What Is Digital Adoption? A Complete NZ Guide
Every year, New Zealand organisations invest millions of dollars in enterprise software. Yet organisations realise only a fraction of the potential value from these investments. Digital adoption is the bridge between your technology investments and the business value you intended to capture.
The Complete Guide
What Is Digital Adoption?
Digital adoption is the process of enabling and empowering employees to use new digital tools, systems, and processes confidently, effectively, and sustainably.
More specifically, digital adoption means:
- Moving beyond training: One-off training sessions don't stick. Digital adoption is about ongoing enablement—meeting people where they are, when they need help, in the way they learn best.
- Changing behaviour, not just awareness: It's not enough to tell people a new system exists. Real adoption means changing how they work—building new habits and moving away from legacy processes.
- Measuring and improving: Digital adoption isn't a one-time project. It's about tracking usage, identifying friction points, and continuously optimising both the system and the way people interact with it.
- Driving business value: At its core, adoption is about unlocking the ROI from your technology investment—whether that's productivity gains, better customer experiences, reduced errors, or faster decision-making.
The Adoption Gap: A Real Cost for NZ Organisations
Consider this scenario: An organisation implements a new ERP system at significant cost. The system is technically sound, well-designed, and feature-complete. But six months after go-live, users are still jumping between the new system and spreadsheets. Managers aren't using the new reporting dashboards. Data quality is poor because people haven't changed how they enter information.
The software wasn't the problem. Adoption was.
Research from the WalkMe State of Digital Adoption report shows that adoption is a persistent challenge across sectors. Organisations that recognised adoption as a strategic priority—not just an IT implementation detail—realised significantly higher returns on their software investments.
Digital Adoption vs. Digital Transformation
These terms are often used interchangeably, but they're different—and understanding the distinction is important.
Digital transformation is the strategic overhaul of how an organisation operates. It might involve rethinking business processes from the ground up, shifting to cloud-based infrastructure, reimagining customer experiences, and building new operating models around digital capabilities.
Digital adoption is the execution layer of digital transformation. It's focused on the people, processes, and enablement required to make specific technology changes stick.
The key insight: Digital transformation is strategy. Digital adoption is how you make that strategy real in people's day-to-day work.
Why Digital Adoption Matters
The ROI Gap: Your Silent Cost
NZ organisations spend an estimated NZ$2+ billion annually on enterprise software and digital tools. Yet Gartner research suggests that organisations typically capture only 30-40% of the intended value from enterprise software implementations.
Where does this value gap come from?
- Underutilisation: Licences purchased but not used. Features available but not discovered.
- Workarounds and shadow systems: When systems are hard to use, users create their own solutions—spreadsheets, email-based processes, third-party tools.
- Poor data quality: When adoption is weak, people don't invest time in data quality. Poor data undermines analytics, reporting, and decision-making.
- Extended time-to-productivity: Each user takes longer to reach proficiency. Mistakes increase. Support costs rise.
- Change fatigue: Failed adoption attempts create cynicism and resistance to future change.
Why Digital Adoption Platforms Still Matter in the Age of AI
There's a temptation to think that widespread AI capabilities have made digital adoption platforms redundant. The answer is an emphatic yes—DAPs still matter. AI and DAPs solve fundamentally different problems.
The Fundamental Difference: Enforcement vs. Suggestion
AI tools can suggest. Digital adoption platforms can enforce.
Consider a compliance scenario: An organisation has a business rule that purchase orders above a certain threshold require three-way approval. With an AI assistant, the user could ask and might get a suggestion—but they can ignore it. With a DAP like WalkMe, a contextual warning intercepts them before they can submit without required approvals. The user cannot bypass this.
Even more critically: WalkMe logs the intervention itself. There's a complete audit trail showing that guidance was displayed, when it was displayed, and whether the user heeded it. AI assistants cannot do this. They operate in chat windows, outside the application, without structural enforcement or audit trail integration.
Structured Learning vs. "Ask the AI"
When a new employee encounters a process they don't understand and asks an AI, they get an answer but never develop muscle memory. A contextual SmartWalkthrough inside the application guides them through each step of the actual workflow, in real time. They complete the task themselves—with guidance—and build competency through practice.
Organisations that use structured DAP guidance for critical processes report 40-60% faster time-to-productivity for new hires, higher consistency in process execution, and greater confidence among employees.
