Teams adoption

[romana240]

We have attempted using a messenger app (a different one) in the past; about a dozen people tested it, some liked it, some were rather impartial to it. In my industry (construction), it seems to be rather difficult to introduce any operational changes so this scenario is no different. Before I even try to roll this initiative out on a company-wide scale, I wanted to reach out to the community for any recommendations on how to get my colleagues excited about this great communication tool.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Romana

[#2]

Hello @romana240 how exciting that you've got a new messenger app and looking now to roll it out.  I would say the first thing is to find a user case in the business first - and to pilot it with a small group of people who are willing experimenters.  Consider some key business outcomes you want to achieve and measure these throughout your experiment.  That is, 

*how much time do you want to save and how does this translate to $ back to business?

* How easy is it to implement and how much does this translate to $ business?

* What new ideas and insights were formed (that spins off new business ideas, innovations, products or services?)

The experiment should last for a period of time where you can measure tangible outcomes.  If they see the product working on business problems (solving, saving time, money, resources), then it would be easier to influence people to use it.

[#3]

Morning  @Helen Blunden and thank you for your response.

I already have few colleagues that are strong supporters, but there is still a lot of work to be done in getting the rest of the team to join in. I am in the industry that is notorious for being hesitant when adopting a change :).

In your case, have you expanded beyond just internal users and if not, do you know if that is an option?

[#4 · Accepted solution]

@romana240thanks for the message.  Yes this is my background working in change management, adoption and learning and development.  I work for a Microsoft partner called Adopt and Embrace and this is exactly the type of work and typical of situations we come across on a daily basis.  We help companies to look at ways to help, support, empower their workforce to use these tools within their daily work flow.  It's not about forcing anyone to do anything - it's about an empathetic understanding of their business and how work flows between all the people, the systems they use, the processes they have, the knowledge, skills, capabilities and motivations of the workers to change and adopt to new system. It's also an awareness of the culture and political environment and sensitivities in the workplace.  If you can identify a business case to pilot your product and evaluate it against some tangible business goals then you're more likely to see success - and support and sponsorship by business managers for it. 

[#5]

Hi @romana240 !

You are very wise to reach out to the community to ask others who have done this before. @Helen Blunden is absolutely right that you should focus on the business and business outcomes. Once you have decided to go ahead with your Teams adoption, it can help to provide your users with training that is not just educational - but also inspirational and motivational. We help a lot of companies with this through our video-based storytelling to drive adoption of Teams and Office 365 (and can provide it as a service right from within Teams). You can have a look at our web site storyals.com or feel free to connect with me directly to set up an online meeting for a demo. :) /Ulrika

[#6]

Hello @romana240 

Some times look for some tools in web can help. For example today I found this link https://teamworktools.azurewebsites.net/tft/index.html. 

It has a lot of ideas about how teams can help us. For example, thinking about a construction project, you can create a team and invite all  members of the project to share files, documents, message, etc using this tool. You can say them that they can fine in only one place all what they need or share about that project and even have online meetings to reduce travel time. 

Another think that we are trying is to find strategic people and install the client in their devices, just to be sure that at less they have it. 

[#7]

Thank you @Ulrika Hedlund for your reply.

It seems that I've got a business case to build :). I have several internal users who have adopted it; that was my initial idea. Once I've had time to prepare a decent a company-wide proposal, I will be able to move forward with the initiative.

In the meantime, let me know what would work for you to setup an online demo.

[#8]

What do your early adopters have in common @romana240? 

Is it age? Their way of working or role in the company?

What end-user problem should the app solve?

The answers to these questions might give you a good head start drafting your business case. Good luck! 

[#9]

YOu are wonderful and thank you for your reply even though mine now is almost a year later :)