Now, imagine you’re only using the basic functions — driving, accelerating, braking. You’re getting where you need to go, but you’re not using cruise control, lane assist or advanced navigation. That’s what it’s like when a team adopts a powerful automation platform without fully investing in training. 

The car (the software) is fantastic, and it’s working, but there’s so much more it can do. A team of admins may have created basic automated tasks, transferred essential files and set up fundamental reports. But are they leveraging all the features that will help them achieve their goals? How much valuable time was spent setting up those rudimentary processes, and how often did they need to reach out to support or success teams to gain even minimal traction? 

This is where a “learning champion” can shift things into high gear.

We’ll explore how becoming a learning champion boosts your individual productivity and career and amplifies that effect across your team and organization, especially if you’re in the process of adopting automation.

Taking control: Why become a learning champion?

According to the Customer Education Trends in 2025 report from Skilljar, the modern learner has been thrown into an “everything, everywhere, all at once” environment, consuming self-paced content, articles, documentation and live support on their own terms and at their own pace.

While the flexibility to find information in the format that makes sense to you and without waiting to be assigned a course can feel empowering, it also adds complexity. When you consider the number of people who must learn a given skillset or platform, you can understand the nth-degree potential for confusion or frustration — an undesirable and non-scalable state.

Individual ownership matters, especially when you’re adopting complex or evolving tools like automation platforms. A learning champion becomes a catalyst for team efficiency and organizational progress.

Elevate personal productivity

Proactive learners make fewer basic errors, reduce support tickets and implement automation faster.  Plus, upskilling a team contributes to business agility. As BytePlus notes, “Employees with diverse, updated skills can adapt more quickly to technological and market changes.”

Quick tip: Gauge your starting point. How long does it take you to complete a process? How often are you asking for help? Once you complete training, measure again. You’ll see tangible signs of your growth, and so will others. Share these insights with your team and manager to make the case for upskilling.

Advance your career with certification

Becoming a learning champion isn’t just about helping your team; it’s a smart career move. Achieving certification, especially in complex automation software, validates your expertise and positions you as a subject matter expert. It signals to your organization (and future employers) that you’re not just using the tool but owning it.

Certifications in automation software demonstrate that you can do more than execute tasks: You can understand workflows, configure processes and lead others. For example, the Automation Developer Specialist Certification from Redwood University challenges your understanding of advanced functions, complex workflow automation and process scheduling best practices. Users with this certification leverage their deep knowledge of the software to drive transformation instead of just reacting to the tool. 

The initiative can start during your onboarding: Learning champions don’t wait for permission to explore new things, and proactiveness is a quality your current leaders and future employers seek.

Quick tip: Ask about learning paths that align with your team and career goals, then dive in and get started. Share feedback with your immediate team on how the material helped you. Post your new credential on LinkedIn for wider reach.

Share what you learn

Knowledge is best when shared widely and in ways that are digestible. As Skilljar puts it, “Educators are curating, not just creating.” Software vendors can offer a full library of content (like what you’ll find in Redwood University), but it’s up to learners to enroll, complete lessons and share their knowledge.

Whether you’re forwarding helpful documentation, recommending training courses or showing a colleague how to fix a recurring issue, you become the go-to person. Don’t stop there. Your goal should be to elevate yourself AND others. A lone learning champion is a great start, but real efficiency comes when your whole team levels up.

Quick tip: Create a “Top 3 takeaways” list after every course you complete and email them to your team. Keep it light, useful and actionable.

The impact of software education on team productivity

A well-trained team is a fast team. When many users understand how to leverage automation software fully, you get better data, fewer bottlenecks and less reliance on external support.

In other words, you’re making the most of your investment. 

According to TSIA, product adoption is a key business metric. Leaders expect returns on software purchases, and ongoing, quality training is how you get there.

