Everyone has opinions about technology, whether it’s about how well their television or smartphone works, or what they don’t like about their laptop or productivity tools. So it’s fair to expect every employee has personal experiences and opinions that shape how they respond to changing technology in the workplace.
Ideally, as soon as you decide to move to a new platform — whether that’s Office 365 or some other productivity suite — you should begin developing your change management strategy. Here are five tips for getting strong user adoption results and engaging your end users from the start.
- Keep employees in the loop: Developing a communication strategy at the outset is critical with any technology initiative. When you’re going through your requirements and putting together your implementation plan, make sure that you build ongoing communication into your rollout.
This communication strategy may include a number of activities, including newsletters, blog posts and other resources. For example, a SharePoint intranet is a great way to keep people in the loop during your technology implementation with information about what’s happening next. This gives people a destination for information and a timeline so that they have an expectation of when changes are coming.It’s also important to commit to training on multiple levels, including group training, remote training and one-on-one sessions. Organizations should cater to the different kinds of support that people need to transition and adopt the new technology. - Streamline the experience: One of the most common roadblocks in cloud implementations comes from disrupting the login process. When you’re working within your company’s network, you might log into your desktop computer at the beginning of your day and be automatically connected to every application that you need until you log out. With cloud applications, however, these tools are usually outside your network and may require additional logins.Part of encouraging user adoption is to avoid asking users to complete additional or unfamiliar steps whenever possible. The experience should be as seamless as possible, so that a single login allows users to access everything they need on the cloud.This principle also applies to mobile access. Everybody wants to access their business data on mobile devices, but a lot of companies still keep this content behind firewalls and require a virtual private network (VPN) to access it. If you want to encourage mobile productivity, make this process as simple as possible, integrating your security provisions so that accessing the cloud from a tablet is essentially the same as logging into their computer at work. This way, you’re eliminating one more roadblock, and that encourages user adoption.
- Solicit expertise and feedback: By gathering user feedback and expertise, you’re better able to align your implementation with the company culture. The key is to make sure people feel comfortable being open and honest in expressing their feelings. Understanding employees’ experiences with technology in their personal and professional lives is vital to building user adoption.
- Understand work requirements: To make your new system as intuitive as possible, survey employees to find out what technology they currently use to get work done. For an optimal configuration of a productivity suite like Office 365, you need to understand what motivates your employees and how they work now, so that you avoid asking them to take additional steps when using the new system.
- Engage technology evangelists: Every company has some employees with a particular knack for picking up new technology. These people make great technology evangelists; getting them involved early helps with your communication strategy. Their voices should be heard in the overall design and creation of the new site. Also, allow them to help with training and coaching when you’re ready to roll out the system to a larger group of people.
With today’s business technology, implementing and configuring solutions has become easier and faster — what once took months now takes weeks. This rapid pace provides less time for employees to adjust, so it’s increasingly important for organizations to manage change and user adoption, taking steps to ensure that any new technology is useful and appealing to employees.
Learn more about implementing Office 365 by contacting Withum.
Everyone has opinions about technology, whether it’s about how well their television or smartphone works, or what they don’t like about their laptop or productivity tools. So it’s fair to expect every employee has personal experiences and opinions that shape how they respond to changing technology in the workplace.
Ideally, as soon as you decide to move to a new platform — whether that’s Office 365or some other productivity suite —you should begin developing your change management strategy. Here are five tips for getting strong user adoption results and engaging your end users from the start.
- Keep employees in the loop:Developing a communication strategy at the outset is critical with any technology initiative. When you’re going through your requirements and putting together your implementation plan, make sure that you build ongoing communication into your rollout.
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- This communication strategy may include a number of activities, including newsletters, blog posts and other resources. For example, a SharePoint intranet is a great way to keep people in the loop during your technology implementation with information about what’s happening next. This gives people a destination for information and a timeline so that they have an expectation of when changes are coming.It’s also important to commit to training on multiple levels, including group training, remote training and one-on-one sessions. Organizations should cater to the different kinds of support that people need to transition and adopt the new technology.
- Streamline the experience:One of the most common roadblocks in cloud implementations comes from disrupting the login process. When you’re working within your company’s network, you might log into your desktop computer at the beginning of your day and be automatically connected to every application that you need until you log out. With cloud applications, however, these tools are usually outside your network and may require additional logins.Part of encouraging user adoption is to avoid asking users to complete additional or unfamiliar steps whenever possible. The experience should be as seamless as possible, so that a single login allows users to access everything they need on the cloud.This principle also applies to mobile access. Everybody wants to access their business data on mobile devices, but a lot of companies still keep this content behind firewalls and require a virtual private network (VPN) to access it. If you want to encourage mobile productivity, make this process as simple as possible, integrating your security provisions so that accessing the cloud from a tablet is essentially the same as logging into their computer at work. This way, you’re eliminating one more roadblock, and that encourages user adoption.
- Solicit expertise and feedback:By gathering user feedback and expertise, you’re better able to align your implementation with the company culture. The key is to make sure people feel comfortable being open and honest in expressing their feelings. Understanding employees’ experiences with technology in their personal and professional lives is vital to building user adoption.
- Understand work requirements:To make your new system as intuitive as possible, survey employees to find out what technology they currently use to get work done. For an optimal configuration of a productivity suite like Office 365, you need to understand what motivates your employees and how they work now, so that you avoid asking them to take additional steps when using the new system.
- Engage technology evangelists:Every company has some employees with a particular knack for picking up new technology. These people make great technology evangelists; getting them involved early helps with your communication strategy. Their voices should be heard in the overall design and creation of the new site. Also, allow them to help with training and coaching when you’re ready to roll out the system to a larger group of people.
With today’s business technology, implementing and configuring solutions has become easier and faster —what once took months now takes weeks. This rapid pace provides less time for employees to adjust, so it’s increasingly important for organizations to manage change and user adoption, taking steps to ensure that any new technology is useful and appealing to employees.
Learn more about implementing Office 365 by contacting Withum.
