Enterprise Software Adoption the Top Challenges and Solutions

If you are like the many organizations who are jumping headfirst into digital transformation this year you may be looking for ways to increase your employee software adoption rates. Your software investment will not help you successfully undergo a digital transformation if your employees do not use it. Unfortunately, low rates of user adoption are an all too common problem. In fact, recent research suggests that 80% of organizations struggle with software adoption (1).

Fortunately, there are several modern solutions you can utilize to increase employee adoption of new software. In this article we will share with you the top challenges and solutions of enterprise software adoption.

Challenge: Resistance to Change

One of the toughest challenge’s enterprise organizations run into when it comes to implementing a new software is finding ways to combat resistance to change. Employees may have fears and frustrations about learning to use a new system. However, there are a few different ways you can help address these fears and concerns to reduce resistance.

Solution: Convey the Benefits and Provide Support

Most often when an organization adopts a new software the goal is to improve efficiency or to solve a problem. Whether it is to speed up a process or improve customer communication or to increase data security there are benefits that impact the entire organization.

Helping employees understand how adopting the new software will help them personally and share how it will help the organization work towards its larger goals can greatly reduce resistance. Take time to share these benefits in the early phases of your software adoption plan.

Challenge: Different Roles Use the System in Different Ways

Enterprise organizations have many departments roles and employees to fill them. Depending on the complexities of the new software, employees in different roles may use it in different ways. Certain features or aspects of the program may be more relevant to roles than others. This is often overlooked in the implementation process, but addressing this challenge is essential when it comes to driving adoption rates.

Solution: Customized Learning Paths

When training a diverse group of learners with different roles and backgrounds it is important to think about the user experience. Business leaders should consider whether providing personalized experiences and customized learning paths would increase the success of their software adoption strategy. Custom learning paths can help increase engagement and further prove the relevance of the new system.

Challenge: User Adoption Occurs Over Time

A common mistake many enterprise organizations with new software implementation is that they try to approach the learning process as a single even, but learning is a process. Successful software adoption does not occur after a single training session. The most successful software adoption training programs occur over time and in phases.

Solution: Implementing a Comprehensive Training Plan

Long term software adoption plans tend to lead to higher user adoption rates and higher rates of return on your software investments. This is due to their ability to increase user confidence and guide them from the very beginning with the basics to mastery where they know the ins and outs of the new system.

Challenge: Training Remote Teams

Current events have recently increased the number of employees who now work remotely. Often, switching from an in-office role to working from home requires the adoption of new software. Unfortunately, more traditional training methods like instructor-led training are ineffective in these cases. Gaining the hands-on experience, they need to become comfortable operating a new system can be more challenging for remote workers.

Solution: Custom eLearning Solutions

There are many different employee training methods you can utilize to increase software adoption of your remote employees. You can convert your training into virtual instructor led sessions, provide a blended program that uses scenario-based learning or utilize video-based learning to help increase adoption.

Conclusion

Technology will only continue to advance. The way we work and learn will continue to shift to a more digital direction. Software adoption and digital transformation are quickly becoming top priorities for successful businesses in just about every industry. Read the case study and learn how a leading organization in the life sciences industry used a blend of interactive training methods to increase their software adoption rates.