When AI and DAPs Work Together
DAPs handle enforcement and structural guidance: workflows that must be followed consistently, compliance-critical processes, standardised step-by-step guidance, audit trail requirements. AI handles explanation and decision support: answering “why” questions, explaining complex concepts, advising on edge cases. The two work together—DAPs create structure, AI adds intelligence.
DAPs & Practice
What Is a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP)?
A Digital Adoption Platform is specialist software designed to help organisations achieve adoption at scale. Unlike general-purpose tools, DAPs are purpose-built to embed guidance, enforce processes, and measure adoption outcomes.
How DAPs Work
A DAP typically provides:
- In-app guidance: Contextual help appears within the application itself—not in separate manuals or training portals.
- Process enforcement: Critical workflows can be enforced—preventing users from bypassing required steps, skipping approvals, or entering invalid data.
- Analytics and insights: DAPs track how users are actually using applications. Where are they getting stuck? Which features are underutilised?
- Input validation and field guidance: Dynamic help for form fields ensures data quality at the point of entry.
- Compliance warnings and targeted reminders: Contextual warnings intercept users before non-compliant actions, with the warning itself logged for audit purposes.
WalkMe: The Leading DAP for Enterprise
WalkMe is the Gartner Customers' Choice for Digital Adoption Platforms (2026). It's the most widely deployed DAP globally, delivering SmartWalkthroughs, ShoutOuts, detailed analytics, task completion resources, form templates, compliance warnings, and mobile app support.
How Digital Adoption Works in Practice
A Real Example: ERP Implementation with Adoption
Consider a mid-sized NZ manufacturing business implementing a new ERP system. Without a digital adoption strategy: training is delivered two weeks before go-live, users forget most of it, go-live is chaotic, people revert to old systems.
With a digital adoption platform and proper strategy:
Pre-launch: Adoption resources are created—in-app guidance, interactive SmartWalkthroughs, and quick-reference guides. WalkMe is configured to enforce critical workflows.
At launch: Contextual guidance meets users. SmartWalkthroughs guide them step-by-step. Compliance warnings intercept errors.
Days 1-7: ShoutOuts highlight undiscovered features. Analytics show where people struggle. The team identifies issues and updates guidance.
Weeks 2-4: Content is refined based on real usage data. Power users become local champions. Users become more confident.
Ongoing: Analytics continue tracking. New features get contextual guidance. The system becomes how the organisation actually works.
The Adoption Methodology
Effective digital adoption follows a structured approach:
- Discovery: Understanding the change—systems, processes, people, compliance requirements
- Strategy: Designing the adoption plan—targeting, communication, guidance, measurement
- Enablement: Creating and deploying adoption resources—training, in-app guidance, compliance controls
- Measurement: Tracking adoption metrics—engagement, process adherence, business outcomes
- Optimisation: Continuously improving based on data
Five's Approach
Five's Approach to Digital Adoption
Five has been New Zealand's certified WalkMe delivery partner since the platform's earliest days—longer than any other firm in the region.
Four Outcome Categories
- Enforce Data Integrity: Using DAP capabilities to ensure data quality at the point of entry. Input validation, field guidance, dropdown selection assistance, and compliance warnings prevent bad data from entering systems.
- Adopt New Technology: Making new systems genuinely adopted. From ERP implementations to cloud migrations to SaaS tool rollouts.
- Manage Change: Successfully moving organisations through process change and transformation. Adoption guidance ensures change sticks.
- Increase Employee Productivity & Satisfaction: Building capability and confidence. Employees who receive good contextual guidance are more productive and report higher satisfaction.
Our Service Offering
WalkMe Design & Implementation: We design your WalkMe solution and bring it to life—from initial scoping through to deployment.
People Technology Discovery: Every engagement begins here. We conduct structured discovery to understand your specific situation.
WalkMe Governance & Maintenance: We help you manage and evolve your WalkMe solution as your organisation changes.
AI Strategy & Enablement: We help you deploy AI tools in ways that teams actually embrace—structuring when and how AI is used, ensuring it complements rather than replaces structured learning.
Signs Your Organisation Needs a Digital Adoption Strategy
- Underutilised software features
- Slow time-to-productivity
- High support costs
- Shadow systems and workarounds
- Poor data quality
- Change resistance
- Low system adoption rates
- Compliance or audit findings related to data quality or process adherence
Digital Adoption in New Zealand
NZ organisations are increasingly cloud-based and digitally sophisticated. From the big banks through to mid-market businesses, there's significant investment in enterprise software. But the investment only pays off if adoption succeeds.
