, they can focus on strategic initiatives and value-added tasks. This optimized resource allocation not only drives business growth but also enhances employee satisfaction as they can contribute meaningfully to the organization's success.

5. Seamless digital transformation

Introducing new software or technologies often comes with employee resistance. Digital adoption platforms facilitate digital transformation by offering a smooth and frustration-free transition. The platform's guidance ensures that employees are comfortable with the changes, leading to quicker acceptance and integration of new technologies.

6. Data-driven decision making

Digital adoption platforms gather data on user interactions and software usage. This data can be invaluable for decision-making processes. Organizations can analyze patterns of usage , identify bottlenecks, and make informed adjustments to improve the way employees interact with software. This data-driven approach empowers organizations to adapt swiftly to evolving market demands.

7. Improved user experience

Just as organizations strive to create exceptional customer experiences, ensuring a positive user experience within the organization is equally important. Digital adoption platforms contribute to an improved user experience by simplifying complex software interfaces. When employees find software applications intuitive and easy to navigate, their overall experience is enhanced, leading to greater job satisfaction and motivation.

8. Enhanced compliance and security

In industries with strict regulations, digital adoption platforms play a vital role in ensuring compliance. By providing employees with the necessary guidance to follow correct procedures and adhere to security protocols, these platforms minimize the risk of compliance breaches. This, in turn, safeguards sensitive data and protects the organization's reputation.

9. Accelerated return on investment from software

Investing in software solutions requires a significant financial commitment. Digital adoption platforms expedite the realization of returns on these investments by reducing the time it takes for employees to become proficient in using the tools. As the learning curve shortens, the software's full potential is harnessed more rapidly, leading to accelerated returns on investment.

Digital adoption platforms have emerged as a transformative force that revolutionizes the way organizations implement and utilize software solutions. From streamlined software onboarding to enhanced employee productivity, reduced frustration, and improved decision-making, the benefits are extensive and far-reaching. By incorporating digital adoption platforms into their strategies, organizations position themselves for success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. As technology continues to evolve, embracing digital adoption platforms is not merely an option; it is a strategic imperative for any forward-thinking organization.

Why the digital employee experience is at the heart of business performance

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 06:43:22 GMT

Why the digital employee experience is at the heart of business performance

Though perhaps overused, the phrase ‘your people are your greatest asset’ is as valid today as ever. The recently publicized phenomenon of the 'toxic workplace' has been one of many examples where organizations charged with overlooking or denigrating their employees have faced severe consequences, ranging from poor commercial performance, damaged reputations, and high workforce turnover.

By contrast, organizations that have taken meaningful steps to invest in enhanced employee experiences have reaped the rewards. Not least with the higher productivity and overall improved performance that comes from having a workforce that is happy, engaged, and empowered to fulfill their roles optimally.

As technology becomes ever deeper embedded into corporate workflows, there are some concerns that it’s emerging as a potential friction point within the wider employee experience that could undermine other efforts to improve working environments.

From employees feeling overwhelmed by the range of new software they're expected to use to time wasted navigating through a maze of application features, there is evidence that technology often acts less as an enabler and more as an inhibitor.

Technology as an inhibitor

It was recently reported that six in 10 IT leaders are concerned that employees are failing to adopt new tech quickly enough, endangering the return on investment for digital projects. Moreover, organizations waste over a third of transformation investments on projects that do not meet intended goals.

Investments in new technologies are made to solve problems, whether to optimize operations, reduce time spent on manual tasks or minimize costs. But when end users don’t adopt new software or applications, resources are wasted, and frustration among staff and stakeholders quickly builds.

During our own research into the changing employee experience , we referenced a YouGov survey of over 2,000 employees that found that 58% of respondents claimed the number of applications they use has soared since March 2020, with 76% spending up to 6 hours a day using enterprise applications.

Whatever the software or application, whatever the organization, if employees are spending so much of their workday using technology, the experience needs to be as streamlined and as rewarding as possible. Yet, our research discovered that since March 2020, one in five employees within large organizations has become more frustrated with the scale and complexity of the applications they use.

This frustration is compounded by the time spent just looking for application support materials, with 39% of employees losing 30 minutes a day – or three working weeks each year - searching for guidance.

It is through such experiences that, rather than an enabler, technology becomes an inhibitor. Instead of improving the employee experience, technology can impair it.

Boosting the digital employee experience to boost business performance

Across a corporate landscape where innovation and agility are key pathways to success, it comes as little surprise that the ‘digital employee experience’ has become recognized as a pivotal factor driving performance. More than just a buzzword, the digital employee experience is the lifeblood of an organization, and whether that experience is good or bad is soon evident in the quality of business outcomes.

Why? Because your employees are not just cogs and wheels in a machine – they are the machine. Their experiences, perspectives, and sense of well-being determine how efficiently the machine operates.

However, shaping positive employee experiences in a rapidly digitizing world can be challenging. It is also where digital adoption platforms (DAPs) demonstrate transformative potential.

DAPs help users navigate the complex, ever-evolving labyrinth of digital tools, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to effectively complete tasks and enjoy a smoother, more enriching digital experience. In large part, this is owed to the DAP’s ability to stitch application estates together with a simple support experience. Rather than users needing to learn multiple different interfaces, with a solution like a DAP, they only ever use one.

Acting as a personal digital tutor, DAPs also offer real-time guidance and support that minimizes frustration and maximizes proficiency, turning potentially overwhelming digital transitions into manageable steps, all the while boosting confidence and encouraging self-driven exploration. For example, through use of a DAP, a global real estate leader received a multi-app productivity boost resulting from a support ticket reduction of 136% across 47,000 employees.

By fostering a culture of continuous learning, DAPs contribute to a more engaged, satisfied, and productive workforce, thereby elevating the employee experience further and, by extension, fuelling business performance.

DAPs also provide valuable analytics that gives deep, insights into user behavior and software utilization. These insights enable organizations to further personalize and improve the employee experience and promote a work environment that’s both tailored and conducive to high performance.

Getting started with a DAP

In the modern age, the digital employee experience is critical to your people and your organization. Though you may be familiar with the powerful ways a DAP can help, you may also be unsure how a platform can be introduced into your organization.

By developing a strategy in accordance with a digital employee experience framework, you can begin to confront some of the challenges your people face with the technology they use. However, first, you need to build a full picture of the software and applications your people use and the challenges they encounter.

By examining any actionable data that can expose these challenges, you can develop a more thorough understanding of the digital environment in which your employees operate, including areas that need particular attention. Even here, DAPs can help. By sitting in 'listening mode', DAPs reveal how users interact with and move between applications, where they dwell, and where they appear to become stuck, allowing you to pinpoint support where you know it will have the greatest impact. Using this mode, a global consultancy firm were able to identify improvements to an account management process in Microsoft Dynamics which could save the value of one full-time employee a year in their sales team.

Ultimately, your employees are the bedrock of your organization. With an industry-leading DAP, you can ensure this bedrock is robust enough to bear the weight of your ambitions and can drive you towards a thriving digital future.

Imagining the future of work (and preparing for it)

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 09:32:11 GMT

Imagining the future of work (and preparing for it)

Not since the dawn of the internet has the nature of work come under greater scrutiny than today. With the pandemic accelerating the journey towards remote and hybrid models of working, cloud-based technologies delivering an endless supply of highly functional and flexible tools, and generative artificial intelligence seeping into a range of projects and tasks, what the future might hold for the world of work is amongst the hottest of topics.

Although the full impact of these developments remains unclear, agreement across the corporate world is unanimous that emerging technologies and how the workforce is able to use them are forming the foundation of a new professional landscape.

In this piece, we look at how digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are being used by organizations to maximize their technology investments and give their employees the best possible chance of reaching their potential and, thus, the potential of their organization.

Digital adoption platforms – a brief overview

Historically, organizations that needed to train their workforce on new software or applications had three options at their disposal. Arrange in-person training sessions, produce supporting documents, or simply leave employees to figure it out themselves.

Training educates, but the human attention span is short in the context of in-person, legacy methods and any learning is soon forgotten unless it's regular and provides practical activities. Documents standardize practice but age fast, and navigating through them breaks the flow of work and impacts productivity. And don’t forget the lack of intrinsic motivation. Employees simply do not want to navigate multiple applications every day just to be able to do their job.

All are united in their inability to deliver metrics that allow leaders to reliably determine which software is being used and to what degree of competency.

DAPs have emerged as the fourth option. Providing a single pane of glass with comprehensive in-app guidance, your people can instantly access all the up-to-date help they need without overwhelming them or admin teams. Pop-ups can be configured to appear on screen and react to user issues rapidly, existing materials can be placed into workflows, and a range of metrics can be targeted, such as average task completion times.

Moreover, DAPs can stitch your entire tech stack together creating a single support experience, meaning users no longer need to learn multiple different interfaces.

Essentially, all employees have their own personal training guide who walks them through unfamiliar application features to rapidly boost their competency and, ultimately, their productivity.

Using DAPs to prepare for the future of work

From sole traders to multinational conglomerates, current working environments rely on at least some form of digital technology. Indeed, organizations with more than 1,000 employees typically use more than 150 SaaS applications . As the years progress, this reliance is only going to deepen.

DAPs are famed for their ability to boost the user experience of any integrated application by offering advanced features like real-time guidance, contextual assistance, and data-driven insights. As the future of work becomes more centered around digital tools, providing a user-friendly experience that reduces learning curves is essential for employee satisfaction and productivity.

However, DAPs prepare organizations for the future of work by doing more than simply providing employees with clear, responsive, real-time guidance for the applications they use. DAPs are also an emergent technology, and as they become enabled with sophisticated AI and machine learning capabilities, their deployment across sectors is likely to be widespread.

With a DAP integrated into an organization's technology estate, they can:

Adapt to remote and hybrid work models: Pandemic-induced global lockdowns took the mooted concept of remote working and hauled it into the present day. Remote and hybrid working models have since become normalized across multiple sectors, and the future of work is expected to be even more flexible. Younger generations especially have little desire to return to the office full-time, and the agility afforded by flexible working means that bosses have little incentive to challenge them.

DAPs can ease the adaptation to remote hybrid work models by ensuring that guidance and support are always available to employees irrespective of their location. As well as fostering a consistent experience, leaders can be confident that employees are not sitting at home, agonizing over how to use the various tools and features of new or updated applications. We’ve seen a DAP directly result in fewer support tickets for ‘tier zero’ requests time and time again for customers. For a global pharmaceutical company, this reduction led to a $25,000 saving over the course of a year.

Facilitate change management: With the pace of digital transformation gathering speed, organizations must adopt new software and applications often. DAPs can support this change management by easing the transition between different systems and minimizing resistance to new technologies.

This is especially beneficial in a future where new software will continue to proliferate as DAPs offer a more efficient way to bring employees up to speed and allow organizations to adopt new technologies faster. When DAPs are used as part of onboarding new users , users become proficient in the core tasks of the system three times faster when compared to users supported via traditional training methods alone, they get to the end of processes twice as often and complete them on average in half the time.

Enable data-driven decision making: As well as providing in-app training on tools and features, DAPs also provide insights into how employees use different software. This information can determine which applications offer the most value to the organization, allow for more targeted guidance to be directed to problem areas, and highlight areas where improvements are needed.

Such a data-driven approach will be critical in the future of work as businesses continue on a relentless drive towards ever greater efficiency and optimization.

Promote a culture of continuous learning: Employees must be empowered to adapt quickly to new tools and features in a future work environment dominated by new and evolving technologies.

DAPs promote a culture of ongoing learning and self-service that aligns with this environment by allowing employees to grow in their roles as they evolve and new skills become essential. Infrequent processes often result in the biggest number of errors and rework, and when continuous support is offered via a DAP rework is hugely reduced. A global drink brand saw errors relating to the time off processes drop by over 20% in the three months after in application guidance was introduced.

Offer significant ROI on tech investments: By improving the rate of digital adoption, DAPs allow organizations to maximize the ROI on their tech investments.

In a future where leveraging the full potential of new technologies will become a major differentiator, the returns a DAP can offer will give those organizations using them a clear competitive edge.

Achieving successful digital workplace success

As organizations prepare for a fully digitized future world of work, user resistance could become a primary obstacle on the path towards successful digital transformation projects. Before changes are implemented, it is crucial to consider how users will be impacted and which processes must be put in place to ensure users are educated and supported.

By deploying in-app guidance and support, you can facilitate the smooth transition and continuous adoption of new technologies. Not only will a DAP help users build software knowledge, adapt to change quickly, and create a unified experience, but it will even allow you to proactively position support where it will have the most impact. Indeed, with the right DAP investment, you can bring the future of work into the workplace of today.

Driving better decisions through data analytics

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 12:32:07 GMT

Driving better decisions through data analytics

Data analytics, the process of extracting information from data and turning it into valuable insight, can help businesses make better decisions and improve their performance. It sounds simple enough, but data can be an elusive and uncooperative beast.

Although every organization, from local retailers to multinational conglomerates, possess data, finding it, making sense of it, and then transforming it into a resource that can be used to drive meaningful decision-making is every bit the challenge it sounds.

In this piece, we discuss all things data. We look at how it can be mined and delivered back into your business intelligently to the ways a digital adoption platform (DAP) contextualizes your data to unlock insights that can be used to improve the digital employee experience (DEX).

Mining data and delivering it back to your business intelligently

In a world so reliant on data that it’s even referred to as ‘the new oil’, mining and harnessing it has become a crucial corporate undertaking. Using advanced analytics and machine learning, businesses extract, process, and transform their data into actionable insights, empowering decision-makers to make informed choices and drive growth.

The process of data mining involves the use of various techniques and algorithms to explore large datasets so that patterns, trends, and correlations can be discovered. From here, businesses can uncover valuable intelligence hidden within their data that help to identify customer preferences, market trends, operational inefficiencies, and other factors that impact performance.

However, mining data is only part of the battle. Delivering insights in a way that is understandable and actionable is equally vital. Few people enjoy looking at or are inspired by spreadsheets and so intelligent delivery mechanisms, such as dashboards and visualizations, are used to present information in a way that is accessible and meaningful. Quite apart from being more agreeable to look at, presenting data in this way ensures that decision-makers can easily interpret and act upon these data-derived insights.

Yet, intelligent data delivery goes beyond retrieving and re-packaging raw information. It’s a process that involves contextualizing insights, tailoring them to specific business needs, and enabling real-time or near-real-time access. By going further and leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence, businesses can automate the data delivery processes to enable even faster and more proactive decision-making.

By integrating the two practices of data mining and intelligent delivery into business processes, another often unexpected yet wholly positive outcome emerges. A data-driven culture is soon embedded. Where data sits at the heart of operations, organizations are empowered to make data-backed decisions, optimize operations, enhance customer experiences, and identify new opportunities.

Acting on the data you've unlocked

It's important to emphasize that data alone won’t drive improvement. What’s needed is for relevant measures and metrics to be established to highlight successes, flag areas for improvement, and expose opportunities. For this, you need ‘adoption data’.

Put simply, adoption data is any information pertaining to user interactions within software applications. From logins and time spent in applications, to how users move between applications, adoption data provides information on what users have done within different software, how long various tasks have taken, and what overall outcomes have been.

As most business operations depend on a variety of software technologies, the potential adoption data has to drive improvements is formidable. With enough collected, you soon see where training might be required, how applications can be optimized, whether certain applications are even needed, and where new technology investments might be necessary. In other words, you can start acting on your data.

When adoption and usage data is used to inform digital workplace strategies, we’ve seen support be over 8x more effective in terms of user engagement and impact, when compared to other methods that can be used to determine where support content is needed.

The role of the digital adoption platform in data analytics

For the uninitiated, a DAP provides an end-to-end solution for driving change and influencing behavior through technology. It provides a central hub for all your digital content (including enterprise applications, internal intranets, knowledge bases, and support portals), enabling employees to find what they need quickly and easily, thereby improving the overall DEX.

With an integrated approach to managing change initiatives across multiple channels—from email drops to mobile app updates—every employee sees the same message at the same time in their preferred channel of communication. It all makes for a potent piece of software, more so because it allows you to access and apply adoption data so that the true value of your software investments can be tracked and demonstrated through comprehensive data analytics.

Without these DAP-delivered analytics, the success of corporate software is typically evaluated based on general usage figures supplied by software vendors or anecdotal user feedback. Handy though both can be, you are right to expect more from expensive technology investments that can take months to implement properly.

No business invests in software based on attractive features or functionality; businesses invest in software to achieve time and cost savings. Adoption data, provided by a DAP, enables you to measure not just the inputs of your software but the outcomes as well.

DAPs for driving change, influencing behavior and boosting technology ROI

Earlier, we alluded to the data-driven culture that can be embedded by integrating data mining and intelligent data analytics delivery into business processes. When coupled with a DAP that tracks all elements of application usage and provides users with simple prompts directing them to relevant support channels, the DEX is supercharged. More so, when a DAP’s powerful machine learning and analytics capabilities are used to pre-empt adoption challenges and deploy the relevant support before issues occur.

As DAPs can be configured to sit in 'listening mode', other elements of application usage can also be tracked, such as time spent dwelling on application functions and the accurate detection of confused behavior. The resultant data allows not only the DAP to see where your users need support, but allows you to see it too. Therefore, rather than pop-ups and product tours constantly appearing and potentially interfering with workflows, support can be placed exactly when and where users actually need it.

Through use of a DAP, a global mining customer was able to spot 1000 opportunities hours in a basic ‘find employee’ process within SuccessFactors. Employees were struggling to complete the process efficiently due to poor UI and wasting time. Through the deployment of in-app guidance, the issue, which the customer was unaware of, was fixed; giving back time to the employees and significantly reducing frustration.

Accordingly, the overall effect of a DAP transcends maximized potential of technology investments and better business insights, it contributes to significant DEX improvements. Indeed, DAPs are emerging as the most effective key for unlocking DEX success.

Ultimately, this is what DAPs are all about. As businesses continue to introduce new applications to their technology estates, employees are left to grapple with what are often unintuitive user experiences. Forced to spend time and effort searching for support or navigating to tasks when issues arise, employee frustration intensifies. DAPs remove this frustration and claw back the time lost to searching for guidance and different functionalities by providing employees with universal in-app support options. As an example, one customer was able to identify that the ‘objective setting’ process within a well-known HR application was a sticking point for their users. By implementing in-app support and guiding users through this process, the average task duration decreased from 3 mins to 1 min over a 6-month period. This represented a saving over 200 hours on a single process.

Happier, more productive workers who achieve competence with different technologies in record time. Hours wasted navigating through various features and requesting help returned. Rich, real-time and actionable data analytics provided. Together, these benefits translate to one overarching draw for organizations that’s impossible to ignore: maximized return on technology investments. And, with decision-making augmented by access to these real-time and actionable data analytics, you can plot a course to growth with greater accuracy, reliability, and speed.

Why digital adoption platforms are at the epicenter of tech stack optimization

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:12:51 GMT

Why digital adoption platforms are at the epicenter of tech stack optimization

You've invested in platforms to drive your organization forward. It's been an investment case to maximize efficiencies, provide slicker processes, and ultimately increase performance and revenues. But it’s not quite working.

In today's digital landscape, making informed decisions about your technology investments and their performance is critical. Your application portfolio is a valuable asset, requiring ongoing governance and refinement, and future-fit businesses understand the importance of optimizing theirs to remain modern and economically sound.

Nevertheless, technology can still underperform for a variety of reasons. One of the more common is poor user engagement and experience. When users encounter a new technology solution that is illogical or difficult to use, frustration and disengagement soon follow. It is these negative perceptions that can ultimately lead to a solution's underperformance or even outright failure.

To prevent this costly situation from arising, businesses are increasingly reducing, modernizing, and harmonizing the technology they’ve invested in. And, what they’re turning to for growth, transformation, and optimization, are digital adoption platforms (DAPs).

Gartner said in its Market Guide for Digital Adoption Platforms (2022) , “Organizations seeking to accelerate digital transformation must enable employees to easily adopt new and changing technology. Application leaders should examine digital adoption platform providers that enable employees and/or customers to better adopt technology and perform at a higher level.”

In this piece, we explore why the human experience sits behind successful technology adoption, rather than the technology itself. We define what is meant by tech stack optimization and why it starts with a DAP that’s governed by a digital employee experience leader. Moreover, we share what a DAP ultimately means for your business.

Understanding the human experience behind long-term digital adoption success

Rather than technology, it is people who make or break optimization and transformation initiatives. Indeed, our recent The Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience research found that 39% of employees who use business applications spend up to 30 minutes a day looking for support, totaling more than three weeks a year, per employee.

For large businesses in the UK, this could translate to over 70,000 annual hours of lost productivity. For large businesses in the US, the figure is over 170,000 hours.

However, enterprise software investment can only be successful if employees understand how it works and can use it accordingly.

By speaking with our own clients, we have learnt that a variety of triggers lead businesses to confront the issue of poor digital adoption and improve tech stack optimization. These include:

Poor user experiences and subsequent engagement
Increased user frustration when completing processes that span multiple-applications with different user interfaces
Inability to determine how well new systems are being received
Target solution complexity that causes input errors
Failure of small teams to support large user communities with proper training
Poor or failed system implementations
Rapid growth, meaning an unworkable number of employees must be onboarded simultaneously
Reliance on "just in time" guidance for users to input potentially critical data into systems

What is tech stack optimization, and why start with a DAP?

Tech stack optimization is the process of streamlining a company's technology infrastructure to improve efficiency, reduce costs, increase ROI, and remain competitive. However, creating a cohesive and effective tech stack can be challenging with so many different tools and applications available.

Often, poor or failed usage of solutions is due to a company’s inability to determine how well new systems are received and adopted by users, whether from a lack of user feedback, poor data collection, or inadequate understanding of user needs. As many businesses have experienced, software proficiency and user adoption issues can significantly impact productivity, workforce satisfaction, and retention.

It is precisely these challenges that have given rise to DAPs. The software solution helps users learn how to use new software applications quickly and effectively with step-by-step guidance through various processes and tasks. And it helps businesses pinpoint areas that require optimization to improve the experience through detailed user insights.

A key benefit of DAPs is their ability to reduce the learning curve associated with new software applications. When companies implement new tools or applications, the time needed for users to learn how to use them effectively creates a period of inefficiency and reduced productivity.

With a DAP in place, providing logical training, step-by-step guidance and support features, users can quickly familiarize themselves with new software applications, accelerate their journey towards proficiency, and ensure the business realizes the full potential of its technology investment.

Humanizing the digital experience for long-term technology success

According to our Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience research that looked into the in-application behavior of 1 million users , 58% of employees said the number of business applications they use has increased since March 2020.

76% reported that they spend up to six hours a day using them. As few employees are able to handle every application with expertise, it is easy to see how it’s possible that so many hours of productivity can be lost. Moreover, why one in five employees expressed that they are more frustrated with business applications. Their frustrations are not without basis. The rise in applications and digital processes means that, on average, employees switch between 35 disparately connected yet business-critical applications more than 1,000 times each day. Sometimes to complete just a single process.

Together, it means users lose confidence, administrative burdens increase, and adoption rates begin to decline. DAPs protect the business against these risks by stitching together the entire technology stack, bringing consistency and improvements to the digital employee experience (DEX) .

On the topic of DEX, in a recent report by Gartner , clients who reported not getting value from their DEX tools implemented them by following the vendor’s best practices. However, because ROI was achieved during the preliminary clean-up phases of deployment, crucial organizational change objectives were missed.

By missing these objectives, clients continued to experience such issues as:

Chronically unstable or underperforming applications
Unhappy employees who avoid calling the service desk because of time restraints or a lack of trust that issues will get resolved
Devices that are beyond their useful life or are underpowered for their usage patterns
Unused or underutilized applications that could be reallocated to avoid buying more licenses

At around 18 months, the point at which it becomes too difficult to find new benefits that justify the ongoing cost, clients reach a phase of diminishing returns. Avoiding this predicament requires the appointment of infrastructure & operations leaders who take ownership of and allocate dedicated resources to expand DEX tool adoption.

The rise of the digital employee experience leader

The concept of a DEX leader—now advocated by Gartner—is gaining popularity and enjoying greater focus in boardrooms that lack digital literacy.

Though most enterprises recognize the importance of digital adoption at a top level, an absence of responsibility for overseeing digital adoption measures creates risk. Enterprises know adoption is crucial, but fewer than a quarter (22%) use it as a KPI for digital transformation success .

Often recognized as a symptom of ‘SaaS bloat’, poor adoption is largely attributed to an ever-increasing number of software applications with different, and often complex, interfaces. Employees are routinely expected to familiarize themselves with multiple applications, all of which look and work differently. As a result, measuring adoption rates becomes an almost impossible task. And if enterprises can’t measure digital adoption, they can’t track progress.

‘SaaS bloat’ has also become particularly troublesome since the pandemic. Though businesses invested heavily in software to enable remote working and improve the DEX, the reality was that the volume of new software added to technology estates, hindered both.

In its paper, How to successfully deploy a DEX tool , Gartner discusses creating an environment for successful DEX deployment. Gartner’s view is that DEX leaders should unify digital environments by putting employees at the center, creating a human experience that steers individuals, teams, and, ultimately, the business to successful outcomes.

As success requires the constant development of new skill sets, forward-thinking companies are investing in this new type of professional whose designated role is driving employee digital adoption. Indeed, many businesses are appointing dedicated DEX leaders to review and harmonize the digital landscape specifically for the benefit of workforce. By creating a ‘digital thread’ that ties the digital environment together, employee frustration with software is reduced and successful outcomes are more clearly signposted.

By ensuring employees have the skills to make full use of ever-evolving tech stacks, businesses' digital investments are prevented from going to waste. Ideally, DEX leaders will use a DAP to make it as seamless and straightforward as possible for employees to use the extensive assortment of software and applications available.

The DAP helps the DEX leader achieve this objective by providing employees with real-time in-app guidance—in the form of step-by-step tours and pop-ups—that neither breaks workflows nor requires context switching. Meanwhile, content is contextualized with existing materials made immediately accessible when needed, and confusion is stopped at source as UI updates and rework no longer impact productivity or support costs. Onboarding is also made quicker and easier, with your employees orientated and up to speed with new or existing apps in a fraction of the time. A global electronics manufacturer and distributor saved over £180,000 of rework correcting user errors when rolling out a new HR platform through use of a DAP.

However, this digital responsibility extends beyond the boundaries of IT departments. Businesses are set to invest heavily in digital transformation initiatives over the next three years. According to Gartner, this amounts to a US$7 million average spend among small firms, US$22 million among medium firms, and over US$31 million among large firms.

Such levels of investment mean IT departments cannot shoulder sole responsibility for the success of digital transformation projects. Identifying and highlighting digital friction points, areas money can be saved, and opportunities to capitalize on existing tech investments is too onerous for one department to manage. Adoption needs C-suite buy-in and for the recently appointed DEX leaders to position themselves as change champions.

With a unified front consisting of IT and senior leaders, businesses can transform their entire tech stacks, moving away from disjointed, confusing user interfaces and toward consistent, accessible experiences that empower employees to produce their best work.

Of course, such digital transformation strategies depend heavily on the workforce actually using the digital tools deployed. No matter its quality, investment in technology is wasted if employees avoid using it. This potential pitfall can be averted by taking a strategic approach and regularly measuring business impact with dedicated roles established to drive continual progress.

Experience mining: identifying usage and meeting the 'so what’ test

To create a digital employee experience that works for your people, you need a deep understanding of their operating environment and the paths they take within it. The challenge is mining and delivering the necessary data to your business intelligently.

Typically, this challenge would be approached by compiling analytics that identifies pain points, such as tasks that are often completed incorrectly. However, it can be difficult to identify recurring pain points with only the data that vendors make available. It is a difficulty all but eradicated by a DAP.

A DAP layers over software programs, learning how employees use and interact with them and tracking day-to-day engagement. While leaders pinpoint recurring issues using the data gathered, the DAP provides users with support, such as step-by-step guides, pop-ups, or directing users to in-app resources when user difficulty is detected.

Crucially, any employee data that’s harvested is fully anonymized. A DAP is a tool to encourage digital adoption, not a form of employee tracking software.

So what, you might ask? Well, it means you get maximum value from your software and, thus, higher ROI.

DAPs: the solution for digital workplace success

Software applications are subject to constant updates, with new features regularly added to keep up with the ever-evolving technology world. Almost all enterprise software receives a major update each quarter, with many new features introduced as part of each release. As such, providing training on new software solutions cannot be a singular event. If successful digital adoption is the goal, employees need their understanding of how tools and software work to be constantly refreshed. Through use of a DAP, a leading drinks manufacturer reduced helpdesk tickets by over 2000 following each and every software update by helping end users understands the interface changes.

Although a boost to digital adoption is a major benefit, the impact of a DAP’s ability to stitch entire technology stacks together cannot be overstated. As well as creating a unified experience for users, DEX is radically improved, frustration is reduced, and digital burdens are all but eliminated. By using a DAP across three applications, a leading chemical and pharmaceutical company was able to save 2,500 hours of user frustration over the course of 12 month which led to a boost in workforce productivity.

A DAP can even take on the work of experience mining described above. Configured to sit in 'listening mode', the DAP allows you to see where users spend their time, take too long on tasks, or appear to be stuck, before pinpointing exactly where extra support is needed. Rather than peppering applications with random help and guidance, DAPs proactively place support where it will have the most impact, negating the need to invest in face-to-face training costs.

Today’s tech needs more than traditional helpdesk or document-driven support. With the right DAP in place, you not only see how your people use the software you’ve invested in, but you can place real-time guidance into apps that boost understanding and drive productivity.

AppLearn achieves SOC2 Type 1 attestation, demonstrating its commitment to security and data privacy

christian.davies@applearn.com (Christian Davies) — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 13:37:34 GMT

AppLearn achieves SOC2 Type 1 attestation, demonstrating its commitment to security and data privacy

AppLearn, a leading digital adoption platform provider, today announced that it has successfully completed its SOC2 Type 1 attestation. This achievement demonstrates the company's commitment to maintaining the highest standards of security, privacy, and data protection for its customers.

SOC2 Type 1 is a widely recognized security standard for technology companies, and AppLearn's attestation confirms that its security controls and processes meet the strict requirements set forth by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The attestation process involved a rigorous examination of AppLearn's security infrastructure, including its data centre's, network, and software development processes.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO of AppLearn commented : "We're thrilled to announce our SOC2 Type 1 attestation. At AppLearn, we understand that our customers' data is their most valuable asset, and we're committed to providing them with the highest level of security and privacy possible. This attestation demonstrates our commitment to that goal, and we're proud to be among a select group of technology companies that have achieved this important recognition."

