Last year, 2018, at CMSwire.com, I've been named one of the contributors of the year.

You may find the list of my articles here: Asif's Recent Articles.

If you are short on time to read all the articles, below are the summaries of the 5 most prominent articles that I have contributed.

As I've mentioned in the short interview, I've been working with Microsoft collaboration tools for almost 20 years. The larger bulk of my work revolves around helping companies make use of SharePoint and Office 365 to the fullest and as intended. We have even built a very successful digital adoption tool that helps employees to actually make use of the platforms after deployment. The tool enables companies to achieve a healthy return on technological investments.

These articles contain insights from my own experience as well as ideas inspired by the work of other professionals in our space. Also, we regularly run online classes and webinars where we invite speakers from a pool of some of the top experts on SharePoint and Office 365. As a subscriber, you can watch all the recorded webinars here: Office 365 Courses.

Stagnant or failed Office 365 adoption is bad. It is bad for productivity, for collaboration, for automation, for data security, for governance, for regulatory compliance, and for return on investment.

Moreover, companies that suffer from lagging digital adoption also find it difficult to update and keep up with the pace of digital innovation.

On improving SharePoint and Office 365 user adoption, here are some tips taken from my CMSwire.com 2018 articles.

Article summaries

1. How to Create a Sense of Urgency Around Office 365 Adoption Activities

Creating a sense of urgency around user adoption efforts is one of the most effective ways to ensure timely and successful adoption of the platform.

When this is done diligently, more people tend to participate, stick to the schedule, and sustain enthusiasm across the digital workplace.

Start with these simple steps.

• Highlight the negative consequences of delayed user adoption.
• Set precise deadlines on all activities in the program.
• And, make sure that you reward early action-takers so as to encourage the behavior.

You may read the full article here.

1. Change Managers: The Key to SharePoint and Office 365 Adoption

Organizational change is needed if sustainable SharePoint and Office 365 adoption is to be expected. And, a committed team of change managers is essential to the task of implementing the transformative steps and helping employees break the old working habits.

Appoint a strong team of change managers and assign clear roles and responsibilities. The roles may overlap and may include:

• Preparing the workforce for change;
• Creating and updating a comprehensive plan;
• Deploying training programs;
• Managing a contextual help system;
• Monitoring adoption activities;
• Tracking and measuring progress, etc.

You may read the full article here.

1. How Executives Can Lead the Way in SharePoint and Office 365 Adoption Efforts

SharePoint and Office 365 user adoption campaigns are more successful when executives are fully involved when leadership plays a role.

It is all about putting executives' influence to work:

• Take executive steps to remove roadblocks and make things easier;
• Become an exemplary user and lead by example; and
• Regularly, use live demos, case studies, and success stories to persuade the workforce to adopt the platforms, feature after feature.

You may read the full article here.

1. SharePoint Adoption Success Starts with Understanding Your Users

Even after long weeks of user adoption campaigns, some employees simply tend to stay behind. This is explained by the fact that, for some people, breaking old working habits is a bigger challenge. You can help them to take gradual steps but you need to understand their existing ways of working with documents. Only when you know why they struggle that you can come up with an effective strategy to help them make the transition successfully.

Corresponding by email and conducting surveys are not enough. You need to have them show you how they work with documents, the processes they follow, and the unauthorized third-party tools they use.

You may read the full article here.

1. Create SharePoint Governance Policies That Don't Block Adoption

SharePoint has capabilities that give digital workplaces plenty of options. It is essential that governance policies be in place to avoid chaos. However, not all governance policies are helpful; many actually discourage end users and impede use adoption.

To create rules that do not hinder usage: make sure that you fully understand the problems that end users are trying to solve; determine whether the rules you create are necessary; and see where just guidance may suffice.

Here is the bottom line: always make an effort to consider the negative implications that a governance policy may have on user adoption. Always think of a way to recommend best practices before you impose limitations. Create a rule only when necessary.

You may read the full article here.

Other helpful articles

There are great insights that I have shared in other articles. The titles include:

• How to Persuade Outlook Users to Adopt SharePoint;
• How Microsoft Teams Encourages Employee Collaboration;
• Office 365 Productivity Grows When Employees Become Evangelists; etc.

I continue to publish more articles to CMSwire.com; I hope I make the list of contributors of the year again next year. To be notified when a new article goes live, follow me on twitter @asifrehmani.

Your comments are always welcome!