Zest: One year later and a powerful combination
A little over a year ago, Zest became a part of the digital adoption platform WalkMe (NASDAQ: WKME). Since then, I’ve worked with my team to bring Zest’s search and surface capabilities into the WalkMe fold.
WalkMe is like a GPS for digital interfaces, guiding people through an organization’s various business processes. WalkMe makes adopting new applications and business processes easy and intuitive for enterprise organization’s employees and customers.
Zest’s technology enhances WalkMe’s capabilities with the addition of customized, predictive search functions and overturns the traditional way of thinking about digital adoption.
Easing interactions between humans and technology
It may seem simple, but often a single business process or workflow requires several different applications. For example, an employee scheduling a vacation may clear the dates with supervisors and project managers, register their time off through the company’s payroll system, and schedule an away from office message in their email, messaging and calendar applications.
As we embrace more applications to help us complete our day-to-day tasks, our processes become heavier and more complicated. Systems don’t always talk to one another and information can get lost and steps missed. Adjusting to integrated systems alleviates application overload, but is difficult and time-consuming.
WalkMe sees a better way to manage business processes–a way that enhances productivity and user experiences.
Using WalkMe, companies can eliminate much of the friction that takes place as humans learn new business processes involving digital interfaces. When you eliminate that friction, digital adoption rates increase–you finally get the benefits of workers focusing on their mission-critical tasks. That’s good for your employees and customers, and your bottom line.
Removing obstacles to workplace productivity
In the past several years, companies have accelerated their digital transformations. Apps are welcomed in the workplace and the number of available tools has exploded.
But not everyone uses the same software and not every process can be completed using one application.
Many of the software tools offered today are designed for specific business segments and have specific use-cases. Within organizations, divisions, teams, and individuals are choosing the applications that best meet their needs.
Sales teams can choose from several CRM and sales enablement platforms like Salesforce, Seismic, Pipedrive, Chorus, HubSpot, Clari, Gong, DealHub, or PandaDoc. Your HR team may use Workday, BambooHR, or ADP along with Lever, Greenhouse, or Papaya Global.
These specialized applications have amazing potential to improve productivity by supplying workers with the right tools for each task. But that potential fades when workers lose time and focus adjusting to different interfaces. Workflows become logjams.
Specialized applications have amazing potential to improve productivity but that potential fades when workers lose time and focus adjusting to different interfaces.
WalkMe helps companies and their workers keep pace by facilitating new technology onboarding and helping them adjust to processes.
Changing the context of work with a better way to look at (and for) data
Zest was built to increase productivity by flipping the script on data searches. Zest brings all of a user’s data sources together in a single business process.
The idea for Zest sprang from my experience, and the experience of my colleagues and peers, with information overload.
The internet, and modern workplaces, put massive amounts of information at our fingertips. But sorting through all that information, storing it, and retrieving it is nearly impossible. Making sure you search every possible data source and adapting to each source’s interface consumes way too much time.
Plus, there’s always the chance that you missed something. Overlooking information can lead to costly errors, lost time, and missed opportunities.
Traditional datasets and search tools force the user to go to where information is stored and conduct their search. Zest brings information from multiple sources to the user where they need it when they need.
Zest’s single-interface system is augmented with machine learning that detects searchers’ intent and uses AI to predict their needs and the most relevant results. These enhancements dramatically reduce time spent on both search and navigation.
Zest + WalkMe = Faster, human-centered digital transformations
Combining WalkMe’s knowledge of core business processes and the Zest engine, we’re changing the way companies manage their digital transformations.
As employees enter applications to perform various tasks, from approving purchase orders to entering status updates, WalkMe is there to guide them. Using Zest’s technology, WalkMe can start business processes even before the employee visits the designated app.
This new digital adoption model is proactive, bringing the tools, functions, and search capabilities to people through a central hub that is decoupled from the applications’ interfaces.
The applications each person uses orbit around them, instead of being separate stations to which they have to travel to complete their tasks.
You’re welcome to get in touch with me if you’d like to know more. And stay tuned for WalkMe’s announcement on LinkedIn and Twitter.