Christian Davies, IT Security & Compliance Manager said: "AppLearn's SOC2 Type 1 attestation is a testament to the company's commitment to delivering secure, reliable, and trustworthy solutions to its customers. The attestation is a valuable differentiator for AppLearn, as it provides its customers with the assurance that their data is secure, and their information is protected by the industry's highest security standards."

AppLearn is now actively engaged in the next stage of the SOC2 attestation, SOC2 Type 2.

For more information about AppLearn's security program, please visit trust.applearn.com .

About AppLearn

AppLearn is a leading digital adoption platform vendor that helps enterprises improve the data quality and productivity of their key internal systems. It does this by adding predictive analytics and personalized support to HCMs, ERPs, CRMs, and beyond.

AppLearn’s Adopt platform helps organizations to see how their people use their tech and place real-time guidance in any app to support them while they work.

While valuable for single systems, adding Adopt to multiple systems can scale consistent support and measurement across any process or tech stack.

For more information, visit: https://applearn.com/ .

DAPs are a force multiplier according to Gartner

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 13:20:57 GMT

DAPs are a force multiplier according to Gartner

Until recently, a digital adoption platform (DAP) had been a new technology many organizations did not know they needed. But times are changing, and DAPs are going from strength to strength. Tori Paulman and Lane Severson’s keynote speech, “Change Today to Change Tomorrow” at the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit UK positioned DAPs as a force multiplier in the wider digital employee experience space, highlighting the huge potential for organizations moving forwards.

Connecting value

The keynote highlighted the importance of ‘connecting everything to value’ focusing on moving from a ‘user experience’ to a ‘human experience,’ which is crucially important considering the average employee uses around 11 applications to do their job with 36% using between 11 and 25 (Gartner). It is important to recognize that managing a vast number of applications can become a barrier to accomplishing meaningful work.

‘Connect everything to value’ as an objective resonates with me, particularly with the work we are doing at AppLearn. Our mission is to make software work for everyone, and when you have barriers such as 25 disparately connected applications with different UIs, processes, and reporting – it’s easy to see the struggle for employees to effectively achieve their goals and difficult to find the value in that way of working.

The new normal is already here

The digital workplace is not becoming the new normal – we are already there. Organizations must enable employees with a digital workplace that delivers a frictionless human experience. Not only is this a powerful way of improving productivity within an organization, but helps employees reach their full potential, and feel fulfilled in their roles. But how do organizations make the steps required to connect value and improve the human experience?

This is where a digital adoption platform (DAP) is a force multiplier.

A digit al adoption platform (DAP) works by layering itself over software, supporting employees by offering guidance when and where they need it, resulting in a much smoother way of working. The true value of a DAP is its ability to use multiple data points to identify areas of friction. DAPs can then be used to deliver support in the flow of work, thus improving productivity in the long term. And it is not just current applications and employees where it can be useful, it is a valuable tool for onboarding new members of the team and rolling out new software to guarantee stronger adoption rates.

The human experience moves away from simply training employees how to perform a task, but focuses on delivering the digital dexterity to excel in their roles. Employees need to be experts in their job, not 25 different software applications. DAPs provide a layer of abstraction from the underlying applications that allows for people to be experts in their jobs, without worrying about being software experts.

“By 2027, organizations that promote workforce digital dexterity will have stronger revenue year over year.” (Gartner)

The DEX leader

Gartner advocates having a DEX (digital employee experience) leader within organizations with the goal of unifying, or at the very least, creating a “digital thread” which ties the environment together and puts the employee at the center of the equation to create a human experience that is wrapped around the employee, guiding them to successful outcomes. It goes beyond creating a better user experience, it is about guiding the entire business through the intricate digital environment.

Statistics show that 29% of employees struggle to find the information or data needed to do their jobs. An independent AppLearn survey found employees lose 2.5 hours a week looking for support on how to use software applications, adding up to over three working weeks a year. It is demotivating for the employee and expensive for the organization.

The idea of organizations having a DEX strategy is one which is growing rapidly. By 2025, 50% of IT organizations will have established a DEX strategy, team, and management tool, up from 15% in 2022. The DEX leaders who will build these strategies will understand the value of moving from user experience to human experience by placing the employee at the center of our digital evolution. Their role goes beyond strategy and technology and they understand the complex technological change employees are navigating.

Moving from ROI to ROE

ROE (return on employee), not ROI, has a 100x multiplier within business according to Gartner. It is not an entirely new concept, nor does it seem like a surprise to those leaders who recognize the value of putting people at the heart of everything. But the concept of the ROE goes beyond improving culture or adding new benefits. Organizations with DEX strategies to actively improve the way employees are doing their jobs and leaving behind the need to go on a digital safari, will have the biggest impact.

We are shifting gears to be not just tech leaders, but experience leaders.

CIOs are leading the way in employee experience

“The CIO has more influence on positive employee experience than the CHRO.” (Gartner)

The moment when I first heard this, I thought this phrase was bold, however, when you consider how much time employees spend using technology, it makes complete sense. The top digital challenges for organizations in 2023 were cited as:

Inclusive software experiences
Integrated application experiences
Smart user segmentation
Outcome-based adoption strategies
Asynchronous learning and real-time user support
Self-reliant software users
Data-driven adoption strategies and end-user analytics

How you can make the steps to success

Recognizing the need to place an emphasis on the human experience and understanding the long-term effort to achieve this is the first major step to achieving a better digital employee experience. Understand the challenges your employees are facing and look to introduce a DEX strategy to solve these issues over time.

A DAP is another logical step to moving to this new way of working. Gartner predicts DAP usage within organizations will be at 70% by 2026, showing that they see the value in DAPs helping businesses achieve this new way of working. At AppLearn, we are helping organizations to see how their people use their tech and place real-time guidance in any app to support them while they work. Market-leading organizations are already using it to help their people finish processes in half the time and double the likelihood of accurate task completions.

AppLearn and BNB join forces in a strategic partnership

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Wed, 17 May 2023 14:01:33 GMT

AppLearn and BNB join forces in a strategic partnership

Leading digital adoption provider, AppLearn, has announced a new partnership with digital transformation and Workday specialists, BNB.

BNB - Business Network Builders work closely with clients to enhance their digital capabilities and deliver more agile ways of working. The IT consulting Workday specialists have a great deal of experience working with HR and finance teams and focus a large portion of their efforts on Workday deployments; helping teams roll out and adopt the leading enterprise software.

Working alongside AppLearn’s digital adoption platform —Adopt—the two businesses offer a complimentary service targeted at supporting businesses not only manage the change and digital transformation process end-to-end but ensuring continued adoption and improved user experiences when working with enterprise software.

James Stockton, Partnerships Manager at AppLearn commented : “BNB place strong emphasis on customer service and support which is a valuable differentiation in the tech consultancy space. The business works closely with clients throughout the transformation process and go beyond the so-called day-to-day or quick-fix problems; forming a true partnership. The team at BNB really embed themselves into the transformation process ensuring they drive value and align closely to client objectives.”

This new partnership brings together over 30 years of experience in the digital transformation and adoption space, along with a proven track record of helping global organizations implement and maintain successful change.

Stockton, continued : “With AppLearn’s leading digital adoption platform and knowledge of the HR market, and BNB’s experience delivering successful Workday implementations, we will no doubt be able to support clients in maximizing their investment in technology and improving their overall digital capabilities.”

"We are excited to be working with AppLearn" continued César García Galan, Partner at BNB , "Their adoption platform is a game-changer, and we believe that our partnership will help business to fully leverage the power of digital technologies as Workday and drive growth"

By joining forces, AppLearn and BNB hope to help more organizations successfully navigate the digital change process and ensure long-term and effective software adoption.

For more information about AppLearn and our Partnership Program, including how to join, please visit our partner page .

About AppLearn

AppLearn’s Adopt platform helps organizations to see how their people use their tech and place real-time guidance in any app to support them while they work.

While valuable for single systems, adding Adopt to multiple systems can scale consistent support and measurement across any process or tech stack.

AppLearn is trusted by global HR teams in market-leading businesses across 100+ countries. In fact, organizations like EY, Rolls-Royce, Interfor, and PBF Energy are already using Adopt to analyze their applications, guide their people, and streamline their tech stacks.

For more information, visit: https://applearn.com/ .

About BNB

BNB is a consulting company and Workday certified partner that enhances the integration of technology through a professional team and a unique business model, based on understanding and closeness with customers.

BNB develops a genuine way of consulting by bringing together a traditional and disruptive formula; a work process in which both understanding and closeness are the top priority. BNB aims to facilitate the continued adoption of technologies through a unique people-centric approach. BNB does this by empowering organizations to change HR and finance, which improves the employee experience and drives true business transformation.

BNB has quickly grown to a medium-sized enterprise since its foundation in 2003. It is now a leading technology consulting services organization with strategically located offices in Europe and LATAM: Barcelona, London, Madrid, Milano, Paris, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires, and is trusted by 50+ global customers from various industries.

For more information, visit: bnetbuilders.com .

AppLearn recognized as a top 50 inspiring workplace

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Mon, 15 May 2023 10:51:08 GMT

AppLearn recognized as a top 50 inspiring workplace

AppLearn has been recognized as an EMEA Top 50 Inspiring Workplace at the Inspiring Workplaces Awards 2023.

Joining the likes of Aldi, BP, BBC and NHS, AppLearn has demonstrated the fundamental elements that create an inspiring place to work.

The independent expert judging panel ranked organizations based on criteria including:

Culture and Purpose
Leadership
Wellbeing
Inclusion & Diversity
Communication
Employee Experience

The judges in particular highlighted the caliber of submissions noting the ‘new gold standard’ of achieving a top 50 ranking.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn, commented: “It’s an honor to rank as a Top 50 Inspiring Workplace. This accolade not only recognizes our efforts to make AppLearn a great place to work but proves we are on the correct track with our initiatives.

As we look to continue our growth throughout 2023, we’ll continue to place a focus on ensuring AppLearn continues to be an inspiring workplace for all the team”.

Laura Packwood, VP of People at AppLearn, commented: “This is a huge win for AppLearn and a really exciting time to be within the business. I am delighted that we’re building a place where positive changes are making a real difference”.

This recognition marks another achievement for AppLearn following being named a ‘ fastest growing tech company ’ and achieving the ‘ World Class ’ accreditation from Best Companies.

Harnessing the power of AppLearn's digital adoption platform: A game-changer for IT departments

christian.davies@applearn.com (Christian Davies) — Tue, 02 May 2023 15:19:09 GMT

Harnessing the power of AppLearn's digital adoption platform: A game-changer for IT departments

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations are constantly implementing new software solutions to drive innovation, productivity, and growth. The Information Technology (IT) department plays a crucial role in ensuring the seamless adoption and efficient use of these tools. This is where AppLearn's Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) comes in.

Designed to help employees adapt to new technologies, DAP has become an indispensable ally for IT departments across the globe. In this article, we will explore why the platform is so important for IT teams and how it is transforming the digital adoption process.

1. Accelerating Time-to-Value

One of the primary concerns for IT departments is the speed at which new software tools are adopted and start delivering value to the organization. AppLearn's DAP addresses this challenge by providing tailored, context-sensitive guidance to users right within the application. This on-demand support accelerates the learning curve and ensures that employees can quickly and efficiently leverage the full potential of the software, ultimately driving a faster time-to-value.

2. Reducing Support Tickets and IT Workload

A natural consequence of introducing new software is an influx of support requests from employees struggling to navigate the new system. AppLearn's DAP mitigates this issue by offering step-by-step walkthroughs, tooltips, and other in-app support features, empowering users to resolve their questions without needing to reach out to the IT team. This drastically reduces the number of support tickets and frees up valuable time for IT professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.

3. Facilitating Change Management

Change management is a critical aspect of any software implementation. IT departments are responsible for ensuring that employees transition smoothly to new systems, workflows, and processes. AppLearn's DAP eases this process by providing personalized learning paths, tailored to each user's needs and roles. This targeted approach to change management ensures a smoother transition and minimizes disruption to the organization.

4. Improving User Adoption Rates

User adoption is a key metric that determines the success of a software implementation. AppLearn's DAP improves adoption rates by providing users with an engaging, interactive learning experience. The platform's analytics dashboard also offers IT departments valuable insights into user behavior, allowing them to identify and address any potential barriers to adoption. This data-driven approach ensures that the organization achieves the maximum return on its software investments.

5. Enhancing Collaboration and Communication

Effective communication and collaboration between IT departments and end-users are crucial for successful software adoption. AppLearn's DAP fosters this collaboration by creating a centralized hub where IT teams can share important updates, announcements, and best practices. This not only keeps users informed and engaged but also helps to establish a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

In conclusion...

AppLearn's Digital Adoption Platform is a game-changer for IT departments, revolutionizing the way organizations approach software implementation and user adoption. By accelerating time-to-value, reducing support tickets, facilitating change management, improving user adoption rates, and enhancing collaboration and communication, DAP empowers IT teams to focus on driving innovation and growth. In an age where technology is at the heart of every business, investing in a platform like AppLearn's DAP is a strategic move for organizations looking to thrive in the digital era.

How to get up to speed with digital adoption in 2023

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 10:57:46 GMT

How to get up to speed with digital adoption in 2023

Digital adoption is a term that has become increasingly popular in recent years, due to the rapid development in the technology from DAP providers (like us). It refers to the process of embracing and fully utilizing digital tools and technologies to achieve business goals. Essentially, digital adoption is about using technology to transform your business and achieve greater success from your software investments.

By embracing digital adoption, companies can improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. In this article, we'll take a closer look at what digital adoption is and why it's important, as well as provide some tips for getting started with a digital adoption platform (DAP).

What is digital adoption?

Digital adoption is about making sure every employee interaction with corporate technology is as efficient and as high quality as possible. In other words, ensuring the technology delivers the maximum possible value to the employee and to the business. It is focused on ensuring business applications are used well and in an efficient way to achieve expected outcomes.

Why is digital adoption important?

In today's digital age, businesses are investing large sums into software applications. However, failure rates for such transformation projects are around 70% - meaning most businesses have made software investments that haven’t delivered the value they thought it would.

In most cases, employees are not fully confident with the new application due to insufficient support and may struggle to understand correct processes. The result of this is wasted time, causing a drop in productivity. Comments like ‘it takes too long’, ‘it’s annoying when…’ or ‘it’s so frustrating having to…’ are indicative of an adoption problem.

Fast forward to 2023, and its more important than ever to be achieving a return on investment and having a team who are as productive as they can be.

What is a digital adoption platform (DAP)?

A DAP, sometimes referred to as a digital adoption solution, is software designed to ensure business applications support the people and organizations that use them. It does this by making business applications easier to use, analyze and improve, typically by adding in-app support and user analytics.

A DAP gives people the convenience, experience and intelligence they need to be as productive as possible—even when multiple applications or processes are involved.

For end-users, this means useful guidance and access to help right when and where they need it. For application owners and stakeholders, this means making it easy to analyze and optimize workflows. For business leaders, this means straightforward insight into software value.

How to create a digital adoption strategy?

We’ve created a guide containing everything you need to know about identifying, measuring and resolving digital adoption challenges at your organization.

AppLearn and Inetum enter alliance to bring digital adoption best practices to more international clients

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 10:50:14 GMT

AppLearn and Inetum enter alliance to bring digital adoption best practices to more international clients

Inetum , the European leader in digital services and solutions, and AppLearn, a leading digital adoption platform (DAP) announced their partnership as part of this year's expansion of the AppLearn Partnership Program. The collaboration will enable AppLearn to maximize and accelerate the use of their digital adoption tools to more enterprises and develop new businesses and opportunities.

Inetum offers digital services and solutions that help companies and institutions to get the most out of the positive impact of the digital flow. In this perspective, Inetum will be adding AppLearn’s DAP solution, Adopt, to its digital workplace practice, to empower clients embarking on a digital transformation journey or undergoing a software optimization project.

"By 2025, 75% of all employees will be millennials. Organizations and their IT departments therefore need to start today on preparing tomorrow’s workplace — where structured and simple collaboration is of primary importance, all systems are connected to each other and access to systems by employees is a given, anywhere and anytime", affirmed Emmanuelle Payan, Corporate VP, Financial Services Sector and Business Line Consulting Director at Inetum .

“AppLearn is proud to become the exclusive digital adoption technology partner with Inetum,” said Matt Bruce, AppLearn’s VP of Sales . “Inetum’s expertise aligns well with the needs of our customers in the region. We look forward to supporting their key digital transformation initiatives to reduce the costs of employee onboarding and training by implementing a digital adoption platform. This new strategic partnership further extends AppLearn’s reach into the important EMEA and LATAM markets, enabling customers to speed up the adoption of their tech investments and achieve rapid time to value.”

For more information or to join our partnership program, please visit our partner page .

About AppLearn

AppLearn's digital adoption platform, Adopt, helps organizations maximize their investment in technology by adding personalized guidance and predictive analytics to any application or multi-app workflow.

This guidance includes prompts and popups and works like Google Maps for software. It shows people where to go and what they need to know, right when and where they need to know it, while the platform analytics capture usage data and unlock workflow insights. Businesses can leverage analytics to track performance against key metrics and highlight any inefficiencies to fix before they turn into issues.

We are trusted by global HR teams in market-leading businesses across 100+ countries. In fact, organizations like Rolls-Royce, Prudential, and Interfor are already using Adopt to make their software work better.

About Inetum

Inetum is an agile IT services company that provides digital services and solutions, and a global group that helps companies and institutions to get the most out of the digital flow.

In a context of perpetual movement, where needs and usages are constantly being reinvented, the Inetum group is committed to all these players to innovate, continue to adapt, and stay ahead.

With its multi-expert profile, Inetum offers its clients a unique combination of proximity, a breakdown by sector, and state-of-the-art solutions. Operating in more than 27 countries, the Group has nearly 27,000 collaborators and in 2021 generated revenues of €2.2 billion.

AppLearn named a fastest growing tech company

adam.mcvey@nexthink.com (Adam McVey) — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 10:44:34 GMT

AppLearn named a fastest growing tech company

AppLearn, the leading digital adoption platform (DAP) vendor, has ranked in the Top 100 Fastest Growing Tech Companies category, at the 2023 Northern Tech Awards.

The Northern Tech Awards recognize and celebrate the success of technology businesses based in The North. The awards are organized by GP Bullhound , a leading investment banking firm, and have become one of the most prestigious awards for tech companies in the region.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn , commented: “Being named as one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Tech Companies is testament to the hard work and dedication of our team. It is recognition of the innovation and creativity that we bring to the tech industry, and the positive impact we are having on our global customers. It is also a reflection of our commitment to excellence, both in the products and services we offer, and in the way we work with our customers and partners.”

This achievement follows a strong start to 2023 for AppLearn after ranking 5th in Best Companies’ latest league table of the best technology companies to work for and achieving a ‘World Class’ accreditation .

Avanessian, continued: “The value of digital adoption platforms is already being recognized by forward-thinking organizations looking to maximize their return on software investment – and we anticipate this trend to grow rapidly over the coming years.”

Four ways to save your HR software implementation

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 14:18:00 GMT

Four ways to save your HR software implementation

There is no doubt that HR technology can have a valuable impact. And not just for HR and people teams, but for all employees across an organization. Yet, while organizations across the globe are implementing new HR applications every day, from SuccessFactors to Workday, not every roll out is successful. Not even close.

In fact, some statistics suggest that implementations often fail. Josh Bersin Co., a HR advisory and research firm, surveyed 700 global HR professionals , and found that 42% of respondents believed their HR technology roll outs had failed or were not fully successful two years after install.

Was it because the projects took longer than planned, or came in over budget? No. It was because employees simply were not engaging with the new tools. In other words, adoption was low. As it turns out, digital adoption could be one of the most important factors in determining whether HR technology roll outs will stick.

1: Understand the digital adoption challenge

As you’d probably expect, driving digital adoption isn’t as simple as asking people to use the new system or application as part of their working day then hoping for the best. Adoption can often be hampered by a few different factors – and if adoption is low it’s likely your digital change, whether HR or otherwise, will be impaired.

Let’s run through a few different reasons that impact digital adoption:

Resistance to change: When new technology is introduced, it can disrupt established processes, and people may feel uncomfortable or uncertain about the tools being introduced. Resistance can lead to low adoption rates and, ultimately, project failure.
Poor user experience: If tools feel difficult to use or navigate, employees may become frustrated and abandon the technology altogether. With consumer-grade experiences only getting slicker, this ups the ante for business applications.
Lack of training or onboarding: Without proper training and support, employees may not fully understand how to use the new technology, leading to errors and inefficiencies in their use of the tools (and in turn, their work).
Low or ineffective communication: Effective comms are key to driving adoption. Without clearly being informed about the benefits and purpose of the new technology, employees may not understand its value or how it can improve their work.

The reasons are many but the pattern is clear. Focus on your end users – the people tasked with using these technologies day in, day out – and you stand a better chance of success. Don’t just take our word for it, hear from some of the global organizations leading the way from a HR software perspective .

Before we move on, a note to say that there are other factors in determining the success or failure of digital transformation projects beyond adoption. Feel like your adoption efforts are spot on, but still experiencing challenges with your change efforts? Check out our guide on the six reasons why digital transformations fail.

2: Try ‘non-traditional’ strategies & incentives

We know that adoption is key to making HR technology implementations a success. We also know how adoption could be hampered. So how do you drive it and overcome these challenges?

It’s a topic the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently explored . SHRM spoke to HR leaders across North America about their experiences and learnings from introducing new technologies within their organisations, to understand how they tackled the age-old adoption challenge.

One finding? That ‘non-traditional’ strategies are one of the most effective ways to drive adoption , but are still relatively rare in HR technology implementation efforts. In fact, PwC completed a study in 2022 that found two tactics in particular went far in improving the adoption of new tools: incentives and gamification (adding competitive elements or game mechanics into systems).

Of those surveyed as part of the study, 85% believed incentives would encourage staff to use new systems, but only 44% had tried such a method. 82% saw strengths in gamification but again, only 25% had deployed the approach.

Joe Atkinson, vice chair and chief product and technology officer at PwC, shared his own experience of gamification as a strategy with SHRM. The company introduced a new customer relationship management system and created a game – Client IQ – to encourage employees to enter data correctly.

Client IQ would give them a performance score, based on the quality of the data entry, that would then be viewable on a company-wide leader board. As Atkinson put it, “Everything driving scores are activities and actions we want employees to perform using the new technology. It had a very positive impact on platform adoption.”

3: Don’t overlook the digital employee experience

So, incentivizing or gamifying software rollouts could be one route to driving digital adoption. Another? Approach technology implementation through the lens of the digital employee experience (or DEX).

DEX is a crucial but often overlooked aspect of making workplace technology, well, work. And if ignored, it could actually be costing organizations significantly. Our report, The Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience , found that large US businesses could be losing a staggering 172,091 productive hours every year through poor DEX. This is heightened for HR tools, which are used regularly business wide by the vast majority of staff in enterprise organizations.

As we noted earlier, a poor user experience can drive frustration, at the cost of adoption. We even noted this frustration created by using unintuitive technology as a key tech challenge for organizations to keep a careful eye out for in 2022 . This is still very much the case in 2023.

The SHRM article highlights research from Gartner in 2022 detailed the three most effective strategies for improving HR technology adoption, and each related to the employee experience: make sure systems are easy to use; ensure the technology in question helps people to complete work accurately and quickly; and integrate the new tools into other systems and equipment that employees already use for their work.

In our guide to the digital employee experience we looked at how gathering feedback, use of data analytics, improving training and identifying DEX champions could all have a significant impact on improving the experience of key tools and applications. This applied whether they were existing or new.

Raju Vijay, Vice President Global People Services for Nissan, has previously shared with us how Nissan’s rollout of Workday – and people’s adoption of the platform – was aided by qualitative and quantitative DEX data.

“There’s been greater platform adoption, and we’ve streamlined global processes too. Most importantly, by acknowledging and interrogating the digital employee experience, we’ve shown our teams that we’re actively taking steps to resolve key issues.” Vijay explained. “Businesses have always spent energy, time, money and resources on the customer experience. Employee experience is equally as important, and should be treated as such.”

Want transformational change in your HR technology rollout? Our blog on driving change through digital employee experience has you covered.

4: Consider proximity & the flow of work

Another area that could improve digital adoption, explored by SHRM, was the impact of proximity. Essentially, how easy it is to access apps, platforms and systems, as well as how these integrate into the ‘flow of work’ . SHRM again highlight a study from Gartner, which found proximity of platforms can have a huge impact on digital adoption.

Speaking to Rania Stewart, a senior director analyst for Gartner, she shared, “Our research shows a greater willingness by employees to try applications or tools that are close to where they perform their work every day.”

“People want to know why they should start using a new platform or application, or how it will improve their daily work lives,” she continued. “Will the new tool make employees’ jobs easier or more efficient, or will it simply benefit the company from a cost savings or another perspective?”

Giving employees the support they need is critical, and it often comes down to helping them improve or maintain a state of flow. In short, when things get in the way of completing work tasks, employee experience and performance can suffer. Establishing a flow of work is vital, especially when you are embedding new technology and focusing on driving the adoption of it.

The flow of work can often be disrupted by application inefficiencies or inconsistencies across multiple platforms. Identifying and fixing these can go a long way in driving platform uptake and engagement, especially when coupled with an ability to deliver support at the right place and time. Remember Stewart’s question: will this tool make employees’ jobs easier or more efficient? If not, how can you make improvements to it?

Before we progress, we want to note the importance of seeing your HR technology rollout as a long-term, ongoing process. Organizations can often fall into the trap of seeing such projects as a ‘one and done’ effort – which is often where the ignorance of DEX, proximity and other strategies to drive adoption begins. Having a long-term view will set you up for greater success, but we appreciate it’s no mean feat. If you need a steer, we have a comprehensive article on how to sustain software change success after launch .

There are many areas to consider when it comes to solving HR implementation challenges. You have DEX and the importance of employee and application data. You have the possibility of incentivising change. You have platform integration and proximity. How and where should you get started?

If you ask us, we’d suggest exploring a digital adoption platform (DAP), many of which can help you achieve the above and more. We built our own DAP, Adopt , and its personalized support and predictive analytics can enhance the employee experience, provide continuous learning and monitor adoption. Our Success Stories page shares case studies from leading organizations that have utilized DAPs to support their software implementations.

To wrap up, remember these key areas when embarking on the implementation of new HR technology. Completing on time or under budget are not the true markers of success – user adoption is. When it comes to adoption, explore new strategies to help drive it. Whether that’s gamification, a close eye on the employee experience or the proximity of your new technology to other tools your people use. And consider how a DAP could support – it might mean the difference between software failure or long-term success.

How your HR technology influences your employee value proposition

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 14:49:00 GMT

How your HR technology influences your employee value proposition

In the months following the pandemic, Gartner predicted IT spend would reach $4 trillion in 2021 . In the two years since, this shows no signs of slowing: Gartner projects IT spend will reach $4.5 trillion in 2023 , up 2.4% from the previous year. Yet as digital transformation continues to gather pace, is our focus on technology being put in the right areas? Are employees equipped with the support to navigate a proliferation of tech? Is it being used to improve their experience?

These are the questions people managers and HR teams should be exploring, particularly given findings that employee stress is at an all-time high, with engagement low. In fact, Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report noted that only 21% of employees feel engaged at work. Could technology play a role in improving this and the overall employee proposition?

As it turns out, the adoption of HR technology is one of the topics on the minds of HR and People leaders, as noted by LACE Partners, a leading consultancy for HR professionals, in its recent HR’s ‘One Big Thing’ report.

We spoke with Chris Horton, Director at LACE Partners, to get his thoughts on how digital transformation has shaped HR and people teams. He had lots of thoughts on the move towards more technologically-enabled HR, especially given the pace of digital change.

Digital transformation as a lifeline

“Digital transformation was a lifeline for many companies during the pandemic,” Chris notes. “Though many organizations had explored how to extend their use of technologically, or introduce new tools, the pandemic made it an absolute necessity, practically overnight.”

And since then, it appears that the drivers of digital transformation have shifted again. Rather than digital transformation as a lifeline, that companies are dependent on for their very survival, it is instead being focused on as a solution to common challenges organizations often face.

This is the case within HR particularly, where digital transformation is being explored to transform the employee experience. Why right now? Chris believes there’s a few potential factors. “This is the first time in a long-time where employers no longer have the ‘upper hand’ in recruitment and retention. Skills shortages, wage inflation, the cost of living crisis and need to refocus post pandemic – these are all influencing a shift towards greater employee agency.”

One key area that matters to employees? Their digital experience. “We see the digital people experience as a big growth area,” Chris shared, “Employees want a slick, seamless one.”

Digital employee experience (DEX for short) covers a lot—from onboarding to the digital tools employees have at their disposal to support their work. Organizations that want to stay ahead of the battle for talent need to pay attention to it.

LACE Partner’s recent report identified the adoption of new HR technology as an important theme.

“How can employers pursue this? It’s all about making things simple. Asking ourselves how we can remove overly complicated steps, simplify things in a way that really impresses. For people managers, this can come from the development process or, for example, onboarding. Technology can really enable this.”

So how can technology simplify and personalize the digital employee experience? Think about the basics – without technology, we wouldn’t have virtual meetings. Though many would argue that a Teams call or otherwise cannot truly replace face-to-face interactions, it certainly does make things easier when in-person isn’t possible.

As Chris puts it, “the pandemic proved that technology can drive connection – however we need to look at how we truly engage people – and use technology to enable this”. Deploying technology in this way should be a vital area of focus for those in HR and People Management.

Take the onboarding experience. This doesn’t start once the employee is in the office, it starts from the moment they’ve signed the contract (if not even earlier) and it extends well beyond the first week. Chris shared, “It’s an important period that a savvy employer can use to really impress new hires, and technology forms a part of that.”

Mixing transformation with consolidation

In 2021, employee experience research by AppLearn found that 76% of workers were spending up to 6 hours a day using business applications. Whether it’s working spending six hours across multiple applications, or having numerous ‘online’ and ‘offline’ responsibilities to balance, employees can be pulled in many different directions at work. So how can employers deliver this more seamlessly? Consolidation.