The real power of education becomes clear when users go beyond the fundamentals of process automation. Too often, users are taught just enough to complete their tasks. But it’s essential to go deeper: to grasp why a process works the way it does, where automation eliminates inefficiencies and how to extend those benefits across other business processes.

This level of knowledge comes from hands-on experience — working through real use cases, experimenting in a safe environment and applying lessons immediately to daily work. If you discover a faster way to automate a handoff between departments, for example, you’re building consistency and making sure everyone is working from the same playbook.

Build a culture of curiosity

When one person steps up, others follow. A team that values education creates a ripple effect. Questions become learning moments, and continuous improvement becomes the norm.

That kind of culture pays off. 

BytePlus emphasizes an SHRM stat: Replacing a single employee can cost up to 200% of their salary. Investing in learning reduces turnover and keeps your best people engaged and growing.

Bonus: Training builds loyalty. A team that learns together stays together.

Be the spark

Investing time in learning pays off at every level, from your own growth to company-wide productivity.

You gain:

• The confidence to navigate the software
• Mastery of tools that drive automation
• Speed and accuracy in your day-to-day work
• Recognition as a subject matter expert
• Momentum to shape your career path

Your organization gains:

• Stronger product adoption rates
• Greater ROI
• A lesser need for IT intervention and manual workarounds
• Faster onboarding for new team members
• Reduced turnover due to better engagement and support for each role

Become a learning champion for your team’s Redwood Software products by utilizing Redwood University. It’s free and open to all customers and partners. Sign up today.

This drive to harness AI to deliver targeted information more efficiently is precisely what inspired the Redwood Software Education and Documentation teams to create a similar experience for Redwood users. As Director of these teams, I’ve seen firsthand how AI-powered solutions can transform user experiences. We’re bringing that innovation to our product documentation with a new AI assistant designed to help you navigate our products with unprecedented ease. 

Let’s explore how we’re leveraging AI to evolve product documentation into a dynamic and seamless experience.

Transforming a search into a conversation

Getting answers in the form of accurate and timely information is crucial. That’s why we’ve integrated an AI-powered feature directly into our documentation portals. Consider it your personal assistant, ready and eager to answer your questions right now.

Our AI assistant understands natural language queries, allowing you to ask questions conversationally. This launch is one of the many steps Redwood is taking toward leveraging AI to enhance your automation journey. Whether you’re navigating configurations, troubleshooting issues or seeking best practices, our assistant provides the support you need.

Benefits of generative AI

Generative AI has the capability to produce and synthesize a wide array of content, transforming how we enhance productivity on a daily basis. This technology empowers the AI assistant to parse through complex technical questions and provide you with exactly what you’re looking for. And, like all Redwood products, it’s built with robust security measures in mind. Any data you upload or the assistant interacts with is not used to train external models, so you get a secure and reliable experience.

We’ve been leveraging AI at Redwood for quite some time, focusing on making things more efficient and enhancing our product offerings. It’s not just about moving faster; it’s about working smarter. From cutting down on manual errors in finance operations to predicting and preventing service disruptions, AI is a key part of our strategy. Now, we’re putting that intelligence directly into our documentation with this conversational assistant. We’re excited to keep improving it to better serve you.

How Redwood’s AI assistant empowers your automation strategy

There are many tangible advantages to engaging with this new assistant, including:

• Instant answers: Enhance productivity and efficiency through a personalized search assistant, providing you with relevant information in seconds.
• Enhanced navigation: Redwood’s AI assistant understands natural language, making it easy to pinpoint specific details within our comprehensive documentation.
• Streamlined troubleshooting: Resolve issues faster with quick access to relevant troubleshooting information.
• Increased productivity: Spend less time searching and more time building automations for your mission-critical business processes.

Getting started

We’re launching this AI assistant across our workload automation and JSCAPE by Redwood documentation portals as part of our beta program, and we value your input in shaping its future. Simply initiate a conversation by selecting the Redwood logo on the bottom right-hand side of the page. Start typing your question and let our AI assistant do the rest. 