NZ's relatively small talent pool means digital adoption excellence is a competitive advantage. In New Zealand, Five has been filling this role since 2015, building relationships with key enterprise software vendors, major consulting firms, and organisations that depend on digital adoption excellence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is digital adoption the same as change management?
They overlap but are different. Change management is the broader discipline of managing people through any kind of change. Digital adoption is specifically about enabling people to actually use new digital tools effectively. Think of change management as the overall container, with digital adoption being a key part of it.
How long does digital adoption take?
A focused adoption initiative might take 2-3 months. A full ERP implementation with adoption might take 6-12 months. The important thing is to think of adoption as an ongoing process, not a project with a firm end date.
Can digital adoption work without a tool like WalkMe?
Yes, but with limitations. At scale or for complex systems, a DAP like WalkMe provides advantages that are hard to replicate: in-context guidance, real-time analytics, enforcement of critical processes, and continuous optimisation.
How do I measure digital adoption success?
Multiple levels: engagement metrics (are people using the system?), quality metrics (are they using it correctly?), and business metrics (is it delivering the intended value?). Five helps organisations define appropriate metrics as part of the discovery process.
Does WalkMe create audit trails for compliance purposes?
Yes. WalkMe logs all interventions—every guidance display, warning, form template, and user action captured. This creates verifiable audit trails that meet regulatory requirements.
Can we use AI chatbots instead of a DAP?
AI chatbots are valuable for explaining concepts and answering questions, but they can't replace a DAP. A chatbot can tell a user how to create a purchase order; WalkMe can guide them through the actual process step-by-step inside the application, enforce approvals, and log the complete audit trail. The most effective organisations use both.
What's the business case for investing in digital adoption?
If your organisation invests $1M in a system but realises only 30% of the intended value due to poor adoption, you've effectively wasted $700K. An adoption investment that improves realisation from 30% to 80% generates millions in value—making it some of the highest-ROI work an organisation can do.
Ready to Transform Your Digital Adoption?
We begin every engagement with a People Technology Discovery—a structured conversation to understand your situation, your challenges, and your opportunities. Let's talk.
Get in Touch →Our Team
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How did I end up attempting to build the Netflix of Learning? To start, I am not your typical human. I once worked with a psychologist who suggested that people with brain injuries have more inhibitions than I do. And secondly, I am not a Learning and Development specialist. I have a background in technology and design.
Nick Mackeson-SmithHow To Lead Your Team Well When Working Remotely
I’ve been working with leaders for almost two decades now, and throughout this time I’ve found that the very best leaders share a common set of behaviours and mindsets. These leaders create engagement, excitement, clarity, purpose, and drive exceptional performance. Many leaders I have spoken to throughout this crisis have felt paralysed by the magnitude of the change we’re all collectively facing, yet others have demonstrated how they can set themselves up to thrive and in turn help others to succeed. Why did these leaders have such different responses? What’s the secret sauce?
Nick Mackeson-SmithCOVID-19 - Time for lemonade
When times turn tough it becomes much easier to notice hardship all around you, and to experience hardship for yourself. It’s everywhere right now. People are losing jobs. Doors that once were open have started to close. Business and livelihoods that were successful are already starting to fail. Relationships are beginning to become strained under the increased pressure and stress people are experiencing. It can be crushing.
Nick Mackeson-SmithLearning Enablement
At the tail end of last year, I spent some time with the brilliant Nigel Paine at LearningNowTV discussing the changes that we made to create the Learning Enablement team whilst at Spark New Zealand. As an organisation, Spark provided our learning team with the space and trust to try something new that we fundamentally believed in, and for that I’ll be forever grateful. We learned so much throughout our transformation to becoming a Learning Enablement team, and many of these lessons and highlights have been captured in this interview with Nigel.
Liv WilsonA Parent's Guide to Systems
I’ve had an epiphany - systems are like children and it’s our responsibility to ensure that they grow up safely, behave, and make the world a better place. So, how can we do this? As both a Mum and system user; in my experience, it’s using the tools available to you, leveraging the right expertise, and, most of all, supporting everyone else going through the same journey. One of the amazing tools for parenting is a village - surrounding yourself with other people to help you raise your little human. And one of the amazing tools available for systems is a Digital Adoption Platform called WalkMe.
Racheal ReevesEverything you do isn’t going to bring joy to the customer, some things just have to get done.
