2023 is shaping up to be a headache for many businesses. Faced with a long list of complex, interconnected and seemingly relentless challenges, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the average CEO, CTO or CPO would be running for the hills to get away from the enormity of the task ahead of them. An unending skills shortage, increased domestic and international competition, huge amounts of uncertainty caused by looming recession and extensive supply-chain issues, a tightening regulatory landscape, higher expectations from customers and employees, the ever-increasing pace of digital disruption (just see ChatGPT for an example of how quickly things can change), and the spectre of climate change impacts being felt in the here and now…. The list goes on, and on, and on…..Each of these challenges on their own would surely be large enough for a Board or executive team to call in the external international experts to wave their “magic wand” of cost reduction - which typically ends up cutting deeply into headcount, short-term productivity, and - most crucially - the culture of an organisation.

The heart and soul of an organisation can be ripped out very quickly and unemotionally - all in the name of efficiency, or “cost rationalisation”. Paradoxically, these changes hurt the shareholder, hurt the employee, and often hurt the customer. Who wins?

There’s always another way to achieve an outcome.

What if we could have our cake AND eat it all at once? What if we could deliver better efficiency, better service, a better EX and CX, better profitability, and reduce risk all with the same tool?

Fortunately, we can. Digital adoption platforms like WalkMe offer a pathway towards improvement against many of the items on 2023’s C-suite wish list, and can lead to measurable and meaningful commercial outcomes.

Unending skills shortage

Businesses can’t find employees with the skills they need, so they must develop them instead (check out New Zealand facing a digital skills crisis - NZTech).

WalkMe can help businesses train their employees on new systems and processes through interactive, step-by-step guidance and on-screen nudges. This can help reduce the dependence on skilled workers and allow businesses to scale their operations more easily.Economic uncertaintyIncreased uncertainty means a necessity to contain costs and increase efficiency (check out Global financial uncertainty 'challenging' for NZ economy - Grant Robertson | RNZ News)

WalkMe can help businesses improve operational efficiency by streamlining processes and reducing the need for manual intervention. This can help reduce costs and increase profitability, even in an uncertain economic climate.

Digital disruption

The relentless pace of change is driving the demand for the deployment of newer, better and more effective technology to support business operations, requiring large change and education programmes.

WalkMe can help businesses keep pace with the demands of the digital marketplace by enabling them to quickly and easily adopt new technologies and digital platforms. WalkMe can be deployed over Salesforce, Workday, Dynamics 365, ServiceNow, SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Infor, PEGA and a whole host of cloud and desktop-based platforms (including most of the common HRIS, LMS, LXP, CRM, ERP platforms) to reduce speed to competency and drive successful engagement and adoption of new technology and processes.

Regulatory environment and compliance challenges

Changing laws and regulations are increasingly far-reaching, and often have significant consequences and penalties for an organisation and their employees if they haven’t properly been accounted for. Ensuring that all systems, processes and people follow laws and regulations is more important than ever.

WalkMe can help businesses stay compliant with changing regulations and government policies by providing real-time updates and alerts within the platform. This can help reduce the risk of non-compliance and ensure that businesses are always up-to-date with the latest requirements.

Internal training costs

Relentless change, a bigger skills and knowledge gap for new joiners, and an ever-changing regulatory landscape means that training on systems and processes happens constantly. The need to keep a lid on costs and time away from doing the day job is huge.

By providing interactive, step-by-step guidance and on-screen nudges, WalkMe can help reduce the need for formal training programs and the associated costs.

Climate change

Society is more aware, alert and discerning about the impact a business has on local and global climate, driving a focus on eliminating waste, increasing efficiency and reducing manual interventions where there may be a carbon footprint.

By improving operational efficiency, delivering smart and dynamic automation and reducing the need for manual intervention, WalkMe can help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and meet sustainability goals.

Increased domestic and international competition

Customers (and employees) have increased choice about which organisations to engage with, which requires increased differentiation from the competition to remain attractiveBy providing a better UX for employees and customers, WalkMe can help businesses differentiate themselves from their competitors and increase customer satisfaction.

Customer expectations

“Things should be beautiful. Things should be fast. Things should just work first time”.

Technology rarely does all of these at the same time, but customers demand it and will happily move elsewhere to find it if an organisation can’t deliver it for them. (check out What Are Customer Expectations, and How Have They Changed? - Salesforce.com)

By providing a better user experience for employees and customers, WalkMe can help increase customer satisfaction, which can result in increased sales and customer loyalty.

Productivity challenges

More stress, a greater volume of work to get through, increased challenges of disconnected workforces, and more frequent and significant interruptions and disruption to daily business (just look at the Auckland floods last month) means that continuous and reliable levels of productivity is critical. (check out Working longer hours but producing less: NZ's poor productivity | Stuff.co.nz)

WalkMe can help employees complete tasks more efficiently and with fewer errors, which can result in increased productivity and reduced downtime. Simple automation of repetitive tasks reduces time, stress, cognitive load and propensity for errors in completing tasks.

Cost of living

People are struggling to make ends meet. There is an increasing urgency in reducing costs, and increasing efficiency to be able to pass on savings to consumers to ease the pain. Customers are choosing to reduce discretionary spend on products or services they perceive as expensive or luxury to keep their own personal spending under control. (check out Global financial uncertainty 'challenging' for NZ economy - Grant Robertson | RNZ News, and Rising costs: should employers care more about their employees' personal finances? | HRD New Zealand (hcamag.com))

WalkMe can deliver increased internal efficiencies to reduce manual handling and ultimately reduce cost-to-serve. These cost savings can be passed on to the consumer to ease the pressure on their personal finances, and support customer retention.

Fortunately, there are many examples of organisations who have already invested in WalkMe to address one or more of these problems; A major financial services company was facing a skills shortage and massive competition for talent, and was also struggling to keep pace with the demands of the digital marketplace and increasing customer expectation.

They invested in WalkMe and were able to upskill their employees on new systems and processes, streamline their operations, and improve customer satisfaction. This led to increased efficiency, reduced costs, and increased profitability for the company.

Similarly, a healthcare organisation was facing increased regulatory scrutiny and a need to improve operational efficiency. They invested in WalkMe and were able to stay compliant with changing regulations and government policies, while also improving their processes and reducing the need for manual intervention. This led to improved patient care, reduced costs, and increased profitability for the organisation.

At Five, we’re proud to be New Zealand’s first and only certified delivery partner for WalkMe, and we’re specialists in addressing these challenges. We work with organisations to fully explore the problems in detail, and design and build bespoke WalkMe implementations to set them on the path to better outcomes. We’re huge believers in keeping it simple, upskilling your internal team, and building sustainable and reliable walkthroughs for easy maintenance and upkeep. We’ve supported some of New Zealand’s biggest names in making large leaps in their digital transformation journeys, and we’ve grown our team significantly this year because we don’t think that anyone should have to suffer these headaches.If you’ve got any of these issues on your list for 2023 (and you absolutely will!), then we’d love to talk to you about where and how we can help deliver a little relief for your headaches.

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Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash