How a Nationwide Trade Association used VisualSP to Re-energize Microsoft Cloud Adoption
A CASE STUDY
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Overview
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a trade body for the beef industry, had been struggling with SharePoint Online and Office 365 adoption after they moved from traditional file servers to the cloud in 2015. Many end users simply did not see the point in the new system, and the company’s IT team found they were resolving the same support issues over and again.
However, since deploying VisualSP in 2018, NCBA have seen a big turnaround in attitudes, much less frustration and far higher adoption rates. NCBA’s Executive Director of IT, Seo Tapia and SharePoint administrator Jessica Garcia describe the company’s journey.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA)
The NCBA is a trade association that represents the interests of the United States’ one million cattle farmers and ranchers.
| Industry | Location | Microsoft Office 365 | VisualSP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Denver, CO | Since 2015 | Since 2018 |
| Industry | Location | Microsoft Office 365 | VisualSP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Denver, CO | Since 2015 | Since 2018 |
Cloud Adoption Challenge
Until 2015, NCBA had been using the kinds of traditional file share servers that thousands of established small and medium sized organizations use to manage content. However, in 2015, the Colorado-based association chose to migrate to the cloud – expecting all the benefits that Microsoft’s cutting-edge technology can bring. However, they ran into issues that are common to businesses that make this move. Jessica Garcia elaborates: “We expected end users to intuitively navigate SharePoint Online.
“However, SharePoint is a big change to traditional file servers and people were confused about things like metadata, how to upload files or where to save things”. Because the cloud requires very different user behavior, many employees struggled to adopt the technology.
But that wasn’t the only problem. “We encountered a lot of resistance to change by people who were used to the old ways and didn’t see the point in the new tools,” says Seo Tapia – something that will be familiar to many IT managers who try to implement new tech. There were also cultural differences when using cloud-based technology. “There were changes occurring all the time in Office 365, so we had to keep up with that,” Tapia adds.
As a result of these issues, Garcia explains that the SharePoint admin team were continually fielding the same questions about basic functionality from staff. This meant she spent a lot of time and energy resolving simple problems over and again.
This combination of factors meant that when employees responded to an annual business-wide survey, frustration with technology and the lack of training was one of the key issues highlighted. NCBA knew something had to change.
Finding a Solution
“We knew that we had to improve the delivery of learning to our staff” says Garcia, and so the search for a solution began. Garcia explains that “people learn differently” and so the solution needed to support different ways of learning too:
Quick text-based learning for people who like to read information
Short videos that can help with common issues
The ability to make company-wide announcements
Ability to make viewing of certain notifications mandatory
Class-based, structured learning for those who need more support
Ultimately, NCBA chose VisualSP to meet many of these key goals. For Garcia, VisualSP stood out because it would allow her to create her own training content for NCBA’s custom apps, as well as the fact that learning could be delivered as pop-ups in context.
From an IT perspective, Tapia adds that VisualSP could help NCBA stay on top of new roll-outs in Office 365 and keep users trained: “That’s appealing for a small organization like ours and means we can stay ahead of the curve”.
Life with VisualSP
“I can confidently say VisualSP has had a very big impact” since its deployment in 2018, reports Garcia. Just looking at the usage analytics, “I can see that practically all staff have clicked on VisualSP help items at least once” she says. “Bearing in mind that some staff are much more accustomed to digital technology and need less help, that’s impressive”.
NCBA began using VisualSP for training in SharePoint Online. However, over time this has evolved, and they now use VisualSP for many other Office 365 apps as well as the company’s own custom tools and web applications.
This has led to many positive outcomes:
Relieves frustration
NCBA staff are more empowered to use technology and find it less of a ‘blocker’.
Reduced support tickets
From the IT side, Tapia notes that there are now fewer support tickets coming through than before for ‘basic’ problems.
Greater Office 365 usage
NCBA has noticed that users are now exploring more of the apps and tools available in Office 365 – which boosts productivity and ROI.
Covid-19 ready
With most employees working remotely during the pandemic, Garcia notes that VisualSP played an important role in supporting the organization to use Office 365.
Appropriate learning
Because different people learn in different ways, the variety of training options in VisualSP means most people’s learning needs are met.
“We feel very good about our investment in VisualSP” says Tapia. For both Garcia and Tapia, the technology has already “paid for itself” in terms of time saved and productivity boosted.
And, encouragingly, Tapia reports that: “since we deployed VisualSP, the negative comments about business technology in our annual user survey have melted away”.
A Partnership with a Bright Future
“VisualSP have been wonderful to work with” Garcia says, pointing to readily available support, a responsive help desk and the opportunity to even speak directly with VisualSP’s CEO if needed. “They have also been open to us providing any ideas on how the product could be further improved” she adds.
Tapia also praises the ease of working with VisualSP, and specifically highlights how effective communications are around changes to the product. He also likes that VisualSP is “a stable solution which, while continuously improving, doesn’t reinvent itself all the time”. This is critical because it means “users get comfortable with using VisualSP”.
These benefits mean that for Tapia and NCBA as a whole, VisualSP will “remain an important component of our training delivery” now, and for years to come.
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