Over the past few years, most organizations have kicked their digital transformation efforts into high gear. The business challenges of the pandemic, combined with new advancements in technology, made it more critical than ever to replace legacy systems with advanced digital tech. A robust digital transformation strategy pays off in benefits like state-of-the-art capabilities, increased efficiency, and improved customer experience. For it to work, employees must fully understand how to use their new tech the way it’s intended—and that’s where the problem starts.
The key to successful digital transformation is digital adoption, which is knowing how to use all the shiny new toys in the digital toolbox, like analytics software or AI. The importance of digital transformation can’t be understated, since organizations that have undergone digital transformation will generate more than half of the global GDP by 2023. But the rapid increase in digital transformation is leading to a digital adoption gap, the space between a technology’s capabilities and the potential business outcomes of using the technology. This gap explains why digital adoption fails in more than 70% of organizations.
Fortunately, and somewhat ironically, technology provides a solution to training employees on new technology. Digital Adoption Solutions (DAS), also known as digital adoption platforms, are learning software solutions with a flexible interface that enable an organization to match its software adoption infrastructure with particular enterprise software solutions.
Let’s take a closer look at digital adoption, digital adoption solutions and their benefits, how to choose one, and the top ten digital adoption solutions available on the market.
What is digital adoption?
Digital adoption is the process through which people learn how to fully utilize new technology (such as applications, software, and websites) and get the maximum value out of a digital process or solution.
New technology is incorporated into existing or developing company processes through digital adoption. Planning the necessary technology adoption steps, looking for the best software or other technology, and buying it as a license for numerous users are all part of this process.
Digital adoption is part of a larger digital transformation strategy, which is the roadmap that lays out what digital tools could be implemented to help an organization reach its desired goals and business outcomes. Digital adoption touches all an organization’s layers, primarily those who will be using the new digital tools or the products they generate, such as analytics.
New technology adoption is crucial to a business’s success for several reasons:
- By making work more accessible, technology enhances the overall employee experience.
- Employees can complete duties more quickly and effectively thanks to technology.
- Companies that adopt new technology are better able to recruit and keep top talent.
- Companies that adopt new technologies see increases in revenue and customer satisfaction.
Ultimately, the digital adoption process seeks to enhance software performance, create better user experiences, and increase user productivity. These three pillars come together to form a successful digital adoption plan, which results in an efficient, advanced digital workplace.
Rapid digital adoption has become an essential key to daily business operations with the growth of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector and the ubiquity of digital tools. One study showed that, on average, an individual business used 137 different apps, each of which requires training. Time lost to software training, or the opportunity cost of only using the bare minimum capabilities of a powerful app, represents a significant monetary loss that could make or break a business.
The good news is, there’s an app for that.
What are digital adoption solutions (DAS)?
Digital adoption solutions (or platforms) are generally software layered on top of another software program or website to direct users through functions and tasks needed to operate it. They provide a walkthrough of a digital tool’s use, along with Help features seamlessly integrated with the software to minimize distractions and enhance ease of use. Some DAS are created especially for other well-known software programs, while others are adaptable and can interface with any required application.
Digital adoption solutions aid users in learning new tools, new features, or assist returning users in learning how to engage with a website or application. These solutions facilitate new user onboarding and encourage the adoption of new features that might otherwise be disregarded or introduce new hires to internal applications. While person-to-person coaching or training may still be required for a particularly complex digital tool, using a DAS allows users to start using the tool faster and with more proficiency.
Business operations teams also benefit from DAS because they make it easier to make business decisions that optimize and streamline processes, leading to increased productivity and better experiences for both employee users and customers.
The Benefits of Digital Adoption Solutions
Along with speeding users to increased acceptance and proficiency, digital adoption solutions offer businesses many benefits, including:
- Access to User Analytics – DAS frequently comes with user analytics, allowing observation of where users are having trouble or giving up on their training. With this knowledge, it’s easy to upgrade instructional materials to help prevent recurring issues.
- Automated Training and Actions – DAS programs can be used by staff to learn new material on an as-needed basis. Users can also create automated workflows on software tools according to instructions provided by the DAS.
- Better Productivity – By allowing users to learn an application as they use it, DAS shortens the time it takes for users to become productive with the new technology.
- Faster Onboarding – DAS shortens the time required for onboarding new users and employees by providing in-app learning for commonly used business tools.
- Increases Employee Development – Making it easier to learn new skills faster not only aids in reaching digital transformation objectives but also benefits an organization with increased efficiency, higher employee engagement, and lower turnover.
