Importance of change management in successful adoption of Microsoft Office 365

Introduction

Change is an important aspect of technological evolution. Today, organizations are looking at cloud-based services such as Microsoft 365 or M365 (previously, Office 365 or O365) for their productivity goals. Hence, organizations are continuously adopting Microsoft Office 365 to increase business flexibility, improve workplace efficiency and alleviate capital cost.

However, digital workplace transformation may cause employees backsliding to old ways of work due to the long use of tools and workflows. To move successfully to M365, organizations need high adoption rates and enhanced user engagement. Therefore, it’s crucial for businesses to undertake change management initiative and execute it diligently by creating clear and structured processes to fit to new ways of work.

In this blog, we will further discuss the tips to implement change management strategies and the benefits of using platforms like TeamsHub by Cyclotron to drive Microsoft 365 adoption. But before that, let us first learn what change management framework is and how to establish it.

The change management framework

In an ideal change management practice, project deployment and  user adoption work in parallel.  The modern change management framework incorporates human side of the transformation which focuses on activities linked with organization-wide preparations to embrace the change. Change management is a three-phased approach to change implementation, management, and monitoring. They are as follows:

1. Envision (prelaunch)

Envision is a stage where you need to determine the context of your organization, define the scope and objectives of change and identify people who will take change management forward. You also need to prioritize groups affected by it and define the new behaviors required to achieve business outcomes.

2. Onboard (launch)

Onboard is a stage where you need to devise the plans and activities required to implement the change. It includes appointing early adopters, stakeholders, and managers to communicate with, engage and train your workforce in driving Microsoft Office 365 adoption.

3. Drive value (post-launch)

In Drive value stage, feedback is gathered from the workforce, and anomalies of change are identified to establish corrective measures. This enables organizations to analyze business outcomes after change so that they can improve their adoption approach as per expectations and recognize future capabilities.

Tips for change management practice

People are the heart of your business. Your employees are the ones most affected by the change and who lead the change. For change management to succeed, it is imperative for organizations to understand the dynamics of employees’ work behavior and provide full support to them, as well as prepare and train them to accept the new change. Here, we share a few quick tips for you to promote change management during Microsoft Office 365 adoption:

• Before you implement M365, speak about its benefits and trade-offs, both, to clear fundamental concepts and depict usefulness behind bringing the change.
• Encourage your employees to use M365 for their day-to-day activities. Discuss the problems they usually face at workplace and provide them with solutions by replacing the old tools with M365.
• Give adequate training to employees to explain the real value of M365. Allow them to have hands-on experience with the new platform and clarify their doubts wherever they need help while performing workflows.
• Ensure that after adoption, continuous improvements are made and the digital workplace is successfully evolving. Keep updating your old and new employees both, about the new platform and eliminate all frustrations that they may come across due to change fatigue through proper mentoring and supervision.

TeamsHub by Cyclotron and Microsoft Office 365 adoption

Studies reveal that effective change management not only expedites technology adoption but also helps organizations to achieve business objectives six times faster. Nevertheless, it also true that organizations may encounter several challenges while executing change management program.

To ease this pressure, TeamsHub by Cyclotron can revolutionize your M365 transition journey while encouraging users to embrace the new technology by discovering large benefits. Let us see how:

• Microsoft Teams is a fantastic tool to build strong teams and accelerate M365 adoption. TeamsHub by Cyclotron extends the capabilities of Microsoft Teams (which is a subset of M365), the popular chat-based tool and enhances communication and collaboration via chat, audio, video, meetings, conferences, screen sharing, file transfer and more. TeamsHub by Cyclotron ensures that all your employees effectively interact at one place without losing files or data and promotes Microsoft Teams adoption.
• TeamsHub by Cyclotron ensures that all your content within Microsoft Office 365 is centralized and properly organized for easy access and efficient search. Moreover, your content remains highly protected while in rest or in transit.
• TeamsHub by Cyclotron drives user adoption by providing a useful knowledge base to users as a self-help service that includes training materials, tips and tricks on hot topics, instructional videos, editor’s picks and more on MS Teams and other Office workloads.
• TeamsHub by Cyclotron is easily accessible through handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets. Users can seamlessly communicate, collaborate, and go through training materials while on the move without a hassle.
• TeamsHub by Cyclotron offers Intranet on Teams as corporate intranet portal for an organization to drive user’s focus to specific information and company’s objectives and interests. Intranet on Teams is meticulously designed for high employee engagement and boosting productivity. In other words, it is a central repository for quick access to all resources and tools one needs to get work done and that too like a socialization channel with an ambiance of fun.
• TeamsHub by Cyclotron automates MS Teams and other Office workloads such as SharePoint, Yammer, Planner and more, to enhance efficiency and empower employees. With an intuitive interface and zero programming, TeamsHub by Cyclotron helps your employees to focus on more valuable tasks that need human cognitive skills.

Summary

Changing technological infrastructure where your employees grew learning is certainly challenging and needs painstaking attention. Transitioning to Microsoft Office 365 presents a whole new way of working. As such, change management is must to minimize the risks of project implementation failure due to user repulsion.

As such, the adoption of tools like TeamsHub by Cyclotron is a rational decision to help you change your work culture and remove barriers like low adoption rate for successful cloud migration. In an automated environment of TeamsHub by Cyclotron, your employees will have the time, resources, and freedom to focus more on productive, innovative and creative tasks.

To know more about TeamsHub by Cyclotron, please visit our website https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com