A collaboration initiative can only be successful if there
is rapid user adoption, in-depth utlization and ongoing use of the solution. Business Stakeholders need to quickly &
seamlessly connect with the people, content and resources they require to get
their work done. By breaking down organizational silos, improving knowledge
sharing and enabling speedy decisions, collaboration tools can help improve
productivity and efficiency.
The most difficult part in all of this is making users
embrace THE CHANGE. Any new system
tends to bring a change in the way of working and hence is resisted by the
business stakeholders, even if it results in “better, quicker, or cheaper”. This
becomes tougher in case of modern systems like social business software which
are new into the organization and people are still trying to come to terms with
it. So what to do?
A successful adoption does not happen by accident; it
requires careful planning and continuous efforts. In my three part blog series, I intend to provide
a structured approach to tackle the issue of user adoption.
The first step in any adoption strategy is building the
initial momentum which leads to rapid user adoption. This can be achieved by choosing the right roll-out approach
which can win the end user attention and generate excitement among
them. Following are some popular roll-out strategies which can be employed for
your collaboration solution:
1. Big Bang Rollout
In this approach, the rollout of the collaboration system
happens in a single instance across the organization and so all stakeholders
move to the new system on a given date. This approach is considered to be a
little risky because there are very few learning opportunities incorporated in
this. So a lot of pre-deployment preparation is required to make it successful.
2. Phased Rollout
In a phased approach, the rollout happens in multiple steps
/ phases and so the stakeholders are gradually moved to the new system. This
approach allows learning from each phase to be incorporated into the subsequent
phases and reduce risk; however this results in more time to Go-Live. Phased
rollout can be done on the basis of Location, Business Unit, Modules or a combination
of these
3. Parallel Rollout
Parallel approach involves rollout of the new system within
an organization while the old system is still in play. This enables users to
get used to the new system, and meanwhile do their work using the old system.
The old system is then gradually rolled out. This method is least risky,
however requires a lot of efforts from the users since they have to work with
multiple systems at the start.
4. Viral Rollout
This is one of the most powerful and most risky methods of
rollout available today. In this approach, the adoption is driven through word
of mouth marketing i.e. users help get more users on-boarded on the system.
5. Pilot Conversion
Rollout
Pilot Conversion requires involves rollout of the
collaboration to a small group of test users for evaluation and testing before
implementation across the organization. This enables enterprises to get a quick
feedback on their product and identify areas of improvement to better align
their solution the business needs. You can do multiple pilots before doing the
final implantation.
6. Hybrid Rollout
Combination of two or more Approaches listed above. Example could be deploying a new collaboration
solution using a Phased and Parallel jointly
Following table provides a comparison between these approaches using some key considerations
As you can see, each approach listed above has its set of
advantages and disadvantages. So
depending on the weightage you assign to the factors mentioned above, you can choose
the rollout strategy which works best with your enterprise culture.
Following are some Best Practices to help you get the most
of your Rollout Strategy
- Understand your audience and organizational set up well before proceeding to shortlist the rollout approach
- Leverage experiences from similar product implementations done in the past
- Connect with users from other enterprises in the forums and learn from their experiences
- Solution roll-out strategies should be complemented by effective training and marketing strategies
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