The Adoption Orphans is Unk Unk #3: RISE with SAP’s Adoption Orphans – Who Really Owns Success?

Now we turn to the third Unk Unk that quietly erodes value in RISE with SAP programs: the Adoption Orphans.

This Is a Series About the Risks You Don’t See

This article is the third deep dive in what I describe as a 6+1 series on adoption in RISE with SAP. There are six Unk Unks that repeatedly undermine transformation, and we’ll explore each of them in detail.

But remember: all six share the same foundation. Adoption is not a project deliverable. It’s an operating model that must be embedded into the enterprise. If you don’t buy into that, the rest of this series is a moot point.

For anyone catching up:

• Introduction – Why adoption must be treated as an operating model, not a project
• Unk Unk #1: The Legacy Loop – How linear change models break under perpetual transformation
• Unk Unk #2: The Blind Spots – Why vanity metrics hide the truth of user behaviour

The Adoption Orphans Defined

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: in many RISE with SAP programs, no one truly owns adoption.

• IT assumes HR or the business will handle it
• HR assumes change management will own it
• Change teams assume “the program” will take care of it
• Operations assume the system team will figure it out

The result is adoption becoming an orphaned workstream: underfunded, unsupported, and with no clear accountability.

Everyone touches it. No one owns it.

And when adoption is orphaned, the business case slowly bleeds out.

Symptoms of Adoption Orphans

What does it look like when adoption has no clear owner? Here are the patterns I see repeatedly:

• Fragmented activities: IT runs system training, HR runs leadership workshops, operations run local comms. Nothing connects
• Underfunding: Because adoption isn’t anyone’s priority, budgets are cut when pressures mount
• No accountability: KPIs focus on delivery milestones, not adoption outcomes. No executive feels responsible when adoption fails
• Short-term thinking: Adoption is treated as a project activity that ends at go-live, with no continuity plan
• Finger-pointing: When ROI slips, everyone can explain why – but no one can explain what they’re doing about it

It’s the perfect recipe for failure: lots of activity, no accountability, and no sustained impact.

Why Adoption Orphans Emerge

Why does adoption so often become orphaned?

1. Historic silos: IT owns the system, HR owns people, operations own processes – but adoption spans all three.
2. Project mentality: Because adoption has traditionally been a “change workstream,” it’s not built into ongoing operations.
3. Executive blind spots: Leadership teams underestimate adoption and assume “training” is enough.
4. Tool confusion: With WalkMe bundled into RISE, some assume adoption is “handled by the tool.”

The reality: without a permanent home, adoption is always the first thing to fall through the cracks.

The Cost of Orphaned Adoption

The financial and operational impact of orphaned adoption is significant:

• ROI erosion: When no one owns adoption, new processes are ignored, and investments fail to deliver returns
• Compliance risks: Orphaned adoption means nobody monitors whether regulatory processes are being followed
• Change fatigue: Employees receive fragmented, inconsistent support, leading to frustration and disengagement
• Lost opportunity: Features and innovations go unused because no one takes ownership for embedding them
• Board-level trust gaps: Executives lose confidence when promised outcomes never materialise, even though the system is technically live

One global manufacturer I worked with had adoption split across five functions – IT, HR, a PMO, regional business teams, and an external SI. Each had “part of the picture.” None owned the whole. The result? Workarounds flourished, adoption lagged, and the program team spent more time arguing over roles than supporting the business.

The Elite Difference: Giving Adoption a Home

Elite enterprises recognise that adoption cannot be left orphaned. They establish clear ownership and accountability from the outset.

Here’s what they do differently:

1. Executive sponsorship
   – Adoption is sponsored at C-suite level, often by a COO or CFO, not just the CIO
   – Success is measured in business outcomes, not IT milestones
2. Permanent function
   – Adoption is embedded into a permanent team or Centre of Excellence
   – It’s funded year-on-year, like finance or security
3. Unified ownership
   – A single accountable leader owns adoption across IT, HR, and operations
   – Cross-functional teams support, but accountability is clear
4. Business-aligned KPIs
   – Metrics focus on cycle times, error rates, productivity, compliance, and customer impact
   – Dashboards track adoption alongside financial and operational metrics
5. Continuous improvement
   – Adoption doesn’t end at go-live
   – Feedback loops, analytics, and AI insights are used to continually refine adoption strategies

For example, a global bank established a Digital Adoption Office reporting directly to the COO. This function unified adoption ownership across finance, HR, and operations, with KPIs tied to business outcomes. The result? Faster ROI realisation, reduced support costs, and greater executive confidence.

Why This Isn’t Just About Tools

At this point, some leaders say: “But RISE includes WalkMe. Doesn’t that solve adoption?”

The answer is no, because tools aren’t ownership.

WalkMe can guide users, surface insights, and highlight where workflows fail. But without a team to act on those insights, and without governance to make adoption a priority, WalkMe is just another underused license.

Adoption can’t be delegated to a tool. It must be owned, governed, and measured as part of the operating model.

Why Now and Why DAA?

RISE with SAP has changed the game. With quarterly updates, embedded AI co-pilots, and interconnected applications, adoption is not a one-time challenge. It’s ongoing, relentless, and accelerating.

The problem is, most enterprises don’t have:

• A permanent adoption owner
• A budgeted adoption function
• Unified accountability across IT, HR, and operations
• Business-aligned adoption KPIs

That’s the missing link.

This is where Digital Adoption Advisor (DAA) comes in.

At DAA, we help enterprises:

• Design adoption operating models with clear ownership and accountability
• Establish permanent adoption functions (e.g. Centres of Excellence)
• Define KPIs that link adoption to business outcomes
• Unify fragmented ownership across IT, HR, and operations
• Integrate WalkMe, Signavio, LeanIX, and SAP AI into a coherent adoption model

Why now? Because orphaned adoption doesn’t stay neutral. Every release, every quarter, the cost compounds. Without ownership, adoption gaps grow wider, compliance risks mount and ROI erodes.

And as SAP doubles down on AI, the urgency only increases. AI co-pilots can only deliver value if users adopt the workflows they’re designed to support. Orphaned adoption means the AI dividend is lost before it begins.

Final Thought

The third Unk Unk of RISE with SAP adoption is the Adoption Orphans: when everyone assumes someone else owns adoption, and in the end, no one does.

The Legacy Loop, the Blind Spots, and the Adoption Orphans are deeply connected. Outdated change models create fatigue. Vanity metrics hide the truth and orphaned ownership ensures no one takes accountability for fixing it.

If adoption doesn’t have a home, success doesn’t have an owner.

At DAA, our mission is to help leaders end adoption orphan-hood, embedding ownership, accountability, and governance into the operating model so RISE with SAP delivers continuous value.

Because in transformation, it’s not the risks you see that decide ROI. It’s the ones you don’t.