Adoption and the growth lifecycle: what you need to know

Consistent operational adoption is the only way to drive value from your strategic investments. This is absolutely fundamental to achieving growth.

Whether you want to boost adoption of new ways of working, build richer, high quality datasets to inform decision making, or better support your infrastructure and execution, we make sure everyone across your organization is cohesively and confidently using your workflows, technology and data, and are aligned on your growth action plan.

Empowering your people is the critical cornerstone in our four pillar approach. Our end goal is for you to independently and confidently run your growth team. We support you through change management, providing training, support and team augmentation, so you can establish and start executing effectively, and unlock ROI sooner.

Read on to learn why you can’t afford to ignore adoption if you’re going for growth.

Adopt or die

Without buy-in from across a business, even the most ideal infrastructure is doomed to fail. Many times, we’ve seen that adoption’s role is often completely misunderstood in the cycle of transformation.

In most instances it’s seen as an activity that happens after the implementation of a process or a technology. The secret, if there is one, is that adoption begins before your project even starts, it’s present throughout and carries on well after it’s finished.

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is implementing software to solve an immediate need, without considering the long-term implications. This knee jerk reaction results in the roll out of platforms at pace, only to be replaced in subsequent years as poor adoption and lack of skills lead to leadership frustration.

Seasons change, systems shouldn’t

Seasonal shifts from system to system are also driven by changes in leadership. New leaders become frustrated by the ineffectiveness of legacy systems and absence of inhouse skillsets to meet current business need. They quickly arrive at the conclusion that it’s the technology that needs to change, sending the business round in a wasteful and expensive circle.

The reality? The quickest route to growth is looking at existing platform use. We know, because we’ve done it. We also know sustainable growth comes from looking at people as well as process.

So, why is it a bad idea to rip and replace technology? It isn’t. Well, not always. Change of leadership. Shift in business focus. Operational staff churn. These are often the root of the problem. Not the technology.

Be SaaS savvy 

Another common issue, that we see way more than we’d like, is overreliance on SaaS to implement technology in the first place. Too many businesses use SaaS as a silver bullet to accelerate initial platform roll out, believing that it’s supporting their ‘adoption’ of the new technology. They’re wrong.

There’s a place for SaaS, for sure. But SaaS should always have an element of adoption embedded with it. Knowledge and skill transfer to the in-house team. Or at least a plan for how the business would operate if the budget for SaaS support is switched off. Because that does happen. Sometimes unexpectedly. And then it’s a whole heap of pain for those trying to sort it out, with limited resources and virtually zero skills.

Driving growth through adoption is not a one-time project. It’s a long-term strategy that needs to be embedded into business practice and maintained over time. It’s a commitment. It’s a mindset. It’s a culture.

That said, it needs to start somewhere. And massive spoiler alert, it’s not just platform training.

Want to go deeper into adoption and specifically how we can drive sustainable growth in your business?