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ShaunJennings's avatar
ShaunJennings
Brass Contributor
Aug 17, 2021

Starting the Adoption Process

I just joined a new company and the organization is at an interesting position. They started the conversion into Microsoft 365 with OneDrive and Exchange Online, but stopped the process due to lack of direction. There seems to be leadership buy-in for most of the platform but not all of it.

 

I'm looking to start with the technology department and leadership to build out the Champions program. Mainly because it is all of technology who are in this space. With everyone's experience, I am looking for advice/guidance on how to start the adoption process, knowing that there will be pain points because of beloved applications that Microsoft 365 will replace.

  • HI @Shaun and welcome to the community! Here's a few things to think about:

    1. All the successful world wide adoption programs I've been a part of had one thing in common - a business imperative. All the ideas below are great but without the proper business scenarios you won't get the leadership buy in you need.
    2. My course for Microsoft Service Adoption best practices can give you some ideas about the proper framework to follow specifically for Microsoft tech. It does use Teams as an example project but likely you'll need to start with SharePoint or some of the PowerPlatform components if Teams is not an issue. Pay close attention to the success measures part. Find it at https://aka.ms/AdoptionCourse and use it alongside other organizational change management methods.
    3. In the world as we are dealing with it one thing has become very clear - taking an approach that puts the employee and customer at the center of any improvements is a wise approach. We call it #HumanFirst and it works to break the logger jam that can take over these projects.

    Whatever you do stay here in the community where there are a TON of smart people to help. Just remember that the technology is irrelevant and should fade to the background of the actual business impact you are driving and you'll do just fine!
  • kirtspaulding's avatar
    kirtspaulding
    Copper Contributor
    Hi Shaun,

    Teams should be the centerpiece of your plan if you want to drive Microsoft 365 adoption. What has worked for me is pitching unified communications as the future of work.

    If you can get the org using Teams for chat and meetings, you can look at collaboration or voice workloads. A successful implementation will recognize what the "whole package" of Microsoft 365 is offering.

    There's a reason Teams has risen to 250 million monthly active users and is used at 90 something percent of the Fortune 100. It's not because Teams is purple Skype.
    • ShaunJennings's avatar
      ShaunJennings
      Brass Contributor

      kirtspaulding while I do understand that MS Teams is the centerpiece for Microsoft 365, this organization is currently using a different collaboration platform. It will take some time and convincing to switch. Granted, that switch will have to happen at some point.

       

      The more I look at how my new organization functions, I am leaning more towards looking at an over arching governance board first, to tie the organization together in this adoption. While IT can make the swap quick, the rest of the organization will need time to adjust. There are a lot of moving parts and there are some misplaced feelings towards certain applications due to previous rollouts.

       

      I do look forward to creating this plan and getting the Executive backing for this process. Culture change is extremely difficult, you will always have to understand the culture first before you can move the organization to a new way of thinking.

      • TerenceRabe1's avatar
        TerenceRabe1
        Brass Contributor

        ShaunJennings 

         

        "some misplaced feelings towards certain applications due to previous rollouts" what a great way to say everyone hates SharePoint :lol:

  • MRConsulting's avatar
    MRConsulting
    Copper Contributor
    Hi Shaun,
    The methods and models used can vary between organizations, but what I've used across several organizations at different stages of adoption is to create an M365 virtual team. Build it as a formal organizational goal with executive sponsorship and a dedicated team that spans business units. While IT would likely own the technology, the business units are the impacted revenue generators for the company and would ultimately be the primary focus-source for success/challenges. Creating that virtual team (v-team) that brings in 'champions/representatives' from each business unit build that all-up investment.
    From there, define the governance for both the program (M365) and its sub-projects (i.e. Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, One Drive for Business, etc.) and build the communication plans that align with the product implementation/integration road maps.
    From my experience. adoption success is greatly increased when there's an investment from the consumers (the employees) and sense of ownership for the business units.
    Getting the stakeholders identified and a RACI established sooner, rather than later, will greatly help.
    Regards,
    -MR
  • ShaunJennings in my opinion you should start this as a holistic project.

    At the beginning you could invite representatives of the employees to evaluate all the persons, which will be affected by the project. And you could ask them how ready they feel for the upcoming change. Then you should take a glance at the risks and chances, the project will bring for you.

     

    In the next step you should evaluate how your employees work together, so that you can construct a basis information architecture (should every section get a Team, or are you organized in processes? How are they working now and what could be better?)

    Additionally, you should check which types of employees you have and how they have to be treated to adopt best. There is a difference between people which are using for many years chats and apps and people who just write word-documents on their pc.

     

    Don´t start this project with a little technical project-team. Involve a divers team!

     

    I know this was short, but maybe it helps?

       

    • ShaunJennings's avatar
      ShaunJennings
      Brass Contributor
      Yes, it does help. I was thinking that is the path that should be taken, especially when we are considering the entire platform uplifted at one time. While we are still going to step carefully and in stages, but the goal is to put the entire platform in place and we will need the help of the entire organization.

      I am always looking for new ideas and new ways of thinking and planning. This confirms some of what I was thinking about the process.

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