As Chris puts it, “There’s always boom and bust, creation and consolidation, and there’s a need for consolidation right now.” With the proliferation of workplace technology, there’s a need for applications to feel more integrated and intuitive.

In Chris’ eyes, bringing things together could improve the DEX and productivity simultaneously. How and when support is delivered is key to streamlining the process. “It’s all about clever learning mechanisms, having multiple routes to learning that people can easily access.”

“If you make processes feel more complementary of one another, you’ll get more consistency and also help people learn them much more quickly, than if they need to access ten different applications or sources to pick up one end-to-end process.”

And there is technology out there – not least digital adoption platforms (DAPs) – that can further streamline this process. DAPs can be used as tools to consolidate the experience across multiple different applications, so that it feels more consistent to the user.

Such platforms also give you the ability to personalize applications according to the individual user, their role or experience, whether a welcome message when they first log-in, or in tailoring help-guides and support in accordance with their tech savviness.

With work dynamics shifting and technology to support evolving alongside this, now is the prime time for HR leaders to truly push their digital employee experience forward. It could help you stay ahead of some of the key challenges we as HR leaders face this year.

AppLearn further expands its channel network by partnering with Relind

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:28:00 GMT

AppLearn further expands its channel network by partnering with Relind

AppLearn, the leading digital adoption platform (DAP) vendor, continues to expand its channel network following the announcement of a new strategic partnership with Relind; a well-established consultancy firm headquartered in Mexico. Relind specializes in researching, recommending, and implementing digital-first solutions to help organizations achieve their goals. 

Adding AppLearn’s DAP to Relind’s offering will allow the service provider to further support clients undergoing digital transformation projects across LATAM and North America; with a platform designed specifically to help improve software adoption within mid-market and enterprise organizations. The newly formed partnership will also allow AppLearn to further expand and cement its position within the LATAM market.

The DAP market is expected to have a steady growth of 40-50% over the next few years, as more enterprises adopt digital adoption platforms as a preferred solution, according to the Everest Group . The analyst house also reported significant growth within the LATAM market specifically, highlighting the region as an area of huge potential for DAP technologies.

Matt Bruce, VP of Sales at AppLearn , commented: “Partnering with Relind will enable us to provide expert and tailored digital adoption solutions to customers across LATAM — an emerging market where we haven’t typically focused. Combining Relind’s skills and experience with our DAP means we can support more organizations in delivering ROI from their tech investments through improved digital adoption and a better digital employee experience.”

“The partnership with AppLearn enables us to boost the digital transformation of organizations in Latin America, by connecting strategy with skills and mindset for business growth. Above all, this relationship allows us to strengthen Relind’s commitment and continue to promote the financial and cultural well-being of organizations in the region,” added Laura Peña, Digital Solutions Partner at Relind.

For more information or to join our partnership program, please visit our partner page .

About AppLearn

AppLearn is a pioneering digital adoption company on a mission to make software work better for everyone.

AppLearn’s digital adoption platform – Adopt – helps organizations maximize their investment in technology by adding personalized guidance and predictive analytics to any application or multi-app workflow.

About Relind

Relind is a business consulting agency, based out of Mexico, that specializes in commercial and cultural development. Through knowledge and understanding of our clients, we propose value enhancement strategies that align the areas of customer service, and commercial human resources, to generate financial and cultural impacts in the organization.

Our team has 15 years of experience in designing and implementing value and growth solutions for public and private organizations.

We have extensive experience in remote working both internally and with our clients. We operate 80% remotely and 20% face-to-face.

Our clients span multiple industries including finance, education, tourism, automotive, goods and services, logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare.

AppLearn celebrates a record-breaking 2022

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 13:16:00 GMT

AppLearn celebrates a record-breaking 2022

AppLearn, a fast-growing tech businesses, has achieved record growth throughout 2022. The business recorded a 199% increase in year-on-year bookings when compared to 2021. The UK-headquartered business also reported record net logo retention, achieving 110% in 2022.

AppLearn CEO, Andrew Avanessian commented, “We are delighted with last year’s performance. Not only did we focus on acquiring new customers, but we also placed emphasis on ensuring existing customers get real value out of our solution. The success of this comes through in our gross and net retention rates, with a number of customers making the decision to expand their current package to support digital adoption across their wider tech stack.”

To add to these successes, AppLearn has recently been recognized as a World Class place to work by Best Companies . The 3-star accreditation landed AppLearn a top 5 position in Best Companies’ latest league table of the best technology companies to work for in the UK.

AppLearn VP of People, Laura Packwood commented, “This is a tremendous achievement for all of us. Our efforts throughout 2022 to shape a winning culture can only go so far, and it’s a testament to the team for living and breathing our core values in everything they do to make AppLearn a world class place to work.”

The market for digital adoption platforms (DAPs) has been increasing rapidly in recent years, and is predicted to be worth $13.9 billion by 2024 . Leading analyst house, Forrester, reported that between 2020 and 2021, venture capital (VC) investments in DAPs grew nearly sixfold , from $76 million to $470 million.

Avanessian commented, “We have a huge opportunity here, the demand for digital adoption platforms to support transformation efforts is only increasing. We have the right team, the right focus, and the right product. We are ready to capitalize on this demand and take AppLearn to the next level.”

Since joining the business as COO back in 2019—and rapidly moving into the position of CEO—Avanessian has taken the business from strength to strength, initially spearheading the transition from a services-led business to product-led business; a move that saw growth of 138%. Following the shift in strategy, AppLearn secured additional funding in early 2021, followed by the successful acquisition of Slovakian-based DAP provider, YesElf.

Avanessian added, “It’s been an incredible couple of years for us as a business—we’ve come a long way—and it’s great to see all of our hard work reflected in our 2022 successes. We have a great team and a united vision, I’m incredibly proud of everyone within the business and I’m excited to see what 2023 has in store for us.”

AppLearn awarded top-5 position in Best Companies league table

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 10:26:00 GMT

AppLearn awarded top-5 position in Best Companies league table

AppLearn, the leading digital adoption platform (DAP) vendor, has ranked 5th in Best Companies’ latest league table of the best technology companies to work for and 9th in the table containing all industries across the North West.

The news follows AppLearn being recognized as a World Class place to work by Best Companies. The 3-star accreditation is the highest level awarded by Best Companies, reserved for organizations that truly excel with ‘World Class’ levels of workplace engagement.

Laura Packwood, VP of People at AppLearn , commented: “This is a spectacular start to the year for AppLearn. Achieving a top-5 ranking along with a 3-star accreditation in such a competitive sector of businesses all going the extra mile is a huge achievement.”

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn , added: “We’re delighted to be recognized for our mission to create an environment where our people are able to thrive. Making AppLearn a great place to work is still a big ambition for us, and we look forward to bringing new ideas to life in 2023.”

The league rankings follow an appearance from Avanessian on Best Companies Live where he shared with the panel how AppLearn are breaking down silos within the organization. He discussed:

Setting up mixed team houses to encourage cross-department collaboration
Encouraging the five core values in all aspects of the workplace ( AMAZE )
Building a program of activities to challenge employees and give back to the community

Packwood , continued: “This placement in the league tables is a credit to the team, who are all living and breathing AppLearn’s core values which are the foundation of our strong workplace culture. We have further plans this year, with a significant focus on giving our employees the tools they need to grow and unlock opportunities to give back to the community.”

AppLearn secures partnership with Ybrant Partners

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:06:00 GMT

AppLearn secures partnership with Ybrant Partners

New partnership with Ybrant Partners offers best-in-class digital adoption technology to mid-market and enterprise organizations in APAC and EMEA

AppLearn, the globally recognized digital adoption platform (DAP) provider, has expanded their Partnership Program by signing an agreement with Ybrant Partners. Ybrant Partners, based in Reading UK, are a leading cloud ERP solution provider that delivers world-class digital transformation solutions to mid-market organizations, with a strong emphasis on solution adoption.

The partnership brings together the leading digital adoption platform vendor with a trusted and comprehensive technology solutions provider in EMEA and APAC. This new partnership significantly strengthens AppLearn’s s position within the APAC region to a mid-market client base.

“Our vision is to help all organizations focus on the next generation of digital adoption for HR & ERP technologies. This new partnership with Ybrant Partners will allow us to bring our solution to an even wider customer base looking to optimize their productivity and digital employee experience across their wider HR & Finance tech stack”, commented James Stockton, Partnerships & Alliances Manager at AppLearn.

The increased need for a better digital employee experience means the market for digital adoption platforms is booming. Last year, leading analysts including Gartner and Forrester released extensive research highlighting how DAPs will be crucial in driving engagement and productivity. Gartner alone expects that by 2025, 70% of organizations will use DAPs across the entire technology stack to overcome still insufficient application user experiences.

“Organizations invest to deploy business critical and strategic solutions for growth, efficiency, resilience and be competitive in the market. To enhance capabilities, solution adoption is the key to success. Ybrant and AppLearn have come together to support clients in their adoption process right from the start of their digital transformation journey. By combining Ybrant’s CBA model and AppLearn’s Adopt platform, we plan to address the user needs and allow them to embrace their applications to achieve the best results”, explained Rajesh Prayaga, CEO at Ybrant Partners.

For more information on AppLearn and joining our Partnership Program, please visit our partner page.

About AppLearn

AppLearn is a pioneering digital adoption company on a mission to make software work better for everyone.

Applearn’s digital adoption platform – Adopt – helps organizations to maximize their investment in technology by adding personalized guidance and predictive analytics to any application or multi-app workflow.

This guidance includes prompts and popups, and works like Google Maps for software. It shows people where to go and what they need to know, right when and where they need to know it, while the platform analytics capture usage data and unlock workflow insights. Businesses can leverage analytics to track performance against key metrics and highlight any inefficiencies to fix before they turn into issues.

We are trusted by global HR teams in market-leading businesses across 100+ countries. In fact, organizations like Rolls-Royce, Prudential and Interfor are already using Adopt to make their software work better.

About Ybrant Partners

Ybrant Partners is an IT consulting company focused on the delivery of HR & Finance IT solutions. Setup in 2018 by like-minded partners with 20+ years of IT & business experience, our objective is to empower people with an independent view on risk, compliance, and governance areas to build intelligent enterprises.

Ybrant Partners is trusted by mid-market and enterprise organizations in UK, APAC, and EMEA. Organizations like Reckitt, Capital Maharaja, and BMBC utilize our services and solutions. Visit www.ybrantpartners.com for more info.

AppLearn recognized as a ‘World Class’ place to work

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 08:38:00 GMT

AppLearn recognized as a ‘World Class’ place to work

Digital adoption platform (DAP) vendor, AppLearn, has been recognized as a World Class place to work by Best Companies.

The 3-star accreditation is the highest level awarded by Best Companies, reserved for organizations that truly excel with ‘World Class’ levels of workplace engagement.

Best Companies creates benchmarks for their accreditations by generating a score based on results from the ‘b-Heard’ survey – completed by employees.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn , commented: “Our people are our most important asset at AppLearn which makes us feel even more proud to achieve this accreditation. We dedicate a lot of time and effort to ensure that the team is valued, with clear opportunities for growth, and of course – all whilst having fun. This recognition is a clear indicator that we are on the correct path”.

Laura Packwood, VP of People at AppLearn , added: “This is a tremendous achievement for all of us. Our efforts to shape a winning culture can only go so far and it’s a testament to the team for living and breathing our core values in everything they do to make AppLearn a world class place to work”

The three-star accreditation follows a period of record growth at AppLearn.

H1 2022 saw record revenue growth of 138% when compared to the same period in 2021, along with a 240% increase in deals secured with new and existing customers – securing more in Q2 alone than the entirety of FY21.

In November, AppLearn gained further recognition from leading analysts and was named a Strong Performer in The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Adoption Platforms Q4, 2022.

Avanessian , continued: “We’ve started 2023 with a renewed focus to deliver our award-winning digital adoption platform to more organizations around the globe, and look forward to continuing our record growth throughout the year. It’s a really exciting time for us all”.

Andrew Avanessian will be on the panel for Best Companies live on Friday 3 ^rd February 2023 to discuss how organizations can break down silos to create a strong collective vision. Click here to register to attend the event, and view the live reveal of the quarterly league table results.

3 lessons in HR software onboarding from businesses leading the way

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 14:27:00 GMT

3 lessons in HR software onboarding from businesses leading the way

How do you make sure your employees get the most out of your HR applications and systems? One area that can help is an effective software onboarding process. We spoke to leading organizations from across the globe about their experience of optimizing HR and HCM software for their people, sharing the lessons learned along the way.

HR and HCM technology is a multi-billion dollar industry , and its growth is expected to continue exponentially. This booming market growth reflects the rising popularity of systems like Workday, Cornerstone and SAP SuccessFactors. Many organizations are now using software to support the many responsibilities of HR departments, including personal information filing, performance and development documentation and leave requests, to name just a few.

It’s an increasingly tech-enabled area of work, and these applications aren’t just used by HR personnel. Nearly every member of an organization will have some interaction with these tools, even if the applications don’t relate to the actual delivery of their work.

What’s more, they’re unlikely to use these systems frequently. They may only log in once or twice a month to update personal info or flag a leave request. Sometimes only once a year to complete review-type processes. These interactions (or lack thereof) breed unfamiliarity – which can lead to problems using the software later down the line.

This makes it all the more odd that when non-HR employees are welcomed to an organization, they are rarely given thorough training or orientation on how to use the HCM or wider HR applications. And it is even rarer still for onboarding to be present, whether that’s on first access or an ongoing basis to account for interface updates and process changes.

Given how much is typically invested when rolling out these systems – least of all in the upfront licensing costs – can you afford for HR and HCM software onboarding to be an afterthought ? The following organizations agreed with us and thought not, making sure they had a thorough software onboarding process in place when rolling out new HR systems across their global workforces.

Each saw great success, and they share their key learnings with us here: how analytics can uncover software onboarding wins, the value of personalizing the software training experience, and where to begin when streamlining HR tech support.

Cushman & Wakefield: Implementing personalized Workday training globally

As one of the world’s leading commercial real estate organizations, Cushman & Wakefield have a global workforce of over 47,000 employees across more than 60 countries. You can imagine how introducing new technologies (whether HR-focused or not) can prove a challenge. Throw a merger into the mix and the situation becomes even more complex.

At the time, Cushman & Wakefield had begun implementing Workday, enterprise software that supports key HR functions, amongst others. It marked a huge shift in culture, processes and task completion for Cushman & Wakefield’s substantial workforce, as employees across the globe attempted to get to grips with this new, cloud-based, system. Whilst some employees were technologically competent, not all had experience of using such tools – further complicating matters.

So, how did Cushman & Wakefield attempt to overcome some of these challenges? It came back to onboarding – making sure an employee’s interaction with the new application set them up for ongoing software success. Easier said than done when your workforce is 47,000+ strong though, right?

Cushman & Wakefield reached out to our team here at AppLearn. We specialize in digital adoption platforms (DAP) – technology that ensures businesses and their people get more value from software. Our DAP, Adopt, layers over chosen applications to monitor interactions, identify when and where software issues arise, and direct users to support as and when they need it. You can read how Adopt optimizes software onboarding processes here.

Back to Cushman & Wakefield. With our support, the brand was able to tailor Workday-specific support to every employee – no matter their location, role, skill level or tech savviness. This was delivered through training and communications that addressed the needs of specific employees. As Cushman & Wakefield’s CRM Program Owner and Change Lead, Mark Powell, put it: “The ability to give a consistent support experience to the end user and to push messaging as and when they come to tasks is extremely powerful, as users don’t get bombarded with unnecessary communications, but actually get the support as and when they need it.”

But how did this affect the adoption of Workday? We helped Cushman & Wakefield to measure the effectiveness of its implementation program through Adopt’s advanced analytics (more on this later). By getting its software onboarding processes set up in the right way, Cushman & Wakefield saw a 136% reduction in tickets, and delivered 532 days of continuous training seamlessly. You can find out more detail on our work with Cushman & Wakefield here , including a video with Mark discussing the project.

Electrolux: Using analytics and insights to get more out of Cornerstone

Electrolux is a leader in home appliances, designing and manufacturing appliances that are used around the world. The shift to remote and hybrid working, as a result of the pandemic, posed some key challenges for its internal HR teams – responsible for a 50,000+ workforce based across the globe. The organization wanted to ensure high employee engagement with its talent management program, underpinned by Cornerstone, another leading application that supports HR functions.

So, how could Electrolux begin to get to grips with how its many employees interacted with one of its key HR applications? Luckily, the organization had worked with AppLearn since 2017, using Adopt to support the initial roll out of Cornerstone.

Adopt’s analytics therefore played a key role in ensuring employees were getting the most out of their digital tools. By tracking and monitoring user interactions with the application in question, Adopt provides actionable insights that can be used to improve task completion, application workflows, and signposting of support, to name just a few areas.

In Electrolux’s case, it was able to mine years of Adopt-gathered data to build a holistic picture of how its employees engaged with Cornerstone. It enabled the digital HR teams to plan interventions when issues arose, particularly useful given the shift to remote working at the time. Electrolux was also able to observe user behavior in the lead up to processes such as salary reviews, adapting support delivered through Cornerstone accordingly.

Over the course of the project, Electrolux delivered 100,000 of application interventions, in turn saving thousands of productive hours by improving task completion and reducing the number of support tickets raised. By 2022, the brand saw a 130% user increase of Cornerstone, a 10% decrease in average task time completion, and a 104% improvement in self-service support. By seeing software onboarding as an ongoing process, where users require support and training interventions continually no matter how long they have used the system in question, Electrolux was able to get more out of its chosen HR application.

Christian Bengtsson-Rossby, Digital HR Director at Electrolux, summed it up well: “Adopt helps us to bring the best possible experience and adoption to [our HR platforms]. Adopt’s analytics give us concrete answers on what is and isn’t working for our employees and our administrators. With [it], we’re seeing less frustration from employees and managers.”

Want to hear more about how Adopt helped Electrolux unlock even more value from Cornerstone? Head to the dedicated Electrolux success story page here.

GKN Aerospace: Streamlining the delivery of support materials to drive SAP SuccessFactors uptake

World-leading aerospace supplier, GKN serves over 90% of the globe’s aircraft and engine manufacturers and is supported by a 15,000-strong team across 13 countries. The organization began exploring how technology could support its internal HR teams in 2018, deciding to roll out SAP SuccessFactors as a result; the HCM application is used globally to support the employee experience.

As you’d expect, rolling out a new application to a huge, global workforce is a daunting challenge. GKN had to navigate the shift from its existing applications to SAP SuccessFactors, and make sure its employees received the right support to onboard them quickly and effectively onto the system.

The organization reached out to AppLearn to explore how Adopt could help with these efforts, focusing on self-help training materials. We looked to optimize support collateral and communications that could be delivered as people navigated through the application, rather than asking users read long guides before even logging on.

GKN had a lot of these materials to hand already, but they were scattered outside of the old system. We modernized the format and placement of these, and also considered people’s location and role, as this would influence how and when they might engage with training materials. Adopt’s pop-up Smart Pages enabled GKN to target people with support as they completed key tasks, making associated materials available in a split screen. The delivery of training materials was driven by analytics gathered by Adopt, making sure it reached users as and when they most needed it – and were therefore more likely to engage with support.

As a result of this contextual support, delivered at a crucial stage of the software onboarding process, GKN saw 91% user engagement with in-app process reminders and 85% usage of in-app tips. The brand also found that users were four times more likely to perform key tasks after viewing a pop-up reminder delivered in-app by Adopt.

Willy Holdahl, Global Head of Change Management – HR at GKN Aerospace, shared with us: “AppLearn’s platform lets us put self-help training materials in SuccessFactors and get data on how our employees are using it. We can use the data to measure where we need to put in new training, improve materials or help employees to be as efficient as possible.”

If you’re interested you can read more about GKN’s success here , and even hear from them in a video interview.

So, there you have it. Years of expertise and experimentation distilled into three core lessons:

Use analytics to uncover onboarding wins and weak points
Streamline the delivery of support materials so it’s easy for end-users from day one
Personalize your support, even when rolling out globally

Whether you intend to invest in any of these areas (and you should, it’s what our digital adoption platform is designed for) or not, applying these lessons will set you on the right path to more successful software.

Forget forgetting by improving your software onboarding processes

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 15:06:00 GMT

Forget forgetting by improving your software onboarding processes

Think back to when you first joined your current company. Do you remember every aspect of the onboarding process? The names, departments, processes and minutiae of workplace life? Of course you don’t – most of us struggle to remember what we ate last Tuesday…

Would it be fair to expect you to remember 100% of your early day training? Again, of course not. Often, forgetting is simply the process of filtering out irrelevant information so you can retain what’s most important.

Yet when it comes to getting people up to speed on workplace software, there’s an expectation for employees to absorb and learn everything about the new tech, typically following a one-off training session. This regularly happens for both new people joining a company and when an organization introduces a new application.

This approach to software onboarding – one that might seemingly save time and effort – actually hampers people’s ability to properly engage with and use the application in question. And it may come down to a concept known as the “forgetting curve”.

The forgetting curve was first pioneered by psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in the late 1800s. It covers the idea that people will tend to forget information over time if it is not reinforced. This is particularly relevant in the context of software onboarding, where a user’s ability to retain and use information provided initially can be significantly impacted by their overall experience with the platform.

How does the forgetting curve influence software success?

People often have a limited amount of time and attention to devote to learning about a new platform. What’s more, while using the application might be a key, daily aspect of a person’s role, it might only be used sporadically, to submit annual leave requests for example.

This context can hugely influence how familiar people become with the software – repeated reinforcement of information helps to reduce the forgetting curve. For example, if someone is unlikely to use the software (or certain aspects of it) every day, it limits the ability to reinforce key information – making it more likely to be forgotten further down the line.

There’s also the challenge of information overload. As many of us often feel when we start a new job, there’s a lot to get to grips with and it can quickly feel overwhelming. The same happens when using a new piece of software. There are different processes, functions, areas and interfaces to navigate. Faced with this experience, users can struggle to retain the information presented in those initial interactions.

Again, if someone isn’t given the opportunity to reinforce information they have learned during the onboarding process, they can quickly forget much of it. The forgetting curve strikes again…

But why does it matter if people can’t remember every little detail about the application they’re using? While we aren’t suggesting people need to be masters of the workplace software they use, you can’t understate the value of helping your teams get the most out of said applications. Your organization will have invested heavily in them, after all.

Without the ability to reinforce key information or processes, people might later come to run into challenges with the application that they’re unable to solve – wasting time and even company resources. People might end up leaving the application to search for a solution as they don’t know how to access in-app help guides or chatbots. They might resort to raising IT tickets, taking your IT team’s attention away from more pressing challenges. They might simply end up quitting the application completely, reducing productivity.

All the while, frustration with the software is on the rise – with your people feeling they don’t have the support they need to fulfil their roles. We explore how these consequences could be costing your business – and how to address them – in more detail in an article on the hidden costs of software onboarding.

How can we beat the forgetting curve?

As you might have gathered, software onboarding is where it begins. Viewing software onboarding as a one-off training session doesn’t set your people up for success. Instead, a thorough software onboarding process is key – one that doesn’t end after one session or even a month, but is seen as long-term. It can help users to overcome the forgetting curve by giving them ongoing support and reinforcing key information.

Imagine that on a user’s first time using a new application, they are given a detailed, automatic, step-by-step run through of key functions, how to use them and where to access support.

Then on the second time, this guidance still pops-up but it doesn’t automatically launch – they have the option to run through it if needed though.

On the third time, perhaps the guidance doesn’t pop-up, but where to access it is still clearly visible. Or, perhaps the application prompts people with advice on how to complete a crucial task that they haven’t done yet, or will need to do in the future.

Both are examples of (non-intrusive) info reinforcement, that can go a long way to reducing the forgetting curve.

Reversing the curve with clever software

Of course, not every piece of software comes with this functionality. That’s not to say these types of onboarding processes are impossible though. One option to add this and more to your onboarding mix is a digital adoption platform (DAP).

A DAP is essentially a piece of software that helps people learn and use software more effectively. When it comes to software onboarding, it allows you to create bespoke in-app guidance and support, such as step-by-step instructions or contextual pop-ups. It can help reinforce information users learned during the onboarding process, with regular tips and reminders about key features and functionality.

This will keep information fresh in users’ minds, hold back the forgetting curve and allow people to focus on using the platform without getting overwhelmed by other, irrelevant information.

A DAP is also able to learn how users interact with the software it overlays, and their individual needs and preferences, using this to provide customized content and support. This can help users to retain information, as they’ll be more likely to pay attention to and engage with content that meets their specific needs.

So, though the forgetting curve can prove a challenge when it comes to squeezing value from your software investments, it can be overcome. Through a thorough software onboarding process, aided by a DAP, you can provide your people with ongoing support – whether in-app guidance, personalized experiences or regular reminders – that reinforces key information and helps people get the most out of software.

Why software onboarding matters for HR & HCM tools

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 15:06:00 GMT

Why software onboarding matters for HR & HCM tools

Software onboarding, or sometimes SaaS onboarding, is essentially the process of introducing employees to your organization’s software systems and digital tools. It means giving people the knowledge, training and experience needed to use said tools effectively—ideally within the experience of using the software itself.

Onboarding often begins when a new person joins a company, typically overseen by the HR department, and software onboarding plays a big role in this. After all, think how many different applications you might need to get to grips with in the average organization nowadays. Our own research with YouGov suggested that 76% of employees spend up to 6 hours a day using business applications on average.

However, software onboarding isn’t limited to just new starters. It also matters when an organization is introducing a new application for the first time and needs to get existing employees up to speed on it. This includes HCM (Human Capital Management) systems and other HR applications.

Why focus on your HR software onboarding process?

So, what does software onboarding for HCM software, such as Workday, Cornerstone or SAP SuccessFactors, mean?

Think back a few years, and HR departments often had to handle huge amounts of often paper-based admin e.g. sharing pay slips and processing annual leave requests. Now, HR and HCM-specific software has brought these tasks into a digital age and given employees themselves more responsibility to self serve tasks such as accessing their pay slips or booking time off.

Typically, non-HR employees might not spend as much time in HR or HCM applications as other platforms, given they might not be used to complete their day-to-day work. However, these applications still handle a lot of important aspects of their working lives: a place to access key company information, benefits, requests and even performance evaluations, training and career development.

Despite this, there’s often a perception that using these applications isn’t as important as using software that supports people’s core work. It can skew the approach to HR and HCM software onboarding, which might not be given the same level of focus as other applications. By not thoroughly onboarding people to these applications and giving them the right training – that takes into account their role, responsibilities or even tech savviness – you risk equipping people with HR and HCM tools they don’t fully know how to use.

What should HR and HCM software onboarding involve?

Given this, software onboarding should be considered carefully when introducing people to a HR or HCM system for the first time. Your goal should be to help new employees become productive on the platform(s) as efficiently as possible.

A good process should be planned for the long-term and focus on giving people the knowledge, skills and resources they need to use applications properly. It should look to improve the consistency of application training across the board. Make sure that employees receive the same quality of information and training, but be flexible to tailoring it based on role, location or prior application knowledge.

Will different teams be using different functions within Workday, maybe for recruitment purposes as well as personal HR requests? If so, does their training account for this? Are you rolling out an application in multiple territories, and if so, are your welcome messages and support materials translated into different languages?

It’s also important to consider if you use multiple applications for different HR needs. If so, it’s likely that these applications will vary in terms of user interface, access to support and onboarding – is there a way that your organization can introduce more consistency across these and streamline the experience for employees? What about embedding the same support experience across every app they touch? We know a thing or two about this .

By putting a software onboarding process in place for HR and HCM systems, you can, in turn, streamline onboarding significantly. Providing access to all necessary training materials related to the application, or even automating much of the admin associated with bringing new employees onto it, could save your organization time and resources in getting people up to speed on the software more quickly.

Software onboarding is an important part of the employee experience, and plays a crucial role in helping employees become productive and successful members of the team.

When it comes to HR and HCM systems specifically, by giving real focus to the onboarding process, you’re setting your people up for success when using these key applications. You can avoid user frustrations, help them overcome tech challenges and give them proper software support – which might ultimately lead to higher levels of employee engagement across the board, beyond your HR tools.

Getting a smooth process in place for your HR and HCM software might be seen as a daunting task – we get it. That’s why we’re here to help. We have years of experience deploying our digital adoption platform into hundreds of global clients – helping them to get the most out software including Workday, Cornerstone and SAP SuccessFactors.

Is your software onboarding process costing your business?

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 10:16:00 GMT

Is your software onboarding process costing your business?

You’re welcoming a new hire to the business. The contract is signed. The email address is set up. The hardware is ready on their desk, and the software they need installed.

These might be some of the first things that come to mind when ‘onboarding’ is mentioned, but it underplays the complexity of the task. It’s a process that becomes even more complex when you consider the various digital tools and platforms team members will often need to complete their work, day in, day out – especially if your business offers hybrid or remote working.

Whether you’re training people up on a new software platform or welcoming a new hire to the business, the digital aspect of onboarding – which we’ll refer to as ‘software onboarding’ in this article – is a critical stage of the wider process.

And when the software onboarding journey is not considered as part of the bigger picture, it can have consequences – financially, for your employee’s motivation, and for your organization’s operational efficiency.

What are the hidden costs of software onboarding?

Of course, you would probably expect software onboarding to have some associated costs to it – namely training on how to use the platform itself. But there are some common challenges software onboarding, or a lack of, can surface. In fact, these challenges might be costing your business. Knowing how to identify and tackle these head on could unlock significant savings in the long run.

We’ve all had times when we’ve found a particular application or digital tool frustrating, in and outside of work. In fact, we conducted digital employee experience in 2021 that found that 20% of employees within large organizations were more frustrated with business applications than in previous years. This clearly risks demotivation and an unhappy sentiment at work, which could go on to have serious consequences for that person’s productivity.

Where does this frustration come from? Often ‘unintuitive’ software, exacerbated by a lack of proper training on how to use and navigate certain applications – which proper software onboarding should account for.

And as a result of unintuitive tech and a lack of thorough training, people may end up spending significant time looking for IT support. For large businesses in the US, this could tot up to a staggering 172,091 hours lost every year, as highlighted in our Hidden Costs of the Digital Employee Experience report .

Even when this support might be more readily accessible in a central hub, it often requires a platform user to context switch and remove themselves from the application to access it. It disrupts people’s flow of work, costing them more time and energy to get to grips with what should be straightforward tasks. We’ve found that when support isn’t provided within this ‘flow of work’, employees are spending up to 2.7 hours per week searching for support materials. And even after accessing it, they’re spending 1.5 hours per week digesting said materials.

