The News: WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform is focused on helping enterprises gain more visibility into their digital infrastructure and provides a no-code platform and toolset designed to help them manage and optimize existing resources to extract the maximum value from software investments. Benjamin Bertram, senior strategic sales engineer at WalkMe, took me through a demo of the company’s offering that was focused on addressing key issues that can affect the ongoing and future ROI of an enterprise’s software technology assets.
You can read more about WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform at the company website.
WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform Helps Drive Software Stack ROI
Analyst Take: Over the past several years, there has been an increased desire for enterprises to conduct widespread digital transformations, which can involve the introduction of new software platforms, operational processes, and technologies. But even successful digital transformations are only realizing 67% of their maximum financial benefits, according to management consultancy McKinsey. Therefore, enterprises need to utilize ongoing analytics to ensure that the investments made during the transformation continue to deliver real value.
WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform is designed to provide a granular, analytics-driven view into an organization’s utilization of its technology resources. Without this intelligence, enterprises might not be aware of disparate applications that provide similar functions, applications that are largely underutilized or dormant, or points of friction that negatively affect the ability of workers to extract the most value from the investments that have already been made.
Senior strategic sales engineer Benjamin Bertram took me through a demo of the Digital Adoption Platform and highlighted several key features to which every enterprise should pay heed, whether conducting a full-scale digital transformation project or simply completing a periodic technology assessment.
Using Application Analytics to Assess Utilization
For many organizations, the biggest challenge involved with a digital transformation is making sure that the applications and systems being put into place are being utilized by workers. If workers are not using the new technology, the enterprise is not realizing the maximum ROI, and in many cases, productivity and efficiency can also be affected.
WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform includes tools that are deployed across a company’s technology stack and are designed to uncover specific analytics about application usage, workflows, and points of friction. Gaining visibility into usage and experience is key to maximizing investment and identifying potential issues, such as:
- Over/under licensing scenarios
- Application features that are not being used
- Workflows that are broken or are taking too long to complete
- Forms that are too busy or complex, causing them to be abandoned or not fully completed
Digital Adoption Platform provides granular, click-by-click data, allowing organizations to track activity by application, department, and function to better understand software usage. WalkMe provides full visibility into all applications via a single dashboard, helping companies see exactly what software they have, what is being used, and how it is being used.
This approach can provide organizations with a more holistic view of the software stack, allowing them to optimize their software spending and justify the investment by providing software ROI on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as efficiency and adoption. These insights can also be used to streamline the organization’s technology footprint and ensure that the proper processes and training are implemented.
Driving Application Adoption via Guided Assistance
Another key use case for the Digital Adoption Platform is the ability to help workers get the most out of the applications that they use. WalkMe collects data on how users interact with applications, identifies problems, and then makes recommendations to IT on ways to reduce friction and take action.
The platform can be used to create walkthroughs, tips, and contextual, in-app guidance that includes real-time suggestions and next-best actions. This functionality helps eliminate employee frustrations, saving them time and energy. In-app guidance also helps limit the number of application support tickets, freeing up critical IT resources. WalkMe can also be used to automate tasks within and across applications, which can save users time and frustration, particularly with more complicated workflows.
Transparent Layer Allows Visibility and Process Improvement
WalkMe’s data collection is non-intrusive and does not require any changes to the application, thereby limiting its impact on software development activity. The user interface is simple to use and understand and does not require a background in application development to utilize its full capabilities.
Today’s organizations are taking two approaches to transformation. Some are trying to reduce the number of applications in use to simplify workflows and employee onboarding and training and reduce support costs. Others are adding new applications and deploying integration tools to link platforms, applications, and cloud services in a best-of-breed approach to the technology stack. In either case, the Digital Adoption Platform is a smart tool to deploy, as it ensures that all investments can be tracked to ensure that the maximum value and functionality are flowing to the organization.
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 Achieves Record Positive Free Cash Flow in Q2 2023
WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform Helps Remove EX Friction Points
WalkMe Q1 2023 Revenues up 16% Year-over-Year
Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is VP & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. 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.
