Usage of healthcare, education software jumps during COVID-19: Pendo study

RALEIGH – A small subset of software applications – around five percent – are experiencing a large spike in usage, according to a recent study conducted by the Raleigh-based software firm Pendo.

Among them: education technology, which saw e-learning products climb as high as 157 percent during week four from baseline.

Telehealth platforms also got a boost, with usage increasing 63 percent in week two and staying significantly above the baseline since.

Meanwhile, banking platform usage jumped 41 percent from April 6-13 – “likely a combination of increases in loan applications as the Paycheck Protection Program rolled out and banks movin more of their offerings digital,” the report noted.

Source: Pendo

“It’s really too early to comment on long-term implications, but it will be interesting to see if usage stays high post-COVID,” a Pendo spokesperson told WRAL TechWire.

“That could signal long-term behavioral changes—higher adoption of mobile/online financial offerings, e-learning to supplement classroom learning, telemedicine to get advice or a simple diagnosis rather than making an appointment at a doctor’s office. People may have been forced to try these technologies during the crisis, but then realize how convenient they are and continue to use them.”

Pendo studied the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on software product usage across 40-plus industries and sub-industries.

It gathered anonymized product usage data from a subset of Pendo customers and analyzed their average weekly growth during business days in the five weeks prior to the “COVID period” (February 3-March 6) to establish a baseline distribution of growth. It then updated average weekly growth during the COVID-19 period plotted against the baseline period.

Source: Pendo

Other key findings: Product usage is normalizing for a vast majority of companies. As of April 20, 75 percent of companies saw product usage return to a normal range. That’s up from only 34 percent that experienced minimal impact the week many states and nations implemented stay-at-home orders.

Fewer companies, meanwhile, are seeing dramatic declines in usage. While 43 percent of companies saw an abrupt drop in usage as schools and businesses closed or went remote, just 9 percent of companies continue to experience significant declines, and 11 percent are seeing usage slow.

“We’re seeing so many negative impacts of this crisis, but software has really enabled many of us to adapt to life and work at home,” the spokesperson said. “It shouldn’t be all that surprising that the majority of applications are being used at the same level as prior.”

Pendo said it plans to update the data weekly, with fresh analysis on emerging trends.