To guarantee success, prepare well for change

Unfortunately, changes within organizations often don´t go as smoothly as intended. In fact, many IT projects fail because employees do not immediately recognize the advantages of the application. Wanting to change, being able to and being allowed to change are prerequisites, if there is to be any change in behavior of your employees. Whether you want to implement a new CRM system or add a new application to Office 365, employees need to be the first to realize that the change will make their work better, faster or easier. Change therefore costs time, effort and energy.

We know how complex it is to change people's behavior in organizations. They behave differently only if they see good reason, feel the urgency and recognize the added value. Implementing iWRITER 365 in your organization also brings about change. Employees will create documents in a different way. A way that saves them and your organization a lot of time at the end of the day.

A successful change in behavior can be achieved in three phases. Changing employee behavior in large organizations requires careful preparation, planning and execution. You achieve this in three phases when using the AAA adoption strategy.

During the first (Awareness) phase of this strategy, the focus is placed on creating insight, understanding and inspiring employees. Your most important assignment is to explain the usefulness and necessity of, for example, a new application. When your colleagues see the importance of the new way of working, you enter the second (Activate) phase in which you allocate different groups within the organization to work with the application. Phase two is achieved by means of pilot testing, through communication and training and additional targeted activities. In the third (Adoption) and final phase of the change, use cases are widely implemented throughout the organization. The pilot testing is scaled up to all employees and the successes are recorded in best practices. The change can be considered successful if employees are trained and monitored, and they embrace the new way of working. This adoption strategy results in employees using the application daily, becoming familiar with it and believing in its worth.

Would you like to know more about the AAA adoption strategy? Please find a comprehensive guide of this strategy in our whitepaper ‘Adopting Office 365 in three steps'.