CRM, ERP, Procurement tools, HRIS, Intranet… You may be familiar with these software categories, especially if you’ve decided, like many companies in recent years, to equip your organization with them. But at what cost?
There are inevitable costs when you deploy new software and train users. But there are also costs that can be reduced or even eliminated (news that should delight your colleagues in the Purchasing Department and the CFO!).
Software training, user onboarding, application support optimization : discover all our keys to reducing the costs associated with your digital transformation projects at the end of the article. But before that, back in pictures – and in key figures – on the real cost (s) of digital transformation.
Digital Transformation: Training And Onboarding Your Users On Their Software And Applications Has A Cost
1. Training and onboarding your employees: a must to overcome digital incompetence
- 56% of employees believe that they don’t have the skills required today to master digital technologies (source: Randstad)
The digital incompetence of your employees comes at a cost. It has an impact on their productivity. Most importantly, it comes at a cost to your entire organization. On the one hand, you invest in software and applications that are little or not used. On the other hand, the delay that your organization is accumulating in its digital transformation has an impact on its competitiveness.
2. Creating engaging training contents is costly and time-consuming
Whether you need to train newcomers to your business tools or to introduce an entire department to the new functionalities of your HRIS, your Procurement tool or your ERP, creating help and support contents takes time. This time is strongly increased when these contents take the form of PDF operating procedures or e-learning modules that must be updated with each new update of the tool.
- 43h: the average time it takes to organize face-to-face training (source: Chapman Alliance LLC)
- 79h: the average time it takes to organize a basic e-learning module (source: Chapman Alliance LLC)
Application Support And Tools Maintenance: What Are The Costs for IT Teams ?
1. Helpdesk, Service Desk, IT hotline: essential expenses to support your users on their applications
Software also means support for users. Whatever solution you choose, supporting your users with their digital tools has a cost. How many application support engineers or IT support technicians are in your support team? How much time do your IT teams spend resolving user tickets?
- 40% of IT spending is spent on application development and maintenance (source: Gartner)
- 24.2h: this is the time support teams need on average to provide a first answer to internal tickets (source: Zendesk)
2. Support and maintenance costs are all the more important when the need for support is constant
The key to handling software is support. But here’s the thing. Support is also the main challenge of software handling: users need support accessible in real time, including when working in different time zones or when working outside traditional office hours.
- 53% of users have no support when working outside regular office hours and 61% of them wish they had (source: Econocom – IDC)
- 53% of consumers expect a response from customer service within an hour, even on weekends. (source: Edelman Digital)
Ensuring The Right ROI Of Your IT Stock: The Costs Associated With The Adoption And Proper Use Of Your Software
1. Companies are equipped with software and applications which are not always used
CRM, ERP, HRIS, Procurement tool, Intranet, invoicing software… Your company may have many applications. But are users really making good use of it? How to make sure that your software is well handled and that your investment in digital tools is profitable?
- 36: this is the average number of cloud computing services that the average employee actively uses at work (source: Skyhigh Networks – McAfee)
- 28%: of enterprise software is unused (source: 1E)
- 37%: companies waste on average 37% of their software budget (source: 1E)
2. The misuse of digital tools is just as costly as their non-use
Whether users use only part of the features available on their tools or use all of them by constantly seeking your support, the misuse of digital tools has a considerable impact on their productivity and that of your IT teams. In the long run, misused software can also lead to frustration or disengagement from your users. As a result, your tools end up being abandoned.
- 85% of users lose at least 1-2 hours of productivity each week searching for information (source: Dynamic Signal)
- Zoom in on CRM:
- 45.7% of CRM customers have end-user adoption rates above 90% (source: CSO Insights)
- 43% of CRM customers use fewer than half the features they have on their CRM (source: CSO Insights)
- Zoom in on ERP:
- 50%: this is the proportion of ERP implementation projects that fail the first time (source: Technology Evaluation Centers)
Digital Experience Management: Make Your Digital Transformation Last
1. Frustrated by software solutions, your employees can quickly disengage from their tools… and your company
Your employees are a bit like the internal customers of your company: if you are not attentive to their needs, they may turn away from your tools (churn) or worse, disengage from your organization. And again, their disengagement is costly!
- 11 358 $: that’s about what a disengaged employee costs in the U.S. (sources: Gallup, LinkedIn)
- 1 sur 26 : only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers complain. The rest churn (source: Esteban Kolsky)
2. Employees’ expectations for digital tools are increasingly higher
Beyond digital tools, users’ digital experience is also the guarantee of a lasting digital transformation. Quality and availability of IT support, user satisfaction, proactivity of the support service: all elements are to be taken into account for an optimized digital experience management.
- 59% of people say they have higher expectations for customer service now than they had a year ago (source : Microsoft)
User training and user onboarding, application support and tool maintenance, profitability of the IT infrastructure: what are the solutions to optimize the costs of digital transformation?
1. How to reduce the costs associated with software training?
- Reduce the time spent creating training materials
The key? Producing microlearning units directly integrated into the software of your employees. Lemon Learning’s simple and intuitive authoring tool enables you to create training materials in just a few clicks, all without requiring any technical skills!
- Reduce the time spent updating training materials
The key? Focusing on scalable training contents that adapt to your tools upgrades. You no longer need to update all the screenshots in your user manual – a few clicks is all it takes with Lemon Learning.
2. How to reduce the costs associated with support functions?
- Support users when they need it
The key? Offering user support available 24 / 24, 7/ 7. The Lemon Learning digital adoption platform supports your users when they need it most, directly on their applications. The interactive guides are available on demand and can be launched regardless of the availability of your support teams. As a result, your users are autonomous on their tools!
- Provide integrated support to user tools
The key? Focusing on self-service support. Its major advantage? Users no longer need to leave their software to find the answer to their question. All the information is right where they are.
3. How to get a better return on investment of your IT stocks?
- Support users on their tools right from their onboarding
The key? Not waiting for face-to-face sessions to provide software training to your employees. With the Learning By Doing method, users learn at the same time as they perform their tasks on their software, whether they are novices or experts. As a result, your tools are used, and properly!
- Have continuous interaction with users on their tools
The key? Training is not enough to guarantee the proper use of your software. To engage users, interact with them continually. Thanks to push notifications, you can congratulate your employees on their quarterly results, announce your next teambuilding session, or collect feedback on the development of your Intranet: the possibilities are limitless!
Software training, optimization of application support, digital adoption: you now have all the keys to sustain the digital transformation of your business at a lower cost! In a context of increasing digitalization of companies, the advantage will be for organizations that will be able to take the turn of digital tools and get their employees on board!
Do you have a software implementation project? Are you rebuilding your business processes to make them more digital? Contact our teams so we can talk about your issues together!