Your feedback is valuable to us and will help us make this tool even better!

Looking ahead: The future of automation support

From crafting travel plans to navigating complex automation solutions, AI’s potential is undeniable. Redwood is excited to see how AI empowers you as you build an automation fabric, and we’re committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. As AI evolves, so will our ability to provide increasingly intelligent and personalized experiences to all users.

Some companies end up in a frustrating position, having invested heavily in advanced software solutions but failing to realize their full ROI. Coupled with challenges like skilled personnel shortages and high turnover, the cumulative effects leave them struggling to fill resource gaps. 

New data highlights an additional strain: Only 36% of CIOs expect IT headcount growth in 2025. This stark reality underscores the urgency for organizations to make the most of the resources they already have.

Automation software can help bridge these gaps, but it doesn’t operate in isolation. It requires skilled, confident users who can apply it wisely to each use case. Targeted, high-quality training is the answer. 

Product education empowers employees to take ownership of their roles in ways that drive growth, efficiency and long-term success. Proper training can turn former resource needs into opportunities to build a more agile and capable workforce.

The transformative power of online learning for automation success

Learning Management System (LMS) tools have revolutionized how companies approach employee training. No longer constrained by the logistical challenges of in-person instruction, companies can offer ongoing training on everything from cybersecurity protocols and software usage to company values. As of 2023, Gartner reported a 52% increase in demand for LMS software, and skill development continues to be a priority.

For automation software in particular, LMS platforms offer significant advantages. They allow for flexible, self-paced learning to accommodate different schedules, locations and learning styles. They also drastically reduce the cost of scaling training programs by keeping materials online and editable. Instead of sending trainers to new locations, it’s possible to deliver consistent interactive instruction across a distributed workforce at a fraction of the cost.

Most importantly, LMS tools help education teams keep their learners up to date. Automation software evolves rapidly, with new features and integrations introduced regularly. Employees need access to the latest information at all times and from anywhere.

Employee education as a competitive advantage

Investing in education sends a clear message: Your company values its employees and is committed to their success. Furthermore, accessible digital training doesn’t just improve skills — it contributes to outcomes that can differentiate your organization from your competitors. A workforce capable of leveraging cutting-edge automation tools can be the defining factor that sets you apart.

Organizations that invest in employee development have 11% greater profitability and are 2x as likely to retain employees. 

Gallup

Training programs can even drive business outcomes due to their impact on retention and internal mobility, as shown in the graph below. Quality software training can build a more resilient workforce, preventing the loss of institutional knowledge and gaps in expertise that arise when good employees leave.

Today’s workforce values growth and development, and businesses that invest in these areas are more likely to attract and retain top talent.

94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their professional development.

LinkedIn Learning

The benefits are profound in an automation context, where well-trained teams can quickly and effectively integrate new tools into their workflows, reduce time-to-value and enable smoother collaboration across departments. Building capabilities and confidence turns technical solutions into strategic assets.

Bridging the gap between training and performance

Effective training doesn’t stop with imparting the what and how of a new tool or feature. To truly benefit, you must ensure that learning translates into real-world performance. 

Especially in the case of automation software, which could cause employees’ roles to shift as they’re relieved of repetitive tasks, they need guidance to embrace their evolving responsibilities and continue adding value. For example, training might focus on how automation software can generate actionable insights from data or facilitate better decisions. Automation benefits become more real with these relatable applications, so people feel engaged rather than worried about job security.

Continuous access to learning resources is also a must. A robust library of on-demand resources provides relevant knowledge right when users need it. They can revisit concepts, explore new features and upskill over time.

When training is done right, employees feel inspired, and businesses see tangible improvements in efficiency and decision-making.

How Redwood University sets a new standard

In addition to 24/7 global support, Redwood Software product users get access to Redwood University with no prerequisites. Redwood University was created with the mission of equipping users with everything they need to extract maximum value from their experience with the software. 

