GreenDot Consulting’s proven Office 365 adoption guide
Office 365 is an amazing technology platform for enabling collaboration. Yet, almost all organisations miss the concept that turning on technology that enables collaboration does not guarantee collaboration. The promised benefits are often not realised due to the gap between users’ skills and their understanding of all the things that a technology platform like Office 365 can do. In this Office 365 adoption guide, we’ll take you through our top 5 tips for ensuring a successful Office 365 roll-out.
Office 365 adoption tip 1: Get a clear vision
Most change management projects fail because the vision isn’t defined enough. An important first step to the successful adoption of Office 365 is getting a clear understanding of who your users are and how people in different roles will use the technology differently. For example, remote, desk-less workers in operational roles will have needs that are unrelated to the needs of staff members in a corporate head office environment. They will have different goals, pain points and ideas of what success looks like. Always focus on solving business problems, not the technology.
Office 365 adoption tip 2: Appoint leaders and change champions
At GreenDot, we’ve found that the most successful change management projects are underpinned by strong leadership. By engaging leaders first, you can sell the benefits of Office 365 – like collaborative teams, central streamlined communications and transparency of work. Leaders and change champions within the organisation should then send all communications related to Office 365 adoption and own the outcomes and results. This approach shifts the balance from an Office 365 roll-out from an IT project to a business project.
Office 365 adoption tip 3: Drive self-service
One of the best ways for users to experience the benefits of the new ways of working that Office 365 allows is by letting them use the tools themselves. At Qantas, GreenDot encouraged staff to use the tools by allowing them to access solutions to their problems and other resources on demand. A portal containing video tutorials, wiki articles and searchable answers to staff queries enabled staff to figure out solutions to the specific issues of their role and business requirements.
Office 365 adoption tip 4: Make it look good
Create an environment that looks familiar – despite the changes – by employing the consistent use of organisational branding. Make sure all resources look good and are easy to understand visually. Embracing videos is an excellent way to scale training and educate staff in a one-to-many environment.
Office 365 adoption tip 5: Measure and celebrate success
Business funding for change management projects is often hard to come by, especially when so much money has already been invested in the technology itself. But without this crucial step, that investment can easily be wasted. Use the Office 365 Admin Console to measure user-level statistic reports and demonstrate success, as well as identify tools that are being under-utilised. Directly relate these metrics to the originally defined vision and business goals to see the impact that Office 365 adoption is having on the organisation and how it operates.
Ready to start your Office 365 adoption?
To realise the full benefits of implementing Office 365 in your organisation, a clearly planned and well-executed change management strategy can make all the difference. At GreenDot, we’ve successfully worked with some of Australia’s largest organisations to create and lead technology change management projects. To find out how we can help you, call us today on 1300 80 11 88.
