Will digital transformation be top of the agenda for your organisation in 2024? If you answered in the affirmative, you’re far from alone.

Across Australia, businesses of all stripes and sizes are investing heavily in digital platforms and programs to drive productivity, innovation and cost savings across the enterprise.

It’s a trend that seems destined to continue, with 67 percent of companies globally reporting they’re under ‘extreme pressure’ to accelerate the digital transformation process, according to WalkMe’s 2022-23 State of Digital Adoption report.

But doing it and doing it well are two very different things. Transforming digitally isn’t as easy as deploying tools and technologies and expecting staff to use them.

If organisations don’t support their teams to make the switch to new systems and solutions, there’s a high chance employees will avoid them or use them in inefficient and unhelpful ways, persisting instead with outdated but familiar processes and platforms wherever it’s possible to do so. 

Awash with apps

While this may be an outcome that organisations would prefer to avoid, throwing technology at employees and hoping for it to stick remains, nevertheless, a surprisingly common phenomenon. When it comes to introducing new applications, the ‘more is better’ mentality too often prevails, with organisations now using a whopping 130 apps apiece, on average, according to research published by Vendr in early 2023.

In many instances, lack of strategic planning and central coordination mean organisations don’t even know what digital solutions they’ve deployed, never mind whether they’ve been of benefit to users.

The average enterprise with 10,000 employees or more is only aware of 49 per cent of the apps it’s running, according to WalkMe’s research.

How, and how well, employees are using those apps, never mind the 51 per cent that are flying under the radar, is typically anyone’s guess.

Understanding what’s in use

Is it possible for organisations to change that suboptimal status quo – to gain visibility over their tech stacks and an understanding of what employees are accessing and how?

Happily, the answer is yes, provided they have the right technology. A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) can provide ‘click-by-click’ data on what software is in use and exactly how it’s used along with the ability to deploy solutions to improve user experience and productivity across workflows with automation and on-screen step-by-step user guidance.

Deploying DAP technology may well reveal some unwelcome truths, about applications that were intended to improve processes and practices by making them more streamlined and efficient.

It’s possible an organisation may learn that the transformative technology it has invested in is poorly understood, and is under-utilised as a result. In a worst-case scenario, the technology may even be adding to, rather than subtracting from, the time it takes employees to complete simple tasks.

Doing better with digital

The good news is, it doesn’t have to stay that way. The DAP technology used to diagnose the problem can also deliver a solution, in the form of customised user guidance and automation across applications and workflows.

If it’s detected that employees are spending excessive amounts of time attempting to enter data into a complex CRM platform, for example, the organisation may elect to introduce on-screen prompts and instructions. Being supported to interact with the platform, without their workflow being interrupted, can enable employees to get to grips with it far more quickly than if they were left to figure it out for themselves.

Providing non-intrusive, in situ guidance can also circumvent the problem of ‘tech shame’ – the embarrassment that arises when a worker has to admit that a particular business application has them stumped. This is a documented phenomenon among younger workers who’ve grown up with devices in their hands and are therefore presumed to be intuitively across all things digital. For their part, many older employees are equally reluctant to admit that they’re struggling, for fear they’ll be perceived as ‘past it’. DAP technology can be a subtle means of getting both these cohorts up to speed.

Maximising the return on your transformation investment

As Australian organisations continue to deploy digital processes and platforms across the enterprise, deriving a return on that collective multi-billion-dollar spend is likely to become an increasingly urgent imperative.

Harnessing DAP technology to audit the apps you have in place and support your employees to utilise them to the full is the smartest and surest way to ensure your digital dollars are being invested well.