Avoid 5 Skype for Business deployment pitfalls and successfully transform your business
Avoid 5 Skype for Business deployment pitfalls and successfully transform your business Tom Arbuthnot, Principal Solutions Architect at Modality Systems, is guest posting to the Skype for Business blog this month to discuss5 common Skype for Business deployment pitfalls. Skype for Business can positively impact your business and help enable both a digital transformation and a modern workplace, but in the real world how do you realize these benefits and what are the pitfalls to avoid? This week, I join Delanda Coleman live to discuss this and answer any of your questions on the bi-weekly http://aka.ms/sfbcast I've had lots of experience supporting customers from thousands to hundreds of thousands of users on their Office 365 and Skype for Business journeys. From hands on PSTN gateway deployments to now having a more strategic role in architecting solutions. No matter how big the deployment, I’ve seen quite a few scenarios where, with a little planning, things could have gone better. I’ve narrowed them down to 5 common pitfalls I typically see and I want to share my learnings in hopes it helps you plan for a great experience with Skype in your organization! #1 – Gain the business engagement and sponsorship first. This is key. Success with Skype for Business is much more than just avoiding technical challenges. I've worked on projects that have been IT lead and slowly adopted by the business users, and projects where it's a business decision from the start and users got on board instantaneously. Both can work, but having business leadership’s sponsorship and engagement from the start is a far easier path to a successful adoption. The business choosing to change the way the collaborate is very different than IT trying to drive a change on its own. #2 – Start with "easy wins". In deploying Skype for Business, we’re often keen to get everything implemented as soon as possible. Indeed, there is magic in having everything including IM to meetings to Phone calls all in one client with a consistent experience, but don't overlook the possibility of incremental wins. I've seen entire projects ROI just based on a replacing legacy conferencing solutions with Skype for Business. Now with PSTN Conferencing, toll dial-in numbers can be automatically provisioned and added to a meeting - this is easier than ever. Skype Meeting Broadcast can also be a great tool for the business to improve org communications and stream live content to the masses. Neither of these has the same level of complexity as replacing a phone system. Sometimes Skype for Business adoption is a multi-step journey. #3 – Don’t underestimate network requirement. The networks is a big topic. At Modality Systems, we have done many network assessments, the typical issues will surprise you. It's often not just about raw bandwidth - things link proxies, firewall port exhaustion, and everyone watching YouTube at lunch can really impact other users’ experience with Skype. #4 – Don’t forget about "client devices". In most cases, I’m talking about the PCs, USB devices and phones. Very often the team managing Skype for Business is different to the desktop team, and keeping the Skype clients patched is "someone else’s problem". This can be quite challenging. In one customer, there were complaints of Mac client issues, we found 14 different versions of the Mac client running globally. Unsurprisingly when we worked with the team to get them all patched to current a lot of the noise and issues went away. Also, we must not forget that IP Phones need some love and maintenance from time to time, who's job is that and how do you manage it? #5 – Plan for user adoption and review the reporting. This is critical in two ways. First, to understand how your environment is performing and how your users are using (or not using) Skype for Business, what their experience is and where you may have issues to fix. Secondly, make sure you're giving the good news back to the business. For example: “Do they know you are now doing X thousand minutes of VoIP conferencing on Skype saving Y on PSTN Calls?” or “Do they know that X thousand IM's are being sent every day allowing people to collaborate faster than ever before” It's important to promote wins from IT back into the business. This is just a sneak peek at some of the areas Delanda and I will discuss live. If you want to hear more or have any questions, don’t forget to join us August 4th 9 AM PST for with live Q&A at http://aka.ms/sfbcast. I'm excited to answer your questions and hear your thoughts, so please come and ask away! Hope to see you soon! Tom ################# About Tom Arbuthnot Tom Arbuthnot is Principal Solutions Architect from Modality Systems. Modality Systems were Global Microsoft Communications partner of the year 2016 and Global Microsoft Cloud Productivity Partner 2017. They have deployed Skype for Business Server and Skype for Business Online/Cloud PBX globally for many customers from a thousand to tens of thousands of seats. If you want to find out more about Tom, check out this https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcommunity.microsoft.com%2Ft5%2FSkype-for-Business-Blog%2FSkype-for-Business-MVP-Spotlight-Tom-Arbuthnot%2Fba-p%2F86595&data=04%7C01%7Cdelanda.coleman%40microsoft.com%7C0804105008ba4d511eb708d4d9230392%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636372191795156744%7CUnknown%7CVW5rbm93bnx7IlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiT3RoZXIifQ%3D%3D%7C-1&sdata=1oUCLa%2Bh0O54i3AhlSDBPHj0lyeEMlc2jvNBVJ3YDt4%3D&reserved=0. You