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The work processes designed to facilitate hybrid and flexible work are evolving quickly in sync with increasingly sophisticated digital work platforms.? With the disruption of the pandemic replaced by more immediate economic pressures, employers seek to ensure a balance between developing compelling employee experiences and driving greater operational efficiencies.? Globally and especially in North America, the focus on employee experience is a key component as workforce turnover continues. At the same time corporations need to adjust and learn to navigate the complex regulations now evolving to address the conditions of hybrid work.?

These elements need not be at odds.? It is not a question of trimming staff to fund technology investments or cutting back on operational upgrades so that employees have a frictionless work experience.? With so much churn as employees shift to new roles or switch to new departments when colleagues leave or newcomers come on board, the challenge is to invest in and maintain operational best practices that support the shifting needs of employees and employers.?

This is where digital adoption platforms have come to play a key role.???

A digital adoption platform (DAP) is a codeless software addition to an enterprise application designed to make the app easier to use by simplifying processes needed to complete an action. Once the DAP is integrated into the website, web app, or desktop application, it can provide guidance cues within the user interface or tool tips to prompt the user to take a best-path action. DAP products can help to improve user onboarding and training for employees as well as guide interactive experiences for customers. For example, if a new hire needs assistance in selecting employee benefits, the DAP can guide them through the HR application using a series of prompts to complete the process with minimal disruption.?

The Shift to Self-Service for Employees and Adoption of DAP Capabilities?

As organizations are forced to do more with less, employees must learn new applications and ways of working on their own. Recent IDC research shows 87% of the line of business respondents surveyed are automating their own work. Without automated guidance, however, they run the risk of wasting time on navigating software, or making errors while familiarizing themselves with new or seldom-used platforms. This is why companies need training to ensure automation self-service initiatives are successful.?

Consider corporate travel. After a long hiatus, employees are getting reacquainted with or learning new tools for documenting their travel and expenses (T&E). Many of these processes have been upgraded and integrated like capturing receipt data on a mobile phone or automating expense tracking. The challenge is that employees may not be familiar with these tools or how they work together end to end. The good news is that shifting to cloud-based and automated T&E reporting can help employees spend less time tracking and submitting information and more time focusing on client needs.? This is but one example.? Most importantly, self-service digital adoption platforms not only simplifying employee tasks like expense reporting, but they also give workers more consolidated time to focus on client needs.????

Travel has long been the dominant pathway for employee spend to manifest within the business. However, the recent change in employee work models is shifting the expense management paradigm. Expense management now must include support for workers in remote work or hybrid work environments and for those utilizing decentralized purchasing practices. The range of expense types is also growing more complex. It now includes items like remote work equipment and services, project-based expenses, and accessibility-related equipment like large monitors or text-to-speech synthesizers. For employees, integrated walk-through DAP technology helps to simplify and shorten expense reporting, making clear next best actions and required documentation. For employers, DAP capabilities offer greater insight into where reporting processes are causing delays or frustrations for workers.? These insights offer opportunities to improve the speed and accuracy of reporting, boost application usage, and build more efficient work practices.?

The Added Burden of Managing Tax Regulations for Employers?

With more than 170 countries participating in a value-added tax (VAT) system, the tapestry of VAT compliance laws is shifting at an unprecedented rate around the world. Two examples spring to mind: Making Tax Digital (MTD) in the U.K., and the Standard Audit File for Tax (SAF-T) in the European Union (EU). SAF-T is taking hold in Italy, Norway, Germany, Belgium, and Hungary, all of which are implementing slightly different versions of it. There's also the rise of marketplace facilitator laws that require facilitators to collect and remit VAT, which adds an additional layer of complication for businesses operating in the digital economy.??

Complying with VAT remains as difficult and complex as it has ever been, especially for companies without the necessary tools to simplify the process. And compliance is set to only get more complex over the next few years as global tax authorities push VAT initiatives forward at a rapid pace.?

VAT complexity is primarily a result of the lack of uniform approaches among member nations. VAT returns can differ greatly from country to country. Compliance issues also differ from industry to industry as well as from country to country. In addition, the list of eligible transactions and exemptions is constantly changing as geopolitics continue to shift. In fact, countries like France, Poland, India, Norway, and Chile have implemented VAT changes over the past 24 months, adding to the complexity of compliance. This shift adds a significant amount of uncertainty into the corporate tax management processes, especially for companies with interests in one or more VAT countries.??

However, VAT looks to be a transformative force within businesses involved with e-commerce and digital products and services. Tax software vendors have invested resources into enhancing or launching products that address the taxation of digital goods and services across borders.?

Businesses looking to navigate the global economy and sell products/services internationally must consider investing in a modern digital tax compliance solution. The drawbacks to non-compliance are clear from a regulatory standpoint: potentially heavy fines and penalties. However, penalty avoidance is simply the first layer of benefits to investing in modern compliance applications. Operational efficiency gains and improvement in customer and supplier experiences are potential advantages of modernizing the VAT compliance process. Given the momentum of VAT changes and the rapidly increasing pace of business globally, it is essential for businesses to make the leap to a tool that allows companies to adapt and enforce critical organizational policies, especially in an increasingly remote or hybrid work environment. The need for digital adoption platforms for managing the constant uncertainty around global VAT is vital to supporting the needs of modern businesses.??

Key Recommendations?

IDC predicts that by 2025, CIOs who invest in digital adoption platforms and automated learning technologies will see a 40% increase in productivity, delivering greater speed to expertise (IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Work 2023 Predictions, October 2022).?

As part of deploying a DAP, organizations should:?

• Identify which processes require the greatest support as employees move through onboarding, taking on new roles, retiring, or reboarding. Recognize that challenges in navigating enterprise applications can erode employee engagement, retention, and brand loyalty.?

• Eliminate friction points so all tax and other governance mandates are seamlessly and accurately addressed.?

Process advancements and disruptions need not be an impediment to taking advantage of hybrid work models. Instead, with the right assessments of employee needs and governance requirements, digital adoption platforms have the potential to improve employee retention and corporate governance which in turn strengthens the bottom line.??

To learn more on how future of work impact businesses and employees, read the latest IDC Snapshots sponsored by SAP:?

• Navigating a Dynamic Future of Work with Digital Adoption Platform?

• Meeting the Challenge of Expense Management in a Hybrid Work Environment?