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Introduction
Due to technical issues, the average worker loses around 22 minutes of productivity each day. [1] Over a year, that works out as 91 hours — or almost two weeks. [2] The financial implications of technology not working as intended are significant, especially in an era when workplace tools allow businesses to become faster and more competitive.
Digital adoption is vital for driving employees' well-being, happiness, and productivity. In addition, ensuring your workers know how to use tools effectively reduces the time and money lost through technical issues.
How a lack of tech changes influences the business?
How is technology impacting business?
Let's figure it out
Tech has revolutionized the industry over the last few decades. As a result, companies need fast and efficient access to information to keep up with competitors. In addition, advances like communication tools and cloud computing have opened up the world and allowed businesses to connect with markets worldwide.
General tools like email, messaging apps, and cloud-based software have allowed for increased mobility of workforces. In addition, collaboration tools have made it possible for employees across different time zones and continents to work together to solve several challenges. Now we have access to unbelievable amounts of data and information, which leads to a far more knowledgeable workforce.
However, those are just some of the more general ways technology has affected businesses.
To get an idea of how the COVID pandemic has changed CEOs' attitudes toward technology, we only need to look at the responses to this McKinsey survey.[3] While businesses had planned to eventually adopt tech like cloud computing that allowed for remote working, lockdowns forced their hand.
As respondents in the McKinsey survey demonstrated, investment in technology has increased remarkably. However, it has not increased alongside growth in customers, costs, or the number of people in tech-facing roles.
Lockdowns changed consumer behavior significantly. Across the US and Europe, online purchases shot up. Food, Clothes, and Household goods bought online increased by 30-50% in the US. [4] Across Europe, the change was a little less dramatic but still highly significant.
As consumers — empowered by access to smartphones — moved online, businesses followed. As a result, Digital engagement between consumers has sky-rocketed and now accounts for more than 80% of interactions.
Of course, not only the US and Europe have felt the positive technological effect on business. Over the last few years, we have seen tech work to create digital COVID-19 responses in developing countries. [5] If anything, technology is having a democratizing effect that is helping to transform emerging markets.
To contextualize the effects of technology on businesses, we need to look at what happened during the early part of lockdown measures. Many companies without a digital plan only managed to stay operational due to government stimulus. However, many businesses that were poised to ride the wave of tech innovation triumphed and grew.
Let's look at the positive impact of technology on business to underline the importance of digital adoption.
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Why is technology important in business?
As technological advancements are discovered, they create opportunities that give birth to new companies. As businesses scale, new technologies are needed to make them more productive and efficient. This circular relationship between organizations and technology underlines its importance in business.
The potential use of technology in businesses is never-ending.[6] While manufacturing and production technology help us perform tasks with a precision and scale of massive proportions, the use of information technology in business is perhaps even more remarkable.
To answer the question "What is the main purpose of business technology?" we need to examine the different uses of tech in businesses.[7] We can see how tech impacts efficiency and productivity and allows organizations to offer cost-effective services to a wide range of customers.
How is the technology used in business?
- Business Security and Support
Some of the best technology in business today allows us to automate various processes. By mechanizing mundane tasks, the staff is freed to do more meaningful tasks requiring human intelligence. Additionally, automation helps reduce human error.
On top of this, automation helps scale what businesses can do. For example, staff are generally a company's biggest outgoing, so supporting workers with technological tools helps companies scale more efficiently, boosts productivity, and even helps businesses deliver their goods and services at competitive price points.
Furthermore, technology is responsible for the data revolution. There is an unimaginably large amount of data produced every day. Tech helps us keep it safe and secure and access it easily for business use.
Additionally, computers help us contextualize and understand this data, which leads to a great understanding of various disciplines, and lots of discoveries and actionable insights.
- Communication
One of the most significant aspects of information technology in business is that it enables further globalization. Communication tools mean that we can speak to anyone, anywhere. Additionally, social media has connected people, allowing us to seek and build relationships.
Digital channels have transformed marketing and advertising. As a result, businesses can target customers in global markets, helping businesses of all sizes thrive.
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What is the role of technology in business development?
The Information Age has facilitated business change at an unprecedented pace. And it's still not done. More tech allows for greater creativity and innovation, with the only limit being the human capacity to find creative uses for tools.
Here are some of the ways information technology in business has changed the world forever.
- Mobile solutions: Smartphones mean that entrepreneurs can set up and run a business with only a mobile phone. This remarkable technology feature means that more people can provide and run enterprises from every corner of the globe.
In the past, starting a business required significant capital investments. However, advanced technology is available to anyone with a mobile phone, fueling innovation at an unimaginable scale.
- Cloud computing: Cloud computing made remote working possible. It will change the way companies think about buying or renting office space, decentralize industry, and allow workers to do their jobs from anywhere.
- Connectivity: Employees can stay in contact with each other and communicate instantly from anywhere. This process cuts out travel and arranging schedules and allows businesses to thrive in remote locations.
- A better understanding of consumers: Tech has given businesses a far more profound understanding of their customers. Smartphones generate many data that companies can use to increase personalization and provide feedback to drive product improvement.
