The success of any cloud deployment depends on much more than just the technology itself. If your client’s users aren’t engaged in the process and trained on how to use the new system, it will be met with indifference at best, and flat out opposition at worst.
This is why change management is so important. Following a change management process ensures that your client’s entire organization is able to make smooth transitions to new technologies. For new cloud platforms to be properly adopted, users need to know both how to use their new applications and why switching to them matters.
Sherweb’s QuickHelp learning platform is an excellent tool to make sure both of those things happen.
See how QuickHelp can help your clients’ change management strategy, request a demo today!
Change management for cloud tech can be difficult
One of the biggest strengths of cloud platforms like Microsoft 365 is that they can constantly receive new features and functionality. But these newly developed tools only generate value for your clients if they’re actually used. And the regular updates that IT people like us see as a strength are often seen as a negative by business users.
Users don’t like change. In fact, the Harvard Business Review noted that more than 70% of all new business initiatives fail because project leaders don’t properly get users to buy into the process. Over time, change management methodologies, like Prosci, have become an integral part of IT projects to combat this problem.
But you don’t necessarily need a full-fledged methodology like Prosci to get Microsoft cloud services deployed for small business clients. Applying a few basic change management principles with the support of tools like QuickHelp can help you ensure new systems take hold.
Basic change management
1. Teach them why
Sometimes users will flatly resist change, but often it’s merely indifference to new tools that prevents them from being adopted. It’s not enough to jump straight into teaching users how to use a new service. They are more likely to use a new, unfamiliar cloud platform if they first understand why it’s valuable to them and the business. In other words, you should teach them why they should use a new service before you teach them how to use it.
Leadership is important here. Business leaders and supervisors need to buy into the new initiative and demonstrate their support. Be proactive and get easily digestible videos and tutorials in front of users that help them understand how everyone will benefit from the new technology.
2. Show them how
Once you’ve established buy-in across the organization, you can begin actually instructing users on how to use the new cloud technologies. Different people learn in different ways, so don’t try to force a one-size-fits-all training program onto an entire business. Consider different users’ needs, their experience levels with cloud technology, and their roles within the organization.
Getting everyone into a classroom for presentation-style training is increasingly difficult and expensive in modern workplaces. Schedules frequently don’t line up, and it can be downright impossible if you’re working with a distributed workforce. It’s much easier to move training online and break it up into small, easily digestible learning modules. You need modules that can be presented on a schedule or called up by users on demand when they want self-service help on a particular topic.
3. Turn knowledge into action
The ability to provide on-demand training right when it is needed is key to supporting ever-changing technologies like Office 365. Change management for cloud tech is an ongoing process, not a one-off event.
As users get more familiar with the system, make sure to get feedback on training to help keep it relevant. This feedback can take the form of basic surveys or direct polling, but it can also be generated through more interactive methods, like gamification rewards programs. Have users test their familiarity with new platforms in a fun competition with coworkers—they have an opportunity to build team unity, and you get data on user familiarity with different systems.
You can then update their learning platform to be as relevant as possible to their particular level of technology adoption.
QuickHelp is an ideal tool to support this kind of personalized three-step change management process.
So what is QuickHelp?
QuickHelp is a highly customizable learning platform designed to give users the exact information they need in short videos or interactive training modules. It is easy to adapt to individual clients and even each of their individual users. QuickHelp can deliver a personalized learning portal custom-tailored to each user’s specific needs on new cloud platforms.
There’s also a QuickHelp ribbon add-in for Office 365 that makes it easy for users to access the tool on demand whenever a question arises. And yes, it includes a gamification system where users can compete for badges and completion records with their coworkers.
QuickHelp helps your clients drive active use of their new Microsoft cloud products. It slots neatly into change management processes to guide user behavior in organizations of any size. For example, you can use it to steer users towards a single new platform to reduce redundant applications. Or you can encourage the adoption of mobile app usage that will make users more productive during travel time or other downtime in the workday. You can also target making specific behavioral changes, like encouraging users to switch from inefficient email use to more comprehensive communication tools like Microsoft Teams.
More than just a training tool
QuickHelp is more than just a simple support tool. It’s a powerful change management tool that organizations can use to improve performance and drive faster adoption of new cloud technology platforms. And when cloud technology becomes a valuable part of your clients’ businesses, it becomes a reliable revenue stream for you.
QuickHelp can turn skeptical users into full-throated advocates of new technology and help their organizations get the most out of those platforms. If you’re gearing up for a new Microsoft cloud migration, consider deploying QuickHelp to help ensure the new service sticks.
Contact Sherweb today to get your clients working more effectively with QuickHelp.