Software training and support is often treated as one-off, discrete events, delivered as onboarding when people first use a new platform or help when it’s needed as a problem emerges. This approach to onboarding – a quick run-through of how to use a platform and where to find further information – isn’t the most productive. When software onboarding is treated as a one-off process with users expected to figure it out themselves, issues emerge. People feel frustrated, time is lost and costs start to stack up…

Software onboarding isn’t a one-off process

In fact, software onboarding and training needs to be much more involved and personalized. And as well as that first touchpoint for new users being important, it goes beyond the initial login. The way we use software frequently evolves – whether as a result of software updates, or the tasks we use it for changing. These can be considered part of the software onboarding journey, an opportunity to make sure your process is spot on, so that your people are set up for ongoing software success.

This is complicated even further if training needs to be delivered across different territories or shaped by the roles and responsibilities individual users might hold. Yet, these are critical training considerations that will go a long way in making sure people are fully up-to-speed with the tools at their disposal.

Instead of relying on one-off training sessions, a proper software onboarding process can put your people in the driver’s seat. With better onboarding comes fewer preventable mistakes and improved employee engagement – you can help to reduce those hidden costs piling up. In fact, 69% of employees who have effective digital tools for onboarding are more likely to stay with an employer for at least three years [1] and new hires who go through a structured onboarding process are 58% more likely to be with that organization in three years’ time [2] .

How a DAP supports your onboarding

So, there are clear advantages to ensuring your software onboarding process is as comprehensive as possible. If it’s not implemented with the right ongoing training and support, it can risk wasting your people’s time and effort in searching for the right answers.

So how do you create a more intuitive experience, and ensure software onboarding best practice is followed? One solution to consider is a digital adoption platform (DAP). This software overlays a variety of applications, observing how people interact with it and providing in-app prompts and guidance when and where needed.

How can it help software onboarding come to life? It gives you the opportunity to completely tailor and personalize your digital onboarding tools. Imagine one of your team accesses a new platform and is greeted by a video that is specific to their role and how they’ll be expected to use the software day-to-day. It gives them deeper, better insight into their workplace tech, in a format that is perhaps more likely to be engaged with than a one-off email talking them through login passwords and usernames.

This video, or other resources possible through DAPs such as step-by-step instructions and tutorials, mean your people can get up-to-speed with the platform in question more efficiently. It can intervene in those moments when help is needed. For example, a DAP might detect a problem completing a certain task or field. Relevant in-app guidance or tips can then help people to complete processes more effectively and avoid people feeling frustrated or unproductive with their digital tools.

Simply put, a DAP helps you to improve your onboarding processes and enhance the user experience. There’s a wealth of ways that it can support your onboarding efforts, which we’re happy to share if you’re…on board.

Take a look at how we can help you accelerate your onboarding .

AppLearn named a Strong Performer in DAP report from major research firm

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 09:14:00 GMT

AppLearn named a Strong Performer in DAP report from major research firm

AppLearn announced today that it has been named a Strong Performer in The Forrester New Wave™: Digital Adoption Platforms Q4, 2022.

The release is Forrester’s first New Wave™ evaluation of the emerging digital adoption platforms (DAP) market. The Forrester New Wave™ independently assesses the ten most significant providers in the space, acting as a trusted guide for global technology buyers.

According to Forrester ^[1] , DAPs are low-code and no-code software platforms that leverage user and behavioral analytics and automation to deliver contextual nudges and personalized guidance that improve the usage, adoption, and experience of enterprise applications. The New Wave™ follows a May 2022 Forrester report which noted significant growth in the DAP market, with venture capital investment growing nearly sixfold to $470 million from 2020 to 2021. ^[2]

In Forrester’s New Wave™ evaluation, AppLearn received a differentiated rating in the analytics and insights criterion, and the report states its DAP ‘addresses digital adoption via behavioural analytics and predictive models for engagement and adoption management.’ AppLearn is also cited as offering ‘a DAP comparable with more established providers’.

The report also describes the vendor as ‘a best fit for companies needing an agile partnership’ and ‘a good option for midsize to large companies looking for a quick and simple deployment’.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn said: “This is significant recognition for our product and overall strategy from an influential voice in the global technology market. It’s also another important signal of the huge potential of the DAP market in a world where the reliance on enterprise technology looks certain to continue its upward trajectory.

“We believe our position in the New Wave demonstrates a strong balance between current product offering and forward-looking innovation, and that Forrester’s evaluation reflects our continued investment in our analytics capabilities alongside the partnership-led approach we take with our customers. It’s these elements which set our offer apart.”

The inclusion follows AppLearn announcing record growth in the first half of its financial year, covering January through June 2022 – with revenue increasing 138% when compared to the same period last year.

Andrew continued: “It’s been an exciting 12 months which has truly moved us forward, from our growth internationally to continuing to bring brilliant tech talent into the business. As we look ahead to 2023 and beyond, we are primed to take advantage of the opportunities in the market.”

Download the full report here

[1] New Tech: Digital Adoption Platforms, Q2 2022 (Forrester)
[2] New Tech: Digital Adoption Platforms, Q2 2022 (Forrester)

How to build a compelling DAP business case for your organization

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 12:03:00 GMT

How to build a compelling DAP business case for your organization

So, you’ve done your homework on digital adoption platforms (DAPs) and figured out that you need one for your business. But while you understand that DAPs can generate real return on investment, key decision makers within your organization may not even know what a DAP is, never mind how it could improve your tech stack.

You’ll therefore need to create a compelling business case to take to the teams that need to sign-off on purchasing new software, sharing your learnings on how a DAP could benefit your business. Luckily, at AppLearn we’ve been working within the digital adoption space for over a decade, helping major global brands like Rolls-Royce, EY and Nissan along the way.

To help you introduce a DAP to your organization, we’ve put together a simple guide to walk you through how to put together a strong business case. It includes tips on what to consider, what data to gather, and how to prepare rollout plans, all broken down into four steps to follow:

Identify the problem
Assess possible vendors
Demonstrate the rollout plan
Map out associated costs

By following these steps, you’ll be able to demonstrate the true value of a DAP to your team, and why it’s so important for your company to invest in one. Let’s get started.

Step one: Identify the problem

You’ll know the challenges your organization faces when it comes to getting the most out of business applications and software. It’s likely others in your company recognize these too, and probably have firsthand experience of them.

It’s important to address challenges upfront when creating a case to invest in a DAP – to show how the technology can help you unlock improvements within your organization

Of course, each organization’s challenges are unique, but the decision to rollout a DAP can generally fall into one of two categories: proactive or reactive change.

Proactive change usually involves planning for a change that is not yet urgent. You might have a live system that is generally working fine, and people have a decent understanding of how to use it – but you’re not truly getting the most value out of it and using it to its full capabilities. Maybe your company rolled out a new piece of software when you began working from home, but now that you’re adopting a hybrid model, perhaps your team are no longer using it as efficiently as they could.

It’s about optimizing your software, to unlock its full potential and to improve your team’s digital experience. And a DAP can support with this, by identifying key functions or processes that your team require additional guidance on, providing in-app support or helping you to tailor onboarding and training.

Reactive change involves attempting to solve a challenge – perhaps a software rollout plan that’s gone awry or fixing a process that might be causing problems. For example, let’s say you’ve introduced a new CRM system for your sales team, but its functionality is proving very different from the previous system and your team are understandably taking longer to complete certain tasks or flagging more support tickets.

Your sales team will be frustrated, and their productivity will be suffering. Your sales-related performance and data accuracy will also be feeling the strain. A digital adoption platform could provide you with analytics to understand where the most frequent challenges seem to arise in-app. This can be used to shape additional training content, tooltips or specific how-to guides which can then be placed right where they are needed in the CRM system.

The contents, success rate and urgency of your business case should vary according to whether your challenge is proactive or reactive.

Whatever the challenge may be, it’s important to address it upfront when creating a case to invest in a DAP – to show how the technology can help you unlock improvements within your organization – potentially saving time, money and making employees’ lives a little easier. You want your internal stakeholders to be able to truly see the value of a DAP and how it can benefit the business and recognize the need to invest in one.

It’s vital to also agree the scope and goals of the project ahead of time. For example, do you want to reduce support requests? Improve uptake of certain application features? Reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a task? Laying these goals out and how you’ll measure their outputs out in your plan can really help your business case. Here you can outline what you want your DAP to achieve and the benefits it’ll have for your business

Later in the guide, we’ll talk you through some of the metrics you can use to measure DAP success, according to these unique challenges.

You will want to consider:

What metrics do you have at your disposal, that can be used to measure the success of the DAP after implementation?
How business critical is the challenge you’re facing – and therefore how quickly do you need to move?
What is the cost or metric you are looking to affect, and how does this tie back to your business objectives?

Finding the right data to support your case

Gathering the right data will help with outlining the costs, and there are some simple ways you can pull together such metrics. It all depends on your specific problem. Here are some examples of how you could bring the metrics together:

Put a cost against IT support. Adding a monetary value to your support tickets (i.e., $x per ticket) will help you to put a number on how quickly the costs add up when it comes to the support people need to use specific applications. It can help to uncover the scale of how much unintuitive tech might be costing your business.
Outline the speed of completing tasks or training overheads. If you have an employee hourly rate, you can calculate overall costs too. Where relevant, you might be able to quantify the costs of customer retention or customer support.

You could also outline some of the metrics that may be slightly more difficult to quantify, but really help to build a strong business case. For example:

Unintuitive tech that frustrates your team. Our report on The Hidden Cost of Digital Employee Experience found that 1/5 of employees within large businesses are becoming increasingly frustrated with business applications.
A DAP could help to improve employee productivity and satisfaction: You could gauge satisfaction with specific workplace tools through employee surveys, presented alongside data on how much time people spend using them. It’ll help connect the dots between frustration and loss of productive time. You could even quantify the costs of not incorporating a DAP for the business.

If you gather this level of data, you will paint a picture of the cost and efficiency savings a DAP can achieve. And you don’t have to do this on your own—the right kind of vendor will help you to do this.

For example, at AppLearn we can provide transparent or anonymized customer examples of actions and return on investment. We also have a Business Value Assessment calculator preloaded with industry data that we can complete with you to help make this process super simple. Finding data to support your case doesn’t have to be a complex, time-consuming task if you have the right partner.

While the metrics above can help you establish a baseline, it’s important that you don’t limit your business case to these alone. Consider additional costs – potentially around implementation or technical support. When you’re having conversations with the vendor sales team, they should be discussing these costs and the support they offer in these areas. This will help you gather specific data and analysis that can create a truly compelling business case – we’ll go into this in more detail in the next step.

An excellent way to determine why a DAP might be the best solution for you is to look at third-party resources that show the benefits of the technology. Independent research organizations such as Gartner, Forrester and Everest Group have various resources covering the use cases and ROI potential.

For example, AppLearn have licensed an Everest report on navigating change with technology for better ROI , where Practice Director, Sharath Hari N, made the following observation:

“Emerging technologies are helping organizations to make the most of their digital transformation initiatives.

One such technology is Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) , which organizations can leverage across all change management stages to optimize outcomes.”

Get the full report here for more from Everest Group on how DAPs can help businesses manage software change more efficiently and effectively.

Third-party sources like expert analysts can also help you clarify why a digital adoption platform is the right software category to purchase and may offer some comparisons between vendors. Which leads us to our next step.

Step two: Assess vendors

When you’re putting your business case together, you may need to evaluate multiple DAP vendors. But while cost is always an important consideration, you should also assess vendors based on your organization’s needs, the product on offer and other factors.

Different DAPs offer different levels of in-app support and analytics. Look towards your organization’s goals to decide what features will be the most valuable for you (hint: more features don’t always mean more value).

We know that product features will be important to you and your team, so make sure you consider which ones are your priority. Ask yourself, what separates the must-haves from the optional extras, and can a vendor’s platform provide them?

Core DAP features

In-app guidance: this is the key functionality of a DAP. It supports users in completing specific processes by placing step-by-step guidance directly into workflows. All DAPs will have some form of in-app guidance, but it’s important to establish how advanced and comprehensive this guidance is.

Automation: establish whether the DAP offers automated walkthroughs of the application, requiring minimal input from the user and/or admins.

Surveys and user feedback: some DAPs have the ability to embed surveys and gather valuable insights from users to measure satisfaction.

Announcement and news: DAPs may provide users with up-to-date information about the application and share the news with your employees.

Knowledge management: DAPs may be able to consolidate all materials into one location. Some can even convert in-app guidance into other media formats. This means users can access the relevant information in-app via centralized knowledge portals.

Analytics: DAPs should come with some form of analytics, but there are different levels of insight and approaches to consider. End-user engagement with DAP support is the minimum, but DAPs can also provide a view into software or process performance. Our platform even provides proactive insights into user behavior and potential process pain points.

It’s also important to remember that while many DAP providers are pushing the boundaries of enterprise tech, mobile capabilities and multi-app integrations, this may not be strictly necessary for your business requirements. Make sure you focus on what’s truly going to benefit your organization. Do you need all the features, or will a choice few do most of the heavy lifting?

And while cost is important, the level of in-app support and analytics that different DAPs offer can vary significantly on this basis. Look towards your budget and what features will be the most valuable for your organization. It may seem like you’re saving money initially, but make sure you look at the long-term benefits of different DAPs, especially if internal resource is light. Remember, a product that fits your specific needs will be more valuable than an ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ product.

Remember, though, that product features should not be the sole consideration. You should also consider the type of vendor you work with, and the wraparound services they offer.

Key DAP vendor attributes

Support and services: What wraparound support does your business need, and what level of support do different DAP vendors provide? For example, can they help in deploying the platform, or customizing it to your specific needs? Will they provide training support post-rollout? Does it offer a plug and play approach? Do you require additional advice or implementation support, or are you able to get started with the tools at your disposal?

Internal resources: If you don’t have enough resource internally to manage applications, arrange training, oversee new software rollouts, you may need a DAP partner that offers professional services to get things up and running. This level of support is more than just the product, covering things like the implementation, production of in-app support and analysis required to get your DAP up and running, and unlocking value in your software.

Business size: The larger your business, the more likely you are to encounter complexities – whether it’s requiring applications in multiple languages, or rolling technology out across a variety of roles or locations. Support through a DAP will need to be something more sophisticated to account for these needs, if it is to be tailored to support a variety of translations or location-specific processes.

Additionally, when there are more users, there’s always more data. This may not take more time to analyze, but it will create a potential for more splits of data and insight. Different DAPs come with different costs, features and services.

The size and culture of your team and organization should influence your decision on the best DAP and vendor relationship for you.

Pricing models: Most DAP providers offer custom pricing based on a range of considerations, from number of users to number of applications it will need to overlay. Often the prices of these solutions are based on your unique requirements and tailored specifically to your business. However, some have basic and premium plans with respective feature sets.

Whether you’re looking for a free but time-demanding trial or a managed integration like we offer, the best way to get a clear indication of the overall costs is to get a detailed quote from the vendor.

Types of partnership: The right DAP for your business will obviously have to take costs into consideration. However, it also comes down to the relationship you’re looking for from a DAP vendor. Are you looking for hands-off product access or partner-like support?

As part of your business case, you may want to make sure you pick a vendor that can rise to the challenge you’re looking to solve. Are they willing to speak with your internal teams, to educate, offer advice and support with the rollout of a DAP? If this matters to you, and we think it should, then you need to find out early on.

Product format: DAPs come in various formats. Some are browser-based plug-ins, while others are mobile or desktop apps. Some DAPs are customer-facing, helping your clients move through your applications while others are focused on your internal team’s needs. Here are some of the key functionalities you’ll want to consider when choosing a DAP:

Customer success teams: Some vendors offer a dedicated customer success team, who work day in, day out to support new and existing customers with their DAP projects. They’ll help you make sure your software works for your team on an ongoing basis, leveraging the tech to solve new challenges. Our VP of Customer Success has written a post about this and how working with a customer success team can boost your DAP roll out.

Insights and reporting: When bringing your business case together, make sure you’ve thought about the type of analytics you want from your DAP. Do you just need simple statistics for a specific app, or do you want to go deeper and measure user journeys across processes within an app and across others. Who will benefit from the insights the DAP provides? Is it so you can offer high level insights to senior stakeholders and executives, or will you use the insights to make changes to existing software and processes?

Your executive team may just want to know the bottom-line figures, but they might value in-depth insight into how your team use, adopt and experience technology across the organization. Some DAPs can provide analytics into upstream and downstream applications that might contribute to poor digital employee experience. AppLearn Adopt goes even further, allowing you to proactively optimize the entire workflow, rather than focusing on specific applications or reactive issues.

Analytics like this will reveal opportunities to enhance performance metrics like experience, engagement and milestone completion, and to optimize software and licensing spending based on usage. This allows you to make continual improvements to applications and workflows, saving time and money in the long run, by making your workplace tech more intuitive to use.

Step three: Demonstrate the rollout plan

Once you’ve mapped out how a DAP can solve your organization’s tech challenges, compiled the data and compared the vendors, it’s time to start thinking about how the DAP will be rolled out across your business. Internal stakeholders will want to know that you’ve considered every aspect ahead of time, so put together a plan with all the details you need, including:

Exact details of timings
The internal resource you’ll need
The team members you’d like to be involved
The training and comms you’ll need to provide
How you’re factoring in security considerations

These details will differ depending on your organization’s needs and size, but some vendors can support you in putting timing plans together. Vendors may also support with speaking to internal teams and providing training, so make sure you discuss this early in the process.

Outlining how users and administrators will be impacted by the introduction of a DAP is a key part of any plan you put together.

It’s important that you plan for how to communicate with your team why you’re introducing a DAP – so they understand it’s all about getting more value out of the digital tools they use every day. After all, like any software, a DAP can’t reach its full potential without your team knowing the exact purpose behind any behavior changes.

Within the business case, you could outline how you’d approach the internal comms – the key points you need to get across, where you will signpost employees if they have further questions, and the frequency and format of these communications. You’ll also want to outline the training that might be required to get to grips with the DAP, for those who will be involved in the rollout or back-end administration.

Depending on the vendor, modifying the in-app support or leveraging the analytics may be relatively simple or more time-consuming. Either way, you would be wise to consider the associated skills training that should come with this too.

It can be beneficial to bring together different representatives from relevant teams (such as legal, IT and security) early in the process too. This can reduce friction and delays down the line, as affected departments and stakeholders can provide their own perspectives on what matters to them and their teams, and input this into the rollout plans.

And as we mentioned earlier, it’s also important to make sure you have the scope and goals of the project outlined ahead of time. Here you’ll map out exactly what you want your DAP to achieve and the benefits it’ll have for your business.

If you want to find out more about handling a seamless DAP rollout, our VP of Professional Services has put together a guide on how to create an effective software implementation plan .

Step four: Map out associated costs and savings

Outlining the costs and savings of the project is an important part of any business case, and you’ll be unlikely to get sign-off from internal stakeholders without it. As with any other software, DAPs come with costs associated with platform maintenance and infrastructure, there are some additional costs you should factor into your business case. These include:

Implementation costs: Implementing a DAP may require collaboration between you and your vendor’s teams. You can work together to build step-by-step guidance that’s tailored to your organization’s needs. However, these services may have a cost attached, so it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons of the additional expertise. This may be an opportunity to revisit the current costs that build up when you’re not making use of a DAP and compare the two.

The cost of infrastructure, documentation, communications and training: Are these included as part of your DAP purchase or do you need to budget/allow time to create your own? How much time and money will you need to spend on training to use a DAP, for example?

The return on investment that a DAP could deliver: If you’ve already worked out how much not having a DAP costs you year-on-year, you can balance that against the costs of the platform. A good return on investment will always make your business case more compelling. In fact, Interfor saved over $200,000 in just nine months using our DAP , Adopt. Savings like this show just how much of a rapid return on investment a DAP can provide.

Vendor cost comparisons: As we mentioned earlier, overall costs are not the be all and end all. However, comparisons of cost vs features can help you build your business case because it outlines the value for money you’ll get.

Software licensing savings: As a DAP offers you better transparency into the usage of applications, you’ll be sure you’re using them to their full potential. This means you can cut down on other software that you don’t need, saving you costs on unnecessary licensing fees.

IT support savings: DAPs can provide in-app guidance and streamlined support for users, meaning they are likely to need less help and support from the IT team to complete certain tasks. For example, we helped King’s College London reduce admin approval time by 66% .

Presenting all these costs and savings to your internal stakeholders helps to create a solid business case – and shows the scale of the savings a DAP can bring.

A comprehensive business case is key to getting your DAP journey started. In this guide, we’ve laid out the steps you’ll need to take when creating this case for a DAP, but

It’s important to remember that vendors – like us here at AppLearn – can support you in gathering the relevant information to make sure you’re in the best position to move forward. This includes identifying the problem and working out exactly how a DAP can solve it. We can also help you gather DAP product information and costs, useful to present back to your team.

Ready to get your business case together? We’re here to help. And maybe we’re biased, but we think you should include our DAP offering, Adopt, in your business case.

AppLearn celebrates record half-year growth

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 13:30:00 GMT

AppLearn celebrates record half-year growth

AppLearn, a rapidly growing tech scale-up, has achieved record growth in the first half of its financial year, covering January through June. The business recorded revenue growth of 138% when compared to the same period last year.

The Manchester-headquartered business has also recorded a 240% increase in deals secured with new and existing customers – securing more in Q2 alone than the entirety of FY21. In 2022 so far, it has also onboarded major brands including shipping conglomerate Stena Line, joining existing customers such as Nissan and EY.

Quickly consolidating its position within the digital adoption platform (DAP) market, valued at £13bn in 2022, AppLearn’s growth comes off the back of an impressive start to the year. In January, it secured 8-figure funding from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

It has enabled the business to grow its team by 11%, and as it continues to actively recruit, the business has secured listings in the Best Companies ‘Outstanding Place to Work’ and ‘Top 15 Tech Company’ in the UK.

In February, AppLearn completed a major acquisition of a Slovakia-based DAP provider YesElf. The move enabled the business to triple its development capacity and take onboard a Bratislava-based office – joining its Boston, San Francisco and Manchester locations. It also has seen AppLearn climb the ranks as a major contender in the 2022 Everest PEAK Matrix, an analysis of the global DAP vendor market.

AppLearn CEO Andrew Avanessian shared: “The scale of digital transformation in recent years has created the ideal conditions for the DAP market to grow, given the platform’s ability to help organizations unlock value from their software and applications investments.

“With this market opportunity front of mind, we started the year with a real focus on having the foundations in place to grow at pace: securing the right funding, investing in our people and building a best-in-class product. As a result, we’ve achieved our best year to date, only six months into our financial year. In fact, we’ve accumulated more revenue in the last quarter alone than the entirety of last year. Sales have accelerated, we’ve been able to attract and retain some of the best talent in the region, triple our development capacity and are now working with some of the most prolific global brands.

“We’ve firmly cemented our position in Manchester’s thriving tech scene, and our focus now is on ramping up our international ambitions, whether it’s through the customers we work with or expanding our physical presence outside of the UK. With momentum growing, we’re in a prime position to build upon this for the remainder of 2022 and beyond.”

AppLearn certified as a Most Loved Workplace®

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 14:02:00 GMT

AppLearn certified as a Most Loved Workplace®

AppLearn has become certified as a Most Loved Workplace®, backed by Best Practice Institute (BPI) research and analysis. Most Loved Workplace® validation provides the most comprehensive look at workplace sentiment for organizations today.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn, commented: “This is a fantastic achievement for us. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, our people are our most important asset so it’s crucial for us to build an environment where people feel comfortable and can develop.

“We’re growing rapidly and know how important it is to have a winning culture to attract and retain top talent – SaaS is a competitive landscape, you’ve got to look after your people. This latest certification is something that we are immensely proud of and it is great to see our efforts being recognized.”

AppLearn has been certified as a Most Loved Workplace ® because of its longstanding commitment to its employees. From benefits and support, through to alignment of values and future vision, AppLearn places employees at the center of business decisions.

This certification follows a strong 2022 for the SaaS business. Earlier this year, AppLearn was recognized as an Outstanding place to work by employee engagement specialists, Best Companies .

About Most Loved Workplaces®

Most Loved Workplaces® certify companies where employees are the happiest and most satisfied at work. AppLearn became certified as a Most Loved Workplace® based on its scores on the Love of Workplace Index™, which surveys employees on various elements around employee satisfaction and sentiment, including the level of respect, collaboration, support, and sense of belonging they feel inside the Company.

“I started Most Loved Workplaces® out of inspiration from my community of people who consciously place love for their employees at the center of their business model,” said Louis Carter, the founder, and CEO of BPI and a social/organizational psychologist, thought leader, entrepreneur, and author. Carter’s book, “In Great Company: How to Spark Peak Performance by Creating an Emotionally Connected Workplace,” identifies the specific areas needed to become a highly respected, reputable organization where people love to work with each other – a Most Loved Workplace®.

In its original research that created MLW criteria, Backed by BPI, Most Loved Workplaces® surveyed more than 175 companies and more than 3,000 executives across Europe, United States, Middle East/Northern Africa, and Southeast Asia.

They found that productivity rises as employee sentiment increases, with 94 percent of responders saying they did three to four times more work for a company they loved and 95 percent saying they stayed at companies they loved three to four times longer. Most Loved Workplaces® certification is the most valid method to determine employee experience and recognize a top workplace that is loved by its employees.

To apply for and get certified as a Most Loved Workplace® and be considered for next year’s Top 100 lists published in Newsweek, visit mostlovedworkplace.com .

To learn more about the Best Practice Institute, visit bestpracticeinstitute.org .

AppLearn strengthens position in 2022 Digital Adoption Platform PEAK Matrix®

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 10:21:00 GMT

AppLearn strengthens position in 2022 Digital Adoption Platform PEAK Matrix®

AppLearn has been recognized as a Major Contender in the third annual Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) Products PEAK Matrix® Assessment report from independent research firm Everest Group.

Improving its standing against both market impact and vision and capability criteria, AppLearn is positioned as one of the leading vendors among the 20 DAP providers evaluated in the 2022 DAP PEAK Matrix.

In the independent assessment, Everest Group noted AppLearn’s mature analytics offering, extensive partner network and growing AI and machine learning powered end-user experience capabilities as key strengths.

AppLearn reference customers lauded the Adopt platform’s ease of setup and configuration and appreciated AppLearn’s strong customer communication and the responsive nature of its support team.

“We continue to see momentous growth in the DAP market in 2022 and we’re thrilled to feature once again in this comprehensive market evaluation from Everest Group,” said Andrew Avanessian, CEO of AppLearn. “We’re particularly pleased to be recognized for the analytical insights we deliver, along with the strength of support our customers receive when they partner with us.”

“Our strong position in this year’s evaluation is continued proof of the success of our recent YesElf acquisition , as we continue to invest in strengthening our product and the value we deliver to customers.”

Everest Group has been at the forefront of evaluating the Digital Adoption Platform landscape for several years. In this latest report, Everest Group writes “As companies carry on with the uphill task of going digital and embracing the latest technologies to stay on top of their game, DAP is strengthening its position as an enabler for organizations. More enterprises are now looking at solutions such as DAP to navigate new technologies to provide impeccable customer and employee experiences.”

A complimentary abstract and the full report are available on the Everest Group website .

Sustaining software change success after launch

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 10:25:00 GMT

Sustaining software change success after launch

Whilst introducing new digital tools adds value to your business—improving efficiencies, simplifying processes—purchasing new software is a significant financial investment so it’s something you absolutely need to get right.

Software change can be a distraction for your employees, taking up their valuable time. It can be difficult to find the motivation to use new software, particularly if it doesn’t have a direct impact on their day job, HR tools as an example. This can mean employees are disengaged, not wanting to spend their time learning how to use new software; even though it will help them, and the business, in the long run.

Factors such as this add an unquantifiable cost for businesses, on top of the actual investment in the software itself. If the change isn’t a success and adoption rates are lower than expected, then the return on investment can unravel.

As we discussed in a previous blog post— creating an effective software implementation plan —software implementation should include ongoing improvements, communication, and training after roll out. One of the biggest mistakes businesses can make is seeing software change as a linear process that finishes on the launch date . The truth is that success must be sustained long into the future. You must continually monitor change; looking ahead and planning how your business may need to pivot to navigate any challenges, improvements or updates.

So, let’s talk through the ways your business can make sure your software change project remains a success even after launch.

Monitor software adoption

Of course, you need to make sure that your team is actually using the new software. But it’s also useful to keep an eye on how they interact with the software day-to-day, and spot any issues they might be having.

Analytics tools can be invaluable for this. The right system can give you powerful insights that can guide the optimization of software on an ongoing basis. Software like digital adoption platforms (DAPs) can give you deep insight into end-user experience and efficiency such as total time spent within a specific application and time spent on key tasks. DAPs let you gauge whether the new software is a help or hindrance to your employees, and where additional support might be needed to improve adoption rates.

Don’t forget to ask for regular feedback from your employees too, when it comes to monitoring adoption. Where face-to-face feedback sessions are difficult to schedule—let’s face it, getting more than two people in a room these days is near impossible—DAPs provide an excellent opportunity to not only support and guide users through software, but to capture feedback directly within an application. This means you can build a fuller picture of how your users are finding the software.

Keep sponsors motivated

Sponsors are responsible for getting the go-ahead for software change and ensuring it gets off the ground. But all too often, sponsors are quickly drawn to the next project on their list of priorities once the launch takes place. It’s often seen as ‘job done’.

It’s really important that your sponsor is involved in post-launch improvements. As we’ve said, new software roll outs are not an open-and-shut challenge. The change is continuous, and sponsors should remain engaged in the project to ensure they’re aware of challenges that may arise.

This is particularly beneficial because sponsors tend to hold the keys to resources. So, their involvement really is key to continued success. Your sponsor should be aware of post-launch objectives from the very beginning and keep them front on mind throughout all phases of the project.

Software change management must be adaptable

For software change to be a success, it must be adaptable. You need to be ready to make changes as and when the business needs them. Shiny new software is great, but what happens when there are significant UI updates for the software? Or if there are shifts in business vision and direction?

This is where digital adoption software can help. As well as giving you insight into what needs to change, DAPs also give you the means to communicate and highlight these changes; whether that’s making sure users walk through new updates to the application or can access helpful resources.

