3 Barriers to Digital Adoption and How to Fix Them -

(Newswire.net — October 23, 2019) — Digital adoption affects the internal activities of an organization, increasing efficiency, productivity and profit.

It also dramatically enhances the customer experience, which is set to become the driving force of all marketing initiatives in the next few years.

Keeping up with the times is no longer optional, but there are common barriers to watch out for. However, the right approach empowers your workforce to minimize the growing pains of digital adoption.

Let’s take a look at the three most prevalent barriers, and their fixes:

#1: Software know-how overwhelm

The goal with digital adoption is to make full use of the tools your organization uses, but most employees do not utilize all the features of all software available to them, and the reason for this is mostly due to lack of training and feeling overwhelmed by how much they need to learn about the technology amidst all their other daily chores.

Even when training is effective, the brain only retains a measly amount of the information learned after 24 hours, so it is key to provide reinforcement training. If you don’t, your employees will likely just give up using most of the features of the software. And this has its own impact on the company: increased demand from the IT department, and lowered employee engagement, both of which influence profit.

In addition, McAfee reports that 80% of employees use unauthorized technology which posts a security risk that could harm the integrity of the entire network.

To eliminate software know-how overwhelm and the impact of poor knowledge retention, and network security risks, incorporate a digital adoption platform to simplify things, and ensure a smoother digital adoption experience.

Digital adoption solutions simplifies digital adoption in the workplace.

#2: Resistance to change

Most people resist change, and in the case of digital adoption, employees (especially those who have lagged behind in technology) have a fear that technology will replace them. The company has to be clear that this is not the case.

In fact, it’s only as you work your way up the organizational hierarchy that resistance to changing the status quo decreases.

A leadership assessment found that 45% of frontline personnel preferred to keep doing things the same way, while 37% executives preferred remaining in the status quo.

So first get executive buy-in for digital adoption, followed by extensive and clear employee communication: to persuade employees to embrace change, be concise about these three things:

Why the change is necessary, and why it will benefit employees
Where will this change take the company as a whole and what that means for each person, and
How we’re going to get from here to there.

Both executives and employees need to understand the benefits of digital adoption.

For employees, the benefits are clear:

Digital tools will remove boring and time consuming chores, freeing up their time for more important and exciting things.
For managers, digital adoption boosts efficiency and productivity, and enhances the data-driven process in decision-making

Where you plan to implement digital adoption for customers, make sure they understand all the ways that they’ll benefit. Explain how self-service digital tools will help them do things faster, better and perhaps cheaper.

#3: Poor digital transformation strategy

What do Blockbuster, Polaroid, Toys R Us, Kodak, and Stuttafords all have in common?

They were iconic companies who failed to move with the times, laughing at digital transformation until they went broke.

Image Source.

The whole world is undergoing digital transformation, and businesses that fail to plan to transform with technology (especially bringing their sales process online), stand the risk of going bang.

Digital transformation of traditional companies.

Transform, or die.

But digital transformation is not only about avoiding the risks of not going modern-day; it has tremendous benefits. For example, according to McKinsey, data-driven businesses are 23 times more likely to acquire customers than companies who are not data-driven.

Technology can save costs, increase productivity and give your business the edge.

Needless to say, one of the biggest barriers to digital adoption is a poor digital transformation strategy. It may be a good idea to get some external assistance for this, because the thinking that innovation requires needs fresh perspective.

Organizations need a vision and a plan to digitize, which includes (but is not limited to):

Basing business decisions on data and analytics
Building up to date IT capabilities
Upgrading the skills of the workforce
Developing a business model that focuses on the needs of the customer
Inserting technologies into mundane and repetitive tasks
Moving to the cloud
Using APIs
Utilizing mobile technologies

First understand digital adoption, then start on a small-scale, in areas that can provide quick wins. These are usually tasks that can make a dramatic impact immediately.