The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the pace of digital transformation. It led more enterprises to realise the importance of leveraging digital initiatives, thereby proving to be a boon for the digital adoption platform (DAP) market. Before the COVID-19 crisis, digital transformation was usually seen as a part of an expansion strategy rather than being a mainstay emphasizes Khadim Batti, Co–Founder & CEO, Whatfix. In this exclusive interview, TimesTech unveils the company’s prominence and strategies in Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) and its way forward.
TimesTech: What is Whatfix’ business about? What was your vision behind starting Whatfix?
Khadim: The Whatfix journey began in 2011 when Vara, and I decided to start our marketing DIY product called SearchEnabler, targeting SMBs. This was an on-demand SaaS tool that businesses could use to implement recommendations for enhancing their organic search visibility. While SearchEnbler received good traction and we were able to gather about 100 customers within a year, we faced a newer challenge – the product was not being adopted effectively as most customers wanted extensive support and hand-holding. Building smart flows to solve this core pain point led to the inception of Whatfix.
Whatfix offers a unique Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) that helps with simple in-app walkthroughs, videos, and guides for using new software solutions and features. In a world where sophisticated software such as CRMs, ERPs, and HCMs require significant training and time before they can be used to their full potential, we are enabling faster, more efficient onboarding and usage for all types of organizations. The platform is designed such that customization and authoring of outflows is one of the easiest. Whatfix content can be easily integrated with the learning management system (LMS) of the organizations and the entire engagement can be tracked in analytics for further modifications as well. Today, we play a significant role in the digital adoption process, while still allowing our customers to learn and adapt to digital transformation at their own pace.
TimesTech: Can you comment on trends in Digital Adoption platform industry? How can these trends help enterprises become more diverse and inclusive in their onboarding process?
Khadim: Digital adoption is not only key to a successful digital transformation, it is becoming a fact of business life. Whether a transformation sped through due to emergency conditions or one that has been a long time coming, DASs with business process and learning capabilities need to be part of the process. Here is a list of some of the technological trends that are likely to rule the digital adoption solutions space.
- Digital Adoption Platforms to Simplify Digital Transformation: Users can access self-guided training and on-demand guidance to help them learn new technology via digital adoption platforms. As cloud software becomes integral to workplaces in nearly every industry, digital adoption platforms are transforming how users learn, work, and improve their skills. Digital adoption platforms will help organizations speed up employee onboarding and help users master new features; cut back on training and support costs while improving productivity and comprehension and allow users to set their own pace and learn as they work
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will drive Employee Engagement: RPA technology is changing the way employees spend their time at work. RPA technology makes it possible to configure software or a “robot” to execute processes within digital systems. These robots emulate human actions so that they can interact with applications and gather data much like a human would – only with zero mistakes and without ever needing a break
- AI-Powered Personalized in Employee Training: Hyper-personalized content can now be automatically generated thanks to AI-powered personalization engines. By tracking user behavior, the engines can design custom training materials that cater to individual users.
Employees within the same company learning the same tool will be able to receive different training materials, guidance, and resources. This allows employees to receive help based on their own engagement history, learning style, preferred language, and more.
The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the pace of digital transformation. It led more enterprises to realise the importance of leveraging digital initiatives, thereby proving to be a boon for the digital adoption platform (DAP) market. Before the COVID-19 crisis, digital transformation was usually seen as a part of an expansion strategy rather than being a mainstay.
According to a Forrester study conducted before the pandemic, organizations attribute a lack of CRM adoption to people-related factors, with 49% attributing this to slow user adoption. As organizations deploy more software than ever before, digital adoption becomes crucial. The Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) market is growing at a significant rate, as an increasing number of enterprises realize the urgency to reap the benefits from their digital initiatives. With DAP’s help, enterprises can successfully drive up adoption and provide a superior user experience. This becomes increasingly relevant amid the current pandemic when there is a ubiquitous need to provide remote training and support experiences.
TimesTech: Can you elaborate on Whatfix’s product? How it is addressing the problem of users in hybrid work culture?
Khadim: Over the last year, organizations have experienced tremendous disruption and introspection as they accelerated the pace of digital transformation to counter the challenges of a global crisis. A typical enterprise deploys over 300 cloud applications and may have more than 900 overall. At the same time, a typical enterprise employee is exposed to over 15 applications. Enterprises now understand that unless the software is effectively utilized, through personalized experiences and contextual guidance, simply adding more applications does not necessarily result in better business outcomes. The pandemic has catalyzed the increased pace of investment in software. As hybrid-working starts becoming popular and mainstream, the need for digital adoption solutions will only increase further. During this time, Whatfix has been continuously innovating and supporting the evolving needs of our customers. Our investments in technology and expansion into new markets has enabled us to equip our customers with the tools they need to navigate their digital transformation journey.
Since Whatfix has been solving digital adoption challenges for enterprises remotely even before the pandemic, we have been well-positioned to continue supporting our customers through this pandemic. Whatfix plays a significant role in ensuring that an organization’s entire employee base is onboarded and effectively using the tools at their disposal. Our SaaS offering is helping businesses increase the output of companies while reducing the costs of tech enterprise tools.
TimesTech: Please share details on Whatfix’s achievements and what does it mean for your customers?
Khadim: Our growth has been on a strong upwards curve, with Whatfix being a global leader in DAP today. Over the past year, our customers have shifted their entire workforces to remote working, necessitating them to find new ways to remotely engage with their employees. Due to this, in-app engagement with employees by our customers through Whatfix has increased by 150% every month, as compared to the pre-Covid period. Additionally, we have seen a 2X increase in revenue. This was strengthened through the addition of over 130 enterprise customers including Center State Bank, Vivial, AkzoNobel, Ciena, Aurecon, and more, adding additional support for desktop and mobile applications, in addition to browser applications. Our team has simultaneously grown, with over 260 new hires globally, bringing the total number of employees to 630.
As an Indian SaaS start up in the Digital Adoption Platform space, we are excited to continue our leadership in this landscape. Gartner has recognized our category – Digital Adoption Solution – and positioned us as one of the pioneers in the space. We have been recognized by Deloitte and Everest Consulting as well in industry reports on this category. Recently, Whatfix has been featured in the LinkedIn Top 10 Indian Start-ups 2020 list, showcasing how we have emerged as one of the leaders in
Whatfix has been continuously innovating and supporting the evolving needs of our customers. Our investments in technology and expansion into new markets has enabled us to equip our customers with the tools they need to navigate their digital transformation journey.
TimesTech: What are your growth strategies in India for 2022?
Khadim: In the past two years, we have experienced explosive growth. In June this year, we raised our Series D round of funding, bringing the total to $90 million. We shall continue to grow our teams to meet the high demand of the digital adoption space. Continuing to innovate is critically important to us, and we shall re-invest in the development and technology we provide.
Whatfix has a unique advantage in being able to integrate our solutions with almost any form of application. We now have the capability to focus not just on our existing customers, but expand the scale of our offerings to provide our services to enterprise organizations. As Whatfix gets deployed widely, the platform will start owning not only user behavior but also all applications usage data and cross-application process information, putting us in a unique position to build a Software Assistant platform for knowledge workers. As an Indian SaaS startup in the Digital Adoption Platform space, we are excited to continue our leadership in this landscape
