Enterprises losing more than $1m a week through inefficient technology use

WalkMe has released its flagship report, The State of Digital Adoption 2024 (SoDA 2024). The report shows that, while digital adoption is a rising priority for enterprises, a lack of best practice is still costing many organizations dearly[1]. The research, based on a survey of more than 4,000 executive and employee respondents, found that an inability to correctly and fully utilize technology costs enterprises on average $1.14M a week in lost productivity, with employees wasting 44 working days a year. However, enterprises realize the challenge, with 70% of organizations listing digital adoption as a strategic priority and with investment in digital adoption up 63% year-over-year, according to the study.

Prioritizing digital adoption has shown proven results for enterprises. 6% of respondent organizations have fully embraced all recommended digital adoption best practices, saving on average $4.9M a month in reduced costs. With happier employees and higher ROI, they’re leading the way in the journey towards HyperProductivity.

This success explains why 69% of enterprises say those that don’t embrace digital adoption will be in an unsustainable position by 2028. The cost of doing nothing is clear — with 46% of medium enterprises’ digital investment missing ROI due to lack of uptake, amounting to $13M wasted spend. Many enterprises still lack control over their IT estate, underestimating the number of applications they use by ten to one.

"SoDA 2024 is our most extensive report yet, highlighting the critical juncture at which we stand with global IT spend anticipated to reach $5 trillion and a 13% growth in software spend. This makes optimizing technology investments more crucial than ever," said Ofir Bloch, vice president of strategic positioning at WalkMe. "Digital adoption is now indispensable, especially as artificial intelligence becomes pervasive, affecting every aspect of our business workflows. With 93% of enterprise leaders stressing the need to enhance productivity to stay competitive, fully leveraging digital adoption strategies is essential for addressing emerging challenges."

Highlights from the research:

Employees spend as many as 353 hours, or 44 working days, a year compensating for technology issues such as troubleshooting software problems, waiting for support, or struggling with inadequate instructions.

Enterprise leaders believe their organization uses 21 applications, but on average, large organizations use 211 applications while smaller companies use 69.

68% of organizations have a team of employees responsible for digital adoption across all departments — compared to 48% in 2021.

Organizations that have embraced all digital adoption best practices save on average $4.9M a month compared to those that only follow some. In addition, these enterprises see:

- 14% less spend on digital transformation projects that fail to meet ROI.

- 18% higher ROI from digital transformation projects.

- 30% higher application utilization.

- 21.5 working days a year of employees’ time saved through improved user experiences.

“As more organizations realize the need for effective change management and decide to fully embrace digital adoption, they will begin to experience HyperProductivity. In this aspirational state, everyone can use any application with ease, and companies will have automated as many processes as possible and integrated technologies into one cohesive, streamlined workflow,” continued Bloch. “By scaling and replicating digital adoption successes organization-wide, enterprises can give employees the tools, technology, and support they need to operate exponentially faster and more effectively than before. This will be crucial in navigating productivity challenges in an uncertain economic climate and ensuring organizations realize the full ROI of their projects.”