M A N D A R I N E A C A D E M Y

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Marc Benioff’s often quoted statement could have been made at any time since the first industrial revolution and developments in technology have brought incredible benefits to our lives and business. Some of us embrace these changes, upgrading our phones at the earliest opportunity, and putting our name down for a Tesla Model 3, but many more don’t like change and even the most seemingly simple of changes in a business, like upgrading to Office 365, poses more of a challenge than is ever predicted.

By nature, humans are resistant to change. Unless we believe that change is going to be in our best interest, we will not go for it. So adapting to new software that does things we never thought we needed or that changes the way we work is not going to be very welcome. But effective e-learning solutions can make the transition to new technology far easier and even enjoyable.

End-user training is the most significant aspect of the successful adoption of a technology implementation in any organization, as it helps users accept change. It is the end user that ultimately decides whether the new services produce the predicted efficiencies or whether they are an unwanted annoyance that drains an employee’s productivity. For new rollouts, such as adopting Office 365, it is important for the users not to be left on their own, but to be trained to understand the benefits for their role and their day to day work life.

Many people see Office 365 as just an upgrade of the familiar Microsoft Office suite but with all the additional elements it is far more involved than that. To expect users to understand these new elements, to adopt them into day to day work practices and to use them in the way the company prescribes is optimistic at best, and in reality, it is foolish and will result in failure. While a user may understand the core suite such as Word and Excel, the introduction of Skype for Business, Yammer, One Drive, Sway and more will leave many users confused. Understanding which elements they need to use for their role is just as important as how they use them.

A one size fits all approach will not produce the same results as role-based training which enables end-users to be trained based on their job roles and responsibilities. Users are trained on all the elements relevant to their jobs. Each element can be as a stand-alone module and assigned to an individual employees learning path based on their role. The HR department and the Marketing team may be trained on Sway to create training resources or to augment communications, while the project team may need to learn how to use Delve to effectively share their work across an organisation.

Or there could be a need for a bespoke training program that relates not just to usage of the elements of Office 365, but also to the relationship of those elements to the other tools that are used in a business, and their relevance to company process and policy.

The role of effective and relevant training cannot be overstated in the success of any implementation that effects end users’ day to day work. And while technology will continue to change, and at a pace that many may find dizzying, we can help end users embrace and benefit from these changes through role based training.

Contact us now for more information about our solutions!