This series has focused on the importance of having a strategy for driving the adoption of UC in your organization, and concludes by addressing the third leg of an overall framework for decision-makers to follow. Unlike most forms of legacy technology, IT’s job with UC doesn’t end once it’s deployed. For example, when the phone system is upgraded, IT can move on to other projects, as workers already know how to use the phones.
UC is more ethereal – workers won’t know it’s there or know what to do with it unless the door is opened for them. Some will discover the features on their own, but IT needs everyone using UC for it to truly be successful.
As such, IT’s job is really just beginning when UC is deployed. The real work comes from creating awareness – opening the door – and driving usage so workers can experience the benefits of UC. As noted in my last post, workers don’t think in terms of UC – they just want to have the tools needed to do their work. Sometimes they only need one communications mode, but other times, they need multiple modes, and that’s where UC brings the most business value.
To realize that value, IT needs to make UC as easy to use as possible, and that’s where the strategy comes in. The first leg is to take stock so you have a baseline of how collaboration gets done now. Building on that, the second leg is to adopt an end user-centric approach to UC to ensure that you go with the right solution based on the needs of your workforce.
The third and final leg pertains to how IT can support workers to realize UC’s potential, and that’s the focus of this post. There’s too much risk to leave this up to workers to figure out on their own, and for your strategy to work, a support plan must be worked out in advance so it’s there once UC is deployed. Your chances of success will be far greater when UC hits the ground running rather than waiting for workers to ask questions and only then providing support.
Ideally, support resources should be developed in-house so they can be tailored specifically to your workforce and organizational culture. That won’t always be possible, and there’s an important role here to be played by both the UC vendors and the channels they often rely on to serve you. Their success, of course, also rests on end user adoption, so you should very much look to them for help. However you choose to approach this leg of your strategy, here are some prime examples of resources and approaches to make UC adoption both easy and beneficial.
FAQ section to explain UC, how it differs from what they have now, how it can improve productivity, streamline processes, etc.
User forums where workers can ask questions, post tips, share best practices, etc.
While online tools serve as on-demand resources, some workers will need in-person contact to get comfortable with UC. One form would be training sessions, perhaps one-on-one, or for groups, such as project teams or departments. Depending on internal resources, this training could be high-level for everyone, or with tiers ranging from novice to expert.
Whatever form training takes, it should not be viewed as a one-and-done exercise. Introductory training will be needed to accelerate general adoption, but ongoing training will also be needed, both to keep workers engaged with UC, as well as introducing them to new features and capabilities as they are added over time.
This could be your most powerful tool for driving adoption, especially for creating a sense of ownership among workers with UC. By the time you deploy UC, you’ll be quite familiar with the concept, but most of your employees won’t. Another approach you can take here is to find the early adopters in your organization, especially those who will really embrace UC. These people can serve as your UC evangelists, and can be invaluable in helping drive adoption.
IT may need to get creative to co-opt these evangelists – perhaps with gamification – but every organization will have people like this. You may be surprised to find that some will welcome this role and genuinely enjoy teaching others. This approach could be particularly effective among teams or departments who could benefit considerably from UC based on the nature of their work.
These should be your initial targets from which to draw evangelists, as adoption here will produce the fastest results. With those proof points in hand, IT will have an easier time using evangelists elsewhere to build adoption more broadly across your organization.
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