The importance of a customer success team

When sustaining success in your change project, don’t underestimate the support your chosen vendor can provide on an ongoing basis. Customer success teams are a dedicated group of people that work to make your change successful in the long term. They focus on helping you leverage the software to solve new challenges.

If your DAP has been successful in helping you roll out new software, then a customer success team can help you capitalize on this success. They’ll help you identify other inefficiencies in the business and ensure continued software optimization.

In fact, before you even implement a new piece of software, make sure you find out exactly what kind of support your vendor provides. Try to get a clear idea of how this team works and the level of ongoing support they’ll provide.

Take us at AppLearn, we have a customer success team that does exactly this. It means our clients are able to get the absolute best out of the software they use, with the help of our experts.

Customer success teams make sure your change can reach its goals, year after year, supporting across launch objectives, long-term success, and value delivery.

To wrap up…

Building a relationship with your vendor’s customer success team is one really important way to sustain the success of your software change. After all, your investment could be significant, so gaining a true ROI is critical. Customer success teams are there to help you achieve this.

The most important thing to remember about sustaining change success is that change is never linear. It doesn’t have a defined endpoint. It’s continuous. Truly understanding this means monitoring adoption, keeping sponsors engaged, remaining flexible, and tracking success.

And the best way to do this… you guessed it… is using a DAP. Want to learn more about our products and services? Head over to our product page .

Why transformational change management depends on the digital employee experience

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 15:20:00 GMT

Why transformational change management depends on the digital employee experience

Business software change is always tricky. The switch to a new process or application will usually involve significant investment, from the cost of the new technology to the time and effort spent by an organization to get it in place.

But it doesn’t stop simply with installing software. With more and more applications being used to assist the working day, processes should be simpler, faster and more efficient. However, without the right approach, introducing different software and different routes to support can create a more complex digital environment for employees. And this is only exaggerated when remote work is thrown into the mix.

In fact, in our Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience report, we revealed that 21% of employees are more frustrated with business applications now than they were pre-pandemic. We also found 39% spent 30 minutes a day just looking for support. For large businesses in the US, this could be totting up to 172,091 hours lost per year.

It’s clear that the digital employee experience is not sitting front and center of digital change, and as new software and applications are added to the tech stack, it’s having consequences for productivity, time and that all important ROI. What might be behind the lack of focus on digital employee experience? Often, it comes down to the mindset that businesses take towards change.

When change is seen as purely tactical rather than transformational, you’re far less likely to see the results you set out to achieve when introducing new tech. The key is knowing what transformational change actually looks like. We’ll explore this, and how to achieve it, in this blog.

The difference between tactical and transformational change

In our Rising to HR’s Digital Employee Experience Challenge webinar we explored using the digital workplace to improve employee satisfaction and keep one step ahead of competitors.

In the session, we spoke about how organizations are investing heavily in digital transformation projects, whether expanding use of existing applications or onboarding new technologies. If your organization is in a similar situation, you’ll of course want to make sure you’re getting real ROI on these investments. So, it’s important to make sure you manage software change effectively – and that starts with how you view the scale of your change.

You might assume the process would be relatively straightforward. Simply updating or replacing current technology with new or replacing a filing system with a cloud-based solution. Leading with technology in this way is known as tactical change.

It makes sense that businesses tend to think about software change in this way – after all, it is about bringing technology in line with the most current ways of working. But in doing so, you risk forgetting about the people that use this technology every day.

Remember the stat about how much time employees spend looking for support? When change is approached tactically, employees are often left behind, as they try to figure out how to use unfamiliar technology.

So, how can you approach change management in a way that drives results while keeping the digital employee experience at the heart?

Transformational change is all about thinking holistically. This means not only considering what the change will look like once it’s implemented, but equipping people with the tools needed to prepare for it. It’s about defining how we’re going to focus on people’s adoption of the solution, in the long run.

Jimmy Barton, an organizational change & training manager at Collaborative Solutions, joined our webinar and highlighted how digital adoption is one of the truest measures of success. So how do you do this?

In short, by placing people and their experiences at the forefront of change management, you can ensure you drive the outcomes you set out to achieve. That means making sure people are brought along on the journey to implementing the change.

Focusing on transformational change in a software context means looking at true adoption of new technologies, the way people will interact with it, the training required and the support your organization will need throughout the switch.

How to achieve transformational change management

Approaching change management through a transformational lens – in other words, by focusing on the digital employee experience – will set you up for success. And to help you do this, we’ve broken it down into six key steps which we go into more detail on in our Definitive Guide to Software & IT Change Management .

Of course, looking at digital employee experience isn’t the only way to achieve change management success. You still need to think about the wider digital adoption strategy . But even so, it’s important to keep the following steps in mind:

Communicate the change – A switch in software or processes will undoubtedly affect your people. Make sure you communicate any changes before this switch, from what it involves, how your change management program is expected to unfold, where and how training on the new software will be delivered, and where they can go to with any additional questions.
Promote a culture of embracing change – As well as readying your team for a change in software use, you want them to be open to the switch. Embracing transformational change in this manner requires an organization-wide effort, and you can affect culture shifts by showing teams the impact your change management program will have on their day-to-day, for the better.
Set clear goals on expected behaviors – How do you want people’s day-to-day activities to change as a result of the switch? It might be saving time using certain applications or accessing IT support. To set these goals up for success, make sure you communicate shifts in behaviors as a result of the new software to your teams.
Share best practice – As well as training on how to use the new software, make sure you share specific best practice examples. Perhaps it’s a video or specific instructional guide for certain processes. Consider nominating particular people to be ‘best practice’ champions, and work with them to roll out examples across the wider organization.
Train on new software (and don’t stop) – Don’t assume any knowledge when it comes to use of new software – ‘over prepare’ people with training on how to get to grips with the change. And don’t fall into a ‘one and done’ trap. If people will be using these new systems for the long-term, offer ongoing, regular training and support, tailored to their needs.
Deliver associated skills training – Will your new software require people to learn new skills to execute tasks well? Look beyond training on the new systems itself and consider if you need to offer ‘associated’ skills training.

Of course, even with these six steps in mind, there isn’t necessarily a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ when it comes to transformational change management. It should be entirely shaped around your organization’s people, software needs, goals, knowledge and training.

That said, approaching change management with this mindset, and putting the digital employee experience at the center, will set you up for greater long-term success.

Five steps to creating an effective software implementation plan

Mon, 30 May 2022 13:58:00 GMT

Five steps to creating an effective software implementation plan

Software change and implementation comes with challenges. Choosing the right software, the right vendor, working through the roll-out, and encouraging your staff to not only use, but properly adopt the new software, needs careful consideration. That’s why planning is so key to the success of your project.

So, what is a software implementation plan and how do you create one? In short, it’s a plan that helps you effectively manage the switch to new applications and/or processes – and there are five simple steps you can follow to maximize success.

At AppLearn, we know what it takes to make a software implementation plan a success. We have helped hundreds of businesses, from EY to Cushman & Wakefield , across the globe make their software implementations a success with their users by implementing a digital adoption platform (DAP). So, we thought we’d share the five key steps you need to take to create a plan that will help you get the most out of your software.

A good software implementation plan starts with a realistic team

The key to driving a successful software implementation plan is getting the right people involved early on. In our experience, there are three key roles that must be covered within your assembled team: software sponsors, subject matter experts, and project managers.

The sponsor is often going to be a senior stakeholder who has made the case for the new software or who is likely to benefit the most from its success – so has a personal stake in making sure it is a success. Often, they’ll have an eye on budgets, they’ll have authority across functional areas to influence resources, as well as an understanding of how the change will benefit the organization. The sponsor may sit outside of the team and will not deal with the day-to-day, but because they buy into the outcomes and have access to the resources – and people – they are key to keeping the project moving.

Another crucial step in getting the right software implementation team together is to speak to your IT department. They’ll have knowledge of the software and systems in place already and may be able to help with decisions on which vendor to choose or team members to assign to the project.

While the sponsor heads up the change, they will not have the time to oversee every single element of the software implementation project themselves. This is where project managers are vital, to keep track of all the moving parts of the implementation and to give feedback to stakeholders on any potential issues. The sponsor and their project managers should have a regular Steerco meeting where key exceptions and blockers should be discussed.

While team sizes will vary depending on resource and the nature of the software being implemented, these three roles will be crucial to making any plan a success.

Agree scope and goals ahead of time

Before committing to a particular piece of software or vendor, make sure the project is thoroughly planned. Speak to stakeholders, the assigned team, and potential future users of the software to see how their work-life would be impacted by it.

While the features of the software are important, focus on the desired outcomes of the software. What do you want your new software to offer your business overall? How do you see it impacting day-to-day processes? Approaching software this way rather than with a specific vendor or set of functions already in mind will help you create a strategy that works for all involved, especially the users, which is where the return on investment comes from.

When the time comes to speak to vendors, find out ahead of time exactly how much help and support they will offer and how much you require from them. Will they provide your employees with dedicated, thorough training or will that be your company’s responsibility? What is the scope of in-app support materials they offer? Will they provide long-term help for any issues that arise down the line? It’s helpful to get all this information together in a ‘needs document,’ then share with your chosen vendor and set clear parameters from the get-go.

Consider time, too. What’s the scope of the project – and could you plan for some scope creep? Reliable vendors often factor in extra time for this, so make sure you’re clear on how much that is before committing.

Don’t forget to ask the vendor how they’ll work with your wider team. Do they have a single point of contact or are they on hand to help with any pain points if they arise? Will they work with your IT team or subject matter experts, or prefer for it all to be funneled through one person within your organization? Define contact and communication early on, to set expectations on both sides.

Encourage user adoption

No matter how brilliant your new software is, implementation doesn’t always equal immediate, widespread adoption. If users aren’t properly trained or don’t understand how the software can help them, there’s a chance they might log in and have a play around, but not use it to its fullest potential on a regular basis. This means money down the drain for your investment.

Putting implementation plans in place early on to get users fully integrated into the new system can be helpful. For this to work, communication is key. Make sure your staff are aware of planned changes ahead of time and understand how it will impact their day-to-day.

Getting feedback on the proposed changes can help you tailor the way the software works to meet their needs: if they feel it will help them, they’ll be more likely to stick with it after all. It’s also useful to set out your expectations for how they should engage with the software from the start, and that people are aware of the training or support they can access, if they need it.

When putting together your software implementation plan you may also want to explore a digital adoption platform (DAP). DAPs can layer on top of your new software to add tailored support and training, to enhance the user experience, fast-track learning, simplify new processes and essentially prevent frustrations with new tech. Interested? Here’s more on digital adoption platforms .

Focus on reporting

Before you start the software roll out, plan how you’ll measure outputs and agree these with your key stakeholders.

This might be tracking how people are interacting with the software, and whether they are using it to its full capabilities. These reports should provide addressable points if the new software is lacking, or aspects people are finding challenging. It’ll help you tailor your training and simplify processes.

These should be in line with the goals you will have outlined as part of agreeing the scope of the project – which we touched on in step two. It’s important to make sure these goals are measurable – or that you can at least capture the factors and metrics they may influence or feed into.

We always champion going beyond ‘surface’ level measures, like logins, and delve into metrics that can really paint a picture of how software is being embraced (or not). This can be done using a DAP, which works in the background to monitor user interaction with software. DAPs make the reporting process simple, removing the guesswork. We get into the detail of reporting in our Definitive Guide to Software and IT Change Management , looking at the best ways to successfully measure software utilization.

Remember: ongoing support should be part of any good software implementation plan

People often see go-live as the end point of their software implementation project. However, when putting together your plan, think further ahead. Expect – and plan for – post-launch improvements. Software implementation is not linear, and you should aim to improve how it works for the team constantly by offering ongoing support to your organization.

This might mean frequent training refreshers, which can be adapted to suit any software updates or changes in ways of working. Asking for regular feedback from staff can give you insight into what works and what doesn’t in how they use the new software.

Your vendor should provide you with a dedicated customer success plan and team to make sure your software implementation is an ongoing success. AppLearn’s professional services team do just this, spending dedicated time post-go-live to make sure your software is working better for you. Part of this process is arranging reviews, where you can discuss what is working and what isn’t, with a keen eye on how to develop and improve.

Key takeaways

When software implementation is done right, you’ll see productivity on the rise, streamlined processes and time savings for your organization and your people.

The best software implementations are backed by a solid team, a well-thought-through plan, in-depth reporting, a focus on proper digital adoption and a willingness to continually improve.

Focusing on these areas is the key to getting the most out of your new software and making sure it’s a success – for the long-term.

AppLearn awarded top-15 position in Best Companies league table

Wed, 25 May 2022 14:25:00 GMT

AppLearn awarded top-15 position in Best Companies league table

AppLearn, the leading digital adoption platform (DAP) vendor, has been ranked 15 ^th in Best Companies’ latest league table of the best technology companies to work for.

The news follows AppLearn being recognized as an outstanding place to work by Best Companies last month. The employee engagement specialists acknowledge businesses that appreciate the importance of a motivated, engaged workforce.

Laura Packwood, Head of People at AppLearn , commented: “Our top-15 ranking and 2-star accreditation mean so much. In a competitive sector full of businesses going the extra mile, I am delighted that we’re building a place where people want to be.”

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn , added: “The technology sector leads the way in so many areas, and employee engagement is no exception. This recognition of AppLearn being an environment where people can both enjoy and excel themselves is another hugely important milestone. We have big ambitions in a high-growth industry, and it’s our people that will make them possible.”

This league ranking and two-star recognition continues the positive momentum of a strong 2022 for the fast-growing SaaS business.

After announcing an 8-figure funding from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance in January, AppLearn completed the major acquisition of YesElf , a Slovakia-based DAP provider, in February.

Packwood, continued: “2022 has been a wonderful year so far, and shows no sign of letting up. With plans to further enhance our product and grow our team, we look forward to continuing our journey. Our people, culture and values are what have got us to this point, and we’ll only be investing further in them and ongoing recruitment.”

How to improve the Digital Employee Experience with a DAP

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 09:19:00 GMT

How to improve the Digital Employee Experience with a DAP

The world of work is getting more digital by the day. We’re spending more time online, using tech and travelling across multiple applications to get our work done. But are we doing this in the most efficient, effective way?

In this guide, we’re going to take a look at the digital employee experience, but focus on how you can support it and create a better way of working for your teams. You’ll find out more about software that can drive digital adoption, support your employees and keep associated costs down for your organization. So, let’s get into it.

What is the digital employee experience?

Plenty of us use technology to support our working day. In fact, you might spend the majority of your day at a computer. You might use an app to log absences. You might use complex software to support your work every day. Wherever you fall along this spectrum and whatever your role or sector, you’re bound to be impacted by what many these days call ‘digital employee experience’: how we interact with different applications, software and technologies throughout the day.

Ultimately, the digital employee experience (DEX) can be looked at in two ways:

The way people interact with different applications throughout their working day
The strategy a business has for this experience and associated effectiveness

We’re going to delve into the tools that can support digital employee experience and how it is intertwined with digital adoption in this guide, but if you want to find more about the topic as a whole and how to create an employee experience strategy, check out our Ultimate Guide to Digital Employee Experience .

Why is digital employee experience important?

Digital employee experience is a key aspect of someone’s working life – especially if they are using multiple applications to fulfill their role.

We know because we’ve done the research. In our Hidden Cost of the Digital Employee Experience report, underpinned by research from YouGov, we uncovered some eye-opening stats:

76% of people spend up to 6 hours using business applications every working day
On average, employees spend 3 hours each week navigating between different applications
Large businesses in the US are losing 172,091 hours a year to employees searching for tech support
In total, US large businesses could be missing out on $6m every year due to lost productivity

While there’s a clear business case for focusing on digital employee experience, above all else, the driving force should be to create an environment that helps people do their job effectively. Get digital employee experience right, and it can be the difference between a frustrated member of your team, and one who feels empowered, motivated and supported to complete their best work.

What are digital adoption platforms?

A digital adoption platform (or DAP) is an intelligent piece of software that can support your employee experience efforts. Put simply, it makes business applications easier to use. It will help you to analyze and improve how your teams interact with key software, measuring employee experience at the same time.

By overlaying your chosen application(s) – including Salesforce, Workday, Cornerstone, Oracle and more – a DAP ‘learns’ how people use and interact with software. It uses data to identify recurrent issues and puts interventions in place to help software users solve them there and then, while also preventing them in the future.

For example, someone might be tasked with using a particular application to upload a document to a key portal. This person might have used the application in question before, but not had to locate and use the portal. They could spend time navigating back and forth between different areas of the application, perhaps repeatedly uploading the document to the wrong area.

They look for a chatbot or a Help section – and can’t immediately find one. Frustration is rising. Time is adding up. It might, on the surface, seem like a minor inconvenience, but consider this could be happening across multiple applications a day. Extrapolate this to hundreds (if not thousands) of employees and you start to see how important getting the digital employee experience right is.

Add a DAP to the mix and key interventions, delivered at the right point in time, can prevent these issues from occurring. By tracking how people use applications, a DAP can detect if people are struggling with certain functions, and provide useful tips and support – at the exact moment they need it – to help them complete the task in hand. This could be a timely in-app chatbot or a pop-up with a relevant ‘How To’ guide.

Want a little more detail on how DAPs work? Our guide on digital adoption and DAPs is a useful jumping off point.

How do digital adoption platforms support digital employee experience?

DAPs mean you can offer consistent support to employees across applications, creating a digital employee experience that meets your people’s needs. Broadly, DAPs can:

Improve engagement and productivity

We can’t always predict when people will encounter a tech challenge. But we can, through a DAP, have the insight into what is creating friction. Analytics gathered through a DAP can shine a light on the issues your people are facing. The targeted in-app support can help to simplify workflows and keep app users engaged, delivering a frustration-free experience.

Accelerate training and onboarding

An employee’s first touchpoint with an application should provide them with the support and training needed to use it effectively in the future. And with a DAP, you can create a personalized, user-friendly onboarding process, helping to deliver a digital experience that is tailored to them.

Provide software support when it’s needed

The software we use at work isn’t static, and frequent updates and releases, across multiple applications, can prove a challenge for people to use and for you to communicate to employees. The tailored in-app support that a DAP provides can help your people to navigate software changes and build their knowledge of new features and functions.

Support remote or hybrid working

Though a good digital employee experience has always been important, the overnight global shift to remote and hybrid working has certainly accelerated it up the agenda. The sheer scale of change meant businesses had to act fast, but there may be gaps in the software introduced to help people stay connected and productive at work. And if face-to-face training isn’t possible, it could only compound the challenge. DAPs provide analytics for you to know your people are effectively engaging with new and existing software, and the resources and guidance your teams need to complete their work, no matter where they are based.

DAPs and the digital employee experience – how does it work?

We recently worked with King’s College London to maximize their training resources for software used by 7,000 people. Wanting to improve engagement with Unit4 Enterprise Resource Planning, the team initially planned to produce a video to support its roll-out across the organization.

Having worked with their HR team previously, AppLearn provided an overview of how our own digital adoption platform, Adopt, could overlay Unit4. Seeing the ease of set-up and configurability possibilities of the platform, the King’s team realized a DAP would be a more intuitive route to help engage, train and support users of Unit4.

Ahead of roll-out, we worked with the team to help create the process, training and FAQ resources that would be embedded into the software, through the use of Adopt. DAPs such as our own can provide step-by-step guidance as a person uses an app, to help them navigate key functions, supporting task completion and accuracy.

By easily embedding Adopt into Unit4, King’s has seen:

66% reduction in admin time on expense approvals
25% time saving through in-app support
32% user increase for targeted processes

“AppLearn have enhanced our software in a way I haven’t seen in any other organization,” Mayur Odedra, Systems Manager at King’s College London told us, “Throughout the lifecycle of the project AppLearn were incredibly helpful – from project plan and setup to ongoing support. Adopt has not only given us an improvement to the employee experience, but brought us much, much closer to our users.”

Want to know more? Read the full King’s success story to see firsthand how Adopt has revolutionized their approach to digital employee experience.

Getting started with a DAP

You understand why digital employee experience is critical to your people and your business. You know that a DAP could help. So, where do you begin when introducing a platform to your organization? Following a digital employee experience framework to create an appropriate strategy is the right way to tackle some of the tech challenges your people will be facing.

You should check out our simple seven-stage framework for the best outcome, but a key recommendation is to gather a full picture of the software your people use and the problems they might be facing with it. Explore if you can get actionable data on this to get a proper understanding of the digital environment your employees operate in.

This should identify the areas that need attention, and then opens the possibility of seeking a DAP to help address these challenges. The application(s) you need support with, the data you’re looking to gather, the skills you’re wanting to train should then inform your decision on the vendor you want to speak to. And if that brings you to AppLearn, we couldn’t be happier.

DAPs are an increasingly popular tool for major businesses across the globe. EY, Abbott, Cushman & Wakefield are just some of the market-leading organizations that use Adopt to give their employees better support. Interested in seeing how Adopt could help your teams? Watch our simple explainer video below.

AppLearn Adopt 2022 Spring Release

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 13:45:00 GMT

AppLearn Adopt 2022 Spring Release

The shift towards hybrid and remote working brought with it new technologies. Lots of them. As more and more people needed to collaborate and manage business functions remotely, organizations turned to tech solutions to support this new way of working.

As a result, organizations have become increasingly reliant on new technology, from collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, to applications delivering key business functions such as Workday, Salesforce and Sage.

The issue—this rapid rate of change is overwhelming, particularly for those having to adopt and navigate these new technologies.

The number of applications users interact with on a daily basis is rising. Our research shows that since March 2020, a fifth of employees within large organizations report being more frustrated with business applications. Whether it’s due to relying on an increased number of applications or poor experiences with certain workplace technologies, these struggles will continue without proper intervention.

The success of new software ultimately boils down to user adoption. If software isn’t implemented correctly—with the right communication, training, on-going support and guidance—it can leave users frustrated and searching for answers.

It’s with this in mind we have launched new features and enhanced current functionality in this release to support users feeling the administrative burden of multi-application setups.

Links

Our new Links module provides additional ways of delivering guidance and support to users directly in the flow of work.

Administrators can now generate a Resource Link within the Adopt platform that can link anywhere, and we mean anywhere. Resource Links can send users to external knowledge base articles, external URLs, other pages within the current application, or another application altogether. Not only does this direct users to the content they need right when they need it, but it significantly reduces the reliance on the Adopt Content Cloud, making version control for administrators much easier.

What’s more, these Resource Links can be embedded both within Adopt content such as Smart Pages or Tooltips, and within external locations such as a company email, chatbot or intranet.

Let’s play out an example.

Your organization has just launched a new expenses policy. Not only do your employees need to have visibility of the updated policy, but they also need support submitting an expenses claim.

Your organization sends out a company-wide email, communicating the change. Within this email, there is a Resource Link. The Resource Link takes the user directly to the expenses page within your HR platform.

From here, a Smart Page is launched automatically, offering two options:

Read about the changes – clicking this button takes the user out of the HR application and directly to the organizations intranet where the new policy is hosted
Submit a new expenses claim – clicking this launches a Tooltip sequence which walks the user through the new process

Smart Page & Tooltip sequencing

In addition to the launch of Links, we’ve further enhanced our Smart Page and Tooltip sequencing functionality.

You’ll remember in our last release we added the functionality to launch a Tooltip from a Smart Page. Now, administrators can also launch a Smart Page from a Tooltip.

Rather than just a simple ‘next’ or ‘previous’ button configuration within a Tooltip, we’ve built in additional navigation options, allowing administrators to launch Smart Pages and other content directly from a Tooltip.

Let’s play out another example.

You’ve launched a new reporting dashboard within your CRM.

When users login, they are presented with a Smart Page which includes a link to take a tour of the new dashboard. Clicking the link launches Tooltip guidance, taking the user step-by-step through the different reports and filtering capabilities of the dashboard.

Once the tour is complete, a new Smart Page is automatically launched, offering two options:

Set up your own dashboard – clicking this button launches a Smart Page which hosts a video explaining all there is to know about dashboard setup
Provide feedback – clicking this button sends the user to an external feedback tool (via a Resource Link) to submit their valuable feedback on the new dashboard

These new and enhanced features present a real opportunity for organizations to streamline and connect their digital processes. Not only helping users build application knowledge, but significantly reducing user frustration through the creation of single, unified workflows that can span multi-stage and multi-applications processes.

For more information on any of these updates get in touch using our contact page . Alternatively, request a demo for a personalized look at our digital adoption platform.

Best Companies recognize AppLearn as an outstanding place to work

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 10:40:00 GMT

Best Companies recognize AppLearn as an outstanding place to work

Digital adoption platform (DAP) vendor, AppLearn, has been recognized as an outstanding place to work by Best Companies.

The employee engagement specialists recognize and celebrate businesses that value their people and understand the importance of a truly engaged workforce.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn , commented: “We are immensely proud of this accreditation. As a business, we put a lot of time and effort into building something that people want to be a part of (that is fun with a purpose), and this recognition is affirmation that we are doing just that. Our people are our most important asset so it’s crucial for us that we develop a culture and an environment where people feel comfortable and can develop.”

Laura Packwood, Head of People at AppLearn , added: “I am really proud of this achievement, we know that we have a winning culture and have created a place that people want to work in, but to have this recognized feels so well deserved. This is testament to our people and how they demonstrate our core values in everything that they do, we have a real sense of belonging and togetherness”.

The two star accreditation follows an already very strong start to 2022 for the SaaS business.

In January, AppLearn announced a significant funding boost from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and investors, and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

Shortly following news of the 8-figure funding, AppLearn completed the major acquisition of YesElf , a Slovakia-based DAP provider.

Avanessian , continued: “This is a really exciting time for us. We’ve recently secured a significant round of funding, and we’ve just acquired another digital adoption platform vendor to significantly accelerate our market position. Add to that a huge recruitment drive, a booming interest in the DAP industry, and aggressive growth plans—the possibilities really are endless. And the best part—we are just getting started!”

How forward-thinking firms are turning digital employee experience into a competitive advantage

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 10:03:00 GMT

How forward-thinking firms are turning digital employee experience into a competitive advantage

We all know that the pandemic has changed the way we work. A rapid acceleration in digital transformation means organizations have been embracing new tech at breakneck speed. Just look at the figures—work applications onboarded by firms across all industries increased by 68% in the past few years alone.

This raises some important questions. Where does it leave employees who are trying to keep up with new tech and ways of working? How do employers make this new environment as seamless as possible? And can businesses actually use the early adoption of tech to give them an edge?

Business leaders and HR teams in forward-thinking companies are turning to the digital employee experience to create the best working day for their people. We’ve used our learnings to interrogate how they are using this to create a competitive advantage, so you don’t have to.

Why you should focus on your digital employee experience

Organizations that lose sight of the way their employees interact with tech, also known as the digital employee experience, risk their employees feeling frustrated and wasting time looking for answers.

On the surface, the digital employee experience may not seem like it should be a priority for organizations. But the bottom line is that it not only makes up a huge part of each employee’s working day, but also has business critical implications.

During our research into the changing employee experience , a YouGov survey of over 2,000 employees found that 58% of people said the number of applications they use has increased since March 2020. 76% also spend up to 6 hours a day using business applications. This could be using collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, or applications that deliver key business functions such as Workday, Salesforce and Sage.

Looking at specific sectors, this research found that 76% of those in the media, marketing and advertising sector said that their use of business applications had increased since 2020. Similarly, 67% of employees in the legal sector reported an increase, as did 64% in the finance sector.

Whatever the application, whatever the sector, it’s clear that if employees are spending so much time using tech, the experience needs to be as good as possible. However, our research found that since March 2020, a fifth of employees within large organizations have reported being more frustrated with business applications.

On top of this, employees are spending significant time just looking for support materials on how these applications work. Our research shows that 39% of employees are spending 30 minutes a day looking for support – that’s more than 3 working weeks a year. Worse still, our data reveals that on average they are spending twice as much time searching for materials than they are actually reading them.

Looking at the bigger picture, the time lost amounts to a staggering 71,183 hours in Great Britain for large businesses – costing £1 million a year. This is even higher in the States, with the time lost to employees looking for support costing large businesses $6 million every year.

The businesses leading the way (and the benefits they’re seeing)

Now you know the knock-on impact of losing sight of the digital employee experience, it’s time to find out the benefits of focusing on it from the businesses that already have . The results speak for themselves, so we’ll let them do the talking.

King’s College London, one of the oldest and most prestigious higher education institutions in England, was planning the implementation of a whole new suite of digital services for its workforce. However, it was keen to avoid the common challenges many organizations face when onboarding new technology: a drop in productivity, gaps in employee knowledge and training, and even an impact on the bottom line.

To relieve the pressure, it reached out to AppLearn for pre-launch assistance using our Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), Adopt. DAPs essentially help people better use and embrace technology. It’s a piece of software that can layer over a single or multiple applications, sitting in the background and learning how people use and interact with them. It tracks how people engage with key software, helping to pinpoint recurrent issues and intervene with suggested support.

Using a DAP to help employees embrace the new digital services, King’s College London was able to quickly target specific employees or user groups that had to adopt the new technology for them to succeed, with engaging messaging delivered seamlessly as they worked. The ongoing performance of the new software was also measured using Adopt, to make sure success continued after initial roll-out.

GKN Aerospace is a supplier that serves over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers, with its employees working at all levels – the factory floor, out in the field, in the office. It created a complicated digital employee experience – people would have varying levels of tech ‘savviness’, so taking a one-size-fits-all approach when rolling out a new piece of technology would have its pitfalls. GKN wanted to implement new HR technology that delivered materials to its employees smoothly and captured insights, across its complex global system.

The company sought AppLearn’s support, and we worked closely with its change management team to introduce Adopt into the mix. The platform provided people in different departments and based across the world, from offices to manufacturing, with in-app guidance such as pop ups, task reminders, and a side panel for support materials. By offering targeted and easy to understand support, the business saw a four-fold improvement in necessary task completions, as well as 91% increase in user engagement with in-app process reminders. This was the key to achieving the wide scale change that the company was seeking.

Interfor , one of the largest lumber producers in the world, wanted to replicate its responsible and productive customer service with a matching digital employee experience. Like many companies, Interfor was noticing employee frustration and inefficiency with the different applications people had to contend with each day and recognized something needed to change.

Using a DAP, Interfor was able to provide seamless in-built buttons to link in-app support or tips on a side panel, so all the information employees needed was in one place. It could also track any problems employees had and solve them head on. By tracking and understanding underlying challenges, the business was able to deflect 14,000+ support enquiry tickets in the first 9 months, ultimately saving the business $200,000+ in support costs.