Here’s what makes it unique:

• Users first: We are passionate about our learners’ success and strive every day to find new ways to empower and delight them.
• Evidence-based instructional design: Our materials are developed using proven methods that maximize retention.
• Role-based curricula: We tailor content to specific job functions to ensure relevance and make learning paths immediately useful.
• Hands-on learning: Practical simulations, exercises and quizzes created by product experts help learners apply skills in realistic scenarios.
• Flexible structure: Modular training courses allow users to learn at their own pace and focus on specific topics as needed.
• Certifications: We offer formal assessments that validate knowledge and demonstrate capability within the software. These credentials can be uploaded to LinkedIn to further celebrate learners’ achievements.

Automation software is only as valuable as its users’ ability to leverage its power. Redwood University is a dynamic learning resource that goes above and beyond typical training manuals to help you drive real change.

Develop a culture of continuous learning

For companies that have successfully cultivated a continuous learning culture, there’s a case to be made for encouraging the development of active learning opportunities. Such opportunities ensure the learners engage with their trainers and are an effective way to bolster innovation.

TrainingMag

Training isn’t a one-time event. Education should be embedded into the fabric of your organization — and, certainly, the automation fabric you’re developing using Redwood products.

A culture of learning starts with leadership. To cultivate this culture, higher-ups should:

• Encourage active learning opportunities in which employees can interact with peers and those with more advanced skills.
• Promote innovation by opening blocks of time for creative brainstorming and building pathways for new ideas to reach leadership.
• Make learning a seamless, integrated part of work life rather than something your team has to struggle to fit into their schedule.

Continuous learning is easier when your automation software provider reflects this value in its approach. When you use a Redwood product, you get the backing you need to make widespread cultural changes stick.

Already a Redwood customer? Empower your team and transform your business even faster: Sign up for Redwood University.

While I do not like our customers experiencing issues with our software, working together with them to find a resolution and listening to their ideas on how to improve our products and Support services is inspiring. And it seems to me that our customers also truly value our support. 

In our recent LinkedIn poll, 60% of respondents stated they value customer experience most when evaluating a Service Orchestration and Automation Platform (SOAP). As a Leader for two consecutive years in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAPs, Redwood delivers the type of support you need to reach your automation goals.

We’ve covered how to engage with Redwood’s Customer Success teams. Here, we’ll dive deeper into what it’s like to interact with our Support team in particular and how your interactions help us level up and continue to provide industry-leading products and customer service.

Your positive outcomes = our mission

One of Redwood’s core values is to obsess over customer success. We treat customers like partners and aim to earn their trust every day. 

Having worked with some of our customers for nearly all 23 years has convinced me that trust is the basis for a good relationship. I may not always tell them what they want to hear, but I’m committed to saying what they need to hear.

A global presence

In the aforementioned Magic Quadrant™ report, Redwood was positioned furthest in Completeness of Vision and highest for Ability to Execute. Gartner heavily weighted geographic strategy in this evaluation.

As a global company, Redwood understands the technical requirements, cultural benefits and challenges of both asynchronous and in-person work. We know that supporting modern businesses means being available anywhere and everywhere. Interactions with people all over the world strongly influence how we enhance our customer support strategy on an ongoing basis.

Our team is distributed across time zones, and while our communication language is English, some of our Support team members can switch to several other languages when necessary.

We’re available via portal, email and phone to give you a range of communication options that best fit your needs. 

The goal: Synergistic relationships

Collaborating with you to solve problems is just as advantageous for us as it is for you.

Whether we’re working on an issue, reviewing an enhancement or simply having an introductory meeting, we prioritize listening above all. We want to know what works for you and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t.

Your feedback is always valuable and welcome — about product functionality, our work as a Support team or Redwood as a whole.

Your voice helps us develop, and we amplify that voice by representing you in internal meetings and strategy discussions. We are proud to share your thoughts and feelings with the whole company.

Don’t hesitate to ask for support

The thing I find myself saying to customers the most is: “If we don’t know about your issue, we can’t help you.”

