Understanding the Challenges of Office 365

The title of this blog may lead you to believe that this post is going to be an Office 365 bashing. If that's what you're looking for, you can stop at this point; if however, you are looking for some insight as to why this is the case and how to avoid it, read on.

On an almost daily basis, managers of Office 365 tenants get email updates (Digests) about what is new on the platform. Microsoft is delivering on their promise to enhance the platform continually. The changes are visible day-to-day as you use both the deployed and online tools. Even as someone who loves to play with the new features, I find it hard to keep up with everything, and months later need a bit of catch-up to feel back in the know.

So, if someone committed to "playing" and taking charge in stride is feeling swamped, what about your average user just trying to get their work done? Unfortunately, this is not pretty, and over the past 12 months, I've been involved in three projects addressing the following emerging issues related to Office 365:

  1. Groups/Sections/Individuals of users within an enterprise using the applications differently.
  2. Users "losing" or having issues "finding stuff".
  3. Users completely lost in the change.

User feedback around Office from a decade ago has transitioned from issues about slow services or not having the latest versions to usability and how to best use a powerful set of tools.

While enterprises have embraced the technology and quickly moved to rollout tools requiring less time to deploy than older desktop solutions, users often struggle to realize the benefits.

Three projects in 12 months may not seem huge, but I've been approached about several similar initiatives, and the symptoms are the same. It's not so much that a new industry is emerging, but to ensure success, a focus on strategy and change management is becoming crucial.

By design, Office 365 can be "everything to everyone"; but this doesn’t mean it should be a free-for-all. As with all open platforms, the onus is often on the user to figure out the best way to use the platform. Just because SharePoint is available doesn’t mean you have to use it. Sure you’re paying for it, but what does it do for your business, and are you really ready to make that commitment without planning what it will deliver?

Most take the approach of quickly testing every available tool, picking the ones they like, and moving forward. Their experience may be good as they build their little corner of the enterprise, but we've returned to working in silos, contrary to the benefits we want from a unified collaboration platform.

In helping my client, I've taken an approach focused on pre-planning out the best approach with Office 365 by first addressing the base question: "what is it you need". My general approach involves:

  1. Define the business needs related to productivity tooling: This does not have to be exhaustive; a general set of items to consider might include:

    • The ability to collaborate on documents from common well-known locations.
    • Instant Messaging.
    • Audio/Video Conferencing.
    • Managing Projects and related artifacts and tasks in a single location.

  2. Identify current issues that may be resolved.

  3. Work through a matrix of which Office 365 components may address the identified needs. Certain problems can often be addressed through multiple solutions (e.g., Planner vs ToDo). In this case, go deeper to try and settle on one solution.

  4. Test the approach with a small engaged group, documenting feedback to refine/reconsider what you thought would work.

  5. Document a basic set of "How to guides" on areas where you want/need users to work similarly (e.g., when to use Teams vs. SharePoint).

  6. Train the users. The level of training required will vary based on factors like budget and workforce location, but a consistent rollout of training is critical to set organizational expectations.

  7. Deploy.

  8. Follow Up at regular intervals. Don't assume that you got everything right or that you cannot improve. Given the platform's evolving nature, regular reviews will allow you to identify emerging tools that create new opportunities for improvement.