When we break down daily tasks into their essence they generally fall into two buckets — work for the business or work in the business.This is why being customer-centric can be incredibly hard for people in complex organisations. When we look at the root cause of our confusion we find its foundations sit in the understanding of what is for the business yet we normally focus on what is in the business by focusing on serving our stakeholders, colleagues and higher-ups instead of our customers because our boss pays us and holds the strings to our next promotion.
Nick Mackeson-SmithFixing the problem of knowledge management
“Knowledge is power”. I’ve often heard the phrase; said casually by friends, colleagues, politicians, leaders. It’s bandied around like nobody’s business, and the truth is if you hear something enough times, you start to believe it. But is it true? Is knowledge really power? It’s certainly not fake news… having more information than the next person does give you something that they don’t have - knowledge - but does the way we treat knowledge help or hinder our organisations?
Racheal ReevesWhy are you really doing it?
As a designer in a world of non-designers, I get people asking me to help with their presentations. They want me to help arrange the information beautifully on the slide or create a beautiful image.The first thing I ask them is “why are you doing this presentation?” and they answer, “They (the audience) need to know about [insert topic]”.Nine times out of ten the answer is either “they need to know ‘’ or “they should know”. Unfortunately, adults have free-will and limited capacity of caring on any given day. So why should they use their free-will and precious caring capacity on you?“Because it’s important” - quote from every person doing a presentation ever.Before you respond “because it’s important” ask yourself — who is it important to and why?
Nick Mackeson-SmithSmash 2024
Now is the perfect time to be planning ahead for things you want to achieve for the year ahead, and crucially working out how you’ll work to achieve them. The easiest and best time to dedicate to thinking about your career, your business goals, your personal aspirations (and even your home renovation plans) is when you are still relaxed from a break, the inbox is pretty quiet, and the daily routine and rhythms are yet to pick up.
Nick Mackeson-SmithLeading brilliantly through change
Change can be tough. It can be hugely unsettling for people who are going through it, and overwhelmingly stressful for those leading it too. It also can be exciting, exhilarating, and an amazing ride. Regardless - being a great leader through change means putting people first.
Liv WilsonThe “R” word
I'd be lying if I said that restructures are painless. The sting of rejection (whether you express an interest in an alternative role or not), the confusion around what will happen next, and the disruption to your life is intense. It's easy to retreat into yourself and wave the white flag of surrender.
Nick Mackeson-SmithWhy giving feedback is ALWAYS the right thing to do
Bottom line is this. If you can see something, and other people can’t (or won’t) see it, then it’s always the right thing to call it out. Politely. With care. With love. With respect. The intention of giving feedback must always be that you care about the other person; That you care about better outcomes for you, them, the organisation, and everyone around them.
Nick Mackeson-SmithEmployers - get ready for your future employees
Education today is changing. It’s different to what many of us grew up with, and may feel unfamiliar or “loose” to those of us who had a more formal and structured education. These days, knowledge can be accessed instantly and doesn’t necessarily need to be committed to memory for ever. The skills our children will need to be successful in this world are demonstrably different to the ones we developed at school. The rate of change has increased significantly, and our approach to education has had to make some pretty big leaps to stay relevant.
Nick Mackeson-SmithUnbelievable new joiner experiences
In my whole career of joining and saying goodbye and then joining organisations again, I’ve only experienced an unbelievable new joiner experience once. I also met my wife in the process, so it obviously sticks in my memory! The great thing is, this sort of experience isn’t actually that hard to replicate. The bad thing is, organisations and hiring managers often get in the way of making it a reality for their new people.It’s actually a lot easier than people think.
Nick Mackeson-SmithOne on one conversations that spark joy
One on ones don’t need to be a chore. I often hear from leaders that they struggle to get themselves motivated to have the repetitive weekly or monthly 1:1 conversation with their teams… and worse still, it feels like they are compelled to have them. I’ve been asked by leaders for templates for great 1:1s… and been shown templates for conversation flows that provide a rigid structure and boundaries for the conversation.
Nick Mackeson-SmithFuture skills for New Zealand
Nick took time out at the ATEED Future Ready Summit 2019 to share his thoughts on what skills every Aucklander (and beyond) should be looking to develop now to prepare themselves for the future.
Nick Mackeson-SmithA new kind of leadership
For years, I've been pre-occupied with a very simple question: what makes a great leader?I've observed many leaders, but great ones have been harder to find, and they seem to be becoming more scarce in the workplace. What's caused this leadership drain?