How to turn your experience into an advantage

By embracing the use of DAPs, these forward-thinking organizations have been able to improve their digital employee experience—giving them an edge on their competitors. However, while the tech is key to the above outcomes, there are principles and behaviors businesses can apply prior to implementing a digital adoption platform.

DAPs not only provide an organization with useful data and analytics, but also help users better navigate and understand applications by providing in-app guidance as they use them. By tracking any problems that an employee might have and seamlessly adding in-app support to solve them, these companies were able to get the best out of their new software.

So, don’t just think through your digital experiences and processes. Study and learn from your actual users to find points of friction. While measurement and making in-app interventions will be difficult using default software setups, work with what you’ve got to put support in place for key problems and join up software usage to expected business outcomes.

By keeping employees happy and helping them get to grips with new tech, companies can save time, boost productivity and save money— making their tech investments pay off in the long term.

Find out more about improving your digital employee experience by reading our full digital employee experience guide .

AppLearn completes major YesElf acquisition

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 08:49:00 GMT

AppLearn completes major YesElf acquisition

We are thrilled to announce AppLearn has completed a major acquisition of a Slovakia-based DAP provider, YesElf.

As part of the move, we will take ownership of YesElf’s existing platform, which leads the market in AI and machine learning powered user experience capabilities. It will enable us to triple development capacity and create a best-in-class DAP for our global client base.

Founded in 2016 by CEO Peter Simun and CTO Ladislav Gažo, YesElf’s technology is one of the most advanced in the multi-billion-dollar global DAP market. Last year, its platform was listed as a major contender alongside ourselves in digital consultancy Everest’s DAP PEAK Matrix® Assessment – the matrix evaluates and ranks DAP technology vendors across the globe.

We will take onboard the existing Bratislava office, extending our reach in Central Europe, and joining our Boston, San Francisco, and Manchester offices.

The deal follows our recent 8-digit funding from Silicon Valley Bank and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

Our CEO, Andrew Avanessian, commented: “This is another major step in our journey, and I’m thrilled to welcome the team to the AppLearn family. Their experience and technology, especially in end user capabilities, is light years ahead of many competitors. Combined with our strengths in data and analytics, we have a powerful product on our hands.

“We’ve seen incredible appetite for digital adoption platforms in recent years, and now is the time to capitalize on this. 2022 is already proving to be a pivotal year for us. By focusing on securing the right funding and bringing in the best team and technology, we’ve accelerated our global growth plans and can now offer our customers a truly market-leading platform.”

Simun, co-founder and CEO of YesElf, said: “We are excited to join the AppLearn team and become part of one of the foremost DAP providers out there. Over the years, we’ve assembled a leading team of developers to build a platform that rivals those of the billion-dollar DAP players. With AppLearn’s infrastructure, experience and brand equity, we now have the foundations in place to create a product together that leads the global market.”

The news has also been well received by AppLearn customers. Prashant Arora, Head of Service Modernisation & Automations at Reckitt, said: “Powerful alone, awesome together! I am sure the partnership with YesElf will bring the goodness of digital adoption to the industry and help enterprises reap the benefits in this digital economy. Looking forward to seeing what Adopt brings in next, or rather next-gen!”

Meanwhile, Simon Barker, IT Product Owner (HR) at Rolls-Royce noted: “We look forward to experiencing the new capabilities that this acquisition brings, and how it will enhance the great digital adoption platform that we use at Rolls-Royce.”

We’re excited to bring an even better product to market and double down on our mission of making software work better for everyone.

AppLearn named as a top vendor in the Constellation ShortList™

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 09:23:00 GMT

AppLearn named as a top vendor in the Constellation ShortList™

AppLearn’s Adopt platform has been named as a top vendor in the Constellation ShortList™ for Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP), Q1 2022.

The Shortlist™ recognizes technology vendors and service providers that deliver critical transformation initiatives for early adopter and fast follower organizations.

Adopt , AppLearn’s digital adoption platform, is a cloud-based solution that ensures people and organizations are equipped with the tools they need to use technology as productively as possible.

This is achieved through in-app guidance, support, and relevant content displayed in the flow of work. In addition, detailed analytics allow organizations to monitor application usage and improve work flows through identifying sticking points within processes.

Having championed the importance of digital adoption for over a decade, AppLearn have been recognized as a leader in the fast-growing DAP space by analysts including Gartner, Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, Everest Group, and Constellation.

“It’s great, that for another year running, we have been included in the Constellation Shortlist™,” said Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn. “Digital adoption is a rapidly growing space – that has only been accelerated by COVID-19 – with more and more organizations moving towards hybrid and remote working models. This shift brings with it a variety of new applications and digital processes. As organizations settle into this new way of working, digital adoption platforms will play a critical role in supporting this rapid change and bringing certainty to software investments. Recognition like this not only reflects the strength of AppLearn’s Adopt platform but the continued evolution of the category.”

“The Great Refactoring is among us. Organizations must reconsider how they balance business models, work/life priorities, and new market conditions. Our analysts’ recent updates to The ShortList™ reflect the top vendors that matter most to our network of buy side clients,” said R “Ray” Wang, Chairman and Founder at Constellation Research. “As leaders make the tough decisions in vendor selection, we hope The ShortList™ speed the decision-making process and help buyers find the right partners to enable their business success.”

Constellation Research advises leaders on leveraging disruptive technologies to achieve business model transformation and streamline business processes. Products and services named to the Constellation ShortList™ meet the threshold criteria for this category as determined through client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects, market share and internal research. The portfolio is updated at least once per year as the analyst team deems necessary based on market conditions. For more information, visit the DAP Shortlist™ page.

Disclaimer: Constellation Research does not endorse any solution or service named in its research.

The top tech challenges facing organizations in 2022

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:04:00 GMT

The top tech challenges facing organizations in 2022

Organizations across all sectors have experienced huge disruption in the past few years. From financial services to manufacturing, new tech has been rolled out at an incredible rate and it’s reflected in the figures: work applications deployed by firms across all industries increased by 68% in recent years.

Given a widespread increase in remote working, organizations have looked to quick tech fixes to solve immediate IT needs. More than 80% of workers have said that the uncertainty of the past few years has substantially affected their daily work lives. Considering that companies on average are now using seven different tools for messaging, collaboration, file sharing and meeting management, this isn’t exactly surprising.

Despite many countries emerging from restrictions in 2022, hybrid working is set to be the norm for many businesses that operate digitally. As a result, employees are increasingly reliant on new technology, from collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, to applications delivering key business functions such as Workday, Salesforce and Sage.

This increased use of applications has come with its consequences. While tech can make people’s lives easier, recurrent IT issues or a lack of proper training is costing organizations dearly.

This employee experience research found that since March 2020, 58% of employees said the number of applications they use has increased, and 76% spend up to 6 hours a day using business applications.

Using this research, and looking at the changing digital employee experience, we’ve examined the top tech challenges facing organizations and their people in 2022.

Rising frustration with the employee experience

Our research shows that since March 2020, a fifth of employees within large organizations report being more frustrated with business applications. Whether it’s due to relying on an increased number of applications or poor experiences with certain workplace technologies, these struggles are likely to continue this year without proper intervention.

So, how can organizations reduce frustration for their teams? They should start by listening to them.

Ask if they’re having trouble with tech. Gather qualitative and quantitative information on what the common problems seem to be. Could you arrange additional training, tailored to particular roles or levels of ‘digital savviness’? Is there another application or wider experience that would be better suited to their work needs?

By learning from the people dealing with these challenges firsthand, we can better support them in their day-to-day working lives.

Losing time (and money) to software support

Frustration isn’t the only problem. With many employees struggling to use applications they are spending significant time just getting support.

In fact, 39% of employees who use business applications spend up to 30 minutes a day looking for support with them, totaling more than 3 working weeks a year per employee. They are also spending twice as long looking for support materials than they do actually using them, another key challenge to target in 2022.

This time might be stacking up because people are working across multiple applications with different user interfaces or routes to support. It might be simply due to difficulty with particular software. What’s clear is that as well as time lost being significant at an individual level, it is especially sobering when considered business wide.

In Great Britain, large businesses lose on average 71,183 hours, costing £1 million a year, from employees having to seek out technology support. In the States, this can amount to $6 million every year. Businesses will continue to lose time and money in 2022 unless they make a change.

Measuring the value of tech investments

Given the challenges people may be facing with these new additions to their digital workplace, decision makers need to make sure investments ‘pay off’ in the long term.

Our Digital Adoption Pulse Report found that only 12% of organizations measure success and outcomes of new tech investments 1-2 years after initial roll out, and just 5% maintain this measurement after 3 years. The danger for businesses? Investments may be wasted if you cannot track results or measure true ROI. It impacts long term business performance and means common issues, with simple fixes, could be missed.

However, where there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity. Organizations can reap the full reward of tech investments and keep their people happy and productive through measurement. It’ll help you see areas for improvement and set clear goals to work towards. Prioritize software performance tracking and measurement, then act on their findings with ongoing optimization.

What can organizations do now?

By digging deep into the way employees interact with enterprise technologies, organizations can create a digital experience that works better for everyone. One method to do this? A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP).

DAPs are transforming how people interact with workplace tech. As well as providing an organization with a wealth of useful data and analytics, DAPs also help users better navigate and understand applications by providing in-app guidance as they use them.

Appear to be having issues with completing a certain task in an HR portal, CRM or other applications? A DAP will prompt you to a relevant help guide, or an in-app chatbot, to get you the support you need when and where you need it. It’ll also ensure the application knows about the issue and has the means to resolve it.

We’re obviously a fan of them – we made one after all – and if you’re interested in finding out more, you can learn more about our digital adoption platform .

By identifying whether your organization is facing some of these common challenges, and taking proactive steps to address them, you can start to take action to improve your team’s tech issues in 2022.

If businesses can get this right, not only will there be significant cost and productivity gains to be made, but it will create a better employee experience—keeping your people happy and motivated in their digital workplace.

AppLearn secures debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 11:49:00 GMT

AppLearn secures debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance

AppLearn has secured significant financing from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and investors, and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

Funding from SVB and NPIF – Maven Equity Finance equates to an 8-digit figure investment. The revolving lending facility will enable AppLearn, which also has offices in Boston and San Francisco, to scale its international reach as it makes considerable in-roads in the multi-billion-dollar global DAP market.

Funding will also support the creation of up to 60 new roles within the organization’s North West-based team, as it embarks on an ambitious program of international growth. With customers in c.100 countries currently, the funding will see AppLearn’s flagship DAP product, Adopt, launched into new territories such as South Africa. It will also accelerate the company’s presence in the lucrative North American market.

A DAP is a layer of software that seamlessly integrates with other applications, intuitively learning how users interact with it. It gathers information to provide support in the flow of work (in-app), user analytics, which guides people through tasks and functions. This enhances productivity, improves user onboarding, and helps organizations to better optimize critical technology investments to drive business objectives.

The financing from SVB and NPIF- Maven Equity Finance follows an investment into AppLearn from California-based K1 Investment Management secured in September 2019. As a result of this investment, the company has gone on to substantial growth.

AppLearn is led by CEO Andrew Avanessian, who joined the business in 2019 and was formerly COO at cyber security company Avecto. Together with an experienced C-Suite, Avanessian has overseen growth of 108%.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO of AppLearn, commented: “Silicon Valley Bank and NPIF -Maven’s support comes at a pivotal time for our business. The strides we have made in the digital adoption market over the last three years has placed AppLearn on the cusp of transformative growth. This funding now enables us to put in place the foundations to fuel our ambitious international strategy and growth plans.

“The global appetite for digital adoption is rapidly advancing, in no small part due to the events of last year. With an increasing number of businesses accelerating their digital transformation journeys, global IT spending is expected to reach $4 trillion this year. AppLearn is in a prime position to bring our technology to this ever-expanding market, and we’re excited to be doing this with NPIF – Maven and Silicon Valley Bank’s backing.”

Dean Cox, Senior Investment Manager at Maven, said , “AppLearn is addressing a genuine need in in the industry for digital transformation services. The business is well placed to take advantage of the current migration to a digital economy and leverage off the new challenges facing enterprises today. We’re delighted to back Andrew, Adam and the team who are experienced and technology focused with an excellent reputation in the market.”

Ben Tickler, Director of Venture and Growth at Silicon Valley Bank UK Branch, said , “Silicon Valley Bank is delighted to extend its partnership with the outstanding team at AppLearn and their trusted investors. It is great to see further funding in Manchester’s innovation ecosystem and we look forward to watching the team continue to grow, build, and scale.”

Grant Peggie at British Business Bank, said, “the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund is committed to backing innovative growing businesses across the North to achieve their objectives. AppLearn’s story demonstrates the impact that investment can have on an organization’s growth and we look forward to seeing the success that AppLearn achieves in Manchester, across the UK and globally.”

The trends shaping digital transformations in 2022

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 10:41:00 GMT

The trends shaping digital transformations in 2022

Hyper-automation comes hand in hand with productivity

Automate everything you can. Especially those tasks that your employee does repeatedly as a routine. And if an automation tool doesn’t exist for an activity, create one yourself.

That’s a simplified way to describe the hyper-automation that’s been on the rise lately and is predicted to dominate in 2022.

But don’t think of applications and other hyper-automatization tools as stark robots that only do what they are told to do. In fact, enhanced bots work in a more sophisticated way, are able to react on their own or even suggest what else can be automated.

And because they use artificial intelligence and can recognize natural language, they can adapt even more to human behavior.

Ultimately, this means you can trust them with most of the routine tasks your employees used to do. Bots will do it faster (estimated to work 10 times faster) and with minimal risk of error.

But the message to employees is that they don’t have to worry about their job. Bots are not meant to replace them, quite the opposite. Hyper-automation is here to make employees more productive and efficient.

It allows them to focus on more meaningful activities such as strategy, planning and achieving company goals instead of menial tasks.

The key role of business technologists

If you haven’t heard of business technologists or know little about them, you need to change that fast. Research indicates that when it comes to digital adoption, this position will play a key role in 2022.

Their importance is already being demonstrated now during the pandemic. Instead of IT departments working together to innovate, they are devoting all their time to the critical support of the day-to-day running of companies.

It is the business technologist who relieves this pressure by coming up with suggestions for technology improvements and their implementation. The business technologist’s contribution, however, lies mainly in the fact that he or she knows a thing or two in many areas.

Research firm Gartner describes a business technologist as a person who is involved in automation, app development, artificial intelligence tools and data exploration.

He or she goes on to use that knowledge to design innovations that fit the business, while also helping the company implement them.

His or her technical and managerial skills are indispensable, and many companies are realizing that.

By 2024, it will be the business technologists who will decide what technological products and services a company will use.

AI for customer and employee convenience

Artificial intelligence goes hand in hand with a positive customer experience. With personalized emails, limited campaigns or interactive contact centers, a company gets closer to the customer and offers them what they need at the time.

However, artificial intelligence is not the latest trend, it is a common thing. Therefore, within 2022, we recommend that you use it wherever you can. For instance, even when training employees.

For example, our digital adoption platform guides users through any software so that they can learn how to use it as quickly and efficiently as possible. In order to do so, it uses artificial intelligence features.

These evaluate the employee’s behavior and accordingly suggest unique onboarding in the software, exactly matching the employee’s skills. The platform itself also evaluates when a worker needs help and immediately provides it in the form of a personalized guide.

Linked and hybrid experiences

Like artificial intelligence, the concept of a cloud or platform is nothing new. Nevertheless, you’ll be hearing a lot about both of them in 2022.

As the global pandemic has shown, employers must permanently reckon with a hybrid work culture where employees can work from both the office and home.

And even if you’ve already introduced some platforms, experts say you need to double down on digital transformation to comfortably manage such a mode.

In practice, this means you’ll need additional automation tools or apps instead of one platform. These need to be able to understand each other well enough for the employee to work to their full potential without any problems wherever he or she is.

Emphasis on human capital management software

Who will be the new member to join the team? Who will move up to a more senior position? And who is eligible for leave?

A single Human Capital Management Software solves all these questions instead of HR departments.

These types of tools will be on the rise in the coming year. So, if you’re not already using one, look around quickly.

All their capabilities will convince you that they are worth your investment. In addition to performance and attendance management, an HCM system can also help you keep track of expenses or fair pay.

For company management, this means saving time and money. For employees, fair pay or career advancement motivates them to be more engaged and productive. So it’s a win-win.

Cybersecurity is a must

Technological advancement is inevitable, but there is an important issue to keep in mind, which is security in cyberspace.

While IT industry leaders are well aware of its importance, the last thing they’d want is security concerns to slow down technological innovation.

However, the concerns are valid because if a company suffers a cyber-attack, it risks losing customer data, financial losses and also reputational damage. Therefore, digital adoption in 2022 will be shaped in a big way by efforts to prevent these threats, with the help of default cyber protection tools.

This means that the most secure configurations should already be part of any reliable platform by default.

And if the user installs any additions himself, the software will explain to him or her what risk is related to that particular configuration.

In case you do not have technological security completely figured out in your company, make it perfect as soon as possible. You don’t want to put customer data or your reputation at risk.

AppLearn Adopt 2021 Autumn Release

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 10:04:00 GMT

AppLearn Adopt 2021 Autumn Release

A key focus throughout 2021 and beyond has been creating an in-application experience where end-users don’t have to think about support, because Adopt does all the thinking for them.

Whether it is onboarding new starters or reducing the frustration that can occur when completing complex or infrequent business processes, Adopt is on hand to simplify and assist without the need to contact support.

Sequenced Tooltips

We understand that in today’s world, complexity in processes can cause frustration. End-users don’t want to spend time searching for resources, asking for help or struggling through administrative tasks. They want fast, easy and useful in-app guidance to help them complete processes quickly and efficiently.

And so, in our Q3 release, we provide a number of new Tooltip sequencing capabilities that better support end-users in the flow of work; enabling them to quickly get access to the guidance and support they need in one unified workflow.

So, what’s new?

Button navigation

Adopt admins can now configure navigation between Tooltip steps or take end-users to key information within an application via the use of customizable buttons. With two buttons available to configure, Adopt admins can create sequenced content to navigate end-users dynamically through new, or complex business processes, ensuring they have access to the support and guidance they need to efficiently complete tasks.

Example use cases:

Branch end-users to different areas of the application to complete a specific action or set of actions
Configure ‘Next/Previous’ options where applicable within the sequence allowing end-users to navigate both backwards and forwards
Create a ‘Start Again’ action for repeatable processes (such as adding expense items)

Button text and colors are fully customizable so that Adopt admins can create Tooltips that align perfectly with existing branding.

Navigate on element click

This new feature is ideal for scenarios where Adopt admins may want end-users to click on a specific web element – i.e. a ‘Submit’ button after entering information into a specific field – in order to move to the next step in a process. This ensures end-users complete all of the required actions within a process, improving data entry and reducing the need to revisit the process at a later date.

This feature can be used independently, or in conjunction with button navigation, providing the flexibility to adapt to a number of customer use cases and also unlocking the capability for end-users to navigate across multi-page processes.

Sequenced guidance behavior

To improve the end-user experience, when a Tooltip is launched via a sequenced action, the guidance now contains a ‘Close’ button in the top right corner. This is to prevent the end-user accidently closing the guidance in error by clicking on the page.

Tooltips within a sequence are now ‘locked’ in place and will only disappear from view when intentionally closed, or when the next action is triggered via the end-user.

Sequence only Tooltips

To prevent Tooltips appearing each and every time an end-user hovers over a specific element, Adopt admins can now configure Tooltips to only appear as part of a complete sequence. This ensures that end-users only see the guidance when they are working through a specific process and prevents workflow disruption when end-users are completing business as usual tasks that do not require guidance.

Smart Page launcher

Should Adopt admins need to guide an end-user to a specific sequence automatically (e.g. to instruct end-users to update their personal details within a HR application), our Smart Page editor now integrates with Tooltips.

Adopt admins can now configure the auto-launch of sequences via Smart Page buttons; creating a unified experience between the communication of a new process or update, right through to helping the end-user complete the relevant action.

For more information on any of these updates get in touch using our contact page . Alternatively, request a demo for a personalized look at our digital adoption platform.

AppLearn survey finds employees lose over three working weeks a year looking for support

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 10:45:00 GMT

AppLearn survey finds employees lose over three working weeks a year looking for support

39% of employees who use business applications daily spend up to 30 minutes a day looking for support, adding up to more than three working weeks a year
For large UK businesses, this could result in an eye-watering loss of 71,183 hours each year costing over £1 million
For large US companies, this translates to 172,091 lost hours costing over $6 million
AppLearn CEO says businesses need to address the hidden costs of unintuitive technology and prioritize a seamless employee experience

Employees are losing up to 2.5 hours of time a week looking for support on how to use software applications , new research by AppLearn has revealed. This adds up to 130 hours per employee across the course of a year, the equivalent of three working weeks, at a cost of £1 million for large businesses.

YouGov surveyed over 2,000 employees to examine their experience of using software since the pandemic began. It found that employees who use business applications daily are spending up to six hours a day (76%) using software, such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office, Zoom, Salesforce, and Workday, with 22% spending more than 6 hours a day.

Commissioned by AppLearn, the data showed that 50% of these employees are spending as much as up to three hours a day looking for more instructions, information or help when using software. While the majority lose 30 minutes or less per day (39%), this time spent could add up to an eye-watering loss in productivity for businesses in the long-term.

For the average large business in Great Britain, based on the latest UK Government data , this could equate to 71,183 hours of productivity lost per year. When analyzed alongside the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) annual survey on employee earnings, this equates to a loss of over £1 million annually.

In the US, the latest available data from The United States Census Bureau puts the number of large firms, associated employees and hourly earnings as much higher. As a result, the potential hours lost per business rises to a huge 172,091 and a $6 million annual cost, all because application users have to burn time looking for support and guidance rather than completing their tasks.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn commented: “These figures show the shocking hidden costs associated with spending more of the working day online. The way employees and organizations have adapted and accelerated their digital transformation journeys over the last year has been incredible. However, by plugging the gap with shorter term solutions, the focus on the employee experience has been lost.

“We’ve seen, from our own data, the sheer amount of time and cost associated with users grappling with unintuitive tech. Often employees are forced out of applications, resorting to search engines online to try and figure out how to access a particular part of an application or to complete a task, and it’s costing themselves and businesses valuable time.”

A sample of 1million end users on AppLearn’s digital adoption platform – software that layers over other applications to provide end users with in-app support – found that on average, employees are spending 10% of their working week simply trying to find tasks, related information or help within an application – a problem termed ‘navigation burn’.

Andrew added: “To reap the full rewards of their tech investments and keep employees happy and productive, businesses need to prioritize creating a seamless and intuitive employee experience. Once they get this right, the opportunities and the time clawed back from making tech simpler to use will be massive.”

AppLearn maintain leading position in 2021 Digital Adoption Platform PEAK Matrix®

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 08:06:00 GMT

AppLearn maintain leading position in 2021 Digital Adoption Platform PEAK Matrix®

AppLearn has been positioned as a leading vendor in the second Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) Products PEAK Matrix® Assessment from research and consulting firm, Everest Group.

The 2021 DAP PEAK Matrix® looked at the performance of 18 vendors in the market against their vision, product capabilities, analytics, support and market impact. You buy the report and see a summary on the Everest website .

In the report, AppLearn’s analytics-led strategy and advanced analytics modules, including OKR dashboard, Discovery Mode and experience mining, were highlighted as industry leading. Everest also noted the experience supporting clients across all buyer sizes and use cases, product capabilities and customer support as particular strengths.

“We’re delighted to be recognized once again by Everest, and particularly proud to see our analytics labelled as a key differentiator in the DAP market,” said Andrew Avanessian, CEO of AppLearn. “With our plans in both recruitment and product development, as well as the forecasted growth of the DAP market, we look forward to pushing on even further in 2022.”

In releasing the report, Everest noted that “Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) play a pivotal role in enabling digital transformation for organizations globally. The year 2020 was eventful for the DAP market as enterprises faced unprecedented pressure to undergo rapid changes in the digital technology leveraged to tackle the pandemic and maintain business continuity.

“They realized the need to focus on customer and user experience and used DAPs to achieve business goals such as boosting employee efficiency, reducing support tickets and costs, improving customer satisfaction scores, increasing trial conversion, and minimizing customer churn.”

This news comes after AppLearn worked with Everest to release the world’s first research into digital adoption analytics. The Understanding Digital Adoption Analytics report and accompanying webinar looks to share an independent analyst view on the role of analytics at the heart of digital adoption, with a series of action points for organizations and an AppLearn case study from Nissan.

Helping employees overcome their fear of failing with new technologies

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 10:05:00 GMT

Helping employees overcome their fear of failing with new technologies

Counter people’s natural reluctance to change

Digital transformation introduces new technologies and processes in the company. Did you know that over 80% of workers said new processes made them anxious according to Wrike research ? Is it any wonder they may be hesitant to try new digital processes?

However, the hesitance associated with change is quite natural. The well-known Kübler-Ross Change Curve indicates that people go through several stages, such as shock, denial, frustration, and even depression, before accepting the change. Only then do they decide to try and, finally, accept the new reality.

Kübler-Ross Change Curve describes the stages people go through when exposed to negative change. Retrieved from: Researchgate.net

This curve can also be applied in digital transformation. In this case the managers, who should motivate the workers and make the change as easy as possible for them, play a vital role.

Don’t forget that training is absolutely essential, too. Employees often feel frustrated because they are expected to perform well while working with tools they haven’t mastered yet, but be aware that employees remember very little from face-to-face training.

Instead, use a digital adoption platform that guides the workers throughout the new software solution and provides at-hand instructions in the form of notifications, context-sensitive help, and pop-ups.

Their advantage is that the instructions are displayed right when and where they are needed, and employees can get back to them anytime. This is how our digital adoption platform works and helps employees master world-famous software solutions, such as Salesforce, SAP Concur and Workday.

Tackle any lacking skills head on

Even though technologies have become part of our daily lives, not all people are sufficiently skilled. After all, it is quite common that companies employ five generations at once. It is therefore natural that different employees have different sets of skills.

Furthermore, some employees even refuse digital technologies. Their age is not the only issue.

Problems also come up when employees get used to working with established tools and processes. The longer they work with them, the harder it gets to develop new technology-related skills.

This might be surprising but the reluctance to learn is also related to the fact that employees do not realize the importance of new tools, and hence the resistance.

What can you do? Communicate the changes to them and explain why the changes are essential to the company. Higher engagement will pay off by faster change acceptance among the employees as they realize all the benefits.

Help them with their fear of failure

Have you thought about how your employees view themselves as team members? If they suffer from technology anxiety, it means they fear that they will not cope with the technologies as well as their colleagues or superiors.

They can also be scared of failing to learn.

Technology anxiety has become quite common and incorporates the fear that one damages the tool or loses his or her job due to the lack of skills as well.

The good news is that this fear can be overcome.

First of all consider which technologies you are going to use and build appropriate IT infrastructure.

As discussed, training is a vital part of digital adoption. It requires enough time, even weeks or months. Only then will your employees accept new tools and develop sufficient skills.

In order to overcome the resistance, digital transformation must be well planned and communicated. The engagement and feeling of importance also contribute to the success or failure of digital transformation.

Prevent them from feeling poorly informed

One of the reasons why digital transformations fail is because the employees have been poorly informed. If they are not aware of the goals, plans, strategy, and even expectations after going digital, they get frustrated.

The same attitude is developed if you are not honest to them. This means you have to inform them on both the positive and negative side. In case you have chosen a bad tool and it failed, tell them.

If the employees are well informed on the progress of digital transformation, they will know what to do by themselves, and, at the end of the day, you will digitally adapt together.

Address concerns on inefficiency and privacy

Companies greatly benefit from AI-powered tools and machine learning. Automation speeds up the processes and saves both time and money.

Nevertheless, there are still people who are hesitant about technologies. Why? They consider the robots a danger to the work processes and their privacy.

It is true that AI-powered tools know a lot about the users. Your job is to explain to the employees that the information is used solely to improve the processes.

In conclusion, we strongly recommend properly considering the technologies you choose. As long as the tools are inefficient and employees face barriers, they get frustrated again and then resistant to digital transformation.

AppLearn Adopt 2021 Summer Release

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 11:01:00 GMT

AppLearn Adopt 2021 Summer Release

At AppLearn we’re focused not only on creating great in-application experiences for users, but also simplifying the effort required by organizations to configure them. With our latest updates we continue to add great value in both areas.

Tooltips Enhancements

Duplicate option

Earlier in 2021, we introduced a duplicate option for Smart Page customers to accelerate building out their In-App Guidance. By creating a standard corporate design within Smart Pages, whenever new content is required within an application, administrators can generate a duplicate and configure as needed for the new content.

This feature attracted great feedback and we now have this same capability within Tooltips—ensuring consistent design and rapid rollouts with minimal clicks.

Within the Tooltips list view, you will now see a Duplicate option in addition to the existing features. Simply select the Tooltip that you wish to duplicate from the list and choose the option to complete the process.

The new Tooltip will contain all the source formatting/element targeting and can now be updated as needed to create additional guidance for your users within the flow of work.

Hover with intent

For instances where Tooltip guidance is frequently displayed within an application, we have optimized our existing “Hover” display feature to only display guidance once we have determined user intent. An example of this is when the mouse cursor stops within a configured element.

This helps to prevent unnecessary interactions with the user, should they happen to scroll their cursor across configured elements within the screen and ensures they receive the correct guidance “just in time”. This updates also comes without any additional configuration.

Split Screen icon control

Enabling users to access their recommended guidance in the flow of work can be provided in several ways within Adopt. Our Split Screen option delivers playlists, documents, and video content relevant to the user and location within the system, provided via a configurable icon overlay on the application.

Customers have found that a one-size-fits-all approach to icon placement can be problematic, so we have now enabled users to re-position the icon to a place of their choosing. This will be stored across sessions and ensure that they can still access all their application content, as well as Adopt, in the way best-suited to them.

Adopt for Adopt

DAP Guidance is now provided within our Service Portal

Our in-application guidance is used across numerous SaaS applications and systems, and our customers have quite rightly questioned “why do you not have in-app guidance within the Adopt Self-Service Portal?”

