Recent Discussions
Status of Microsoft Places
In a community call last year, there was a demo of Microsoft Places. Can anyone provide an update regarding the release date of this? We are interested in the hotel desk component of this tool. Also, is it going to be part of the Microsoft 365 licenses, Teams Premium, etc.? Thank you.WHEN TO USE WHAT - Collaboration tools in Office 365
Hello, community! I would love to see some "when to use what" resources you have for some inspiration! I had to update the one we have internally today, and the reality is that this topic never stops trending. Users are still confused... so please tell me WHEN TO USE WHAT? I found another topic in the community on this but is from 2016. I felt the need of getting some fresh perspective. What is the latest when to use what? To get started I am sharing here the communication we have in Kellogg. Would love to get your perspectives and your feedback! What app do you think is formal, informal or any tone? What app do you think is slow or fast?
How do you measure adoption success?
How do you measure adoption success? In the FastTrack Office 365 Adoption Guide, Microsoft lays out an end-to-end view of a successful Office 365 rollout. One of the key steps in the FastTrack deployment guide is defining what success looks like and defining measurable goals accordingly. Phase 3 of the FastTrack Adoption Guide - Drive Value involves resources and advice around measuring success. As FastTrack indicates “driving adoption is a continuous cycle that doesn’t end after launch or measuring impact.” With that in mind, the metrics and resources discussed below are meant to be tracked over time to ensure continuous use and added value to the business. Here are some of the Adoption Measurement Resources that can help guide you in defining success and tracking adoption after rollout. 1. Microsoft’s Measuring Success Guide 2. Sample User Satisfaction Surveys – While quantitative metrics undoubtedly are a strong way to measure usage rates and ROI, qualitative end-user satisfaction surveys are another valuable way to collect information around adoption. User surveys are a means to gather quotes and more personalized evidence of the success of a deployment. Surveys also make end-users feel more involved in the solution process. Providing a clear picture of business impact, specifically related to ROI, can be a daunting task as Office 365 impacts many areas across the business. The resources above can help you think through both how to gauge adoption at an individual end-user level and on a broader scale understand how O365 is adding business value. Want to learn more about adoption metrics? Check out these links: · New Office 365 Adoption Resources (Jim Dubois Webinar) · O365 Admin Center - Reporting Portal
Microsoft Teams Chat vs Channel Posts
In my experience, people tend to avoid posting in Microsoft Teams channels and use chat to communicate with team members instead. My guess is that the reluctance to post in channels is tied to the fear of speaking in public, which is more or less what posting in channels is: putting your thoughts/questions out there for the group to see. I think, from a knowledge management perspective, posting in channels is a lot more useful, and chat certainly has its place, for quick questions, etc., but how to convince team members to adopt the use of team/project related discussions in channels? What is your experience with this? Are team members posting in channels? Should team leads set/define the standards? Does it matter?Where Does End-User Adoption Start?
This April, we're putting the focus on conversations in the Driving Adoption community. We kick off the discussion with insights from Microsoft research we conducted on IT Pros. Where Does End-User Adoption Start? End-user adoption is clearly top of mind. In our research last year, 87% of IT Pros said that driving Office 365 end-user adoption was a priority initiative in the next two years. But “adoption” refers to a wide-range of actions – some of which occur before you even deploy a new product. We asked IT Pros what adoption actions either their organizations or they, as individuals, were involved in. High-maturity cloud companies (companies with 6+ products in the cloud) were more likely to engage in pre-deployment adoption activities. Already deployed? There are still plenty of actions you can take now! In April, we’ll be discussing end-user adoption best practices, success stories, sharing resources, and answering your questions. We’ll elaborate on the actions we listed above and open the conversation to discuss any challenges/questions you have on the community! What adoption actions do you or your organization take? When did the conversation around end-user adoption start? Read these other posts featured during 'End User Adoption' month: Case Study #1: Adoption as a Marketing Campaign Case Study #2: Outsourcing Adoption Case Study #3: Organic Discovery vs Forced Adoption Friday Feature: NunoAriasSilva: 'The biggest challenge in customers adopting new technologies is helping them understand the value of technology by its features compared to its price. Some customers only upgrade their systems by feature by end of support.' Read his interview here. John White: 'If users can't see value immediately, we need to be able to demonstrate the value of a platform in order to overcome this skepticism, or resistance to change.' Read his interview here. DeletedUser2246: 'The main way I work to influence the skeptics to