- Less Training Content Creation Time – Time spent developing training materials is decreased because DAS automatically creates content in various forms when you build a walkthrough.
- Supports Remote Workers – A cloud-based digital training solution makes it much easier to keep a remote workforce up-to-date on the latest software without needing them to come into the office for training.
How to Choose a Digital Adoption Solution
To choose the right DAS for your organization, first consider its digital transformation goals and the tools that require training. Also, consider who needs training on the software since learners of different generations, skill levels, and positions require different types of help. Multi-language support may also be an important factor in this regard.
Next, ensure that the DAS complies with the rules, regulations, and industry and organizational policies surrounding your organization’s business processes.
Finally, look at these four critical areas:
- Integrations – The software you intend to use and create learning experiences for should integrate with the DAS. The DAS should also work together with other standard digital business tools.
- UI (User Interface) – Both software users and those responsible for designing the learning experiences will benefit from a straightforward user interface.
- Usability – No-code features are ideal because they let anyone create helpful content using the DAS.
- Value – While usually on the less expensive end of business software, a DAS can either boost the value of your software investment or help you keep users for longer, depending on how you use it. Pick one at a cost that is appropriate for your company.
With that in mind, let’s survey the best ten DAS available today.
Top 10 Digital Adoption Solutions
1. Appcues – Best for Personalization
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Measuring and improving product adoption is easier with the popular Appcues DAS. The no-code platform enables non-technical teams to measure and evaluate product usage as well as generate in-app announcements, surveys, and onboarding tours in a matter of minutes. Appcues offers tailored onboarding with timely contextual walkthroughs and user prompts.
Pros: This DAS allows for customized surveys with strategic follow-ups.
Cons: Dashboard could offer more control over flows and increased visibility.
Pricing: Three pricing plans are available: Essentials at $249/month, Growth at $879/month, and an Enterprise plan by inquiry.
Reviewer says: “Since implementing their solution, we’ve improved our success rate for onboarding newly registered users by 15%. User engagement has also improved as a result.”
2. Hour One – Best AI Video Generator
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Hour One is an untraditional digital adoption solution but one that’s rapidly becoming invaluable for businesses that need to produce video content at scale. Its AI-powered video generator replaces traditional video production methods and equipment, and allows for the creation of pro-quality, virtual presenter-led videos at the touch of a button. Hour One is ideal for employee training videos, onboarding, and corporate communications, among other use cases.
Pros: Video scripts are automatically created by simply uploading any of a variety of text documents, including articles, blog posts, databases, and presentations.
Cons: Free-for-life entry-level plan only allows up to 3 minutes of published video per month.
Pricing: Four pricing tiers include a Free plan, a Lite tier at $22.50/month, a Business tier with a professional editing suite at $171.75/month, and an Enterprise tier by inquiry.
Reviewer says: “With Hour One, I can scale myself and save time and money in a way that enables me to grow my business like never before.”
3. Chameleon – Best for Teams with Limited Resources in Development and Design
Teams can easily create, test, and launch in-product tours with Chameleon by using a WYSIWYG editor. It only requires a few lines of code to implement on any website or web app, and it automatically gathers metrics to provide a data-driven approach to better user onboarding. Customer support is responsive and well-reviewed.
Pros: User help is accessible through a launcher that goes directly to a help video library.
Cons: There are complaints about slow loading speeds and the UI design.
Pricing: The Startup plan is priced at $279/month, the Growth plan is $999/month, and there’s an Enterprise plan priced by inquiry.
Reviewer says: “The best part is that it requires little to no coding experience to design and utilize their tools, which means more members of our team can be a part of any project.”
4. Pendo – Best for B2B Product Teams
Pendo is a B2B product experience platform that provides better software experiences for contented and productive users and staff. With Pendo, companies can streamline processes related to client retention, user onboarding, product planning, and other areas. Data analysts can monitor the usage of particular features and the entire product across online and mobile applications.
Pros: Users can easily navigate products and features with the help of walkthroughs and in-app messages.
Cons: A significant learning curve requires time investment and a correct setup to get the most from the DAS.
Pricing: Pendo offers custom pricing for two plans: a Growth plan for a single web or mobile app and a Portfolio plan across unlimited apps.
Reviewer says: “Nearly every department in our organization gets some benefit from Pendo, whether it’s our Product, Customer Success, Marketing, or Sales teams.”
5. WalkMe – Best for Enterprises Needing Customization
WalkMe is an enterprise DAS ideal for change management, product adoption, customer journey analysis, and employee onboarding and training. It offers AI-powered insights, analytics, and dashboards for maximum visibility. Designed for businesses that operate at scale, it offers many customization options. However, it may take a development team to get the most from the platform.
