Today, more than 80% of business users use Microsoft Office. To stay competitive, businesses need to upgrade their office productivity software and adopt cloud-based solutions. MS Office 365 is one of the most popular office productivity solutions available. It gives access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and other MS Office desktop applications on PCs and mobile devices at a low cost.
However, it can be challenging to get your business properly up and running with a cloud solution like Office 365. You need to understand its best practices before you dive in. Keep reading for details on five easy steps you can take today to successfully implement Microsoft’s cloud-based office productivity solution.
Create Seamless Transition
When you make the switch to a cloud-based solution, you want to make sure employees are only educated on the benefits, but also that they are comfortable with the change. It can be difficult, as employees will often be resistant to change. They will feel more comfortable if they understand the benefits of moving to the cloud.
Educating your employees on the advantages of moving to Office 365 can help ease their transition process. Reach out to key people within your organization to discuss their needs, concerns, and preferences. Use that information to create a strategy to get your employees comfortable with the transition process. You can also work with key employees interested in the transition process to build a support network. It can do a better job of spreading the word and getting additional input from employees.
Conduct an Assessment Before You Start the Implementation
The biggest downfall of moving to a cloud solution is the lack of understanding on the part of the end user. This assessment will help you identify any issues that could come up as you implement a cloud solution.
Conduct an assessment to understand the issues, risks, and challenges you will face once you start implementing Microsoft Office 365. This assessment should include the key stakeholders within your organization, key users, and IT administrators. This information will help you understand the challenges you will face and how to tackle them.
Once you have this information, you can start working on a solution plan to solve those challenges. If you have security concerns, you can conduct a risk assessment to understand the risks associated with this implementation. IT administrators might have concerns about how their infrastructure will be able to handle the increased load from increased end-user demand. Conducting an assessment before implementation will help you solve any issues that arise.
Set Up Your Office 365 Admin Account and Tenant Before You Go Live
When you decide to move to a cloud-based solution, Office 365 is a great solution for most businesses. But, it does have its limitations. For example, you cannot use it with other cloud solutions such as Salesforce or Box. For businesses that want to use other cloud-based services, you will need to look at other solutions.
Before you set up your tenant with Office 365, you have to set up your admin account. It gives you control over the environment where Office 365 is installed, which can help minimize any issues while switching to the cloud.
Track and Measure Performance Metrics
To check if your implementation is successful or not, you should track and measure performance metrics. You can use different metrics to track this, but the most important one is user adoption. You can also use a Digital Adoption Platform for Office 365 to help you measure your adoption progress.
Review the Results and Identify the Next Steps
Once you have implemented Office 365, it is essential to evaluate its success. You will want to track user adoption and success metrics to get an idea of how your end users are responding to the change.
You should also be looking at metrics that reflect how much time users spend on specific tasks, such as project management and collaboration. If your employees are reporting an increase in productivity while using Office 365, you have successfully implemented a cloud-based solution. If you are still having issues getting your organization up and running, don’t worry! You can also reach out to a Microsoft partner to help with your transition.
Microsoft partners can help guide you through the process and help you troubleshoot any issues that come up. They can also provide support for end users experiencing issues with Office 365 migration.
