Always walking the walk and eating our own dog food…
We’re delighted to announce that a batch of us change management gurus at The Inform Team are now certified Microsoft Service Adoption Specialists! It’s the first time Microsoft has launched a certification in the adoption of technology; and, we really welcome it as it cements the integral role that user adoption plays in making a technology transformation programme successful. Combined with our Prosci change management certification and our own approach to technology adoption – Establish, Excite, Equip, Embed™ – we have the hattrick of technology change management methodology!
A significant portion of our projects are focused on the deployment and adoption of Microsoft Office 365, so having this certification means we’ve passed the test on how to:
- Structure a service adoption team and drive the adoption of Office 365 and Microsoft Teams in a cloud environment.
- Write a collaboration and communications service strategy.
- Quantify and select success measures for an adoption programme.
- Work with the technical team to ensure service readiness and quality.
- Produce and deliver scalable user feedback methods.
And, the project scenario we had to work on to be awarded the certification was based on Microsoft Teams, which as we know is the Microsoft topic ‘de jour’. We strongly believe that Microsoft Teams is the biggest change in how we communicate since email. Plus, it’s driving a demand by our clients for us to get more involved in the planning of technology change, because this latest iteration by Microsoft is truly transformative in how we work.
In fact, so dominant is the Microsoft Teams conversation, it prompted us to add ‘Establish’ to our existing ‘Excite, Equip, Embed’ approach to technology adoption. Two of the most common challenges we are being asked to solve is ‘how to govern Teams’ and ‘what does best-practice look like in Teams’? With our clients seeking more consultancy around planning and implementing governance and best-practice to support their Microsoft Office 365 technology transformation, it made sense to create the ‘Establish’ phase. It builds the foundations and gives stability to a change programme!
And, we really don’t see this certification as taking away our ‘bread and butter’, but rather that it will add to it. The certification helps people to gain an understanding of change management theory and we can see how it would support stakeholders and champions, who get involved in change programmes and onboarding. However, having the certification doesn’t give you the strategy or the tactics to create and deliver a technology change management programme or the experts to execute it. We’re just loving that by having this certification available to people who want to know more about technology adoption, that it will make our lives easier as people will have a better understanding of it.
If you’d like to have a chat with us about deploying and adopting Microsoft Office 365 in your organisation, get in touch.
As Microsoft ninjas, we swot up every month on what’s new with Microsoft to share with our readership; and, just like our software heroes we eat our own dog food by living and breathing the Microsoft Teams way of life.
