What Is a Digital Adoption Platform?
A digital adoption platform (DAP) is user-friendly software that doesn't require any technical expertise for the user to use the specific application, software, or digital tool to its full potential. This software solution facilitates the smooth learning, usage, and adoption of an application in its entirety so that each and every technical aspect of the platform is utilized by the end-user. Digital adoption software achieves this task by providing its users with in-app assistance in the form of product demonstrations, step-by-step directions, task checklists, valuable suggestions, and self-help menus. These resources collectively assist users in navigating all aspects of an application.
By employing digital adoption platforms for enterprises, companies can determine the actual return on investment (ROI) for their internally used software applications and digital transformation initiatives. These platforms also assist in the seamless onboarding of users and customers to their products and websites. They provide valuable insights into end-users' adoption and interaction with applications, while also creating a more intuitive technological experience for their workforce, clientele, and all end-users.
Why Is a Digital Adoption Platform Important?
A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) holds immense importance in today's digital business landscape. Firstly, it addresses a significant issue – over 91% of enterprise software errors are caused by inappropriate software use and onboarding challenges. Secondly, it helps minimize human error by guiding users through various application processes in a step-by-step and detailed manner.
Moreover, apart from optimizing business operations, and improving employee productivity, digital adoption platforms for enterprises are also useful in maximizing the return on investment (ROI) for new technologies. In today’s time, when digital transformation has changed the nature of working, organizations are required to harness the full potential of their software stack in order to maximize the value of their technology investments. Unfortunately, many companies squander 37% of their software spending due to underutilization. In such a scenario, using digital adoption software will not only boost software adoption rates but will also enable employees to focus on their core tasks.
In a nutshell, using a digital adoption platform eliminates the need to memorize intricate procedures but also ensures faster onboarding and training, maintains competitiveness, and empowers organizations to make the most of any application in their arsenal.
What are the Features of a Digital Adoption Platform?
A digital adoption platform software holds immense significance in the contemporary business landscape, addressing critical aspects that contribute to an organization's success. Here are some essential features of DAPs;
- Business Process Compliance: Compliance with regulations, business processes, and policies is vital to avoid consequences like financial penalties, lost revenue, legal actions, and harm to reputation. DAPs play a pivotal role in ensuring business process compliance and minimizing the risk of non-compliance and its associated repercussions.
- Ease of Use/User-Friendly: A DAP is designed to offer a user-friendly experience by guiding users through web-based applications effortlessly. It provides essential features such as walkthroughs, tooltips, data validation, announcements, and more to simplify tasks and enhance productivity, making it an essential tool for users of varying expertise.
- Advanced Analytics: DAPs offer advanced analytics capabilities that go beyond basic user tracking. They provide actionable insights into user behavior, helping businesses identify problem areas, process bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement. This data-driven approach empowers organizations to make informed decisions and streamline operations effectively.
- Contextual In-App Guidance: DAPs enhance user experiences through contextual in-app guidance, enabling users to learn as they work. This minimizes the need for separate training sessions and helps users complete tasks with confidence, reducing support requests and enhancing overall efficiency.
- Professional Support: Choosing a DAP also involves considering the quality of support. Expert support during and after implementation is crucial for a seamless experience. DAP support features lower support costs, improve user satisfaction, and resolve issues in real-time, contributing to a successful digital adoption journey.
- Seamless Communication: DAPs facilitate seamless communication within organizations, promoting engagement and productivity. They offer creative communication features, such as highlights, nudges, walkthroughs, and more, to onboard users, introduce software features, and keep users informed about updates and self-serve learning opportunities.
Benefits of a Digital Adoption Platform
Using digital adoption platform tools can offer a wide range of benefits by enhancing both employee and customer experiences. Let's delve into these benefits in detail;
DAP Benefits for Employee Use Cases
- Accelerated Adoption of Technology: DAPs expedite the adoption of newly implemented applications, technologies, and process changes among employees.
- Enhanced Digital Maturity: Employees become more tech-savvy, fostering workplace innovation and adaptability.
- Efficient Process Documentation: Process documentation is readily available within the workflow, aiding employees in performing tasks seamlessly.
- Streamlined Onboarding and Training: Employee onboarding, training, and upskilling processes are streamlined, reducing the time and resources needed.
- Reduced IT Dependency: DAPs decrease the dependency on IT support by offering self-help solutions, deflecting support issues and reducing support tickets.
- Knowledge Sharing: Employees benefit from better knowledge sharing, leading to increased product knowledge and proficiency.
- Enhanced Productivity: A digital adoption platform software improves employee productivity, efficiency, and overall workplace experience.
