In our series of articles about improving the usage and value of Microsoft 365 through a pragmatic training and adoption programme, we have taken a path from identifying your training needs to putting the building blocks in place for an effective champion network. In this final article, we consider how the management of the Microsoft 365 environment is an important element of a training and adoption programme.
Even though Microsoft 365 takes away a lot of the burdensome management and administration associated with legacy on-premises solutions, there are still many tasks and activities that need to be completed. However, in our experience, many organisations introduce Microsoft 365 without full consideration of the management and support processes that are needed to ensure the smooth running of the environment.
We are all familiar with the teams that are formed to implement a new enterprise-wide business system, involving analysis, configuration, testing and support. These teams endure throughout the life or use of the product, yet we see little evidence of any similar levels of management and control over Microsoft 365.
Without establishing operating principles, it is going to be difficult to effectively identify and mitigate risks inherent in the use of Microsoft 365, integrate Microsoft 365 applications and features to support your organisation, and effectively respond to any changes that arise both within your organisation and from Microsoft.
By implementing an appropriate operational support model, your organisation will be in the best position to support your overarching training and adoption programme.
You’ll be better able to understand and manage the risks and opportunities in cloud productivity and improve the employees’ adoption of the applications and features, all working towards the ultimate goal of getting the best value from your organisation’s investment in Microsoft 365.
This sounds all very well and reasonable but how do you start improving your operational support model?
Of course, it might seem to be a difficult thing to achieve, but to get you going, and as part of our modular Training and Adoption delivery process, we have created a project accelerator. This accelerator provides a structured approach designed to kick-start the development of your organisation’s operational excellence.
We’ll help you by reviewing your existing service management processes and methodology to understand exactly how you are working now and identify where there are gaps or improvements that can be made.
We’ll provide advice, guidance, and support to help you secure executive sponsorship, often one of the most difficult aspects of delivering adoption-led projects.
At the core of this mini-project, we’ll develop an operational support model that will define the structure, roles, responsibilities and activities needed to ensure that your Microsoft 365 environment is operated, administered and managed appropriately and effectively.
Finally, we’ll help you to define a schedule and plan to implement the model by developing the team, partnerships and processes that are required.
In this series of articles, we have identified the key steps that are the keys to a pragmatic and effective training and adoption programme:
Our experienced adoption consultancy team has worked with many organisations across multiple sectors to design, develop and realise effective, pragmatic and customer-relevant user adoption programmes that really work and we’d love to help you and your organisation get the best out of your Microsoft 365 investment.
So, please don’t hesitate to contact us for a no-obligation chat to discuss your requirements.
