Forum Discussion
Where Does End-User Adoption Start?
Great topic!
Too many organisations fail to fully understand where they and their employees are at when they decide to move to Office 365 in terms of how they work. The first point in pre deployment is so important. But from experience it is often overlooked. Too often it is seen as a project with a start and end date. That's why the post deployment elements usually end too quickly. The training sessions are over, the training materials produced and gathering dust and so on. But adoption doesn't stop. It's ongoing. So organisations need to plan and cost for that over an extended period of time.
Migration is also not treated as a major change management exercise. It changes significantly how people work. What tools they currently use and have to learn to use. They are expected to change their habits just because you have given them a new set of tools. That's hard to do.
As all organisations are different and depending on size it gets more and more difficult, it's important to understand how people work and what tools they use and indeed what their work day habits are. You could do this by surveys, focus groups/meetings. Then this will give you a picture of what Office 365 can bring or problems it can solve. Focus on the problems it can solve first. Show people how the tools and ways of working can solve those problems. Office 365 can't be all things to everyone. You have to focus on the little battles, the quick wins, the simpler problems. Get those right and you will be on your way.
After deployment you can assess whether those problems have been 'fixed' for people. If not you have to go back and see what went wrong. If they have then move to the next set of problems.
As Office 365 continues to change and offer new features you have to aware of any problems that can be fixed but also problems that may arise from a change or new feature (bug!!). That is where the ongoing adoption process comes in. It's why Office 365 adoption and migration is not a project, it's a journey with bumpy roads....
Thanks for these insights AnnaChu You are telling a story that is dear to my heart. In too many cases change and adoption is seen as a task to begin in the last stage of deployment. However, to have an effective deployment organisations need to engage all stakeholders from users to senior executives from the inception. Given cloud projects often have rapid deployment early engagement of all stakeholders in change and adoption is essential.
That approach gives them the greatest chance of deploying to use cases and communities that are receptive and actually want what is being deployed. A corporate objective that makes no sense to users is unlikely to win much adoption. Equally a user solution that has no corporate objective will not last long. Balancing both of these and supporting adoption bottom up and top down through the life of the project is key to success.
Couldn't agree more with Simon! It's so crucial to take the time to find out both what matters to the organization and to the user regarding Office 365.
I think most organizations struggle with this because they've chosen either an organizational-focused adoption strategy or a user-focused one. True success with Office 365 is only found when you bring both of those together and your adoption efforts are committed to creating wins for both groups.