We don’t want you to worry about the validity of any question! We would rather have you ask us than be confused or frustrated.

Reach out any time, from anywhere, when:

• You can’t access your environment
• You’re unable to perform an action you could previously do in your Redwood solution.
• You’ve encountered an error or what appears to be a bug.
• You’d like to suggest a product enhancement.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to reach us and how to escalate a ticket.

Understand how we handle critical incidents.

You’ll never have to ask that question when you take advantage of our robust Customer Success programs and services. As a Success and Support team member at Redwood for almost 10 years, I can confidently say you’ll have a first-rate experience as we strive to be a valued partner in your success.

To start, it can be helpful to understand how our team is organized. Here, I’ll share the various functions of Redwood Customer Success and when to contact each team.

Pillars of Customer Success at Redwood

Redwood’s vision is to unleash human potential by giving you the freedom to focus on more than repetitive tasks. To support you in using our products to drive strategic efforts, we’ve set up Redwood Customer Success to be multifunctional and partner with you throughout your entire journey. From implementation to troubleshooting to learning how to get the most from our automation solutions, our team is here for you.

We provide comprehensive assistance across four pillars of Customer Success.

Customer Success

For standard onboarding, you’ll interact with our Customer Success team. Along with applying proven implementation methodologies, this team provides guidance and helps you optimize time-to-value. In every interaction, we offer guidance for your use cases and best practices for your automation solution to help you maximize the return on your investment. 

As you progress and your users become more comfortable using Redwood products, we continue to engage by performing periodic health checks, advising on upgrades, informing you about best practices, sharing how other customers have tackled similar challenges and being a starting point for navigating Redwood products.

When to contact Customer Success

• You have a question about product functionality, e.g., “How do I …”
• You’d like us to review your configurations to ensure you’re following best practices and mitigating risks.
• You want to upgrade or use case guidance.

Professional Services 

If you are implementing new Redwood products and need help with configuring, installing or integrating, engage with our Professional Services team. They’re the ones who create a custom implementation plan for your initial launch and, if necessary, migration or when you request specific deliverables.

This team can also act as functional consultants, freeing up your staff for key automation initiatives and maximizing your ROI.

When you may need Professional Services

• You’re starting a new automation project and want to plan for success with qualified Redwood experts. 
• You want personalized enablement or on-the-job coaching for your existing team or after a significant business change such as a merger or acquisition.

Support 

Once you’re up and running, you need to know you have quick, reliable answers at your fingertips when you encounter problems or have a question. Redwood’s Support team can be available 24/7/365 for technical fixes and peace of mind. In our support portal, you’ll be able to track the real-time progress of your tickets.

When to contact Redwood Support

• You can’t access the platform, but you have verified your own network status.
• You’re unable to perform an action you could previously do in your Redwood solution.
• You’ve encountered an error or what appears to be a bug.
• You’d like to suggest a product enhancement.

Education 

In addition to our initial product training, we offer easy-to-access product documentation and learning tools for you to drive outcomes with Redwood’s automation solutions.

How to access Redwood learning opportunities

• Visit our documentation portal to learn more about the product(s) you use.
• Explore Redwood University for on-demand training and certification programs. Redwood customers can register here.

Got feedback or suggestions for the Redwood University team? Let us know what you think by completing this suggestion form. Your feedback helps us improve Redwood University for all customers.

TIP: Not sure where to begin? Email the Customer Success team for guidance.

Learn more from fellow customers

One of the best ways to improve your outcomes with new technology is to learn how others are using it. There are a few easy ways to get inspired by fellow Redwood customers:

➡️ Read our blog series, The Automationist.

➡️ Watch customer webinar replays to learn about use cases.

Have a question? Reach out via email to success@redwood.com.