Nick Mackeson-SmithTake empowerment back
The critique of empowerment has become deafening, and it’s frustrating.
Nick Mackeson-SmithLeadership development for our time
Great leaders are everything, and can be the difference between a performing organisation, and a high performance organisation. They can inspire people to be at their best, even when the outlook is challenging. They can create magical relationships which are based on deep trust and respect, and unlock significant amounts of discretionary effort in the workforce. They can be a force for positive cultural change, and can turn around long-standing issues in double-quick time. In short, they are awesome, and every organisation should do whatever they can to attract/develop/retain them. Trouble is, lots of organisations fall short in developing their leaders. There is another way…..
Nick Mackeson-SmithGetting agile right
There are so many aspects to agile, and it’s really important to understand what they are all about and why each of them are necessary. Some are structural, or procedural - things like having a very disciplined cadence of times when teams come together, or having really well defined set of objectives and expected results within a defined period of time. The structure allows teams to build upon their work in a repeatable and incremental way, and means that massive programmes of work can be broken down into much smaller and more manageable chunks.
Business strategy: Hunker down or pivot?
Businesses everywhere are facing new headwinds and constraints - conflict in Ukraine and geopolitics elsewhere are having enormous impacts on financial markets, consumer confidence, and supply chains.
In times like this, it's easy to be fearful and hunker down to protect yourself from the coming storm... but is that the best thing you could do? What if there was a smarter move to make - one that would see you ride the wave instead of duck and cover?
Nick Mackeson-SmithThe critical connection between organisational culture and strategic success.
The success of an organisation is heavily reliant on the alignment between its culture and strategy. While strategy defines an organisation's long-term direction, culture determines how things get done within the organisation. A misalignment between culture and strategy can have severe consequences, both financially and reputationally. Despite this link, many organisations fail to develop a deep understanding of what their culture is, could be, or needs to be in order to drive their strategic ambitions. It’s time to dig deeper.
Nick Mackeson-SmithReimagining outplacement.
Outplacement support has been around for as long as I can remember. Organisations soften the blow of a redundancy or restructure by offering the departing employee some help in finding the next role; CV writing, LinkedIn profile updating, reviewing key achievements. The list goes on. Now, it’s different. Consider the organisations who are cutting hundreds - or thousands - of jobs. A little bit of CV prep and interview practice isn’t going to cut it for those people leaving… there simply aren’t thousands of jobs available for people to move on to. Something else is needed.
Nick Mackeson-SmithDoing it all: Addressing 2023’s C-suite wishlist with WalkMe
As we move into 2023, the C-suite's wishlist is becoming increasingly clear. Companies want to do it all - improve efficiency, enhance customer experience, and drive innovation. And it's no secret that the key to achieving these goals is digital transformation.
Digital transformation is about more than just technology - it's about changing the way a business operates and interacts with customers. And the cornerstone of a successful digital transformation is a robust digital adoption platform.
A digital adoption platform, such as WalkMe, can help businesses streamline processes, provide users with instant support, and eliminate the need for extensive training. This leads to increased productivity, improved user experience, and enhanced customer satisfaction - all of which are essential in today's fast-paced, digital world.
But implementing a digital adoption platform is not a one-size-fits-all solution. That's why it's important to choose the right partner to help with the implementation. FiveNZ has the experience and knowledge to ensure a successful implementation, allowing companies to achieve their digital transformation goals and stay ahead of the curve.
Nick Mackeson-SmithThe dangers of a communications vacuum in times of change.
Don't let a lack of communication lead to disaster during times of organisational change. Learn about the dangers of a communications vacuum and how to prevent it in our latest blog post. Our team at Five NZ provides practical tips and insights to help you navigate the challenges of change management and keep your employees engaged and informed. Read more now on the Five NZ Blog
Nick Mackeson-SmithDigital transformation. The time is now.
Digital transformation is becoming increasingly critical for companies in New Zealand to remain competitive in their respective industries. As competition grows and customer expectations evolve, organisations must keep up with the latest technological advancements to ensure that they can deliver a consistent digital experience. Digital transformation initiatives can be complex and challenging, with potential obstacles such as employee resistance, lack of expertise, and cost overruns - that's where a comprehensive and effective digital adoption platform like WalkMe can help. Here, we explore the importance of digital transformation for organisations, the benefits of a digital adoption platform like WalkMe, and the role that Five NZ, New Zealand's first and only certified delivery partner for WalkMe, can support organisations in achieving their digital transformation goals.
