Digital adoption platform

A digital adoption platform (DAP) is a software application that facilitates the awareness, understanding, acceptance, and adoption of another software application. Digital adoption platforms allow organisations to communicate with, educate , and support end users . In turn they provide organisations with analytical and reporting capabilities that can be used to measure and assess the adoption of application software . Also known as digital adoption solutions DAS digital adoption platforms have been developed principally to support organisations implementing business software such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other business management tools. As with the target applications they are intended to support, digital adoption platforms are designed, developed and deployed as software as a service (SaaS) applications, based on cloud computing principles. The concepts and principles of a digital adoption platform build in part upon those discernible in electronic performance support systems (EPSS). Digital adoption is a more recent concept set within the paradigm of digital transformation.

User experience

There are six fundamental notions underpinning the nature of the end user experience. The user's DAP experience can be characterised as being:

1. Provided within the target application itself - sometimes referred to as in-app support
2. Provided in real-time - using concepts taken from the real-time computing paradigm
3. Role-specific - related to the specific role the user has within the context of the organisation and the target application
4. Task-specific - related to the specific task the user is engaged with in the target application at the time
5. User-specific - related to the unique identity used by the user to log into the target application originally
6. Rated subjectively - mechanisms within the environment allow users to rate and feedback on the content provided

Components

Digital adoption platforms typically bring together several components aimed at providing a single, integrated end user experience.

File:Digital adoption platform components.png

Typical components of a digital adoption platform

In application guidance

Task and role-specific information relevant to a specific screen or field is pushed automatically to the user while she executes a set of actions within the target application itself.

In app support 01

Push notifications

Information is displayed (pushed) to the user within the target system, e.g. the login screen. This information may relate to a screen, a field, an icon, etc. Once read, the user can then hide or dismiss it.

In app support 02

Documentation

Hyperlinks to internal or external documentation.

Business process information

Hyperlinks to related business process documents, e.g. process flows, work instructions, user guides, standard operating procedures, etc.

Training

Hyperlinks to related training or educational content, often designed, developed and deployed using educational technology.

Feedback

A mechanism allowing users to communicate their impressions, assessment, etc. of the specific component, e.g. a subjective rating of how useful a training package is.

Social media

A mechanism allowing users, system administrators, and other contributors to communicate with each other.

Analytics

Tools which digital adoption platform system administrators can monitor and assess digital adoption of the target application. This information can then be used to further improve and enhance digital adoption.

Note that this includes monitoring and reporting on user feedback, content ratings, etc. In some cases, digital adoption platform analytical functions are integrated with an organisation's artificial intelligence (AI) technology, e.g. IBM Watson.

Digital adoption as part of wider digital transformation

The cloud computing technology underpinning digital transformation lends itself to the development of digital adoption platforms. Digital adoption could thus be viewed as an intrinsic part of digital transformation. As digital transformation grows and broadens its reach, more interest is shown in digital adoption, e.g. through surveys .

Implications

The emergence of digital adoption platforms has implications for a number of communities some of which are suggested below. How and to what extent a specific community is impacted will depend, in part, on context, e.g. the insurance sector .

End users

Whilst DAP technology is designed specifically to support technology adoption, paradoxically it means system users have a more complicated system to understand and use. For example, the various components displayed may lead to screens that are significantly more cluttered or complicated than the target system original.

System administrators

Digital adoption platforms will need to be continually monitored and kept up-to-date. The level of effort required to do this will vary on a number of factors including choice of technology platform, business complexity, operational area, etc.

Project teams

Just as cloud computing has led to radical changes in how information technology is delivered to end users, the advent of digital adoption platforms should see radical changes to the way the projects delivering this technology are conceived, set up, and run. The traditional waterfall method may seem somewhat incompatible with the ethos and characteristics digital adoption platforms. Further work may also be needed to assess the implications on projects operating under and agile software development methodology.

IT support

Digital adoption platforms will become a central component to delivering technical support to end users. The implications for the IT support team are significant and wide-ranging, e.g. re-designing the support function to accommodate the adoption platform; integrating adoption analytics into continuous improvement initiatives and iterative business transformation; integration of support, training and user education operations; etc.

Training

The impact on the training function is similar, in terms of significance, depth and scope, to that which will be experienced by the IT support organisation, e.g. incorporating digital adoption platform functionality into traditional training events; replacing traditional training, either wholly or in part, by the platform itself; blending training content into digital adoption platforms and vice versa; integration of support, training and user education operations; etc.

External links

• Ancile
• Appcues
• Applearn
• Apty
• Ask Adelphi
• Assima
• Dokit
• Edcast
• Merlin Guides
• Oracle (Guided Learning)
• SAP (Enable Now)
• Silver Stripe Software (Tour My App)
• Spekit
• Toonimo
• TTS
• User IQ
• Walk Me
• Whatfix

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