As we noted in a previous blog, Microsoft had so many announcements to make at this year’s Ignite conference, the company issued an 88-page PDF “Book of News” on the first day of the event. That, combined with the hundreds of sessions and workshops offered at the conference, is a lot to digest. One element that grabbed our attention the most was this year’s heavy focus on change management and adoption.
The topic was talked about in sessions, workshops, and, it seemed, everywhere else. Among the sessions devoted to managing change and boosting adoption: “Top 10 Microsoft Teams adoption best practices,” “Driving Microsoft Surface adoption in healthcare,” “Building a Champions program for your organization,” “How to use analytics to drive your Microsoft 365 adoption,” “Five steps to driving sustainable SharePoint and Office 365 adoption,” and many more.
And it’s no wonder, considering how many organizations in the United States and across the globe are undergoing significant migrations—from Windows 7 to Windows 10, from Office on-premises to Office 365, and from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams. And, according to Microsoft’s data, organizations who are working with partners and leveraging change enablement and adoption services see an increase in adoption and active use by as much as four and a half times over those who don’t.
According to Microsoft’s data, organizations who are working with partners and leveraging change enablement and adoption services see an increase in adoption and active use by as much as 4.5 times over those who don’t.
Many of the sessions examined how Microsoft partners can help organizations navigate technology change—by ensuring users have access to and know where to find training and support. As Microsoft’s leading adoption and change enablement partner, we were especially proud to be selected to speak in two sessions:
- “Succeed with Microsoft 365: Best practices to onboard tools and drive user adoption,” with Karuana Gatimu, Director, Customer Advocacy Group, Teams Engineering at Microsoft; Greg Headley, Microsoft Alliance Director, Vitalyst; and other adoption partners.
- “Accelerating adoption and change management with expert best practices,” with Ginny Hoban, Sr. Channel Marketing Manager at Microsoft; Greg Headley, Microsoft Alliance Director; Nancy Wang, Organizational Development Consultant at Pacific Life; and Alyssa Gonzalez, Sr. Director of User Experience, CBS Technology, from CBS Corporation.
We value the strong relationship that we have with both Microsoft and our joint customers. This was definitely showcased in the sessions, and in the comments from our customers.
As Alyssa Gonzalez from CBS shared, “We really had a major transition to focus on end-user education and an increase on communication and adoption… We engaged with Vitalyst because we simply didn’t have the capacity and the manpower to do that alone.”
(We will be posting recordings of the sessions on Vitalyst.com soon. Stay tuned for details.)
In addition to the sessions, we also hosted daily Customer Immersion Experience sessions on teamwork and collaboration. The one-hour workshops enabled us to practice what we preach, so to speak—to provide participants with a hands-on lesson on the enormous productivity-boosting power of Teams—and to gain valuable insights from the more than 150 people who attended.
This year’s Ignite delivered a flood of information—new services like Project Cortex and Microsoft Productivity Score; expanded collaboration capabilities in Teams, Outlook and across Office 365; a deeper understanding of how technology can enable productivity and innovation; the importance of ongoing change enablement and training; and much more.
We’re eager to get started helping organizations navigate the changes and take advantage of the advancements—after all, that’s our role as a Microsoft partner. Our upcoming blogs will include specific insights shared during the sessions, including videos, new features and functionality that you and your teams should be aware of, and interviews we did with key experts from Microsoft on the value that change enablement and adoption for customers deploying Office 365 and Teams.
Collage (clockwise from left): Vitalyst’s Shaakirah Milton and Iffy Iwelunmor; the lineup from one of our sessions; Milton and Iwelunmor; Iwelunmor leading a Teams Customer Immersion Experience; Milton and Iwelunmor; and Vitalyst’s Greg Headley.