can check out his blog at https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftomtalks.uk&data=04%7C01%7Cdelanda.coleman%40microsoft.com%7C0804105008ba4d511eb708d4d9230392%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636372191795156744%7CUnknown%7CVW5rbm93bnx7IlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiT3RoZXIifQ%3D%3D%7C-1&sdata=M6TAhAOxoHKt0NFHll1Av15b2iTc0PjpmvMhCvRaKVk%3D&reserved=0 and his regular "TomTalks" YouTube videos at https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftom.qa%2Ftomtalksvideos&data=04%7C01%7Cdelanda.coleman%40microsoft.com%7C0804105008ba4d511eb708d4d9230392%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636372191795156744%7CUnknown%7CVW5rbm93bnx7IlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiT3RoZXIifQ%3D%3D%7C-1&sdata=VaWnpcEfTnlPB1Ioog2ZTc3uRg%2FYdNudo9nBwdSFKQ8%3D&reserved=0The Secret for Success with Skype for Business? Focus on End User Experience and Satisfaction
Great companies recognize their employees are their most valued asset. They invest in a vast myriad of ways to develop, motivate, and enable them to do their best work and drive the company’s mission. In today’s highly connected and fast-paced world, there can be no doubt that making sharing and collaboration easier, eliminating common workplace frustrations and barriers to productivity, can be highly motivating. Given this, it’s something of a mystery that many of these same companies choose to implement collaboration and productivity solutions with little to no focus on end user experiences or the adoption journey. They invest in technologies with huge transformational potential and then jeopardize their ROI by neglecting proven business axioms like the importance of understanding target audiences, driving effective awareness and readiness, and enabling senior and frontline managers to both drive and support changes that impact their people. At Microsoft, we’re committed to providing products and services that help customers build more business value faster. Foundational to our definition of customer success is the concept of individuals and organizations achieving more, whatever that means to them. With the powers of calling, conferencing, video and sharing all in a single cloud platform with rich Office 365 integration, Skype for Business can accelerate and boost customer success in a way that no other collaboration solution can today. We’re confident in the enterprise class service delivered by Skype for Business. We proudly work alongside customers, supporting and witnessing their successes. We also recognize that end user experiences are heavily influenced by factors related to the intersection of the Skype service and each customer’s organization. A few examples articulate the point: During implementation planning, is there a robust sponsorship coalition (i.e. executive sponsors who set the vision and key LOB managers accountable for execution) to ensure tight alignment across expected business outcomes and related technical requirements for the project? As the benefits of decommissioning old telephony systems are celebrated, is there a solid plan to ensure users have the right devices for high quality calls and meetings with their internal colleagues and external customers? As costly audio conferencing contracts are scheduled for termination, has a transition plan been fully communicated to end users, including new or different functionality, with sufficient awareness and the right readiness resources to help them prepare? Inarguably, an over-pivot on tangible, short term benefits happens in most projects. Defining technical deployment success criteria that are disconnected from the business that the solution aims to serve is all too common. Unfortunately, the longer-term cost of these common missteps is high, putting ROI at risk. Here’s the simple truth – users who perceive their needs and experiences are well understood and prioritized as part of a technology rollout (by senior leadership, their IT department, and their direct manager) are far more likely to adopt. It’s only through this successful end user adoption that tangible benefits and sustained business value for the organization are realized. This critical understanding of the connection between reliable, quality experiences, delighted users and customers achieving their business outcomes (and ROI!) is the reason we created the Planning for Customer Success Workshop as part of the Skype Operations Framework. The Planning for Customer Success Workshop and companion Customer Success Plan Workbook share valuable insights and facilitate self-assessment against 6 critical success factors for Skype for Business: Sponsorship, FastTrack & Partners, User Satisfaction & Adoption, Endpoints, Network, and Operations. By surfacing these 6 critical success factors early in the planning process, customers are enabled to more accurately assess their organizational readiness, that’s technical and user readiness, ensuring success with Skype for Business. Fully informed, prioritized decisions and investments can be identified, ensuring great user experiences and optimized business outcomes. Ready to learn more about the 6 critical factors for delighted users and huge success with Skype for Business? We’re ready to help! Call to action Check out the Planning for Customer Success Workshop and accompanying Customer Success Plan Workbook. View the training for Planning for Customer Success Workshop. Check out the O365 Adoption Guide for valuable guidance on driving user readiness, adoption and effective organizational change Discuss with us in the SOF Community
