The world is changing quickly. As much as businesses may want to keep up, it can be challenging to keep up with new digital trends. And that’s where things get even more complicated. A cloud-based platform like Office 365 comes with a lot of benefits, but it also presents unique challenges for businesses.
To help you navigate all the challenges, we’ve outlined 10 essential tips you need to know before adopting an office suite as part of your organization’s digital strategy.
Create a Roadmap for Adoption
Even if you’re eager to get started, you’ll find it substantially easier to adopt a cloud-based productivity tool if you create a roadmap first. This can help you:
– Identify the key reasons you’re choosing to go digital after all, why adopt new technology if you don’t have a good reason for doing so?
– Ensure you’re focusing on the right areas. You may be interested in moving to a digital solution for many reasons, but if none of them are relevant to your business, it’s likely to be a waste of time.
– Assess current and future needs. What areas do your employees need to be more productive? Is it just one person who needs to be more efficient?
– Set expectations for your budget. This roadmap can be invaluable when it comes to deciding how much time and investment you’re willing to devote to Office 365. You may want to focus on adoption in one area (for example, training your team or onboarding new clients), or across the board.
– Keep your eyes on other innovations
– Compare the timing of your decision to the adoption of other services like Slack and Trello.
Explain the Benefits of Office 365
The best way to get your staff on board is to show them how easy it can be to get things done. Make this your next step after creating your roadmap: Explain the benefits of going digital and building an audience for your newsletter and ad campaign. It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of adopting new technology. However, it’s crucial to approach it as an opportunity. Naturally, there will be challenges and they may even be more complicated if you’re using a cloud-based service like Office 365.
However, even the biggest challenges can be overcome with a bit of planning and effort. For this purpose, you can:
– Benchmark your business against your industry and competitors
– Measure your current productivity. Is it possible to use Office 365 to boost your team’s productivity even further?
– Optimize your business processes. Is it possible to streamline your day-to-day activities by re-using content?
– Improve employee engagement. Is it possible to use Office 365 as a tool for employee engagement?
– Make it look good. Does it make your organization look more professional to be using digital technology?
– Build brand awareness. Is it possible to use Office 365 as a tool for expanding your brand awareness?
Build an Audience for Your Newsletter and Ad Campaign
Once you’ve explained the benefits of going digital, you’ll need to turn that audience into followers. This can happen in two ways: by building an engaged audience of people who want to hear more about your adoption story, or by targeting an audience of people and businesses who need help with their adoption journey. For both options, you’ll want to keep your audience in mind as you:
Write your blog post and email campaigns:
- Keep your content fresh and your audience engaged by regularly publishing new blog posts and publishing and sending your newsletters.
- Keep your social media channels relevant by staying on top of relevant conversations. You can also keep your social media channels fresh and engaging. And don’t forget about search engine optimization—it’s not just about posting on social media!
- Create an office happy plan.
Make Sure Your Staff Is Trained and Onboard
It takes more than just one person to adopt new technology—and that’s true even if you’re using a cloud-based solution like Office 365. As with all new technologies, it’s crucial to train your team on how to best use them. This may involve using training videos to help your employees understand how to best use the tool, and how to understand the tool’s limitations.
It’s also important to keep your team up-to-date on your plans for moving toward digitalization. To keep your team on track, you may consider the following points.
– Doing small-group training sessions: Coaching is effective, but it can be expensive and time-consuming.
– Making regular training part of your daily workflow: This helps everyone stay productive, and keeps everyone up-to-date and informed on the latest trends and developments.
– Adding in familiarization and training days at the beginning of the project: This gives your team time to get used to new concepts and techniques and to get up to speed on new software and processes.
– Training your managers: This can help ensure your managers are aware of the latest developments and best equipped to help your team members make the most of new technology.
– Using gamification tools: This can help motivate your team members and keep them engaged and on track with your project.
– Digital Adoption Platform: Utilize the power of technology by using Office 365 Digital Adoption Platform. This will provide contextual training and help employees at one click.
Don’t Overcomplicate It
At the end of the day, the most important thing is to pick the right tool for your business. Make sure you choose the right tool for your team, industry, and budget. Once you’ve done that, you can start focusing on the technology itself.
Again, cloud-based services like Office 365 come with a lot of benefits, but they also present unique challenges for businesses.
Bottom Line
Digital transformation is a journey, and it takes time. If you’ve chosen to adopt Office 365, don’t rush it. Instead, take the time to get your team trained and ready to use the tool. Remember, it’s going to take time and effort to fully reap the benefits of moving to a cloud-based productivity solution. But with a bit of effort, you can ensure that your team is more productive, happier, and ready to face the future.