Well, we listened! Starting with the introduction of Smart Pages notifications, we will now offer administrators guidance within the flow of work to help them make the most out of our features. We’re also providing Quick Start guides to help our customers get rapid value from of our product and their business applications.

Beta Program

Customer collaboration and engagement is key to the continued success of Adopt, and this is particularly true of our beta program. As of Q3, both our Discovery Analytics and Tooltip sequencing features are currently in early access before being made generally available in forthcoming 2021 releases.

Discovery Analytics enables you to visualize and identify digital adoption challenges across multi-application journeys and utilize these ML-driven insights to understand where user experience should be optimized.

Tooltip Sequencing & Launchers allows you to dynamically link Tooltip content to other Adopt guidance within your SaaS application. This includes sequencing multiple Tooltips in a flow or linking via a Smart Page to dynamically assist users through a process or workflow.

For more information on any of these updates get in touch using our contact page . Alternatively, request a demo for a personalized look at our Digital Adoption Platform.

AppLearn Adopt 2021 Spring Release

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 09:30:00 GMT

AppLearn Adopt 2021 Spring Release

We are excited to share with all the latest Adopt product updates available in our Spring 2021 release. As you can see from the list below, we have had a busy start to the year.

With a focus on our analytics capabilities, in addition to strengthening our great in-application guidance features, we are certain this release will help new and existing customers to get more value from Adopt and their connected applications.

Unified Analytics Dashboard

Our analytics help customers to measure and drive software improvements, with our Core and Advanced modules providing various levels of insight. Available from May, we have elevated both areas of the product to a new unified workspace, putting all your analytics insights in one place.

Customers can quickly access the dashboards via our new unified panel on the Adopt Admin Portal home page. The release also has a new range of multi-system views providing customers with increased visibility over their content usage and effectiveness.

We believe this makes Analytics much simpler to use, with all key data available in one single pane of glass, making it easier and faster for owners of Adopt to quickly assess what the user behavior and interaction data is suggesting, then act accordingly.

New discovery capabilities (alpha release)

Not all adoption issues or inefficiencies can be seen in plain sight. Many are hidden, and until now it has been difficult to find them. Our new discovery capability helps you to learn and identify user behavior for AI-driven optimization with Adopt before, during or after deployment.

Discovery is an exciting new chapter for the product that I am sure is going to delight our customers, helping them find the actionable insights they need to drive value and great experiences across their business applications.

We have an exciting roadmap for this discovery function, so please contact the product team learn more about access to this alpha release.

Data Validation Analytics

Building on the success of our Data Validation feature in our Winter release, we have now updated our Analytics Dashboards to help customers understand trends behind user interaction with validation fields.

The Spring update accelerates the identification of where users are struggling through bad data input, as well as measuring the time saved by implementing proactive guidance.

Smart Page recurrence

We continue to make our in-app support more intuitive and flexible to cater for user needs. Following this release, Adopt customers now have greater granular control over when Smart Page guidance appears to their users.

As well as being able to target segments of users, we can now also configure the recurrence of the guidance based on each button option. This makes it simple to use Smart Pages as a reminder for something that needs to happen regularly or urgently but may be forgotten otherwise.

ServiceNow SSO/Auto-logon enhancement

Ensuring users can easily access help and stay in the flow of work is vital to organizations. To support this, we have now optimized our ServiceNow Virtual Agent integration to deliver an even more seamless experience. Adopt -enabled users are now automatically authenticated when they begin their interaction with the Virtual Agent via our Split Screen module—letting them get to the help they need faster than ever.

Expanded self-select options for user context

For situations where an organization wants to target guidance at user segments but is not able to use an API integration, we now offer self-select support across all our in-application features.

By enabling self-select, users can choose from the configurable options to ensure that they see the guidance that is relevant to them in the flow of work—whether that is in the form of Trails, Tooltips, Smart Pages or Split Screen.

Multi-Region Support We are delighted to now offer enhanced multi-region support. This means customers can choose where Adopt will process and store company data, ensuring total compliance with security mandates. This release expands our support to the EU in addition to US.

Integrations for Microsoft Teams and PWA Applications

Finally, we are delighted to announce a couple of new integration possibilities that extend the reach of our in-application guidance to your end users.

Training Pages for Teams – Adopt customers are now able to share a central hub for all their training materials outside of the web browser, simply by leveraging an existing Office 365 investment. This enables organizations to extend the reach of Adopt content by allowing users to search and access guidance content directly from within the Desktop or Mobile version of Teams.

Progressive Web App (PWA) support for Adopt – Desktop PWA applications are gathering momentum with our customers and we are excited to announce support for them. As more and more vendors continue to transform their applications to this flexible model, customers can deliver Tooltips, Smart Pages, Trails and Split-Screen guidance to these applications to enhance the employee experience.

For more information on any of these updates, do not hesitate to contact your customer success representative or request a demo of Adopt today.

Why your employees resist digitalization and how to change it

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:42:00 GMT

Why your employees resist digitalization and how to change it

Many company owners and managers realize that digital transformation is now a must. However, it’s common to hear tales of employees refusing to accept change and adapt to innovations and new methods.

We’ve all heard the cliché that people don’t like change, but do you know why?

The first reason is that it is easier for children to learn new things than for the adults. Children basically perceive all impulses as new while adults have to first “unlearn” the old to learn the new. The impulse to learn can be our fear of the future, realizing that if we don’t change, something unfavorable happens.

Our deep-rooted fear of the unknown is an even stronger psychological barrier. Old patterns, routine, and force of habit are safe and familiar. Change brings instability, poses risk to our position, and is disruptive.

The fear of the unknown is expressed by doubts and lack of faith in meaningfulness and success of the change. Many employees have experience with companies having failed to adopt changes in the past.

The first reaction to change is usually defensive. Employees choose the path of silent ignorance, continue to do their job, and wait for the change efforts to end. The irony is that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Digital adoption fails because the people don’t believe in its success.

What can we do about change aversion?

According to Leon Festinger, psychologist at Stanford University, people tend to act in compliance with their attitudes. On the other hand, should they act inconsistently with their beliefs, a tension develops in their mind. This is an involuntary reaction called cognitive dissonance by Festinger, saying that behavioral changes affect the rationalization and adoption of new attitudes.

To take this away from tech, one example would be a meat eater justifying their meat consumption by saying it’s necessary and natural. If, whatever the reason, these people become vegetarians, they often accordingly change their behavior and also change their approach towards meat consumption.

Effective way to introduce change in your organization is to harmonize the employees’ attitudes and actions.

Therefore, you should first communicate the reasons for change in a clear and consistent manner and highlight the purpose and values of the goal.

The change in employees’ attitude follows the creation of a suitable training and support tools to strengthen the new way of behavior. Change in outer behavior often results in change of inner approach.

Keep reading and find out what are the steps to support the change in attitude and behavior even stronger.

Make changes more attractive (and accessible)

Digital transformation at your company will run more smoothly shall you pay attention to making the digital adoption and employee onboarding process more attractive.

Why shouldn’t the adoption of new tools be more fun and interesting?

You can use multimedia content, interactive gaming elements or virtual trainers with fresh graphics and visuals who automatically offer users help when they need it.

Whatever you do, delivering support and communication in-app will be critical to furthering its success.

Focus on active learning

Active, unlike passive, learning is a learning activity in which employees learn new technologies along the way. It is similar to the trial-and-error method applied when you were learning to swim or ride a bicycle.

All of us have experienced that this is a much more effective method than passive learning, with a teacher in the front of the classroom and students taking notes.

It is crucial to create a safe environment and let the employees find their own way. Even after the training you should provide them with continual support and consultations.

Digital adoption platforms, such as AppLearn Adopt , allow you to automate support. The benefit is that the hints can be found whenever and wherever, providing relevant information to solve the problem.

The employees don’t have to contact the support team by phone, ask colleagues for help, nor look up the information in manuals.

Customize the learning rate

Personalized, self-paced learning methods would be once considered a fairytale. With current technologies however, such training is now a common practice.

Companies can now create digital, customized employee training, dividing employees into categories based on their location, language, login rate, experience, user role or training completion level.

Thanks to such categorization, each user finds a guide with relevant content. Newcomers receive basic tips and experienced users advanced ones.

Working with a solution like AppLearn Adopt, this virtual training can be easily integrated in any common corporate app, such as Workday, SAP, Salesforce or SharePoint.

Change aversion may not be going away any time soon, but we now have more ways to make change management more manageable than ever. The best businesses are already using technology to do this, and there’s no reason why you can’t do the same.

6 reasons why digital transformations fail

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 09:18:00 GMT

Let’s start with a fact presented by Harvard Business Review. Their study suggests that up to 47% of companies believe the problem with digital transformation is the risk-averse culture.

Put simply, the company culture is too reluctant to launch the digital transformation.

If you are one of those companies, or one of the hesitant crowd, it’s understandable for the risk of failure to come into your decision making. The numbers around transformation failures are commonly cited, but while digitization holds such potential for businesses it really can’t be ruled out—especially when the risks can be mitigated.

While the reasons for derailed digital transformations are many, and rarely come down to a single factor, there are six common contributors every business should consider before committing to change:

A lack of digital skills
No concrete strategy
Budget restrictions
Technology issues
Inadequate collaboration
Incorrect management

Lack of digital skills

Five years! That’s the average shelf life of skills, or the period of time after which your digital skills become obsolete. In other words, digital skills are constantly changing and the vast majority of the population is not able to adapt.

However, there is a solution and some countries have already put it in practice. Michigan’s Ross School of Business, for instance, launched a scholarship program that pays for graduates to take classes there forever.

Singapore introduced a scheme that gives $500 to every Singaporean above 25 years of age for a start under the SkillsFuture program. These countries realized that skills and education affect the labor market and the economy.

You should remember that education is not a luxury, but a necessity. Therefore, you should put it in the spotlight as you do with your life insurance or retirement savings.

Think of it as an investment into yourself necessary to succeed on the labor market and, finally, to help your company with the digital transformation.

No concrete strategy

Now you know what you want to achieve so you can get to work right away. The first step you should take is to develop an appropriate strategy since some companies fail in their digital transformation due to poor strategies .

Especially small businesses do not have enough funds allocated to the transformation, and should invest wisely. In case you do not plan transformation properly, you might waste all the money with no valuable results or build your transformation on poor solutions for your business. Again, this would be the result of not developing the strategy.

You should set your goals beforehand and put in place clear rules to achieve these goals. This will give you insight into what tools you should use for the digital transformation and which employees should be engaged.

Budget restrictions

It’s no surprise that a limited budget is one of the barriers. This is one of the most common issues, especially for small businesses. What’s even worse, this challenge is not so easy to overcome. Companies have to work with what they have.

However, even the lack of funds can be managed by thorough planning and determining the amount of money and how you want to spend it.

In many cases, moving away from the conservative management and investing could do the job. Digital transformation is a long-term return on investment, and the more you put in the better return you can expect—providing you have the rest of your strategy and process in place.

Technology issues

If you don’t pay much attention to technologies, it’s time to change that. One of the biggest barriers to digital transformation are legacy IT systems, as over half of the respondents in the Harvard Business Review survey noted.

Technologies are the main crucial factor when it comes to going digital. Just think about how virtual interviews or employee onboarding software make your work easier.

When introducing new software, focus also on cybersecurity which presents a threat as more and more information is shared and moved to the cloud.

You must do your best to ensure your data is safe in the digital.

Inadequate collaboration

Every company has a different structure. At large companies with many departments, the communication of employees is very limited, if any.

And this is also a blocker to the digital transformation. Managers and employees must work in harmony and cooperate since digital adoption is not only about a single department, but also going company-wide. If the employees strive for the change jointly, they will succeed sooner than when working individually.

Wrong management

Fear of the unknown, unwillingness to learn, or overwork – these are the reasons for employee pushback. This is when good managers who motivate employees by making digital adoption fun, interesting, and beneficial for the employees, play a crucial role.

Poor management complicates the digital transformation due to the constant employee pushback as well as lack of supervision of effective strategy implementation.

New report reveals crucial employee experience gap and the technologies critical to bridging it

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 14:27:00 GMT

New report reveals crucial employee experience gap and the technologies critical to bridging it

A new report from analyst firm Constellation Research has urged enterprises to adopt disruptive technologies and take advantage of a historic opportunity to transform employee experience.

The report – titled Employee Experience: Moving to a Decisive New Model for the Future of Work – explores the present situation of widespread remote working and the proliferation of new applications. It encourages businesses to adopt an ‘employee experience platform’ (EXP) model that connects disparate digital tools into a more cohesive digital workplace – providing a new, more holistic employee experience stack.

The research identifies the disruptive technologies needed to create this model, including digital adoption platforms (DAPs), on-demand talent sourcing and robotic process automation.

Of these technologies, DAPs are named as a particularly critical component. By integrating on top of software applications or websites to guide users through tasks and functions, they directly address the two primary challenges to next-generation employee experience: better designed experiences and worker education.

Dion Hinchcliffe, VP and senior analyst at Constellation Research said: “There isn’t yet a single piece of technology that successfully houses and creates a primary delivery point for the digital journey of work. Eventually, an overarching solution will emerge, but until then enterprises must assemble an interim EXP from a powerful set of technologies that have developed over the last few years.

“DAPs have emerged as a simple yet incredibly strong place to start in creating a unified experience across the digital workplace to support its employees throughout ongoing change, while providing vital analytics and measurement across user journeys to impact workforce productivity.”

The report has been released to the public by AppLearn, a digital adoption platform vendor that is working with a number of global enterprises on transforming the employee experience.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn added: “There is a pressing need to transform the employee experience. In the last 12 months we’ve seen huge numbers of applications rolled out which in isolation aim to deliver improvements – but collectively create a complex and disparate digital experience.

“How businesses react in this next phase will be absolutely critical and my hope is executives reach for and adopt an employee experience model. It’s such an impactful approach because it takes a holistic view, creating a wrapper around the siloed business applications and providing the employee with an experience that enables greater productivity, collaboration and ultimately supports business growth.”

AppLearn Adopt named on Constellation ShortList for Digital Adoption Platforms

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 10:37:00 GMT

AppLearn Adopt named on Constellation ShortList for Digital Adoption Platforms

AppLearn’s Adopt platform has been named in the Constellation ShortList™ for Digital Adoption Platforms in Q1 2021 .

The Shortlist™ recognizes technology vendors and service providers that deliver critical transformation initiative requirements for early adopter and fast follower organizations.

The AppLearn Adopt digital adoption platform is designed to make software work better for everyone. By embedding in-app support and user analytics into any business application , it makes important tasks and processes easier to complete, analyze and optimize. Adopt ultimately ensures people and organizations are equipped to use technology as productively as possible, and you can learn more on our product page .

“We’re proud to be included in the Constellation Shortlist™,” said Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn. “As organizations settle into new ways of working, we believe digital adoption platforms play a critical role in making software work better for everyone. This helps to improve both workforce productivity and the employee experience—bringing consistency to the support experience for the entire workforce. Recognition like this not only reflects the strength of AppLearn’s Adopt platform but the continued evolution of the category.”

“As leaders adjust to a compressed state of digital transformation, they want to know which vendors matter the most based on technology investment, use cases, strategic vision, customer value, executive leadership and price,” noted R “Ray” Wang, chairman and founder at Constellation Research. “Our analysts have a pulse on what’s working, what’s not and are constantly in touch with other buy side executives. The ShortList™ does this in the most efficient and effective manner.”

Disclaimer: Constellation Research does not endorse any solution or service named in its research.

The ABC model of a next-gen support experience

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 18:30:00 GMT

The ABC model of a next-gen support experience

As service delivery ambitions go, there are a few ways to interpret going next-gen. For Prashant Arora, it means enabling IT support that has minimal human interventions, an industry-leading experience at every touch point, and is available to all.

As Head of Global Service Experience & Automations at RB, the multinational consumer goods company, Prashant knows what it takes to deliver exceptional service. In fact, RB is at the bleeding edge of both support performance and user satisfaction, so we didn’t miss the opportunity to speak to him about where service delivery teams should be focusing right now.

In our recent webinar the 3 Priorities for Super Service Delivery in 2021 and Beyond , Prashant outlined how he is pursuing extreme productivity with optimized cost and data usage. During our conversation, he also shared details on the key areas of experience, technology and measurement, as well as how he’s aiming for the success of IT to be celebrated in every RB department.

Towards the end of the session, Prashant shared details on the guiding principles behind this approach. This article takes a closer look at the details behind this ABC model and how to enable pioneering service delivery by A utomating intelligently, B ringing accessibility and C reating a next-gen culture.

Automate intelligently and target the pain first

Prashant summed up the RB approach to automation in a simple line:

“If you hate it, automate it”

And while this refers to targeting the mundane tasks, which is an intelligent point in itself, the real key to this advice is to approach automation itself with intelligence.

To do this, Prashant recommends streamlining processes first, then looking to digitize/digitalize them before even considering automation. It’s a common pitfall for organizations to jump into automation, but if you automate a mess you just end up with an automated mess. Taking the time to identify issues and why they’re arising first can save time down the line.

In order to avoid this, Prashant approaches automation at RB by transforming tasks with (and for) humans, then optimizing and delivering with bots wherever possible. The motivation behind all automation is to enable people to focus on their more valuable work, rather than the obstacles or repetition that inevitably present themselves.

Following this approach is critical to finding the balance between reactive and proactive support, as well as identifying where the lines need to be drawn. If you do this, you’re more likely to end up with what Prashant summarizes as “a thoughtfully curated strategy enabled by tech, rather than driven by it”.

Bring accessibility into all forms of support

The key for the B part of this model lies in thinking proactively and making help accessible—not just putting reactive support in place. Prashant sums this up as a need to “bring the solution to them, don’t expect users to go and find it.” But in fact, Prashant has previously gone even further on this subject.

During a panel with SSON, he declared that “getting the right support needs to be as easy as booking an Uber or asking Alexa about the weather”. People want to get to help and progress within clicks, at that very moment, without having to ask. For Prashant, enabling this need makes everything better.

At RB, Prashant is applying their technology-first delivery model into all day-to-day applications, from Microsoft Teams to Yammer. He’s also leveraging our Adopt DAP to expand the reach of support and take it to users in applications, instead of just expecting them to find support when needed. His advice, however, is not to worry about this from day one.

Prashant suggests reviewing user support journeys, then consolidating and contextualizing support as valid starting points. But for truly next-gen service delivery, he believes the goal should be a support function that says, “just focus on your work, the support will be there with you, right when you need it.” This approach not only enhances accessibility at every stage but goes some way to establishing the right experience and, in turn, culture.

Creating a next-gen culture with results and transparency

While wider business culture is a separate conversation, the culture around service delivery should be owned and molded by the team delivering it. For Prashant, this involved planning delivery steps to elevate the experience and digital IQ of the team on both sides of the service experience.

This starts by communicating clearly what the capabilities of your tech are and the best ways to use it. However, while communication and setting expectations is a big part of bringing people along on the journey, even the strongest culture will depend on the execution of technology and first-hand evidence of its value.

Prashant shared a story with us about how RB provides a time estimation for ticket resolution, enabling users to choose whether they should wait for the fix or escalate accordingly. Making tech work for people in this way is a sure-fire way to get them on side with your strategy.

The team at RB is equally committed to challenging traditional SLAs and metrics to provide transparency to the wider business. For example, certain uptime stats won’t mean as much to most end-users as measurements around how tech is helping their experience. This is an excellent example of using data to enable user decisions, not just IT or business decisions.

Whatever your definition of what next-gen looks like, this is a tried and tested approach to apply to your strategy and day-to-day activity.

To support this and the 3 priorities covered in the webinar, RB is rolling out AppLearn Adopt across their key applications. Starting with SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba and Oracle Transportation Management solutions, we’ll be working together to drive an industry-leading experience, support users in the flow of work and reduce support costs.

AppLearn earn place in Top Tech: North West 2020 report

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 11:27:00 GMT

AppLearn earn place in Top Tech: North West 2020 report

We’re delighted to share our inclusion in the first Top Tech: North West report.

Launched by law firm Mills & Reeve and TheBusinessDesk.com, the scheme is designed to showcase the cutting-edge companies which have put the region on the map as a world-class hub for technological development and innovation.

The report itself highlights the top 20 tech businesses in the North West, based on innovation, growth, client service and community engagement. We’re delighted to be named as one of these companies and to represent Manchester as a tech leader.

The judges’ comment in the report notes that “AppLearn has been able to grow its business to ensure year on year increases in users and revenue as well as win awards and create a really vibrant workplace culture.”

This latest recognition comes after we were named a leader in the Digital Adoption Platform space by Everest Group and placed 5 ^th in the Northern Tech Awards Top 100 earlier in 2020.

To find out more and view the report, visit the Top Tech website .

How to stop new hires quitting due to poor training and communication

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 11:40:00 GMT

How to stop new hires quitting due to poor training and communication

There is nothing more frustrating for the employers and HR than to spend weeks or months recruiting a new employee who, at the end of the day, quits his or her job anyway.

And such situations occur very frequently. According to BambooHR’s onboarding survey , about 30% of all new employees leave their job within the first six months.

Most of the reasons why people quit so quickly result from a poor digital onboarding process . In other words, companies do not pay enough attention to master the adaptation of new hires.

The respondents listed, among others, the following elements which would have convinced them to stay:

23% of people did not receive clear guidelines to what their responsibilities were
21% would prefer more effective training
17% said a friendly smile or helpful co-worker would have made all the difference
12% hoped for more acknowledgment for their contribution
9% required more attention from managers and co-workers

The good news is that most of the above reasons can be easily eliminated. Let’s outline a few recommendations to retain an employee for more than just a few months.

Set clear expectations in advance

Research showed that poorly-defined goals and lack of information are highly demotivating and are the top reason why people leave. Employees need to have a clear perspective on what their tasks are, what they are expected to do, and how their role fits the company’s operation.

Create a biweekly plan focused on newcomers acquiring the necessary set of skills. For instance, employees should learn the terminology, master the to be used tools, and get to know the individual teams within two weeks.

They should also have a point of contact to find answers to their questions about the company, corporate culture, and job. A digital onboarding platform, such as AppLearn Adopt , can easily do the job.

Invest in functional training

Newcomer training within the first months is worth the investment despite the temporary decrease in productivity and higher costs. Proper training lays the foundations on which you can build later.

After the first months, there is often not enough time for the employee to spend on training.

Digital onboarding using pop-up windows is an innovative approach. The bubbles become part of the employees’ everyday computer work and allow them to learn how to use your corporate software along the way. It is the interactivity that makes such solutions more memorable. Furthermore, the bubbles make the process more efficient, ease the trainers’ burden, and reduce training costs.

Communication is the key

Employees should feel happy and engaged at your company from the very beginning. Almost 1 out of 10 new hires listed as a reason why they quit the job the lack of attention from the managers. Therefore, it is essential to assign a colleague to every newcomer to help them with social adaptation and professionally teach him or her how the processes and tools work.

Communication is the key to every strong relationship. Schedule your face-to-face meetings on a weekly or biweekly basis. At the meetings, ask about the training process and find out what works and what doesn’t. Provide also broader context: why certain rules had to be introduced and what purpose they serve.

Make onboarding more efficient

In case a newcomer decides to leave the job, the company loses the investment spent on his or her recruitment and training. Furthermore, you need to spend more money to find his or her replacement. Employee Benefit News suggests that it costs as much as 33% of a worker’s annual salary to replace.

The solution is to make the onboarding process more efficient and significantly save time and money. This can be achieved by automating the training using a digital platform, such AppLearn Adopt.

This platform can reduce the number of face-to-face training sessions thanks to digital training, your employees will not have to attend any group classes. They can learn how to work with the corporate software sitting behind the desk.

Measure the metrics that matter with adoption data

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 14:06:00 GMT

Measure the metrics that matter with adoption data

If you have ever had any doubt about the value of measuring enterprise software performance, this quote from H. James Harrington should end it. After a lifetime spent optimizing organizational performance, with 40 years at IBM and 10 spent as a principal at Ernst & Young, his message couldn’t be clearer.

“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”

However, measurement is only as valuable as what’s being measured. And for digital transformation and service delivery linked to enterprise software, there is often a gap between the expected business outcomes and the reality.

This gap all-too-often consists of how users use technology, and it can be bridged by adoption data. This unique user experience information can highlight successes, areas for improvement and areas of opportunity. It can link usage to usefulness, and convert data inputs to business outcomes. And while information alone won’t drive improvement, as Harrington says, establishing the correct measures and the metrics that matter is the first step on this journey.

How to access and apply adoption data

In simple terms, adoption data is information on users’ interactions within software applications. From logins to navigation, time spent in application and task completions, adoption data tells you which (anonymized) users have done what within software, how long it has taken and what the outcome was.

An example of this would be how many users accessed their profile section on their first use of a new application. Another would be how long it takes a particular user group to achieve a specific task, or the completion rate of users of key processes. Further still, adoption data makes it possible to see the positive and negative influences on successful task completions—such as role, location or prior engagement.

This kind of intelligence is often a blind spot for businesses. To access and apply adoption data to demonstrate the true value of software investments, you’ll need a digital adoption platform that tracks this information and makes it digestible via analytics.

Without this information, the success of software is often judged on either the top-level usage figures that are available from the software vendor, or qualitative feedback. However, real value doesn’t come in the form of number of monthly logins or positive opinions. Software investments are made to deliver time and cost savings, not for the functionality. Adoption data enables businesses to measure the outcomes of their software, not just the inputs.

Once integrated with other data sources, such as support tickets and call tracking, these user experience insights make it possible to report back on the goals and objectives raised in the original business case—demonstrating application performance, as well as ways it can be continually improved further.

For a real example of how this works, we can look at one of our customer success stories. Prudential, the global insurance and finance leader, contacted AppLearn when they realized they needed support with their employee service experience transformation.

Using AppLearn’s expertise, our Adopt platform and the approach outlined above, Prudential were able to identify high volume, high risk processes where users would benefit from tier zero support – and then insert necessary interventions to see the impact of their actions.

An example of adoption data in action

The first step for Prudential was combining the unique adoption data made accessible by Adopt with platform and call tracking data. Once we’d done this, with their ServiceNow front-end portal and Workday® implementation, we created measurable objectives closely linked to their target operating model.

With these goals and our Advanced Analytics in place for launch, as well as the previously inaccessible in-app interactions being tracked by Adopt, Prudential were able to find out how their technology was enabling their vision and operating model at a glance.

Our day one results showed that 95% of people used Adopt on their first session, with 61% actively seeking support in-app. But as mentioned previously, adoption data goes deeper. We could also see that the users who engaged with our targeted enablement content were 150% more likely to successfully complete day one tasks.

This level of performance wouldn’t be possible without the work done to measure and boost readiness for change before launch. However, this insight not only proved the value of the pre-go live work, but identified other areas where the same approach could be applied.

As a result, the performance and level of insights continued to improve in the months that followed. We were able to demonstrate that Adopt interactions not only improved general task completion rates by more than 200%, but drove a 50% time saving on core tasks within 21 days. In fact, for the high volume ‘Request Time Off’ task alone, we saved 3466 hours over this period by reducing average completion time to just 4 minutes.

This kind of data is crucial to evidencing and optimizing the success of a software investment. It means Prudential can not only demonstrate the adoption and business value of their new applications, but access insights to support ongoing demands.

With adoption data, organizations have the opportunity to fill a critical measurement gap and get to the metrics that matter. Whether for internal software or a tool delivered to customers, this is vital to both proving and improving performance.

AppLearn named a leader in the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) space by Everest Group

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 14:17:00 GMT

AppLearn named a leader in the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) space by Everest Group

AppLearn has been named as a Leader in the inaugural Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) Products PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2020 from research and consulting firm, Everest Group.

The Everest Group Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) Products PEAK Matrix® evaluates the DAP landscape and performance of 14 vendors in the market against their vision, capacity to deliver, and the impact they have on the market. You can see the summary of this on the Everest website .

In the report, AppLearn has been named a Leader, and its focus on helping enterprises that are undergoing digital transformation journeys has been highlighted. The report also mentions the company’s ability to connect with other enterprise applications to provide support and guidance to users. AppLearn’s advanced analytics capabilities and consultative approach have also been called out as key strengths.

This news follows the release of AppLearn’s Digital Adoption Pulse report, which reaffirms that while the appetite for software adoption is currently high, organizations are still struggling to measure the outcomes of their investments.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn , commented: “We are proud and honored to be recognized as a Leader in the inaugural DAP PEAK Matrix evaluation. After years of evangelizing digital adoption and its importance, this recognition is an endorsement of our vision and testament to the deep understanding and diligence of our team.”

“We’ve long felt that digital adoption is a challenge for everybody that relies on software or undertakes a digital transformation project, but it is exacerbated at the enterprise level — where multi-lingual, geographically spread workforces and complex software suites are the norm. Ensuring that businesses at this level are equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary to align their technology investments with genuine business outcomes will continue to be our focus.”

“We’re pleased that Everest have recognized our expertise at this level, and will continue to inject empathy and business acumen into every stage of our approach. Between this and our data-driven Adopt platform, we’re well-placed to push on as a leader in the space and to set the standards of adoption excellence.”

7 ways industry leaders are mastering virtual onboarding

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 08:32:00 GMT

7 ways industry leaders are mastering virtual onboarding

Did you know that the Hotjar company randomly connects its employees in a virtual chat for half an hour to get to know each other and that LinkedIn now spreads its old one-day program out over a week? Read this blog to find inspiration in virtual onboarding activities employed by global companies and reach world-class excellence with your own processes.

Pre-pandemic, on a LinkedIn employees’ first day in the office they would receive an already configured computer ready and waiting at their desk. While the pandemic outbreak and working from home has changed this in some cases, the outcome remains the same. A newcomer gets the computer directly from the supplier and downloads the software and logins by themselves.

But, while providing the employee with necessary equipment, don’t forget other onboarding technologies. These could include verification systems and encrypted software to sign emails and documents. These allow the employees to send confidential information and attachments so that nobody can see them.

It’s also highly recommended to deploy onboarding tools, such as our digital adoption platform AppLearn Adopt , for faster and more efficient initial employee training. These tools guide the employee throughout your software and simultaneously advise the employee if he or she gets lost.

One of the benefits of onboarding tools is they can be personalized, and hence suit your employees’ needs. The tools can also tell you which part of the program is the most confusing for employees, or how long do they need to master the program.

Besides onboarding tools or encryption software, there’s plenty organizations should be doing to make virtual onboarding work better. And this starts with communication.

