SaaS Digital Adoption: With or Without an Adoption Platform?

Should you use a digital adoption platform (DAP) for SaaS digital adoption projects?

It depends on your situation.

To answer this question, we need to learn more about:

• The SaaS in question – how usable it is, how complex it is, what it does, and other pertinent details
• Who the target audience is – employees, customers
• The audience’s need – onboarding, training or education, automation, or something else
• The organization’s needs – how big an organization is, its digital transformation agenda, its immediate goals, and so forth

After that, we can better understand the benefits of implementing a DAP. 

First, What Is a DAP?

What is a DAP and what does it do?

Digital adoption platforms are software platforms that:

• Offer in-software guidance to users
• Analyze user behavior to understand their needs
• Automate mundane tasks

In short, it acts as a perfect automated teaching tool, virtual trainer, and automation platform … all rolled into one.

A DAP is a platform specifically designed to:

• Help users learn a software tool – such as an SaaS platform – as quickly and efficiently as possible
• Shorten learning times, increase productivity, and enhance engagement
• Cut costs for digital adoption projects, user training, onboarding, and so on

The DAP is an ideal tool for the vast majority of digital adoption scenarios.

But is it right for you?

Let’s perform a basic needs assessment to find out.

Performing a Basic Needs Assessment

In light of this information about DAPs, how could we know whether the DAP will fill those needs?

To start, examine:

• The SaaS in question. Is it a marketing automation tool? A project management application? A module in an ITSM suite?
• Who the target audience is. DAPs can be used for tasks such as employee training or customer onboarding. 
• The audience’s need. Does employee productivity need improvement? Do customers need in-app guidance during account creation? 
• The organization’s needs. Is the company juggling multiple digital transformation projects? What are its long-term digital adoption plans?

With this information in hand, we can put the DAP’s benefits next to the organization’s needs and see if they are a good fit.

The DAP: A Perfect Solution for SaaS Digital Adoption

Now let’s look at the benefits of investing in a DAP:

• Simplifying complex software. Today’s digital-first businesses rely heavily on a wide variety of back-end tools – marketing technology stacks, ITSM platforms, accounting software, sales solutions, to name just a tiny fraction. With a DAP’s help, users can learn as they go.
• Improving user onboarding. Onboarding is one of the most crucial phases of user acquisition and adoption. A bad first impression can drive users away or negatively color their perception of a product. Improvement of the onboarding process can improve user retention, engagement, and time-to-productivity.
• Cutting training costs. In the digital enterprise, training has become a major focal point. Modern organizations must continually adopt new software and technology. This continual transformation brings along increased training needs. DAPs offer modern, digital, automated training – a massive improvement over traditional training methods.
• Enhancing engagement. Having training at your fingertips does a few things. DAPs offer information exactly when users need it, improving their self-sufficiency during the learning stage. They will feel more confident, productive, autonomous, and engaged. And, most importantly, they will be able to achieve much of this through an automated tool.
• Boosting productivity and performance. There is a strong correlation between productivity and engagement. And there is a strong correlation between these two and an organization’s bottom-line results. DAPs are instrumental in maintaining and boosting productivity.
• Automating repetitive tasks. Another advantage of DAPs is their ability to perform robotic process automation (RPA). That is, organization-specific task flows can be automated, freeing up user time for more valuable activities.
• Accelerating digital transformation and adoption. Digitalization is everywhere. Businesses constantly adopt new technology, new business models, and new processes. Through the improvement of employee metrics, process automation, and more, DAPs can streamlines digitalization, shrink costs, and shorten timelines.

These are some of the biggest reasons to consider investing in DAP technology.

The DAP industry is blossoming, earning the attention of company’s such as Gartner, which has coined them “digital adoption solutions.”

However, is a digital adoption solution always the right choice?

When Should You Use a DAP for Your SaaS Platform?

“DAPs are the future” is the short answer.

The long answer is that DAPs are uniquely suited to streamlining SaaS adoption, for a number of reasons:

• SaaS platforms are often complex 
• Some form of training or guidance is necessary
• User engagement and productivity depends on training effectiveness
• In-app training solutions, such as DAPs, dramatically outperform other training methods

As more and more of our work life becomes digitally-driven, these facts will become more and more relevant.

In fact, the proper implementation of such tools may contribute to a significant competitive advantage.

Here’s why:

• DAPs improve the speed of digital transformation
• Organizations become more agile and adaptable
• Because they can adopt new technology more quickly, they can get ahead of competitors

Today, we sit at the threshold of a new digital era. 

Those companies that succeed will be the ones who can adapt the quickest and adopt the quickest.

DAPs, in short, are one of the best tools to help companies stay ahead of the digital learning curve.