What actions for a successful adoption of Office 365 tools?Temps de lecture : 5 minutes

Recurrence is certainly one of the biggest challenges when it comes to user adoption. Indeed, when you decide to change your IT tools, you certainly opt for tools that will help user adoption, such as tutorials, training…you plan how the tools will be used, and how to implement them within the company.

Is buying training tools the solution?

Let’s take an example, if you want your employees to adopt Office 365 tools, you will buy training dedicated to Office 365. Commonly, training tools generally include :

• Videos: very often of short duration – from 30s to 5 minutes maximum – videos explaining features. For example, how to connect to Office 365, how to share a document, how to co-edit a document, and much more.
• Videos explaining a concept: for example videos on how to use Office 365 applications in different situations.
• A training portal for a quick and easy access to all resources.

Of course, just buying them won’t help. After the purchase of training tools, it will be necessary to ensure that users use them. In fact, you will likely need to create an adoption plan that will justify the purchase of these training tools from end users.

Awareness and relevance

To get users to sign up to use Office 365, it is necessary to make them aware of the product, here Office 365, in the company. Whether it is by posting in the premises or by newsletter, for example, it is important to get the right messages across. Explain the reasons for this change of tools, the benefits they will bring, inform important dates (migration, start of training…), why training, and why this training format. We talked about recurrence at the beginning of this article, that’s when it’s most important. Indeed, users will certainly be resistant at first and will think that it is not for them. But, it is by dint of repetition that their opinion will change. For example, they may think that videos on OneNote won’t do them any good until you talk about it through a newsletter or a meeting, which will explain the interest of the product in their daily life. They will begin to take an interest in it and perhaps even use it.

Another key element to ensure that the training you purchase is used, it must be relevant to users. Each profile must be able to be found there. Unless you are a startup, your company is composed of different services that do not have the same needs. This means segmenting your user population into personas. A persona representing a group of users with similar needs and ways of working. For example, a project manager will have to create appointments and follow tasks via Outlook and Planner while a manager will have to relay information with his collaborators via Teams. This will help to understand which business needs which tools, which will allow you to give access to the right tools to each person and thus avoid giving access to unnecessary tools and disturb the users. The same will therefore apply to training. By targeting the right tools, training will only be beneficial and better perceived because it will meet exactly the business needs of each user.

What tools for successful adoption?

Once you have identified the people within your company, you can implement actions to help adoption. In particular by targeting each person with the right communication.

• Email: you can use email to communicate on a particular training topic with a particular persona. This will allow you to track openings and clicks. By targeting your email audience with the right personalized message, you can easily reach 20% opening. Don’t forget to include links, images or testimonials to make the newsletters attractive.
• Printed materials: posters, flyers, brochures. Create specific content and distribute it to the right people will serve as a permanent reminder; Imagine, for example, a flyer distributed to project managers with a reminder of the training platform, where to find it and what to find, targeting tools to use as Project.
• Digital supports: Considering that in each service, a digital support is installed, shooting a video explaining the training platform is a very good way to remind that the platform is accessible.
• Live events: whether webinars or short meetings over a meal, you can with this format target people by inviting them, explaining the purpose of the training and letting everyone speak for questions.
• Champions of change: Identify the people who will be your champions. People who will quickly adopt the tools and training. Those who will be most likely to influence other collaborators on the benefits of taking the training
• Customization: The customization of the platform is essential to allow users to have access to a unique experience based on their needs. This customization can be done on a graphic level but also on a content level.

In summary, when you purchase training materials to facilitate user adoption, training is essential, but you will need to plan how the end user will use the training. The best way to do this is to ensure that the training meets their needs. To enable this, it will be necessary to reflect on the habits of each profession and their daily work. It is by identifying people and using their needs that communication efforts, which must be recurring and relevant, will produce results. Be sure to track user behavior to know if your campaigns and targeting are effective.