Failure to launch: five common challenges of digital transformation adoption

This article originally appeared on trainingmag.com. You can read the full, original article here. By Michael Graham

Michael is the Founder/CEO of Epilogue Systems. He covers the intersection of tech, workforce productivity and enablement intelligence. Across different digital transformation use cases are the same adoption mistakes that hinder organizations’ full realization of digital transformation’s potential, including: not focusing on adoption past the critical first three to five months; not planning for project fatigue; or failing to train users when they need it most—in application.

The phrase, “digital transformation,” has come to describe every possible intersection of technology with the customer, employee, or business model. There’s no one way to describe it except for, maybe, anecdotally: complex, expensive, and often make-or-break initiatives that frequently fail to live up to their full potential.

Across so many totally different digital transformation use cases are the exact same adoption mistakes that hinder organizations’ full realization of digital transformation’s potential. Take making the mistake of not focusing on adoption past the critical first three to five months; not planning for project fatigue; or failing to train users when they need it most—in application. All of these are common of companies who get so close but don’t fully achieve their digital transformation goals.

Here are five common challenges companies experience as they near the end of a digital transformation initiative:

1. Adoption is not a one-and-done phenomena.

Adoption is never complete. Many complex applications fail to meet their potential because of under-adoption of the application’s broad functionality. This is exacerbated by changes over time due to upgrades, application optimizations, APIs and integrations, and an increasingly complex digital workplace. Then there’s the reality of a dynamic workforce with hiring, turnover, role changes, mergers and acquisitions, and business model evolution. To treat adoption as simply a project task is short-sighted, and threatens to undermine the years of work, millions of dollars invested, and organizational disruption endured.

Read the full article here