Businesses’ key initiatives today are around digital transformation (including Digital Learning) and agile strategies. Businesses are spending a lot of money on technology to help employees be more efficient, yet they are not getting the value from that investment. Executives worry because we, as users, are changing.
Our users today have a lack of retention due in part to what is known as “The Google effect” or “Digital Amnesia”, this is the tendency to forget information that can be searched for readily online. However, at work, it’s even more important that our users are provided with the most accurate and helpful information, so as not to have to rely on a multitude of searches which often lead to searchers missing the critical content they were looking for or need. Quite simply, this wastes time and productivity and drives poor adoption of technology. This is the key reason why businesses must provide in-app help and guidance and embed their content in context.
63% of CRM projects fail. Poor adoption is stated as being one of the biggest causes. (Source: DiscoverCRM).
Design and deliver the best end-user experience
By using our simple in-app authoring tools, in less than a one-hour training session, Subject Matter Experts (SME / Business-savvy people), can share their knowledge by easily curating content in situ. Using all the context known about the user, they can deliver the best help and guidance, relevant to the users’ situation. Authors can:
- Provide easy access to dynamic, embedded field-level help in context, and page walkthroughs (interactive guides)
- Create relevant ‘Reading lists’ – embedded lists of Help Topics (like a slide deck, but richer)
- Allow users to Bookmark their favourite content for quick access.
- Capture user’s sentiments and comments in context to identify what’s working and what isn’t. No more end-user surveys required.
- Let users create ‘Personal Notes’ for future reference allowing Authors to monitor these notes to improve their content.
- Provide specific and relevant content with click-through options to extended learning, e.g. provide a quick answer, and a path to ‘learn more’ driving Adoption of any LMS, DMS or CMS system already in place.
- Create bite-sized, useful ‘Information at the Point Of Need’ (IPON).
- Virtually eliminate end-user’s need to search for critical content/training.
- Ensure content is always up to date and accessible on any device. Update once, and it’s available everywhere. Zero risk of users referring to old processes or documentation and falling non-compliant.
- Rich contextual-engagement-interactions, content, and feedback usage data feed rich analysis through our supplied reports and dashboards.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a core component of our User Engagement Layer
AI can help correct the course. Analytical data that includes the AI provided by Improved Apps enables businesses to understand how users engage with the system. Our Digital Adoption Solution (DAS) analyses click behaviours highlighting what users are clicking on and where users get stuck or abandon the process completely. This kind of information gives Authors the ability to make corrective changes to help users complete tasks more efficiently. It also provides the ability to track improvements/bottlenecks in usage.
What our User Engagement Layer solution does:
- Provides the missing layer to help users and businesses shift to Digital Learning.
- Transforms users from limited usage to engagement and full Adoption.
- Drives higher ROI from customers’ salesforce investments.
- Delivers the intended best practice & competency gains from the original CRM strategy.
- Shifts user’s sentiment to “this makes my job easier”.
- Provides insight for owners to track continual improvement.
- Supports change management and business transformation.
- Enables the business unit to be agile and self-sufficient.
- Keeps it simple for administrators & IT.
Benefits to end-users
We enable companies to provide intelligent, contextual help and guidance inside their applications. This means that we use what we know about their users to hand deliver exactly the information they need when they need it.
Example 1 – A Sales Rep who is entering data about her deal will be pushed videos and slide decks about the competitor she’s up against. She has just saved an hour and is now ready to beat the competition.
Example 2 – A new user, logging in for the first time, gets a critical alert upon login, giving them a task to complete within an agreed timeframe, pointing them to learn about the app they just logged into. This provides in-app orientation and guidance so that they can be immersed in the new company’s processes and culture. Over the following days and weeks, they will get alerts for new content. This reduces onboarding times by weeks.
End users don’t have to think about where to go to get information; it just appears where they need it. Users can also interact with their in-app BOT to ask questions and get recommended help and guidance on how to complete required tasks or be updated in changes to the process. They can make use of content based on their situation, driven by popularity or recommendations from the Subject Matter Experts.
Below you can see an example where the user is a click away from a customer’s business-critical application (centre) and any content sources (left), providing the user benefits (right).
All end-users gain the power and knowledge of the Subject Matter Experts and remain compliant, without having to go through lengthy boring training and trying to remember what they have learnt. They just click and learn and carry on with the task in hand, thus enabling more customer-facing time and consistent customer engagements.
