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Use case · Custom software & internal tools

Custom software and internal tools: the code ships, user adoption still has to be built.

In-house software comes with no vendor, no tutorials and no user community. Everything your users will ever know about it, you have to teach them yourself.

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kSTEP 2 / 3Check which business rule applies.
kSTEP 1 / 3Open the customer record.kSTEP 3 / 3Confirm: this help was updated without a new release.
70,000employees trained on Isilis, La Banque Postale’s in-house tool
110+Orange applications supported by K-NOW
30OMEGA processes simulated, no training environment needed
The short answer

How do you drive user adoption of custom software?

By producing yourself what a software vendor normally provides, at three points in the project.

Before go-live · K-STUDIO

Simulate the application

Train end users on a replica, with no training environment and no live data.

In daily use · K-NOW

Guide users on screen

Contextual help you can change without a new release.

After rollout · K-VALUE

Measure real usage

See which screens and processes actually block users.

The problem

Custom software has no training ecosystem to fall back on.

For SAP or Salesforce, your teams find trainers, tutorials and forums. For Isilis or OMEGA, nothing exists outside the company: the knowledge lives in the heads of the project team.

The blind spot

The software moves at sprint speed. Its documentation doesn’t.

With legacy software, the original developers are gone and business rules survive by word of mouth.

No ready-made training environmentYou have to build it, load it with data and maintain it for every release.
Documentation always lags behindThe user manual is out of date by the next release.
Processes span several systemsBilling, master data: nothing responds in a training environment.
What the numbers say

More internal tools, built faster than ever.

33%of developer time goes into building internal tools.Retool, State of Internal Tools 2022, 2,285 developers surveyed
80%of low-code tool users will sit outside IT by 2026.Gartner forecast, December 2022
70%of organizations were expected to use a digital adoption platform by 2025 to offset poor application UX.Gartner, Market Guide for Digital Adoption Platforms, 2023
The debate

Training environment, docs, video or in-app help: which works best?

Rated against the three constraints specific to custom software.

Your main constraint:
ApproachFrequent releasesNo training environmentStaff turnoverBest when…
Classroom on a training environmentBest fitHands-on, with a trainer
Releases
No env.
Staff turnover
Few users, one training wave
Manual, wiki, PDFBest fitCheap reference material
Releases
No env.
Staff turnover
Experts looking up a rule
Videos, e-learningBest fitWatching, not doing
Releases
No env.
Staff turnover
Explaining the “why”
K-STUDIO simulationBest fitReplayable replica, SCORM export
Releases
No env.
Staff turnover
Before go-live, large user groups
K-NOW in-app helpBest fitOn screen, at the moment of need
Releases
No env.
Staff turnover
Daily use, changing rules

“For a few dozen experts, a good wiki is enough. Beyond a few hundred users, or as soon as there is staff turnover, the economics shift to simulation and in-app help.”

Our view, shaped by supporting business applications since 2001.
In the field

Orange replaced the OMEGA training environment with a simulation.

The in-house ordering application serves 5,000 advisors and talks to billing and SIM systems. Running a full process in a training environment was impossible.

500 new users / year

Staff turnover made classroom training unsustainable.

30 simulated processes

All the way to the signed quote, replayable at will.

K-Studio
Exercise 3 of 30Score 100 %
Simulation
Order entry
Order entryIssue the quote
PlanTerminalSIM cardBilling
iYour turnSelect the plan the customer signed up for.!AlmostThat field is the device, not the plan.✓Well donePlan selected, the quote can be issued.
La Banque PostaleK-STUDIO70,000employees, 2 networks

Isilis, a new customer relationship tool

Simulations used in class and in self-paced e-learning, delivered as SCORM on the Ilias LMS.

Read the case study → OrangeK-NOW110+applications since 2001

Help that doesn’t wait for the next release

Messages are edited without touching the code of the supported applications.

Read the case study → QuickMS · QrewK-NOW10,000+users, first help live in 2 months

Help content no longer goes through R&D

The support team writes and fixes help for the HR review software itself, with no development cycle.

Read the case study →

See also:Orange, a simulated training environment for OMEGA ·VAL Software, in-app help built into Ammon

The method

Four steps to roll out custom software.

Map

Pick the 10 to 30 frequent, risky or new processes, not every screen.

Simulate before go-live

Train end users on a replica with K-STUDIO, delivered as SCORM in your LMS.

Guide users on screen

K-NOW overlays guidance and alerts, with no development on your side.

Measure

K-VALUE shows real usage and feeds your product backlog.

Before you start

Five questions to size your adoption plan.

0/5Tick what applies to your application.A well-kept wiki may be enough for now.Simulation pays off before every rollout.Simulation plus in-app guidance: you need both.
The solutions

Three building blocks, three project phases.

K
K-STUDIOApplication simulator

Practice on a replica before go-live.

Users repeat their real tasks as often as they need, without touching production.

Explore K-STUDIO→
  • Faithful replica of your application
  • End-to-end, multi-system processes
  • SCORM modules for your LMS
  • No training environment to maintain
K
K-NOWDigital adoption platform

Get guided in the live tool after go-live.

Guidance and alerts shown inside your application, independent of its source code.

Explore K-NOW→
  • Contextual step-by-step guidance
  • Alerts on business rules
  • Updates without a new release
  • One tool for your whole application portfolio
K
K-VALUEDigital adoption analytics

Measure real usage, continuously.

Adoption metrics that show which screens, fields and processes in your application cause trouble.

Explore K-VALUE→
  • Real-time adoption KPIs
  • Completion of key processes and fields
  • Works with in-house applications
  • A product backlog driven by real usage
FAQ

Custom software adoption: your questions.

Does a digital adoption platform work with custom software and internal tools?
Yes. K-NOW runs independently of the source application and needs no vendor integration. It supports more than 110 applications at Orange.
Do we need to change the application’s code to add in-app guidance?
No. Guidance is managed outside the application and can be changed without a new release.
Can you train end users before go-live?
Yes, that is the main use of K-STUDIO : processes are recreated and practiced with no access to the live environment.
Can a simulation replace a training environment?
For learning processes, yes. That is what Orange chose for OMEGA, with around thirty end-to-end processes simulated.
Do the modules work in our LMS?
Yes, as SCORM packages. La Banque Postale delivers them on its Ilias LMS.
How is custom software adoption different from SAP or Salesforce?
There is no ecosystem: no vendor documentation, no external trainers, no community. See also business application.
How do you train users on legacy software when the original developers are gone?
Capture the 10 to 30 critical processes in K-STUDIO simulations while the remaining experts are still around, then add K-NOW alerts on the business rules only they knew. The knowledge moves from a few people’s heads into the application itself.
Your in-house application

Show us one process. We’ll show you how to get it adopted.

Share a real process from your application and we’ll show you what its simulation and in-app guidance would look like.

Book a demo