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Remediation Project – Skype for Business

  • “Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the customer gets out of it”
    Peter Drucker

  • “Treat employees like they make a difference. And they will”
    Jim Goodnight

  • “Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned”
    Anonymous

  • “We look at our users’ interests, without our users we don’t have business”
    Jerry Yang

  • “We look at our users’ interests, without our users we don’t have business”
    Jerry Yang

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Remediation Project – Skype for Business

Clientskype meetings pic

Multi-national Financial Services firm, 30,000+ employees globally.

Challenge

The IT team at a global organisation was tasked with deploying software tools to support a key business strategy/organisational roadmap which required re-alignment of all locations to an “Agile Workspace”, replacing traditional conferencing, collaboration and telephony tools with a single platform, Skype for Business. This US-based project was “step one” in the process of transitioning away from their legacy conferencing system to a new conferencing methodology, utilizing Skype for Business. Skype for Business is one transformative component of the Microsoft O365 ecosystem.

Summary

The incumbent conferencing system for 1,000+ users in a major US location was replaced by Skype for Business. The upgrade was performed without any formal User Adoption campaign, resulting in a sub-optimal employee experience, which created a significant threat to the further deployment of the Skype for Business solution and resulted in a challenging level of user scepticism.

Solution

Firefly was asked to evaluate the situation and develop a plan to remediate issues and provide training and support to approximately 1,000 impacted users.  Firefly developed a multi-faceted strategy, including:

  • User Adoption Classroom Session: Instructor Led Classroom sessions, creating hands-on real work scenario’s to enable participants to experience the possibilities of the new technology, not simply the challenges;
  • Floorwalking: Firefly User Adoption specialists, wearing branded tee shirts, identifying them as “Skype for Business Champions” and carrying scripted questions and structured fault tickets, deployed across all locations and worked on a one on one basis with users, providing instruction, fault resolution and an open and helpful ear.
  • Customised 1:1 Sessions : Firefly Lead User Adoption Specialists contacted a selection of key stakeholders and LOB User Champions and scheduled 1:1 S4B learning sessions with them. These sessions helped to turn the tide of fear and negativity that had developed since the new technology deployment, and built key employee confidence.

Results

Following three consecutive weeks of evaluation and careful planning, and despite the lack of a formal “sign up” mechanism, Firefly successfully trained and assisted approximately 70% of the user community.

Firefly’s User Adoption program dramatically improved user sentiment across the entire user community, as well as within the desktop support teams, enabling the progression of the Agile Workspace initiative.

Method:
  • Define: Start with a collaboration workshop.  Listen, Discuss and Understand the business objectives, the technology and the users to understand the best practice for user adoption. Create the ‘Project Charter’ that defines and satisfies all parties of the approach.
  • Execute: Create awareness campaign which includes introductions to all stakeholders, email communications, local signage and scheduling. Deliver user training as defined: 1 to 1, groups, clinics or workshop sessions. Monitor acceptance and feedback to ensure progress is on target for delivery and success
  • Reinforce: To support our initial time with the users, we provide additional collateral, mop up sessions, training / refresher surgeries, go live support (floor walking), day 2 and BAU. A Firefly Adoption Program ensure the users’ perception of the project and the adoption of the technology is high, using our reinforcement plans. It is key to delivering the business goals.
  • Measure: Firefly are firm believers in measuring success and  provide analysis and reporting on attendance and user trends, user feedback either face to face or via a survey.  This analysis proves to be exceptionally beneficial for our clients but also for Firefly to ensure we meet our objectives. We are believers in continual self- improvement to remain focused and dedicated to service excellence.