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WalkMe Analyst Day Recap: Putting DAP Front and Center

WalkMe Analyst Day Recap: Putting DAP Front and Center

The News: A digital adoption platform (DAP) is a category of software that is designed to help organizations maximize their utilization of and investment of enterprise applications. WalkMe, a leading DAP vendor, held an Analyst Day in mid-December, where executives for the company laid out their reasoning for what type of software should be considered as essential as a CRM or CDP platform, especially as the pace of digital transformation and new technology integration continues to increase. For more information about WalkMe’s latest company news, which is the platform’s availability on AWS, please see the release on the company website.

WalkMe Analyst Day Recap: Putting DAP Front and Center

Analyst Take: Executives from WalkMe, a provider of DAP software, spoke at the company’s annual Analyst Day in London, where they discussed the new and upcoming features of the platform, reviewed the platform roadmap, and discussed the market factors that are driving the demand for more visibility and control over the organization’s technology stack.

The Need for Greater Tech Stack Visibility

According to WalkMe, the increasing complexity of workflows, an overload of technology tools and applications, and a need to operate more efficiently are driving the need for greater technology stack visibility. As organizations have undergone so-called digital transformations, they have often acquired technology in a haphazard and siloed fashion, resulting in license inefficiency, functional overlaps, and, in some cases, increased vulnerability to cybersecurity and regulatory risk.

At a most basic level, organizations need to understand the following:

  • What their current application stack looks like, in terms of the number of licenses
  • What functions these applications serve
  • The utilization rate and frequency of each application
  • How each application functions as part of a specific workflow or workflows

Without this level of visibility and information, technical debt will continue to accumulate, and it will be far more difficult to efficiently add enterprise-wide technology enhancement in a cohesive and efficient manner.

Defining Digital Adoption Platforms, and Why They Should Be Considered Essential

In an ideal IT world, organizations would only buy necessary applications, and would be able to convince their staff and users to devote the hours of time required to properly use each application. If new applications are added, then a full, organization-wide assessment of each application’s functionality would be undertaken before adding it to the tech stack, and users would again receive detailed training to ensure it is being used.

However, WalkMe and other DAP vendors are addressing the real-world of IT, where IT stacks are built over time, often in silos. Modern tech stacks often feature unused or infrequently accessed applications, applications that are only used by a few individuals or departments, or feature applications that have overlapping feature sets.

While in some cases, utilizing multiple applications that have similar functions may be by design to ensure redundancy, in most cases, it is the result of a haphazard approach to delivering business technology. However, the underuse of applications should be viewed as wasteful, and may be the result of limited user visibility (users may not know the application is available), or a lack of comfort with the applications’ features or functions.

WalkMe executives noted that their DAP provides the following elements to address these issues:

  • Visibility: WalkMe provides organizations with insights into their friction points, both within applications and across workflows, allowing the identification of bottlenecks that can negatively impact user experiences. It also allows for license optimization, enabling organizations to identify which applications are being used or underutilized, on a granular level.
  • Personalized user experiences: WalkMe delivers personalized guidance to users in the context of their daily workflow, helping them to navigate new applications and processes more effectively, without requiring disjointed training sessions with little-to-no real-world context. The platform also supports workflow automation to drive efficiency and reduce errors associated with manual processes.
  • AI-powered guidance: WalkMe leverages AI to understand user intent and provide contextually relevant assistance, reducing the need for manual support. The platform leverages a natural language chat interface to find information, automate processes, and complete tasks faster.

The platform is powered by DeepUI technology, which is designed to understand application usage, map and monitor application changes, and adapt guidance in real-time to ensure that users are always able to navigate and use applications, even when new features or functions are added. Acquired in 2018, DeepUI works across cloud-based applications and captures user behavior data without collecting any personally identifiable information (PII) or other sensitive information.

Managing the Integration and Use of Generative AI

One of the other catalysts that is portending the need for a DAP is the growing integration of AI. Although powerful, the use of AI in an enterprise setting is fraught with technology, reputational, and compliance risks, and must be deployed with care.

WalkMe’s DAP is designed to address four key elements of AI adoption:

  • Managing the training of LLMs to work within the customer’s business and industry
  • Educating and training employees to drive adoption of AI within the flow of work
  • Implementing AI guardrails by deflecting risky behaviors, and redirecting users to approved AI tools
  • Monitoring the utilization of embedded and native AI tools to ensure ROI and safe and responsible use

One of the most interesting features of the platform is the ability to not only restrict access to unvetted generative AI tools on the web but also to educate and redirect users to a company-approved tool and an explanation of why the use of unapproved tools is risky. The ability to integrate in-the-moment training (e.g., explaining how any data included in a prompt to a public LLM could find its way into the model, and therefore be exposed) can also be useful in getting workers to think more carefully about their actions around exposing corporate data or intellectual property (IP), without needing to conduct specific training sessions.

ROI from WalkMe’s DAP

WalkMe cited several benchmark figures for DAPs, with an overall average 494% three-year ROI, and a six-month payback period from an initial investment. This ROI calculation also incorporated the following additional benefits:

  • 41% fewer business errors
  • 30% faster change adoption
  • 20% faster time to market
  • 60% faster user adoption
  • 25% increased user satisfaction
  • 35% faster onboarding
  • 51% faster user adoption

WalkMe’s Challenges

The company’s biggest challenge—and it is one that is shared by other competitors—revolves around positioning a DAP as a must-have application. WalkMe executives acknowledge that most enterprises will not typically think of a DAP as a critical piece of software, in the same manners as a CRM or contact center application. Further, as the capabilities of a DAP such as WalkMe’s, span a variety of areas (in-app training, app and license utilization monitoring, workflow and process analysis, and the implementation of AI guardrails), it is often hard to classify or distill the application in a succinct manner. This can impact the ability of a vendor to create easily digestible messaging to the market.

However, as I and other The Futurum Group analysts have discussed previously, both tech stack sprawl and the need for responsible AI are two critical issues with which enterprises must contend. WalkMe has developed a platform that checks these boxes, and, based on the ROI figures above, appears to be making the case that it should be an essential platform for any enterprise.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.

Other Insights from The Futurum Group:

WalkMe’s Q3 2023: Record Non-GAAP Operating Income Achieved

WalkMe for Shadow AI: Guardrails and Guidance Within the Flow of Work

WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform Helps Drive Software Stack ROI

Author Information

Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.

He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.

In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.

He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).

Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.

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