Keep in touch

While working from home, the relationships will not be easy to build. However, there are a few ways how the new hire can become part of the team. Kelly Chuck, who is responsible for LinkedIn’s onboarding program for new hires, shares the same opinion.

“Zoom allows you to have breakout groups of three or four and this gives new hires a chance to meet each other. We keep the breakout groups consistent throughout the sessions so that new hires can build relationships with people in their cohort,“ says Kelly for the company’s Talent Blog .

Hotjar, a business analytics company, also took an interesting approach. They use an app called Donut to meet the new hires’ colleagues online. Two people are randomly paired up to have a 30-minute chat via Slack every two weeks.

Lisa Spinelli from Association for Talent Development also reminds of the importance of contact with the direct manager.

Have regular one-on-one check-ins with the new hire and their direct manager to keep in touch. The manager then has the opportunity to check if everything goes as expected and plan next steps with the employee.

Introduce a virtual buddy system

Microsoft has been using a “buddy” program for quite a long time. Dawn Klinghoffer, head of Microsoft’s hiring department, has only positive experience. The program boosted new hire productivity and employee satisfaction.

It also gives a chance for the more seasoned staff members to show off their leadership skills.

So, how does the buddy system work? Every new hire is assigned one colleague to guide and help him or her to integrate with the team.

Association for Talent Development employs a similar program. Since the pandemic hit the buddy system continues virtually.

Embrace continual learning

Procter & Gamble, the owner of several beauty brands, hired 35 new employees in April. To make their first days easier, they created a P&G Connect platform. Its purpose is to provide basic information and serve as a training tool.

Flipkart online store, on the other hand, created so-called training leagues. These are online sessions where employees share their knowledge.

Visa, the world-renowned payment card provider, also hired 40 new employees in its two branches. The new hires are not only trained via video meetings, along with their colleagues, they also have access to the Visa University learning ecosystem.

In case you haven’t employed a similar process at your company so far, do no longer hesitate.

Designate a few days for onboarding

Less is sometimes more. And it applies to virtual onboarding too. To be more specific especially as far as time planning is concerned.

If you thought that onboarding – even virtual – should be as short as possible, you were wrong.

The ideal onboarding should take a couple of weeks. The newcomer is busy with learning and work during this time.

Spread out onboarding activities over a longer time just like LinkedIn did. They spread an initially one-day program out to over a week because they didn’t want the new employees to spend their entire day talking. Also, the employees could meet and greet their new colleagues gradually, not in a day.

For the best results, you should look at onboarding and plan your digital employee experience thoroughly. It will prove to be much more effective, both for you and any newcomers.

Emphasize your company’s culture

A LinkedIn onboarding survey of over 3,000 respondents said that up to 70% of employees would leave a company if it had a bad culture. The same percentage said that company values and mission is more important than the wage.

Where are we getting with this? First of all, the company culture is of utmost importance, even when it comes to training of new employees.

The first thing you should do is introduce your company values, thinking, and visions. Short explanation of the company’s history doesn’t hurt either.

Ask for feedback (and act on it)

One of the largest mistakes when it comes to onboarding is asking for feedback and ignoring it. Even worse, if you do not ask for feedback at all.

Virtual training is becoming a routine, however, there is still room for improvement. If you want to find out what would the new hires change and welcome, simply ask them.

Furthermore, feedback is vital not only for onboarding, but also throughout the entire employment.

AppLearn report finds businesses failing to maximize significant software investments

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 11:43:00 GMT

AppLearn report finds businesses failing to maximize significant software investments

According to new research conducted by AppLearn, almost half (48%) of executives say they entirely agree that successful adoption of cloud-based technology is a priority, but despite this, 90% cannot easily measure against business outcomes.

The data comes from AppLearn’s Digital Adoption Pulse report which canvassed the views of 500 senior executives of large businesses across the UK and US to understand current trends, priorities and barriers to true digital adoption of enterprise software.

In the last year, 73% of businesses have rolled out new enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, and despite a challenging global economy, over half (53%) said their budget for software initiatives would increase in the next year, signalling an ongoing appetite for tech investment.

However, when it comes to showing a return on this significant investment, only 45% have digital KPIs in place for all applications – making measuring successes against business outcomes a common challenge.

The business outcomes driving this investment in the current climate are: IT support ticket reduction (33%), followed by cost savings (21%) and user satisfaction (20%). But showing the impact of the investment against these drivers is an ongoing struggle for executives, with 42% confirming that showing a reduction in IT support tickets was the most difficult factor to measure.

Organizations are also failing to measure the success of their software investments beyond the initial 12 months of implementation, with only 12% measuring success after one year, falling to 5% after three years. Long-term measurement is even lower in organizations from the US, with just 8% measuring between one and two years after implementation, compared to 15% in the UK.

The results of the research also indicate that many businesses are still struggling to engage their employees throughout the digital adoption process, with 38% of executives highlighting changing employee processes and habits as the biggest barrier to successfully implementing new cloud-based solutions.

Mark Barlow, CEO at AppLearn commented: “The conditions for successful digital adoption seem perfect when you look at board priorities, workforce engagement and increasing investment in technology. However, businesses are still wasting billions of dollars annually when they fail to deliver on expected outcomes, indicating a disconnect between intentions and meaningful execution.

“Simply delivering a software project on time and to budget, and then moving onto the next, is not a true measure of success. The findings of our research paint another picture in which only a minority of organizations are actually adoption-ready.

“Considering the amount of money that is invested globally into new tech solutions, more needs to be done to turn this minority of businesses into a majority. Some are hiring Adoption Managers and Heads of Software Adoption but the vast majority are not. When it comes to adoption, the litmus test for me is simple; do you have a budget for it, and do you have people who are accountable for it?”

The findings of the report were also recently discussed as part of a webinar with Tony Saldanha, a renowned digital transformation expert formerly of Procter & Gamble.

Saldanha observed: “The statistic that only 17% of businesses measure software beyond 12 months reinforces the fact that many view success in IT project management as the implementation of the project, not as dynamic change. However, 90% of what causes failure in digital transformation is outside the technology itself – user engagement, effective communication, and ongoing investment. This has to be a long-term effort.”

AppLearn place 5th in The Northern Tech Awards Top 100

Thu, 28 May 2020 15:03:00 GMT

AppLearn place 5th in The Northern Tech Awards Top 100

We’re delighted to announce that AppLearn have come in at number 5 in the Northern Tech Awards Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies.

Our top 5 place in the Top 100 league table was revealed at yesterday’s virtual event, which was rescheduled following the cancellation of the original planned event on 26 ^th March.

Hosted by GP Bullhound, the online event was attended by hundreds of entrepreneurs and leaders, all gathered to celebrate the digital economy of the North of England and Scotland.

The list itself was compiled by ranking companies by revenue growth over the last three years (2017-2019), with our 103% growth rate securing our placement.

We’re proud with our inclusion at the top end of the list, alongside great northern businesses such as THG and Miss Group, and see this as yet another reflection of our growth, both as a business and as a team.

To find out more or view the league table, visit the GP Bullhound site

AppLearn offer free communications tool for ServiceNow customers

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 07:28:00 GMT

AppLearn offer free communications tool for ServiceNow customers

Digital adoption solution specialist, AppLearn, has been listed as an integration partner on ServiceNow’s COVID-19 Emergency Response store following its status as an official ServiceNow partner.

The leading digital workflow company’s store contains a range of apps and resources from ServiceNow and partners geared towards helping organizations accelerate their response to the crisis.

AppLearn is one of over 60 partners brought together by ServiceNow who are helping businesses collaborate and share information across teams in light of COVID-19.

From now, ServiceNow customers will now be able to take advantage of Adopt Remote, a lite version of AppLearn’s digital adoption solution, Adopt, at no cost until 30 September.

The solution allows organizations to create an instant global portal that can be accessed by end users from any remote location to help them easily communicate and share information.

AppLearn’s digital adoption solution offers full integration with the ServiceNow Virtual Agent and Knowledge Base and offers a support experience in the flow of work. It enables organizations to share critical information to targeted user groups to communicate change, as well as providing contextual resources to reduce IT helpdesk tickets and support costs.

Organizations will also be able to gain insights into the effectiveness of their business applications through inbuilt analytics, which tracks usage of the content from ServiceNow Knowledge, Virtual Agent and Live Chat across all SaaS platforms.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn commented: “In these challenging times, we are committed to finding new and innovative ways to help businesses support their people using technology.”

“We’re proud to be working with ServiceNow to help organizations demonstrate measurable cost reductions with a more modern, dynamic support experience. Our Adopt platform brings certainty to day-to-day operations as well as reducing the strain on IT teams in these challenging times. Our mission is to ensure everyone can continue to work efficiently and collaboratively as we all adapt to a different way of working.”

In an open letter, Bill McDermott CEO ServiceNow, said: “None of us is as smart as all of us. And no one succeeds alone. It is with deep appreciation we recognize the collective efforts of our teams, partners, and customers to put technology in the service of people.”

AppLearn strengthens UK team with new hires

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 10:00:00 GMT

AppLearn strengthens UK team with new hires

Manchester-headquartered digital adoption solution specialist, AppLearn, has boosted its workforce by nearly 20% as it focuses on strengthening its product offering.

Key hires have been made across the company’s software, data and product teams, as the business grows its international customer base.

As part of its commitment to developing talent from the ground up, AppLearn has also teamed up with digital education provider, Code Nation, and coding bootcamp, Northcoders, to help develop the next generation of tech talent in the region and beyond.

Following a thorough assessment process, a graduate and apprentice from these schemes have been selected to take part in a 12-week intensive program with AppLearn.

Both will be working with the company’s product team to develop AppLearn’s Adopt platform, gaining hands-on experience of building prototypes, optimizing and developing core features of the platform.

This expansion follows an announcement in January that the company had opened its second office in the US, further enhancing its global presence and growth.

Andrew Avanessian, chief operating officer at AppLearn, commented: “We’re at an exciting point in our growth journey. Since securing $25 million investment commitment last year, we’ve been able to focus on growing our skilled and passionate team even further.

“By growing our team, we’re not just boosting our own growth and empowering customers, we’re also developing people who can give back to the region. We’re looking forward to welcoming our new colleagues and seeing them learn, develop and flourish in the coming months.”

Why employees forget 90% of training within a week (and what to do about it)

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 12:53:00 GMT

Why employees forget 90% of training within a week (and what to do about it)

In a training context, the forgetting curve shows that learners will forget an average of 90% of what they have learned within the first seven days.

When it comes to forgetting, our brain’s imperfection does not affect only the information gathered at work. After all, don’t forget what article we read, what movie we saw, what conversation we overheard, or who we came across?

Forgetting work-related information, instructions, and responsibilities, however, results in inefficient time management and low productivity, which cost the employer a lot of money.

Why do people forget?

Forgetting is not only an issue of the modern age, troubled by the overload of information. Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, pioneered memory and forgetting research before 1885.

The outcome of his tests and observations is the Forgetting Curve, which shows that we forget the majority of information after a few hours from their receipt . George Armitage Miller followed up on Ebbinghaus’s studies with a primary focus on short-term memory.

His work gave birth to the Magical Number Seven theory, i.e. the amount of information a human can hold in his or her short-term memory is 7 ± 2. Some people can hold 5 objects while others 7 or 9. This means that you want to remember a 10 digits phone number, account number or a long password, you need to pay more attention and spend more time.

Hermann Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve

The forgetting rate also depends on several external factors, such as stress, emotions, or physical and mental condition.

Forgetting has a positive side

The reason why information “vanish” is not negligence. Forgetting is closely connected to the survival instinct developed in humans a long time ago.

They say time is the best healer. However, it is the forgetting that eliminates things unrelated to human’s future path in this context. It is the forgetting which allows us to receive and store new information and knowledge.

Minimize the forgetting rate

There are no wonder memory pills to help you, but the experts didn’t forget this issue. They came up with many techniques and methods. In a nutshell, they all agree that long-term forgetting can be reduced by inner motivation, associations, and repeating .

The inner motivation could be our fondness of a specific topic or the benefit of the information, which helps us solve a current problem. Associate a new piece of information with a clue, and the probability of storing the information in the long-term memory increases. The crucial element for this step is associations.

Curve indicating the information remembering rate by days of review.

Reviewing also boosts your memory. To maximize the effects, repeat information at specific time intervals . Memorizing large amounts of information in a short time, very well known from the long nights before tests, is meaningless in terms of long-time memory.

A popular method is the “2-7-12 rule,” which says that after the second review, we will remember the information for 2 days, after the third review for 7 days, and after the fourth for 12 days.

However, all of these are obsolete methods and techniques that can have the desired effect on employees reluctant to learn hundreds of pages with a small modification and smarter application.

More appropriate educational tools

There are specific staff training methods designed for the digital environment. These include as online courses (e-learning), instructional videos, gamification and digital onboarding—and it is the last of these continuing to grow in popularity among larger corporations.

The advantage of onboarding is that, besides your own employees, it can often also be rolled out with slight adjustments to educate your customers and partners too.

So, what exactly is onboarding? Digital onboarding is an educational process based on direct interaction with an app, software package, or information systems, such as SAP or Sage.

In the real world, an onboarding guide delivers relevant help at the right time . For instance, only when the user is new in the app as the guide knows the user has logged in for the first time or only when they become an advanced user who has been using the app for a month.

Digital onboarding can offer personalized help based on various input data, such as the employee’s attendance or previous experience with the app. All of the above is covered by our onboarding features that give you the option to create a similar guide for any of your business software.

If the employee is late on his or her tasks because the software is slowing him or her down while ignoring the context-sensitive help made possible by a digital adoption platform , it is not rocket science to determine who is responsible.

Lessons From Leaders: Why ongoing support is key to software uptake

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 11:54:00 GMT

Why ongoing support is key to software uptake

From making the business case in January 2018 to going live that November, Kantar’s Workday rollout moved at a rapid pace. As their Global HR Operations Director, Nadia Hutchinson ran the 34-week global program and with Kantar having “some of the highest user rates of any Workday client globally”, it’s clear they got something right.

As a leading data, insights and consulting company, Kantar do a lot of innovative digital work for clients. However, Nadia claims they weren’t traditionally good at doing it for themselves. In fact, as a global group broken down by sector, their technology landscape had become fragmented.

Having been brought in to lead the huge HCM project to remedy this, Nadia and her dedicated change and training team had a big, early decision to make. Just how far should they go with supporting their employees after the software launch?

They decided to place real importance on informing and automating ongoing support, and she believes this had a large impact on the remarkable success of the project.

“Straight after implementation, the program rolls off. The change and training people go on to other projects, they leave the organization, often as consultants, and that’s where some of the adoption issues begin to occur.”

To support their employees after launch, it wouldn’t be enough to distribute catch-all comms and generic guides. According to Nadia, “there were two things we needed to understand, our adoption rate and usage of Workday, and also how are people using the tool that we deployed to support them.”

Then there was the support itself. It wasn’t feasible for Kantar’s central HR team to handle all Workday enquiries. According to Nadia, “the only way we could do that [provide real-time support] was to have something that was available digitally, online, that people could access anywhere, anytime.”

“We needed a way to sustain real-time support. The only way we could do that was to have something that’s available 24/7 because, like many global organizations our employee base spans every time zone in the world, but the support team was based in London.”

These requirements led Nadia to our ADOPT digital adoption solution, and to a working partnership with AppLearn, but the lesson here couldn’t be clearer. If you need to decide how much to invest into providing ongoing support to your employees, remember Nadia’s advice:

“People won’t remember what you told them just before the program went live, or as it went live, it’s really after the tool is implemented that the questions really start coming.”

Whatever the transformation project, ongoing support can be the difference, but is not a guarantee of success on its own.

AppLearn expands US presence with Boston office opening

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 12:04:00 GMT

AppLearn expands US presence with Boston office opening

AppLearn has opened a new office in Downtown Crossing, Boston, starting with a team in a range of sales positions. The new team, based in AppLearn’s fourth global office, will be responsible for driving sales across the US market, helping to push forward the global expansion of the company.

This news follows a $25 million investment into the company in 2019 from California-based K1 Investment Management (“K1”), a leading investment firm focused on high-growth enterprise software companies. AppLearn also recently been included in a list of Britain’s fastest-growing businesses , compiled by investment platform, SyndicateRoom, and independent research agency, Beauhurst.

As part of its ongoing mission to identify and address new challenges in the digital adoption space, the company has also promoted its co-founder, Andrew Barlow, from Director of Product Strategy to VP, Advocacy and Innovation.

In his new role, Andrew will be championing the gold standard of digital adoption and working with organizations to help maximize their investment in technology. He will also be applying his expertise in the digital adoption process to bring further innovation to the company’s strategic roadmap.

Andrew Avanessian, CEO at AppLearn, commented: “Over the last year, we’ve focused on growing AppLearn’s strength in every area, from building our talented team to expanding our innovative software offering.

“With our new hub in Boston, we’re perfectly placed for the next phase of international growth, empowering even more organizations to achieve true digital adoption. We look forward to 2020 and beyond as we help more global brands realize and maximize the potential of their technology investments.”

Lessons From Leaders: The 12 pains of manager self-service

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 13:13:00 GMT

Lessons From Leaders: The 12 pains of manager self-service

Do you think enough about your managers’ software experience? While vendors and businesses alike often focus on their advocates and end-users, it’s not uncommon for the management level to be overlooked. Yet, according to Thomas Otter, “manager self-service is the most challenging technical problem in HR technology, for the vendors and end-users.”

Thomas believes this is primarily due to there being no engagement, just a different way of completing dreary, dull administrative work. He suggests that “manager self-service to date has not really been about enabling and empowering the managers at all, it’s essentially been about enslaving them.”

“If you’re like me, you tend to avoid this. You tend to avoid manager self-service until you have to do it.”

His first-hand example of letting expenses build up for weeks, until the threat of punishment, isn’t his only experience in this area. Having ran product at SAP SuccessFactors and been a lead analyst on HR technology at Gartner, working with global companies like Nestle and PepsiCo, he’s better positioned than most to talk about improving manager self-service.

But if employee engagement isn’t as challenging for vendors or businesses, why is it different for managers? Thomas believes it all comes down to motivation.

It’s in an employee’s interest to get their expenses submitted, to book leave and view their pay slips. That means if the help’s not there when they need it, they’ll seek it out, or even ask a friend. Meanwhile, the manager receiving these requests from many employees can quickly get overwhelmed—without the same underlying motivation.

Thomas also points to the product owner or employee focus of most vendors’ solutions as a problem.

“If you go to all these stands today at the conference, you’ll hear a lot about employee experience. Will you find any slide or positioning from any vendor about manager experience? Probably not. The manager has been somewhat neglected in the design of these systems and how companies deploy them.”

So, how do we begin to close this motivation gap and repair this neglect? For Thomas, improving manager self-service begins by addressing the following 12 pain points:

Complex software seldom used
Complex menus and navigation
Busy screens
Awkward technology
Limited relevant online help
Overly complex company processes
Multi-step approvals
HR language that managers don’t necessarily understand
HR dumps whole process on the manager
Timing bottlenecks
No training, or not when needed
No why

From unneccesary or unexplained complexities through to limited support and investment, his list captures the sentiment that these tools are often inflicted on managers instead of involving them. And while Thomas touches on potential solutions during his full talk, understanding the problems is the first step towards fixing them.

In closing, Thomas offers another home truth. “Managers don’t love HR systems and probably never will”. He also suggests that instead of worrying too much about changing this, we need to instead realize this when designing systems and the solutions around them. And if you take one thing away from Thomas’ talk, it should be this:

“Devote time, effort, money, training and focus on the manager almost above all else, because that will be the success or failure of your system, not only for managers and HR, but for employees.”

Now you know the common pains of managers who use HR tools to self-serve, how are you going to address them?

AppLearn featured in Top 100 list of fast-growing businesses

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 13:41:00 GMT

AppLearn featured in Top 100 list of fast-growing businesses

We’re pleased to announce that we have been included in this year’s Top 100: Britain’s Fast-Growing Businesses report, compiled by investment platform, SyndicateRoom and independent research agency, Beauhurst.

The ranking of the top 100 UK high-growth businesses was based on the increase in the organizations’ valuations between 2016 and 2019.

We’re proud to be sitting alongside companies like Bulb and Monzo, and our inclusion in this list reflects the scale of our growth over the last couple of years, with a significant boost following our $25 million investment secured earlier this year from K1 Investment Management.

Being recognized in this report is testament to the hard work that all of us have put in on our journey so far. We’re excited to be expanding our global presence and growing our team to propel us further and enable even more international growth.

Lessons From Leaders - How tiered training transformed Prudential

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 15:33:00 GMT

Lessons From Leaders: How tiered training transformed Prudential

In the first of our Adoption Track blogs, we summarize an important lesson about learning made at UNLEASH Paris by Kerri Kovac, VP, Organization Effectiveness at Prudential.

Leading a change transformation program at Prudential, the largest insurance company in the US by asset, was never going to be easy. Especially when you consider the large investment business and other financial products.

Even for Kerri Kovac, a leader with over 20 years of experience in organization effectiveness, an almost 145-year-old business with 50,000 users and 80 different HR systems across 60 countries is about as tangled a knot as you can imagine. Yet, that was her task—to capture and consolidate the above in one global Workday rollout.

During her talk, Kerri notes that Prudential were at one point an intentionally siloed business, at least in terms of digital and customer experience as they had a range of global cultures to consider. But, having fallen around 10 years behind the industry and their competitors in terms of tech, they realized the need for digital transformation.

According to Kerri, they transformed quickly for customers, providing one consistent experience regardless of product. However, their fractured internal systems for HR in particular required a more considered approach.

They realized the need to give employees a better, consistent experience and gave them this through Workday. Yet, while Kerri acknowledges this as ‘a great tool’, she also admits they uncovered that there’s ‘so much more that folks need to learn to use Workday’.

Self-service and technology leading to change may have been the goal of their software change, but this wasn’t the established behavior. Prudential needed to teach their people how to work digitally, and that meant more than in-app guidance. That mean inviting their employees to learn and offering tiered training depending on individual requirements.

“We went out to leaders and presented the business case and the burning platform for the change. We got alignment across the board, took everyone through the process and then, when it came to learning, we made certain there were lots of different options, but the options were primarily self-service.”

While part of a far bigger picture, which Kerri covers in her talk, this considered approach to learning was central to Prudential’s Workday adoption.

Supporting change with different degrees of training

“What we found was very important was to both culturally and contextually provide the right types of learning for those three large user groups: employee, manager and HR.”

In this sentence, Kerri captures the core of Prudential’s challenge. To meet the different needs of a global user base consisting of various roles, they created a blend of light, medium and high touch learning experiences for different user requirements.

One example of this lies in the expectation that employees and managers alike were going to have direct access to self-serve their requirements. While affecting them, it also meant HR needed to direct them towards this, rather than indulge past behaviors. Enabling this required a more interactive learning experience for HR, with ongoing self-serve support. Just dropping in the tool wouldn’t have been a solution.

“We needed to make sure that HR wasn’t only comfortable with how they were going to do their job differently, but also they needed to understand how the managers and employees were going to operate differently.”

Kerri defines the different tiers as follows:

Light touch training is mainly employee-focused, with self-service and need-to-know guidance in the right places.
Medium touch training revolves around learning rather than instruction for the people who want to learn about processes and the why behind things.
High touch training is more traditional, mandatory training for the product leaders and advocates.

Ultimately, Kerri puts the importance of participation and these different ways of learning as a key learning from the change project. But, while considering training was crucial, it was part of a wider mix for Prudential’s digital adoption of Workday.

Watch Kerri’s full talk from UNLEASH World for more insight into how they used AppLearn’s six adoption pillars, invested in user understanding and applied advanced analytics to achieve success.

AppLearn secures $25M commitment from K1 Investment Management

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 12:45:00 GMT

AppLearn secures $25M commitment from K1 Investment Management

MANCHESTER – Sept. 18, 2019 – AppLearn, the global specialists in Digital Adoption Solutions, today announced it has secured a significant investment led by California-based K1 Investment Management (“K1”), a leading investment firm focusing on high-growth enterprise software companies.

K1’s investment provides AppLearn with significant experience and resources to rapidly expand its global presence and further develop its innovative product suite known as its ADOPT platform.

ADOPT is an AI-powered Digital Adoption Solution that helps world-leading organizations to optimize their investments in digital transformation. By assisting users with complex business processes, infrequently performed tasks and change management activities, the software enables companies to maximize return on their digital investment, providing measurable benefits in productivity, accuracy and speed.

“Our vast experience in digital transformation, combined with the expertise and investment from K1, puts us in a very strong position to accelerate AppLearn’s growth plans,” said Mark Barlow, CEO of AppLearn. “The funding will fuel the delivery of our exciting product roadmap, as well as support further investments in sales and marketing to help us educate more global organizations about the role of Digital Adoption Solutions. We will soon be expanding our global presence with an office in Boston as well as actively hiring roles in Manchester across all departments. We are thrilled to be partnering with K1 to realize our vision in the next phase of the company’s growth.”

Digital Adoption Solutions represent a growing market within enterprise software. Leading research company Gartner recently introduced a new technology category for Digital Adoption Solutions , recognizing AppLearn. Further, research completed by McKinsey revealed that the digital adoption market is an emerging space, driven by an increasing number of organizations struggling to make the best of their technology investments. A recent report found that approximately 80 percent of executives say that their organizations have begun digital transformations, but just 14 percent say that their efforts have made performance improvements.

AppLearn’s solution is already enabling over 1million global users to realize the benefits of improved productivity, demonstrable ROI and increased employee engagement.

Speaking to the benefits of AppLearn’s technology, Kerri Kovac, VP Organizational Effectiveness at Prudential Financial, Inc, said: “AppLearn ADOPT enables us to push communications to our employees, empowering them with the tools to quickly and easily access on demand, in-application help and learning. The analytics functionality is extensive and allow us to identify employee experience issues, trouble areas, waning levels of adoption and more. As a result, we can provide targeted support exactly where and when it is needed.”

Mike Velcich, Principal at K1 added: “Since our first interaction with AppLearn, we have been impressed by their approach and vision to enabling better use of technology in the workplace, including the product’s ability to drive impact at some of the world’s most recognized companies. We fully believe in AppLearn’s ADOPT technology and its pioneering approach to digital change and we’re excited to support the team to strengthen its position within a growing market.”

AppLearn COO announced as IOD Director of the Year Awards Finalist

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:44:00 GMT

AppLearn COO announced as IOD Director of the Year Awards Finalist

Manchester-based software company AppLearn has been shortlisted for the Young Director of the Year at the finals of the 2019 IoD Director of the Year Awards.

Andrew Avanessian , COO, joined the fast-growing digital adoption experts in 2019 following his outstanding contribution to the growth journey at endpoint privilege management vendor Avecto.

Avanessian, commented: “I’m a huge advocate of innovation in Manchester, so I am delighted to be representing the North West in the category of Young Director of the Year. I find myself in very strong company! We’re entering a massively exciting and important time at AppLearn as we take the company to the next level of expansion, and I am proud to lead the business forward.”

Mark Barlow, CEO, said: “The award is testament to Andrew’s ongoing focus, not only to the success of Avecto to its point of acquisition last year, but more recently his significant and measurable impact at AppLearn. Andrew is an impressive individual with a very clear strategic plan that will catapult AppLearn’s future success. Myself and the team wish him all the best at the awards which recognize exceptional talent and leadership not only in our region, but nationally.”

The finalists were chosen from the hundreds of directors that entered into one of the 11 heats across the UK, in 14 different categories.

The expert judging panel will now convene to decide the overall winners to be announced at the awards ceremony on Friday 18 October 2019 at The Brewery.

Charlotte Valeur, Chair of the Institute of Directors, said: “In this time of great change for business and society, enterprising and responsible leadership has never been more important. These are the qualities that Director of the Year Award finalists embody, and it is a privilege to be able to give these individuals the recognition they deserve. Congratulations to all of those who have made it to this stage, you provide us with confidence in the ongoing strength of the UK’s director community.”

Attended by business leaders, entrepreneurs, government and media representatives, the awards ceremony is a unique opportunity to network, exchange ideas and celebrate with some of the very ‘best of the best’ in British business.

Addressing the ‘what’s in it for me?’ mentality

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 12:08:00 GMT

Addressing the ‘what’s in it for me?’ mentality

What’s in it for me?

Whether we like it or not this question fuels human behavior. If people don’t see the benefits of something, they aren’t going to get behind it.

The “what’s in it for me” mentality is drastically reducing the value of a lot of digital transformation projects. Organizations are struggling to capitalize on their investment because people are not adopting the software.

“70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance.”

McKinsey & Company

If digital transformation brings with it a multitude of benefits, why do statistics like this exist? Why are people resisting change when it can do so much for them?

This is because while digital transformation has benefits, it also creates fear, change, and challenges.

Why are people aware of the negatives but not the positives?

People do not need to be told the negative points of a digital transformation because they are naturally averse to change.

As a result of this natural resistance to change, negative points such as uncertainty and worries about upskilling outshine any positive aspects.

However, this is because either the positive aspects are just not being made clear, or the wrong communications methods are being used.

Make the benefits known

Successful digital transformation projects bring with them many benefits not only for the business but for the individual employees too.

However, while the C levels are aware of their benefits, e.g. high ROI and reduced training costs, most of the workforce have no idea how the transformation will benefit them.

While ROI and cost reductions are crucial to success, there are so many other benefits that would strike a connection with employees and get them to adopt the change.

For example:

Time-savings
Quicker task completion
Automated processes

When trying to create a positive perception of change, it’s essential you make it clear to your workforce how it will affect them in their day-to-day lives.

If employees know that adopting this software will make their life easier, you will undoubtedly overcome the fear associated with change.

Update your communication method

Determining what messaging will work for your workforce is one part of the challenge, but ensuring employees receive the communications is another.

Organizations often rely on traditional communication methods/mass emails to communicate with their workforce. However, there a two major flaws with this communication method.

The first is that because people receive so many emails every day, employees either miss or do not register your message.

And secondly, traditional communication methods have no way for you to track their consumption. If you have a crucial message to get across, you must use better ways to send it.

By using support software such as a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), you can target your employees both in-application and out-of-application. Targeting your employees from multiple angles helps ensure the message is received and to be certain, you should use analytics to measure the consumption. By measuring the consumption of your messages, you can determine whether employees have engaged with it and if not, you can resend that communication.

Adding these considerations to your message and delivery can make the difference between a successful project or a failure.