- Lower costs: Tech improves efficiency and productivity, allowing businesses to produce products and services at a lower price.
What is a digital adoption solution (DAP)?
Digital adoption is learning about new technologies so you can use them to power business change. However, because new technologies can be challenging to learn, you can use a digital adoption solution to make sure you get the most from your investment.
Digital adoption platforms, like Usetiful, help users learn the basics of a piece of software and all the advanced features. By automating your user onboarding process, users can become proficient at their speed as they engage with the app or software.
DAPs can be used to create step-by-step walkthroughs, product tours, or onboarding checklists. Each of these features can help orientate users with your products and unlock the full benefits of each tool.
The main goal of a DAP is to create simple and user-friendly onboarding. This process increases usability and productivity across the organization. In addition, DAPs are perfect for users of any experience level because they are integrated into your app or software.
In the past, businesses would organize training days to help users understand new software. However, these events would be expensive and often relatively inefficient because users would get overloaded with information and only take in a limited amount.
However, DAPs solve these issues because they take into account that users learn at different speeds. Additionally, they accommodate learning while engaging with the app, which helps reinforce the concepts and increases proficiency.
Another considerable benefit of DAPs for developers is generating valuable analytic information [8]. This data can be used to improve user experience by helping teams understand how people are engaging with their applications. In addition, by knowing which tools are features users are neglecting, timely interventions can drive fuller software adoption.
Examples of adoption tools that are unlocked by DAPs [9]are:
- Knowledge-base articles
- Self-help menus
- Product tours
- Product walkthroughs
- Structured learning
- Product updates and new feature announcements
- User analytics
In the next section, let's look at the benefits of a digital adoption solution.
Benefits of a digital adoption solution
Perhaps the most crucial aspect of using a digital adoption platform is that it helps ensure an ROI on technological investments. Of course, spending big money on tech is no good if your staff can't use them to full effect. However, there are several other benefits of digital adoption technology [10], such as:
Increased workplace learning: Changing workplace culture requires learning and development. A DAP is an answer for organizations wondering how to improve digital adoption.
You can use a digital adoption platform to overlay user onboarding tools so your employees can get up to speed with new products and features.
Automation: Automation is one of the most significant technological adoption advantages because when it's successfully implemented, it frees up your employees from mundane tasks and boosts productivity. Automation can be used for a vast range of tasks, making work easier and more effective.[11]
Productivity: One of the main aims of a technology adoption strategy is to give your employees the skills to become more productive. When digital tools assist workers, they can make more valuable contributions and drive revenue.
Enhanced customer experience: Onboarding new users for your app requires quickly allowing your customers to understand how they can get value from your product. While the design is an essential aspect of getting instant value from an app, some products or features require a little assistance to help build a loyal fanbase.
A DAP can help guide your users to perform simple or complex tasks to help them achieve their all-important "Aha moment."
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Conclusion
Information technology has changed almost every aspect of our lives over the past 20 to 30 years. For example, the internet has connected the world, allowing personal and business relationships to thrive across cities and continents.
By embracing new technological tools, companies have become quicker and more efficient. As many commentators noted, business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic would have been almost impossible without the range of conferencing tools and cloud-based platforms.
The pace of change is swift. While most businesses use software, there has been an explosion in new tools and apps that allow companies to perform more advanced tasks or operate more quickly or cheaply. As these tools are adopted, the marketplace becomes more competitive. To put it bluntly, businesses need to adapt or die.
Being left behind is a real possibility for many organizations. Digital adoption is about far more than just investing in new tools. Businesses also need to ensure that their workers know how to use these tools to full effect. However, the days of training programs or chunky manuals are over. Workers want to learn in different ways.
Digital adoption platforms, like Usetiful, help developers onboard both businesses and consumers. By providing product tours or walkthroughs or more subtle design elements like tooltips and hotspots.
Digital adoption — if it is to be achieved by a larger mass of people — needs to serve users of different experience levels and learning abilities. By creating dynamic overlays on your product, users can learn in a way that suits them.
Additionally, by linking your product with knowledge-based articles, users always have help at hand. Automating this process reduces the reliance on IT support staff and training. It also helps businesses get a great ROI because employees learn to do their jobs quicker and more efficiently.
References
- https://www.userlane.com/what-is-digital-adoption-definition/#:~:text=Digital%20adoption%20i
- https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20161219-tech-issues-kill-productivity-but-dont-rush-to-call-it
- https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever
- https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-global-view-of-how-consumer-behavior-is-changing-amid-covid-19
- https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/news_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/news+and+events/news/insights/digital-adoption-in-developing-countries
- https://www.oksbdc.org/why-is-technology-important-in-business/
- https://smallbusiness.chron.com/information-technology-its-uses-business-management-51648.html
- https://www.walkme.com/glossary/digital-adoption/
- https://whatfix.com/digital-adoption/
- https://gethownow.com/blog/what-is-digital-adoption-benefits-challenges-and-tips-for-success/#The%20benefits%20of%20successful%20digital%20adoption
- https://www.lumapps.com/blog/digital-transformation/what-is-digital-adoption-benefits-strategies/