Pros: A deep and customizable rules engine allows the creation of solutions for almost all use cases.
Cons: Multi-year contracts with WalkMe are onerous and difficult to break.
Pricing: By inquiry.
Reviewer says: “You can tailor WalkMe to address your particular users’ needs, whether they’re internal or external. The ability to customize these features makes WalkMe valuable for us.”
6. AppLearn Adopt – Best for Enterprise Software (CRM, ERP, HCM, Finance, ITSM)
AppLearn Adopt is a DAS focused on enhancing enterprise business applications with user guidance, side-panel resources, and pop-up comms. It offers smart data dashboards, easy optimization of workflows with extensive analytics, a managed integration process, and enterprise-grade security features.
Pros: The ability to quickly and easily build user guides without any coding knowledge required.
Cons: When new features are added to the platform, there’s often some lag time before they begin working correctly.
Pricing: Custom quotes by request for Core, Essentials, and Advanced plans.
Reviewer says: “AppLearn gave us peace of mind that educational resources would be available in the right places to guide users and ease the administrative burden on our overtaxed support teams.”
7. UserIQ – Best for Customer Service
UserIQ’s DAS is a customer success platform that helps businesses create audience segments based on behavior, capture customer feedback, reduce churn, and produce engaging experiences. A customer health dashboard, product intelligence, and in-app interactions like user onboarding tours are among the features offered by the popular platform. It’s built to be easy to use by anyone regardless of their technical ability.
Pros: UserIQ claims the average user sees its first win in 17 days.
Cons: It’s designed to be so user-friendly that if you’re tech-savvy, it will feel cumbersome.
Pricing: Free demo and pricing by inquiry.
Reviewer says: “This is a great tool if you don’t know where to start with segmenting your audience, or if you have a particular feature you want to target for usage.”
8. Spekit – Best for Sales Enablement
A cloud-based, just-in-time learning platform, Spekit combines the functions of a knowledge base, a sales tool, and a DAS. It helps to onboard employees from the sales, IT, financial, and HR departments. Spekit’s sophisticated DAS employs contextual knowledge and sales-related features like playbooks, FAQs, and battle cards.
Pros: Excellent integration for digital adoption of Salesforce.
Cons: A newer product with occasional quirks and issues that require contacting customer service.
Pricing: Custom pricing by inquiry.
Reviewer says: “The content is easy to access, easy to edit, and the UI is efficient with a clean, modern look. Not many tools get all of those things right.”
9. Whatfix – Best for Employee Onboarding
The Whatfix DAS offers employee-focused benefits to accelerate onboarding, boost productivity, and empower software users by personalizing app engagement. It also boasts consumer-focused features ideal for B2B SaaS companies that increase adoption. Data-driven content creation is quickly done and can be exported to other learning software platforms.
Pros: Integrates with most learning management systems (LMS), so you can easily incorporate DAS content into a Learning and Development program.
Cons: Users report that analytics are difficult to set up and lack depth.
Pricing: Custom quotes are available by inquiry. A free trial is available.
Reviewer says: “Best value I found when researching for a product like this. Also the service can not be beat.”
10. Apty – Best for Enterprises Driving Business Strategy
Apty’s all-in-one platform boasts a proactive digital adoption strategy that guarantees business process compliance. To maximize efficiency, it includes project tracking tools and an analytics dashboard. Businesses can use the DAS for IT training, employee onboarding, cost optimization, and managing organizational transformation.
Pros: Easy-to-follow procedures and on-screen guidance make it viable for new users to perform many tasks.
Cons: Selection of only two voices for Apty videos leaves much to be desired.
Pricing: Free Trial of up to 45 days, and custom pricing after.
Reviewer says: “Their analytics tool is great, [it] helped us to create the customized workflow for each user group.”
Cross the Digital Adoption Bridge
Modern businesses must embrace a digital transformation strategy to stay competitive in a rapidly changing world. To ensure that investments in digital transformation initiatives do not go to waste, digital adoption needs to be facilitated with specialized software platforms that enable more effective training and onboarding.
Digital adoption solutions provide a critical bridge that fills the gap between the analog past and the digital future by bringing employees and customers up to speed on the latest business software.
Hour One is a prime example of that software. An AI-powered video generator featuring engaging, photo-realistic virtual presenters, Hour One is the ideal solution for any organization that needs to create effective Learning and Development video content quickly, affordably, and at scale. Create your first video for free today and become an AI video generator adopter.
