Boost Business Productivity and Collaboration: A Microsoft Teams Tool Guide

Business Productivity and Collaboration

The right collaboration tools can have a huge positive impact on productivity.

But collaboration can’t always wait for a scheduled meeting. In the workplace, casual conversations become working sessions at a moment’s notice. Whether they’re at the water cooler or across the world, colleagues need the ability to create, share and contribute without friction.

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4 Steps to Modern Collaboration with Microsoft Teams


Want your business to stay competitive? Change the way you do business.

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People First: How to Succeed with Teams Adoption

Change is painful 

Change is not automatic. Human behavior tells us that change is hard and it takes time.

Gone are the days when IT departments turned on new technologies without input from their end users. “Deploy it and they will come” doesn’t work. There’s no “one size fits all” solution.

Successful adoption of Teams is more than the introduction of a new product. It’s about a change in behavior and change is all about people. Organizations are made of up innovators, laggards and everything in between.

Each time new technology is introduced organizations will experience a dip in productivity. Only 34% of people are considered early adopters and willing to adopt new technology. This means the remaining user population needs help in understanding how a solution like Teams will benefit them. Then they can get past that initial fear and resentment and learn to embrace the new technology.

What is change management? 

We hear the term “change management” all the time but what does it really mean? In essence, change management is a framework for handling the people side of change. Any time an organization implements change, the only way they will realize success is if individuals change, too. A change management framework allows organizations to realize the benefits and desired outcomes of change. Change implementation without a proper framework is fruitless because it won’t address the need to change people’s behavior.

Without this change in people, adoption doesn’t happen. Change in technology is so rapid and constant in today’s world that end users can’t keep up. They end up freeing frustrated and overwhelmed. Organizations struggle to get their users on-board. They’re looking for someone to coach them through the journey to successful adoption. With this support in place, they enhance their probability of achieving success, realizing return on investment, increasing productivity and reducing user resistance.

What are the pillars of a successful Teams adoption? 

Adoption isn’t just one task. A successful adoption plan is more than just training users on the features and functionality of Teams.  It’s a continuous journey that requires a well-considered course of action, including:

  • A clear vision that identifies how the organization will use Teams and its expected business outcomes
  • Executive leadership and stakeholder support to encourage use of new tools and drive cultural change
  • Input on the way people work today, their challenges and pain points and the opportunities they see for improvement
  • A plan mapping user requirements to the technology’s capabilities to solve problems, making it easier for people to see the connection between Teams and how they do their daily work
  • An awareness and communications campaign that communicates the upcoming change and generates excitement among the end-user population
  • End-user training that details how people can use Teams to accomplish their goals
  • Continuous communication and education to encourage ongoing usage of Teams

Enabling Success 

A change in technology is all about people. Softchoice helps organizations enable their end users for success through a combination of adoption, change management and end-user training. Our Adoption Services experts partner with you to coach you through all stages of the adoption journey to minimize any productivity dip and ensure your users are part of the process. As a result, they will recognize what’s important and feel empowered to embrace Teams as a positive outcome.

Ready to jumpstart your digital workplace?

Don’t miss the previous articles in our series on how you can get the best value out of Microsoft Teams:

Achieve more with your technology and start the conversation around end-user productivity with one of our experts.