As a result, many enterprise IT teams now find themselves overseeing implementations of multiple automation tools, siloed in different departments. These complex environments can include everything from WLA (workload automation), MFT (managed file transfer), ETL (extract, transform, load) and RPA (robotic process automation). These environments also include legacy, on-prem systems and tools that perform critical, hard-to-migrate functions. 

Orchestrating these disparate systems to deliver true end-to-end process automation can be a challenge. Business processes are fragile and fragmented and troubleshooting typically involves multiple teams and hours of expensive investigative work.

Multiple WLAs caused multiple headaches

As Director of IS Development at GROWMARK, Brian Culhane found himself in this position. GROWMARK is a regional agricultural cooperative — a large, complex organization with many business units. While their IT environment had changed over time, it still included legacy systems and multiple automation tools. 

When GROWMARK initially migrated to SAP’s ERP, they initially chose not to add another WLA tool alongside it. This meant Brian’s team was limited to using SAP’s native task scheduler to run batch jobs. They also had to coordinate SAP processes with jobs that ran on-premises with their legacy scheduler, AutoSys. Orchestrating the two wasn’t easy.

The solution we had was to try and tackle it with scheduling. So you might have an SAP job that would run at three minutes past the hour, and then an AutoSys job that would pick up that output at 23 minutes past the hour. You just hoped everything lined up and everything worked.

Brian Culhane, GROWMARK

When the execution time and schedules for these manually-coordinated tasks lined up, jobs were able to run properly. However, the lack of integration between SAP’s scheduler and AutoSys caused troubleshooting issues. In the “least-worst” scenario, if an SAP job errored out, a subsequent AutoSys job would also error out and everyone could tell something was wrong. 

The issue occurred when jobs in SAP failed or ran long without erroring out, AutoSys would still run its job at the scheduled time, without the needed or correct output from the SAP job. When this happened, the AutoSys job would complete and report a success. Someone would have to notice that the job completed too fast or gave no results. Identifying and troubleshooting this type of failure and then setting the job to re-run, was a huge headache.

It was a lot of coordination for the on-call people. They had to go in and they had to look at logs, and look at how long stuff ran. It took a fair amount of effort, and it was separate teams. The SAP scheduling team and the Autosys scheduling team had a lot of communication back and forth. When something went wrong, you had multiple people responding to it.

The team needed an enterprise WLA solution to streamline their IT process while alerting the team of job failures. Brian’s team set a goal of getting all of their jobs into a single view so that just one person could troubleshoot when issues arose. They also wanted their jobs to coordinate with each other across multiple systems — and be aware of the status and success of those jobs. Later jobs would no longer run when an earlier job had failed or hadn’t yet completed.

Consolidation, clean up and cloud-native orchestration

After a long vendor selection process, they ultimately chose a cloud-based solution: RunMyJobs by Redwood. First, they migrated all their SAP processes into RunMyJobs so Brian’s team could get familiar with everything. Even though Redwood Software supports the automated migration of AutoSys jobs, GROWMARK chose a greenfield approach. By recreating each job in RunMyJobs one at a time, they could clean up and improve their processes — and take advantage of Redwood’s new orchestration capabilities.  

We took out about a third of the AutoSys jobs that we ended up not needing in Redwood. Either because we were consolidating jobs and one job would do what three jobs were doing in AutoSys, or because the job was just shoeshining and nobody was using the output of that job.

GROWMARK implemented RunMyJobs as part of a larger digital transformation initiative. Even though it was a long process to build consensus around a solution, Brian’s team was clear about their goals. They wanted a cloud-native platform that offered a single, consolidated view of their processes. Most importantly, they wanted a way to move beyond schedule-based automation. Redwood was able to deliver on all their needs, on the timeline they needed, ensuring Brian’s team was set up for success.

We invite you to learn more about GROWMARK’s transformation by watching the full on-demand webinar “WLA Consolidation Pays Off.” Brian was joined by Redwood team members for a deep dive into the challenges of managing multiple WLA tools, and the benefits of consolidation.

Register to watch the webinar now for free.