change is to find at least one or two little things that annoy them and make it better.' Read his interview here. Deleted: 'I make complicated things simple, relatable, and sometimes even fun. That’s been my reason for existing as a communications and change manager for more than 20 years.' Read her interview here. The Irony of Change: Think much has changed since 1985? Think again. How Do You Measure Adoption Success? Useful resources on adoption metrics. Expanding the IT Skill Toolbox: Change Management Skills. A post from a previous month's theme of IT Career Skills but relevant to this month's theme. Office 365 Adoption Guide: Matt Wolodarsky shares a useful adoption resource from Microsoft. When Adoption Goes Wrong: The community shares stories to help you learn what not to do when it comes to driving adoption. Getting Creative with Adoption: Some cool and sometimes unconventional ways people have driven adoption in their organization. Consumer vs Enterprise Adoption: Interesting post from Simon Terry highlighting the different approaches. The Growing Interest in End User Adoption: Blog post from Debbie Arbeeny from the Skype for Business team about the expansion in focus on end user adoption. Connecting with People to Drive Adoption: Sharon Liu explores three ways you might engage users in driving adoption. Reimagine the Workplace with Office 365: Cian Allner shares 360 degree videos showcasing collaboration, analytics and security in the modern workplace using Office 365 from the Microsoft Canada Customer Immersion Experience. Save Save Save SaveHelp your users be successful with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 with training & tips in their inbox
As a steward for your business, you’re always looking for ways to help your users get more from the technology you provide to them. We’ve heard from admins that one way to achieve this is with product tips and training content that their users can quickly use. This content often is available at the Office 365 Training Center , but users must currently seek it out themselves—and too often, they don’t. Email for product tips and training is coming The new email content from Microsoft will include only tips and training relevant to products and services you have enabled for your users. Be assured that we will not send your users sales, marketing, or advertising messages. Here is an example of a training email. Phased rollout We recognize that smaller organizations are juggling different priorities and often their IT admins wear multiple hats. That’s why we’ll start by sending the email communications to subset of customers that have Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, and subscriptions in the US and Australia. If you are an administrator for an organization that is part of this rollout, you’ll receive a notification in the Message Center, as well as an email reminder seven days before the first training tips email is sent to your users. Please note that you will be notified by the message center before the first training email is sent to your users. All training emails will only be sent from MicrosoftOffice365@email2.office.com email address. Admin is in control As the administrator for your organization, you’re in control. You have the flexibility to unsubscribe from these emails at any time on behalf of your organization by switching the ‘End User Communications’ setting to Off in the admin center. You can always subscribe later by changing the setting to On. Follow these steps to unsubscribe your organization from the training emails: 1. Sign In to the admin center 2. Click on Show all from the left navigation bar 3. Click on Settings 4. Click on Services & add-ins 5. Click on End User Communications 6. Change the setting and click on Save If you leave the email messages enabled for your organization, individual users can still unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the Unsubscribe link in the email footer. Users can also visit the Security & privacy page of their My Account Portal to unsubscribe. Preview the first training email and send it yourself Seven days before the first message is sent to users, global admins will be sent an email reminder with the opportunity to preview the content. This preview email will be sent only for the initial training content. If you prefer to send the training email yourself, just unsubscribe at the tenant level, then download a ready-to-send template from the preview email and send the first training email at your convenience. Give us feedback We’re always listening and learning from you. Please continue to provide feedback using the feedback button within the admin center.
Events
Join our next community call on March 25, 2025, to deep dive into the new features in SharePoint Pages and News, including flexible sections!
Host: Tiffany Lee
Guest: Katelyn Helms
Moderator:...
Online
Join our next community call on March 25, 2025, to deep dive into the new features in SharePoint Pages and News, including flexible sections!
Host: Tiffany Lee
Guest: Katelyn Helms
Moderator:...
Online
Recent Blogs
- Join our next community call on March 25, 2025. There were so many questions about the new features in SharePoint Pages and News, especially around flexible sections, that we're bringing a SharePoint...Mar 13, 2025
- Join our next community call on February 25, 2025, where we'll be diving into SharePoint sites and pages, as well as learning more about the new AI capabilities. In case you missed the announcement...Feb 19, 2025
