It should come as no surprise that Microsoft Office 365 is popular – we’ve talked about before. In fact, Office 365 is the fastest-growing commercial product Microsoft has ever released. Seventy percent of Fortune 500 companies purchased Office 365 between June 2014 and June 2015, and the active user base is growing 400 percent per month.
But while these impressive stats reflect the huge benefits Office 365 delivers to businesses, you still need to get the buy-in of all the key stakeholders before you make a move of your own. So how do you do it?
First, Who Are Your Key Stakeholders?
At Portal Solutions, the first thing we tell our clients to do is identify their stakeholders. Who are the key stakeholders in your organization’s move to Office 365? The board? Your CEO, CIO or president? What about the owners of your product lines?
Take a step back and consider how moving to Office 365 could affect the money-making centers of your business. The people in those office groups and team sites need to be involved in deciding what you want Office 365 to do for your business.
Sure, Office 365 is a technology solution, but it’s not only the IT department that needs to be involved the decision-making and development process. Take the time to work out how Office 365 will affect everyone in your organization and use that information to guide your move to the new system.
How Can You Engage Key Stakeholders?
What if your stakeholders don’t understand the importance of Office 365? How can you engage them? The answer is education, but remember that education is a two-way street.
Yes, you need to teach your stakeholders the benefits of Office 365, but your stakeholders also need the opportunity to express their own pain points. Both sides have valuable information to share, and you need to encourage this kind of communication.
Why is this so important? Without stakeholder engagement, your move to Office 365 will fail. It’s that simple.
My team has seen the consequences of not bringing everyone together over and over again. So take my advice. Begin by listening to the problems of your stakeholders, and then engage them by explaining how Office 365 can help to solve those issues.
In addition, you’ve probably heard the saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” In this case, we’ve found that a number can be worth 1,000 words. How much time can people save by using Office 365? What effect will it have on the company’s bottom line?
Quantified expectations are far more likely to engage your stakeholders than vague promises of benefits.
Final Thought
If you only remember one thing from this post, remember this: Build your business case before you start your move to Office 365. I cannot overstate this.
Office 365 is a powerful enterprise-level productivity suite, but if you don’t clearly define what your business wants to achieve from using the software, it can’t bring you any major benefits.
Building your business case can help you engage stakeholders by showing them how Office 365 can address their pain points. Bring the important people from every part of your business on board and make them a part of planning the transition to Office 365.
That said, no one can tell you exactly how to manage your move to Office 365. Not even me.
Your stakeholders are unique, and thus they have their own unique needs. It’s your job to understand those needs, and keep them involved and engaged. And when you have strong stakeholder buy-in, your transition to Office 365 will not only be championed, it will also bring you real value in the long-run.
