Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) have been gaining traction in the enterprise world in recent years, providing a solution to the challenges of digital transformation. These platforms offer features such as announcements, walkthroughs, tooltips, validations, and analytics to help employees learn how to use new digital tools and improve their productivity. While vital in facilitating digital adoption, DAPs alone are not enough to adequately train enterprise workforces and their unique business processes. In fact, they can hinder rather than facilitate digital transformation if they are not supplemented with digital training. In this blog post, we will explore why digital adoption platforms are no longer enough for enterprise organizations, and why they need a combination of digital adoption and digital training.
Digital Transformation: More than Just Adoption
Digital transformation is about more than just adopting a new technology. It requires a fundamental shift in the way an organization operates, to become more agile, customer-centric, and data-driven. Digital transformation is a continuous process of improvement, one that requires ongoing learning and development for employees, and a willingness to embrace change.
While DAPs have clearly been proven to help organizations adopt new technology, they do not address the comprehensive needs of employee training within the broader scope of digital transformation. In fact, they can create a false sense of security that digital transformation is being achieved simply by using the new technology while failing to provide employees with the critical thinking skills they need to be successful in a rapidly changing digital landscape. For this reason, it is important that organizations combine the use of DAPs with customized digital training, giving their workforce the understanding, skills, and feedback needed to be successful.
The Importance of Digital Training
Digital training is essential for achieving digital transformation in enterprise organizations. It provides employees with the knowledge and skills they need to configure the technology to match the organization’s unique business processes. It also helps employees use technology effectively so that leaders can trust the information they receive when making data-driven decisions. Digital training goes beyond the basics of using a particular tool or platform and teaches employees how to apply digital and critical thinking skills to their specific job functions.
Digital training should be designed to meet the specific needs of an organization and its workforce. Effective digital training programs include assessments to measure employees’ current skill levels and identify areas where they need to improve. They also provide ongoing support and resources to help employees continue their learning and development, such as regularly updated curriculum and dedicated learning paths. This is especially true when digital applications that are essential to business operation are being updated multiple times per year.
The most effective digital training programs take this a step further to provide a simulated environment that looks and feels just like the production environment. This allows users to learn their system by practicing transactions in a safe environment that mimics the one they will be using in their daily jobs. By providing this type of digital training, learning retention and transactional efficiency increases by coupling theory with hands-on experience.
The Benefits of Digital Training
Digital training offers several benefits to enterprise organizations. The following sections outline some of the most significant:
Improved Productivity
Digital training can help employees use technology more efficiently and effectively. By understanding how to use digital tools and platforms to their full potential, rather than just which button to press, employees can complete tasks more quickly and accurately. This improves productivity and allows employees to focus on more strategic tasks that require human expertise.
Increased Innovation
Digital training can help employees think more creatively about how to use technology to solve business problems. By understanding the possibilities of a new technology, employees can identify opportunities for innovation and experimentation. This innovation leads to new products and services, improved customer experiences, and increased competitiveness in the marketplace.
Better Decision-Making
Digital training can help leaders make better data-driven decisions. By understanding how data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted, leaders can make informed decisions that are based on facts rather than assumptions. When paired with a DAP that utilizes validations and tool tips to ensure data accuracy and consistency, the facts and resulting decisions are even more powerful. This leads to better outcomes, increased efficiency, and improved customer satisfaction.
Why Digital Adoption Platforms are Not Enough
Digital adoption platforms can be a useful tool for facilitating digital adoption, but they alone are not enough for enterprise organizations. The following sections explain some of the reasons why:
Limited Scope
Digital adoption platforms are designed to help employees in real time when they are using specific digital tools and platforms. They do not address the broader digital transformation needs of the organization, such as developing a digital culture or improving digital literacy across the enterprise.
Lack of Contextualization
Digital adoption platforms provide generic guidance on how to use digital tools and platforms. They do not take into account the specific needs and workflows of each department or employee. This lack of contextualization can lead to confusion and frustration, as employees struggle to apply the guidance to their specific tasks and responsibilities.
Limited Learning Opportunities
Digital adoption platforms are often limited to providing point-of-need guidance on specific digital tools and platforms. While this kind of knowledge is beneficial for reducing IT support tickets and intradepartmental dependencies, they do not offer opportunities for ongoing learning and development, which is essential for achieving successful digital transformation. By coupling a DAP with digital training, employees can take advantage of a broader range of learning opportunities, including online topics, tutorials, and learning paths to teach them the ‘why’ behind the transaction.
Lack of Asseesment and Feedback
Digital adoption platforms do not provide employees with opportunities to assess their current digital skills or receive feedback on their performance. Digital training, on the other hand, includes assessments and feedback, which helps employees understand their strengths and weaknesses and identify areas where they need to improve.
Your Org Needs Digital Adoption AND Digital Training
Digital adoption platforms can be a useful tool for facilitating digital adoption in enterprise organizations. However, they are not enough for achieving successful digital transformation. To truly transform, organizations need to invest in digital training that provides employees with the knowledge and skills they need to use technology effectively, collaborate in a digital environment, and provide accurate information for leaders to make data-driven decisions.
Digital training offers many benefits, including improved productivity, enhanced collaboration, increased innovation, and better decision-making. Digital training is also more comprehensive, offering employees a broader range of learning opportunities, assessments, feedback, and ongoing support.
In summary, while digital adoption platforms can help organizations adopt new technology, they are not sufficient on their own for achieving digital transformation. To succeed in a rapidly changing digital landscape, organizations must also invest in digital training that equips their employees with the skills they need to excel in their jobs.
Maverick Solutions provides both digital adoption AND digital training through our ENGAGE Live (Digital Adoption) and ENGAGE Learn (Digital Training) products so that your workforce can fully support the organization’s digital transformation goals. If you are interested in learning more about how Maverick ENGAGE combines digital adoption and digital training to empower and equip your workforce, click the button below to send our team a message and we’ll get in touch with you.