Customer-Centric Advantages of DAP
- Tailored User Onboarding: DAPs provide more contextual user onboarding experiences, driving higher adoption rates among customers.
- Agility for Product Teams: Reduced reliance on engineering for in-app experiences allows product teams to be more agile and responsive to customer needs.
- Faster Time-to-Value: Customers experience decreased time-to-value, gaining benefits from new solutions more quickly.
- Reduced Support Tickets: Self-help support options provided by DAPs lead to a reduction in customer support tickets, saving time and resources.
- Improved User Experience: DAPs reduce digital friction for customers, resulting in better overall customer experiences and increased satisfaction rates.
DAP Benefits for Partners Use Cases:
- Simplified Partner Training: DAPs simplify the process of training partners on new systems, ensuring they can quickly and effectively utilize the technology.
- Efficiency for Global Enterprises: Take, for example, a global auto manufacturer with an extensive network of dealers. By employing a DAP, these dealers can be seamlessly guided through intricate tasks such as inventory management, eCommerce, and logistics systems.
- Cost and Time Savings: Partner training can be a challenging and resource-intensive activity. However, with a DAP, the time and costs associated with traditional training methods are significantly reduced.
- Enhanced Partnership Effectiveness: DAPs empower partners to navigate complex systems independently, fostering more efficient and productive collaborations.
Top Digital Adoption Platforms
Here are some of the best digital adoption platforms available to help you use applications with an optimized approach;
Software | Features | Price |
UserGuiding | Customer Feedback, In-product Messaging, Feature Adoption, Onboarding Checklists, User Onboarding | Price On Request |
Itzme | Designed, Inquiry Form, Lightning Speed, Share Anywhere, Unlimited Videos | Price On Request |
Spekit | Content Creation, Collaboration, Integration, Reporting & Analytics, Onboarding Support | Price On Request |
SmartKarrot | Customer Campaigns, Customer Segments, Dashboard, Product Adoption, 360° Customer View | Price On Request |
UserIQ Customer Success Platform | Adoption Tracking, Feature Usage, Limitless Data Segmentation, Surveys, Targeted Engagements | Price On Request |
Ziplyn | Analyze, Support, Easy to Use, Feature Adoption, Onboarding | Price On Request |
Userpilot | Engagement Layer, Customization, Growth Insights, People & Tracking, User Sentiment | Price On Request |
Minreva | Analytics, Cloud Based, Support, Customization, Dashboard | Price On Request |
Bloomfire | Content Reporting & Analytics, AI-driven management, Auto-tagging Content, Newsletter, Unlimited torage and Bandwidth | Price On Request |
Walkme | Automated Funnels & Sequences, Dashboard, Engagement Analytics, Insights, Reports | Price On Request |
Considerations for Selecting the Best Digital Adoption Platform
Selecting the right Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) for your organization requires careful consideration of essential features. Here's a breakdown of crucial factors to keep in mind;
- In-app Guided Learning Experiences: Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are all about guiding users inside an application. They do this through various helpful tools like interactive step-by-step guides, tips, task lists, and more. When picking a DAP, make sure it offers the right tools for what you want to teach users in your app.
- Easy Content Creation and Management: Some DAPs need you to be a coding expert to create content, while others are much simpler and don't require any coding skills. After you make your training materials, it's important that your DAP lets you update them quickly so that users always have the latest information.
- Contextual Self-Help Support: Among the most potent features of digital adoption platform tools are contextual self-help widgets seamlessly embedded within your applications. These widgets create an archive of support documentation and help content right within the user's workflow. They effortlessly link with your knowledge base, intranet, online links, and file storage systems, offering users a searchable self-help assistant.
- User Behavior Analytics: DAPs capture user behavior data without requiring complex technical tracking frameworks. It helps product managers to track adoption metrics, experiment, and improve onboarding and training based on user engagement insights.
- Automated Multi-Format Content Creation: Some DAPs automatically repurpose in-app content into various formats like PDFs, slide decks, and videos for convenient user access.
- Built-in User Feedback: Look for DAPs that facilitate real-time feedback collection from both customers and employees, covering NPS scores, feature requests, user flows, and more.
- Easy Implementation and Integration: Research DAPs offering implementation services or partnerships to streamline deployment. Ensure compatibility with your existing learning software (e.g., LMS) and enterprise applications.
- Comprehensive Customer Support: Prioritize DAP vendors offering holistic customer support, encompassing technical assistance, implementation support, and ongoing client success. It should be there to help you from the start of your journey, during setup, and throughout your time using the platform. This support should be available all the time, ready to aid you with any inquiries or concerns.
Customer reviews on software listing websites can give you insights into how good a DAP's support really is. Beyond just fixing technical problems, support should understand your goals and guide your users to make the most of the platform.