As published in CIO Review

Build it, and they will come—is a myth and technology innovators must steer clear of this pitfall.” This is the message that Janice Diner, Founder, and CEO of Horizn, wants to ensure people in the financial industry understand. Banks are becoming increasingly digital. They are pushing innovation, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, and there are so many new products hitting the market every year. Yet, these products can fail to gain adoption simply because there is no methodology in place that facilitates their usability.

Horizn partners with companies on a global scale to help them bring their new digital technologies to market in a way that increases the rate of adoption with both employees and customers. The type of innovation is irrelevant—it could be the switch to mobile banking or learning how to set up Apple Pay on an Apple watch. The goal of Horizn is to ensure that, once the technology is built, all stakeholders, including employees and customers, understand what it is and how to use it.

Horizn believes that there is no difference between employees and customers when it comes to learning how to use new technology. This ideology has been the driver behind the design of Horizn’s two knowledge platforms—an employee platform and a customer platform.

The employee platform is designed to help employees become knowledgeable about new technology through the use of micro-learning and simulation. This gamified methodology allows employees to gain hands-on experience with new technology, so they become comfortable with the software and are ready to demonstrate its value proposition to the customers once it hits the market.

On the other hand, the customer platform grew out of the employee platform. It is presented to the customers in the branch, via kiosks, and through the call centers and bank websites. For example, when a customer walks into a branch to deposit a check, an employee can walk that customer through the mobile deposit. The next time the customer has a check, they don’t need to make a trip to the bank.

“It about the simple idea that learning and knowledge are key to digital adoption,” says Janice. “Speed to market is critical to innovation, but if you aren’t converting and getting everyone fluent, it often results in a weak experience.”

Horizn’s platforms also provide integration with social technology and a full set of analytics that provides them with a complete view of what people are learning and how they are learning it. The data from these analytics provides insight into employee and customer motivation and identifies trends in behavior.

Horizn’s results speak volumes: using the knowledge platform for America’s largest banks, Horizn has increased mobile adoption by 25 percent and brought call center times down by 45 seconds. Banks using the in-branch demos with nondigital customers are converting 20 percent of those customers to mobile banking. Horizn has about 400,000 frontline employees and 30 million bank customers on their knowledge platform. Playing the role of a catalyst to new technology adoption,

Horizn occupies a unique place in the financial industry. There aren’t a lot of people out there taking the opportunity to enable the adoption of new, disruptive technology in banks and beyond.

With workforces that vary in age, location and education level, every employee must be equipped to do their job and serve the customer. Besides banks, Horizn is also serving technology companies, such as Motorola and Lenovo. Janice sees 2018 as a year to scale both their international presence and their industry presence, expanding further into the insurance industry and other verticals.