A presentation in August 2016 at the Digital Workplace Conference 2016 in New Zealand.

1. (slide 3) three part session agenda –
[1] why is this important?
[2] what does a strategic approach look like?, and
[3] how do I get started?

2. (slides 4-8) adoption problems often have to be addressed by fixing earlier parts of the ROADMAP, business involvement in exploring and decision making around new tools is essential for success, and thus achieving impact from Office 365 requires a good plan (see slide 8 – “how you buy Office 365 is more important to your success than how it is sold.”)

3. (slides 9-10) my four part strategic approach to Office 365

4. (slides 11-37) for stage 1 [Understand the Business Opportunity with Office 365], use scenarios to explore what the technical capabilities of Office 365 could mean for your business. I used some of the content from the Profiling Employee Expertise chapter in my recent book to illustrate how to structure such an exploration, and on slide 36 listed some of the many scenarios to explore.

5. (slides 38-49) for stage 2 [Make the Right Decision for Your Business on Office 365], I listed some of the decision factors in deciding whether to proceed with Office 365 or not. These slides were oriented around the idea of “realities” with Office 365, noting that organisations would love the “good” ones, but that they would need a plan / response to the “bad” ones. Another way of saying that is there are various implications of moving ahead with Office 365, and organisations need to think through (and develop mitigations) for some of those implications.

6. (slides 50-64) for stage 3 [Create the Context for Achieving Value with Office 365], I looked at some of the organisational constructs that need to be put in place to support the use of Office 365. This is based on the principle that the organisational context / system / approach that surrounds the use of a given tool is much more impactful on the use of the tool than the tool itself. I touched briefly on constructs like purpose and value, organisational culture, executive support, governance, and the new profile of the IT professional. My summary assertion in slide 64 is that there is work required to shape the right organisational context.

7. (slides 65-79) for stage 4 [Drive Effective Use to Reap the Benefits of Office 365], I explored the creation of an adoption framework to drive effective use. I started by defining effective use, and then looked at some of the discrete stages and strategies that could be used in working with end users to gain impact by achieving effective use. The slides in this session were taken from my workshop – Driving Effective Use of Office 365.

8. (slides 81-85) concluding slides on how to get started:
– [1] start with the hand you’ve been dealt
– [2] do a SWOT analysis on the approach
– [3] build an internal success team
– [4] address what needs to be addressed

What’s your approach for Office 365? I’d love to hear your story, and if germane, explore ways I can help you achieve impact from Office 365.