This blog is the first in our series on digital adoption solutions (DAS). Digital adoption solutions are software platforms or tools designed to help organizations streamline the use of new technologies and applications within their organization. DAS typically offer features such as interactive click-through opportunities, printable resources, contextual help, user analytics and even learning platforms or modules to help users confidently use new software and tools. As Gartner notes in a, “Market Guide for Digital Adoption Platforms,” “Common use cases for digital adoption platforms (DAPs) encompass employee onboarding/offboarding, complex tasks, infrequent tasks and business process or application change management” (2023).
The overall goal of DAS is to reduce resistance to change, improve user proficiency, increase productivity and maximize the ROI of investments in technology. DAS often provide:
- Tours – these provide an overview of an application or features within an application and support new users as well as changes or new features available to employees
- In-application contextual guidance – step-by-step prompted guidance to complete a task
- Cross-application contextual guidance – step-by-step guidance that crosses multiple applications and is provided in context of what the user is doing and where the user is at that moment
- Conversion capabilities – supported conversion of previous content created in other DAPs
- Knowledge management and learning – long-form information about a process or task
- Macro and micro analytics – analysis of usage overall
- Multilanguage content – translation of user interface and of content into multiple languages
- Surveys and feedback – employee or customer feedback, both short and long form
- Announcements – new function, feature or general communication in application
- Hover help and tool tips – additional information on a guidance step
- If/then branched guidance – guidance that can take multiple paths based on information filled in at a particular step
- Personalization – Customization options to tailor the user experience based on individual roles, preference and skill levels
- Anonymized and aggregated data collection – user data is tracked and reported by role
- Light automation of task entry (not robotic process automation) – some data entry automation that is programmatically based on information filled in at a step to then fill in additional fields
There are a growing number of DAS in the marketplace today, including Oracle Guided Learning, WalkMe, tts Performance Suite, Epilogue Opus, SAP Enable Now and AppLearn Adopt. Most overlay tools are Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms and capture click-steps, have the ability to edit the output and then deploy content with the platform agnostic tools. Further blogs will explore why companies can benefit from digital adoption solutions and platforms as well as iLearnERP’s overall approach and process for adoption.
We are a full-service digital adoption company! Watch for more from us on this topic and contact us today to see how we can help with current tool status assessment, tool selection criteria identification, tool evaluations and demos, buy decision assistance and price negotiation, product training and configuration, UPK content conversion, new content development and digital adoption change leadership and project management.
