Beyond the hype: The business value of DAP confirmed
What a difference a year makes! It seems like yesterday that I was writing about the DAP tipping point, in which leading research firms began viewing digital adoption platforms (DAPs) as a valuable business tool. And now, where are we? Not only are those same research firms, including IDC, Gartner®, and Everest Group, recognizing the power of DAP, they are also providing hard data to back up its benefits.
In my role as a tech CEO, I’ve observed technologies that initially gain rapid attention but later falter due to inconsistent delivery or failure to sustain innovation. The typical life cycle of a successful product – beginning with initial market excitement, followed by a phase of doubt, and ultimately reaching a point where value and utility are definitively proven – is one that many technologies fail to navigate successfully. I’m pleased to say that DAP is bucking this trend. Recent analyst reports back this up, showing that DAP is not just a fad, but an essential part of the organizational tech stack that delivers real, measurable benefits to enterprises. And what’s more, WalkMe is leading the charge.
So what does it take to unlock the full business value of DAP? It starts with ensuring your digital investments further your business goals.
Bridging the gap between digital spend and digital outcomes
Gartner, Inc. forecasts in the latest Gartner Press Release that “Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.7 trillion in 2023, an increase of 4.3% from 2022”*. This has resulted in a situation where enterprise leaders are unable to track the applications being used in their organizations, identify and mitigate digital friction, and manage shadow IT initiatives.
Further complicating the situation, the AI revolution has changed the way business processes are completed, with 61% of employees saying that AI has changed the way they work. As a result, organizations are only meeting 41% of their annual digital project KPIs.
The evolving capabilities of DAP, however, have enabled organizations to effectively navigate these challenges. WalkMe Discovery provides unprecedented visibility into the applications running in your organization, who is using them, and whether they are being used as intended. This allows you to rationalize your software portfolio, consolidate duplicate applications, uncover shadow IT, and resolve digital friction points.
Whether it’s through boosting employee digital dexterity, ramping up onboarding times, reducing business errors, or streamlining change management programs, DAPs have proven their ability to drive business outcomes.
“We just acquired a company for $2 billion and needed to ramp up their employees on our applications. With WalkMe, we were able to cut time-to-proficiency by about 25%.”
– “The Business Value of WalkMe”, construction company, 20,000+ employees
For existing users, DAPs have been nothing short of a game changer. IDC’s recent study, “The Business Value of WalkMe” highlights the benefits WalkMe delivers to customers, including:
- 60% faster adoption of new applications and features
- 41% fewer business process errors
- 45% faster application migrations
- 35% faster employee onboarding
This has all resulted in a 3-year 494% ROI on their DAP investment and $41.4 million in annual new revenue.
The DAP boom is here
When WalkMe created the first DAP, we purposefully built our platform to support the largest enterprises in their digital transformation efforts. Little did we know that the adoption rate (no pun intended) by enterprises of all sizes would be so massive and the impact so clear.
“A well-implemented and well-utilized DAP empowers organizations to embrace digital innovation with confidence, leading to increased efficiency, employee satisfaction and proficiency, and cost savings.”
– Gartner, Market Guide for Digital Adoption Platforms, Melissa Hilbert, Stephen Emmott, Maria Marino, Tim Faith, 11 September 2023.
The 2023 Gartner Market Guide for Digital Adoption Platforms states that “Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) accelerate digital transformation by boosting digital dexterity and the digital employee experience (DEX), augmenting the existing application portfolio, thereby driving more ROI from existing assets. They increase application “stickiness” and loyalty of organizations’ customers.”** From our perspective, this has made DAP a fundamental solution that enterprises are rapidly adopting.
Three years ago, Gartner predicted in their Improve Employee Usage, Engagement and Productivity With Digital Adoption Solutions report that “by 2025, 70% of organizations will use digital adoption solutions across the entire technology stack to overcome insufficient application user experiences.”*** From our perspective, the fact that the same Strategic Planning Assumption, including the same data and percentage, was made in the 2023 Gartner Market Guide for Digital Adoption Platforms highlights the fact that they see DAP becoming mainstream by 2025, a true show of confidence in the industry.
Furthermore, Gartner notes that “by 2026, 40% of organizations will use generative AI supplied in their DAP platforms to automatically surface new workflows to employees”. Personally, this stat excites me, because it says that AI is expected to enhance DAP and the value it brings to our customers.
WalkMe is leading the way
WalkMe innovations and robust service offerings have placed us at the forefront of the DAP industry. As the CEO of WalkMe, this is not something that I take lightly. The tools that we’ve recently introduced, including advanced AI capabilities and WalkMe Discovery, are rapidly changing how enterprises utilize their DAP.
The Everest Group PEAK Matrix® for Digital Adoption Platforms 2023, an evaluation of DAP service and technology providers, named WalkMe as a Leader for the fourth year in a row and a Star Performer for the second time in the report. The report confirms that WalkMe has the highest overall market impact in the space in terms of revenue, clients and partners.
“[WalkMe] has a strong vision and roadmap and is continuously innovating to infuse AI and generative AI in DAP and make DAP an intelligent unified layer, for connecting, automating, and simplifying interactions across software systems and workflows”
– Sharath Hari N, Vice President, Everest Group
Despite this recognition, you can be assured that we have no intention of slowing down. The DAP industry is in a constant state of change, and we intend to be the ones to guide that change. Join us as we continue empowering enterprises to get the most out of their software investments.
*Gartner Press Release, “Gartner Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 4.3% in 2023”, 19 July 2023. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-07-19-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-it-spending-to-grow-4-percent-in-2023
**Gartner, Market Guide for Digital Adoption Platforms, Melissa Hilbert, Stephen Emmott, Maria Marino, Tim Faith, 11 September 2023.
***Gartner, Improve Employee Usage, Engagement and Productivity With Digital Adoption Solutions, Melissa Hilbert, Stephen Emmott, 25 November 2020.
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