Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) have a strong track record in centralized business functions like HR, where they have been shown to significantly boost user adoption of important applications. They guide users in real time, in exactly what’s required by a system at each step in a process, via handy in-app prompts.
Administratively, DAPs are application overlays that sit on top of cloud/web-based IT systems. They can be used to help steer users through correct form-filling and data entry, nudging the desired action at each stage, such as how to format data correctly, or adhere to a particular naming convention. DAPs can halve the investment needed in regular training, or e-learning materials creation; the same with post-go-live helpdesk support, according to the main platform vendors.
Spending on these customizable user aids reached $621.5 million in 2023 and is forecast to reach $3.86 billion by 2032.1 It’s not surprising that DAPs are popular. A typical international organization today uses over 500 different software applications, with some individual departments possessing more than 80. For employees to feel confident, and fully exploit the potential of powerful new systems (essential for high levels of adoption, and for systems to deliver their intended benefits), they must first know how to use them correctly.
DAPs can be particularly impactful where users are faced with sophisticated systems, or those with complex features. In pharma clinical, regulatory, quality, and pharmacovigilance functions, their potential is significant, given the scale of prescribed actions and required data and information formats there are for teams to navigate, and processes to remember.
Easing User Anxiety, Ensuring Correct Data Entry
Growing digitalization ambitions across GxP processes (those demanding “good”/compliant practice to ensure consistent quality/safety) has seen already overstretched departmental teams becoming paralyzed by the widening array of IT systems, despite the inherently intuitive experience generally assumed with modern software. Rather, the growing sophistication of what those systems can do, and of the particular demands of improved processes, can fuel user anxiety and confusion as regulatory requirements evolve and as system functionality is continuously updated.
Although new-system training is a formal expectation in a GxP context, this doesn’t guarantee compliant use. And, if it doesn’t, this can introduce risk, especially as key processes and decision-making become increasingly data driven.
Data integrity, data quality and data governance are big themes in life sciences today and, by extension, the scope to call up, exchange, and re-use data as the basis for important insights and critical reports. The need to conform with comprehensive new and expanding standards such as ISO IDMP, compound the importance of using new or updated systems correctly, and inputting good data reliably and consistently. (That could also include bringing across the right data, in the correct format, from legacy systems now entering retirement.)
Routine use of the required systems cannot be counted on to embed compliant practice, either. There will be some systems that, by their nature, employees use only intermittently, compromising their ability to recall the specifics of initial training. Use of DAPs/in-app prompts can have a big impact here, cementing data’s onward value via timely reminders of what is required and yielding a minimum 20% improvement in accuracy.2
Easy to Roll Out, Once Relevant Role-Based Guidance Has Been Created
Existing use of DAPs in central or commercial areas of an organization means that many companies will already have DAP licenses. Extending the reach of those platforms would simply involve developing suitable materials for each new respective application. Ideally the guides will be tailored to given roles, so that users are presented only with relevant prompts as they interact with a system.
Although the introduction of any new software facility must be treated carefully in a GxP context, DAPs do not touch or interact with a system’s data, which means they don’t present a new risk to security or data protection. Because the platforms are an overlay, they are infinitely agile and adaptable too. Where traditional e-learning materials often rely on liberal use of screenshots to highlight what to do where (soon rendered out of date as systems, fields, or data requirements are updated), DAPs can be readily amended on the fly. Given how frequently cloud applications can be refreshed, even within a year, this is an important consideration.
Individual users can opt to turn off the guides once they are confident in what is required and are using the software routinely. Where issues remain, built-in HEART analytics (tracking Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success) offer a useful source of feedback about specific points of difficulty in a system (handy for refining the system, or for improving initial training).
An Agile Vehicle for Updating Users Directly
A popular feature of all DAPs is that they can be used very effectively to make system-related announcements to users as they log in, e.g. about changes to the system, or to data input requirements (rather than hoping a blanket email will reach all of those affected).
The platforms are also coming into their own as AI is introduced to a whole range of operational software. In common with any new technology, AI needs to be used carefully and correctly to ensure compliance and elicit reliable results. DAPs are ideal as a mechanism for this, to provide essential, step-by-step, in-app guidance.
Budget-wise, DAPs can boost the value of traditional training, allowing more of this to be elevated to more of a strategic role around the purpose of a new system, for example. This creates scope for companies to allocate their budgets and materials expenditure more efficiently. It is for all of these reasons and more that 2025 is expected to be a pivotal year for DAP in a pharma GxP context.
DAP support could become more predictive over time too, anticipating what users are trying to do, e.g. “It looks like you’re entering new drug substance and product information, do you need help?”. The possibilities are wide-ranging.
Above all, this is about bringing a more intuitive experience to users that complex systems may lack (but which is necessary to ensure consistency and compliance). If automatic, timely intervention saves guesswork, or avoids a delay as assistance is sought, the potential ROI speaks for itself.
References
- Digital Adoption Platform Market Size, Share, Industry Analysis, Trends, Growth, 2032, Zion Market Research: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/digital-adoption-platform-market
- Value of a DAP, white paper, Whatfix: https://whatfix.com/resources/whitepapers/value-of-a-digital-adoption-platform/
Author Details
Sabine Gölden, eLearning and Training Lead, MAIN5
Publication Details
This article appeared in Pharmaceutical Outsourcing:Vol. 26, No.2 Apr/May/June 2025Pages: 32-33