Customer Quote
“One hell of a no-brainer! For anyone who wrestles with sales-process enablement and good old fashion sales support, this tool is an absolute must…a phenomenal tool, easy to roll out, child’s play to maintain, we couldn’t function without it…. a great company to work with, too.”
Simon McAllister, Global SVP Operations, Qlik
Customer Stories
Story 1: A recent Customer win, the largest publisher in the United States with 3,700 users, had an ROI study that showed that their business would save £2m per year on training and support costs alone and see a payback within a couple of months.
Story 2: Qlik has been a Customer of Improved Apps since March 2013. Since then they’ve seen a 70% reduction in email-based support requests and a 50% reduction in training.
Improved Apps CEO Quote
“Users don’t want to be trained anymore, they just want quick answers, like they get in the consumer world.”
Simon Thompson, CEO/Co-founder, Improved Apps
Why is Improved Apps different?
Improved Apps is the only 100% native Salesforce application that sits securely within your trusted salesforce environment to improve your user’s efficiency and engagement with Salesforce.
Improved Apps is built on the Salesforce platform to provide embedded, contextual help and training right where and when the user needs it. We do this by becoming the User Engagement Layer and bridging the gap between your valuable training content materials and your users. This saves time wasted on searching for answers whilst reducing internal support cases and associated costs.
As a Salesforce security reviewed partner, we are unique in that we offer embedded, native help and training at the point of need without the need for browser extensions or a separate platform. This provides a higher level of security, your data remains safe within your salesforce environment, and this also means all creation of help is done directly within Salesforce without the need to learn a whole new application/platform.
Improved Apps vision is not to be the centre of the universe like other software vendors. We believe we should be a catalyst between a second to none user experience (addressing the users’ needs) and any content from any source, to revolutionise the way people engage with information and make it relevant and useful. Help in the right place, at the right time, for the right user.
Our User Engagement Layer is 12-18 months ahead of our nearest competition and uniquely allows businesses to innovate with agility and to support the desired pace of their business, and it also supports all user scenarios:
- Onboarding new users (New hires) – Onboard users quicker. Time to proficiency.
- Continuous development (Experienced users) – Engage users better regardless of tenure.
- Change Management – Capturing contextual feedback for continuous improvement to support the end to end cycle of continuous learning.
“Providing learning at the speed of business today is a challenge. Combine that with the need to meet the demands of regulations for mandatory training and too often L&D reverts to bland, click next, traditional eLearning. How do we get away from that and increase understanding, awareness and engagement? How to create an integrated learning experience, using a variety of tools.”
Sharon Claffey Kaliouby – Head of Global Product Education at State Street Global Advisors
Sharon’s view of the world, as a renowned and experienced Learning and Development professional, further confirms Improved Apps’ vision to be a catalyst and not the centre of the universe, like other software vendors.
Our page walkthroughs/interactive guides (1 of 12 key features) allow users to get up to speed with new processes or pages quickly and can be contextual to those who need to see them. This, therefore, delivers different experiences for different roles/profiles/individuals such as new starters. Our embedded help, declaratively, allows Authors to curate rich media, images and videos (easily record your screen, your camera, or upload video content), to surface in our ‘Help Topics’ and to place them exactly where they are required.
As a native application, everything is fully tracked and reportable within our packaged dashboards and reports, allowing a business to track where users are needing help, where training material may need updating and easing the way to continual improvement.
Our unique NoticeBoard component allows businesses to push targeted critical communications out to users with full tracking so as to report on when they have read and/or acknowledged these communications. This is particularly useful for new training materials, communications around changes within your environment/processes, GDPR compliance and anything else that businesses need to ensure their users are made aware of.
Our solution is managed by our Customers’ business users and gives the power back to the Authors and end-users, away from IT where resources are often limited or maxed out. This empowers the business and helps the business to be more agile.
Installation and setup are completed in minutes, as a true SaaS solution, then Authors can start curating content and adding value in a matter of hours. You can start a free trial anytime you like by following this link.
Finally, our solutions are valuable to all parts of your business and support Classic, Visual Force, Lightning, Mobile, Communities, Console Apps, Portals & non-salesforce Web Apps.
Simon Thompson, CEO/Co-founder, Improved Apps
Do get in touch and we can demo our solutions, it will quickly bring you up to speed on the innovation that is ‘Improved Apps’, or visit our AppExchange listings for Improved Help and Improved NoticeBoard to learn more and read all the great reviews.
