What was the business problem(s) that your organization / project was facing, and why did you choose a digital adoption strategy to help you solve it?
Sage is undergoing a global digital transformation across the organisation, including the deployment of a global CRM (Salesforce), omni-channel contact centre solution and subscription management solution. A key success factor for this digital transformation is the adoption of the various process and tools across the regions and teams. Adoption within the digital world is a personalised experience and as such Sage needs to ensure that they are providing the best in class tools and process as colleagues transition from old systems to new systems. Sage like many other companies uses different methods to conduct training. For most colleagues, Sage conducts classroom training as part of the deployment of new processes and tools. This classroom training is based upon a script that is written in Microsoft Word and provided to each colleague attending the training. The script is a step-by-step guide that includes text and screenshots of the new tool. The trainer often uses call-outs to highlight which button requires pressing or the action required. Some colleagues fully engage in the training and gain a lot from it, however, after the training they will forget about what they have learnt and find it difficult and complicated to find the exact training scenario they need once they start to use the tool in earnest.
How did you use WalkMe among other strategies to address your challenges?
Carlos is relentless in driving forward a strategy to build an internal culture that thinks about digital first. As VP of Business Operations, Carlos is at the head of the team who’s job it is to deliver our global transformation. Leading project managers, business analysts and business change, he knows that we can’t successfully land a digital transformation within the organisation unless we truly live and breathe it ourselves. To this end he is constantly challenging his team to think differently about how we do things, encouraging innovation and championing the use of new technology. It was his vision that was the catalyst for introducing a digital adoption platform, and he truly led this movement from the front; from the initial RFP process, through to selecting WalkMe and finding a home for it at Sage, then encouraging his team to think about how it could help them in landing their unique projects. Carlos drove the team to consider using WalkMe not only to support the adoption of new technology delivery in the organisation but also as a tool for understanding where colleague experience using existing tech could be enriched to support them in their roles and also reduce the administrative burden of error correction. Crucially, he also collaborated with the VP of L&D to ensure that we continue to weave WalkMe into the fabric of our learning strategy at Sage. Within 12 months Carlos has led the team to launch WalkMe on 11 internal platforms.
How does your digital adoption strategy, especially in regards to WalkMe, impact or benefit your end-users?
The use of WalkMe has helped colleagues learn faster and broader and helps bridge the gap between humans and technology. With WalkMe we can be more learning-agile, with learning broken into bite-sized chunks, learning that is set at the user’s pace, and reducing the need to hit pause on customer facing activities while we train our people. But it’s about more than just learning. Leading by example and completing WalkMe University himself, Carlos was able to get a deep understanding of the capability and be able to suggest different use cases. One area that he knew would add value was automation. Through the use of automation on some platforms we have improved productivity and streamlined tasks that people found onerous. We’ve only been able to see these benefits because our people know WalkMe is there. Carlos led the creation of an internal brand campaign. Driving a video and marketing material to ensure the entire organisation knew we’d invested in WalkMe to support them.
How does your digital adoption strategy, especially in regards to WalkMe, impact or benefit your team?
Carlos’ motto is “experiment, learn, deliver”. He provided a safe environment, created the conditions for the team to try new things and learn from their experiments to deliver the best possible content. He arranged workshops with WalkMe to build on the internal capability that he spearheaded. Leading from the front, Carlos became a skilled content builder, positioning himself as an expert as well as a thought leader, securing his credibility from the team. He acted as an escalation point to brainstorm new ideas and provide the team the ability to deliver. The creation of this internal community of advocates has allowed the team to realise the benefits of WalkMe and measure adoption in new ways across a variety of projects. As a result we’ve seen huge improvements user adoption and overall feedback. By foreseeing the benefits and enabling his team to unlock it’s full potential from the start, Carlos has driven outstanding results in digital adoption against his vision.
How has your digital adoption strategy, especially in regards to WalkMe, helped your organization better achieve its mission goals / values?
It’s our mission to transform the way people think and work so the organisation can thrive. Helping colleagues be more efficient and optimising their experience means they can be better at helping our customers be more successful. Take Salesforce for example; it can seem overwhelming but by overlaying the support of WalkMe, our colleagues can understand and use much more of the functionality to pinpoint opportunities and pain points to provide customers with relevant and timely support. Additionally, WalkMe has helped reduce the number of errors made on internal systems and the number of ‘how do I’ tickets raised to internal support teams. By taking away these administrative tasks, our internal support teams can focus on work that truly adds value. This is another innovation that accelerates adoption of SaaS which is very important for Sage. Customer success depends on the agility and adoption of new technology and WalkMe goes a long way in supporting that.
How has the success of your digital adoption strategy helped to change the perceptions or attitudes of your stakeholders?
Carlos led the RFP process that resulted in selecting WalkMe. But he didn’t do it alone. Having a vision of rolling out WalkMe to dozens of internal platforms and a desire to create an ecosystem based upon a user journey, Carlos knew there would be a number of stakeholders who would need to be on board, so he involved them in this process from the beginning. The outcome of this approach was that by the time we launched WalkMe, all of the key people who we would need to help drive the initiative, such as internal platform owners, were already supportive. Carlos also engaged the VP of L&D to cosponsor the initiative, showing that the initiative also had the backing of the guy who is responsible for making sure our people have the skills to do their job. Additionally, Carlos went beyond ensuring our internal stakeholders were bought in. He has presented at WalkMe customer events and taken time to share his experience with other WalkMe potential customers and actual customers.
More about Sage
Sage is the market leader for integrated accounting, payroll, and payment systems, supporting the ambition of the world’s entrepreneurs. Like many of the businesses we serve, Sage began as a small business and has grown beyond what seemed imaginable. Today over 13,000 colleagues now support millions of entrepreneurs across 23 countries as they power the global economy. We help drive today’s business builders with a new generation of solutions to manage everything from money to people.
