For most digital workplaces, spending money on technology doesn't always lead to the desired outcome. Typically, the problem is not the digital tool itself but the lack of people using it.
For example, SharePoint has proven to be a valuable tool for working with all digital documents. The only difference between the companies that utilize SharePoint and those that turn it into shelfware, is the focus on driving organizational change by helping employees migrate from old working habits to adopting new ones. Overcoming the human side of technology is fundamental.
Greater user adoption can turn a digital tool into a digital asset. This is especially true regarding SharePoint and Office 365.
Given this reality, many organizations still hesitate to focus on the people side of technology. One explanation for this oversight is the outdated perception of IT departments.
Traditionally, IT teams would deploy a digital tool, ensure that everything works as expected, and call it a “job well done”. Most would agree with the statement, "Our job is to make technology available to people, business teams will take care of driving usage”.
With the accelerated pace of digital innovation today, this approach is not sustainable, especially as digital transformation requires continuous improvements to be made.
IT teams need to expand their roles and responsibilities in order to make sure that not only the digital tools are optimized, but also that they start to help everyone make use of the tools to the fullest extent.
To keep up with the pace of digital innovations, companies have to modernize their IT departments and make them responsive to the needs of digital adoption. Besides, they have the best understanding of the technologies that are in place.
It's accepted that IT teams be the masters of all digital technologies but it's critical for them to also pave the way for digital adoption.
As commonly described: user adoption deals with customers, vendors, and suppliers adopting digital tools; and internal user adoption deals with employees adopting them. It is a mistake to fully delegate the former to the customer service department and the later to the human resources department. A company’s IT department has to fully assume this responsibility and find synergies across multiple departments for greater adoption success.
It is only when digital adoption becomes a fundamental role of IT personnel that SharePoint and Office 365 can be used extensively enough to yield maximum benefits.
Human resources managers should help in building a team of change managers tasked with planning, implementing, and monitoring user adoption campaigns. But IT managers should be at the forefront of all major decisions since it is they who understand the makeup of all 4 key drivers of digital adoption: building better solutions, creating smart governance policies, providing context-sensitive help, and generating usage analytics.
Finally, it's not enough to simply give your IT team new things to do; you have to motivate them. You need to make sure that they get recognized for their efforts in promoting a continual transformation of your digital workplace. Here is why.
When trying to sell a solution to a decision-maker within an organization, it is likely the executive will think, "Well … I'm not going to be rewarded for implementing this new solution, why should I undertake this risky initiative; what if it has a disruptive negative impact on people’s work?".
It's common knowledge that most people have an instinctive adverse attitude toward change initiatives. Moreover, it is evident that hesitation-to-innovate is partly due to the fact that innovators seldom get rewarded for their team's creative efforts.
If you are not recognized for successfully implementing a better solution, why take the risk? Besides, no innovative initiative is without risk: things can go wrong and someone's job may be on the line.
Given this reality, which may well be the case in your organization, it is imperative that you make digital adoption and continual digital innovation, part of your IT department’s roles and responsibilities. And make sure they are recognized every time they are able to improve business outcomes, even slightly.
With proper recognition of their efforts to make a digital place more collaborative, more productive, and more agile, IT teams will easily welcome innovative projects and foster a culture of continual digital transformation in the company.
A modern IT department is that which does not delay change.
Modernize your IT department to ensure that SharePoint and Office 365 are used to the fullest extent. With time, you will build a team that keeps your digital place ahead of the competition.
Download a checklist of the items that can't be missed in order to achieve maximum user adoption.
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