ALI Conferences hosted the Sharepoint & O365 Strategies for Internal Communications, May 2019 in beautiful San Diego. Communicators from across the country came together to discuss their biggest challenges, proven solutions, and best practices for implementing a new digital workplace. Whether they are using SharePoint or O365, these engaging sessions gave attendees what they needed back home to develop new strategies.

During Rogue Services & Solutions’ Michelle Bolda’s session, attendees wrote on a sticky note a hope or fear for each of the Digital Workplace challenges:

Funds | Timeline | Change/Transformation | Past Experience(s) | Decision Makers | Implementation | User Adoption | Training

Fears and Hopes:

Funds:

• Hope – Continue to secure funding to improve the intranet.

Timeline:

• Hope – Intranet launches sooner, rather than later.

Change/Transformation:

• Hope – Teammates will find the value in the changes and it will better their experiences as employees.
• Hope – O365 will help with communication & collaboration pain points.

Past Experience(s):

• Fear – Organization and employees will continue to operate the exact same way.

Decision Makers:

• Hope – O365 adoption will enable easy, simple, effective collaboration.
• Hope – Intranet solution will meet the needs of the company.
• Fear – Employees will feel they don’t have enough time to use the intranet.

Implementation:

• Fear – Losing control of content and employees creating too many sites to manage.
• Fear – Being known as the O365 evangelist, responsible for all employee training and troubleshooting.

User Adoption:

• Hope – Leadership is looking at O365 rollout holistically.
• Hope – Employees will be allowed to use the full range of products.
• Fear – New tools will be launched without strategy & alignment, which will hurt employee adoption.

Training:

• Hope – More time dedicated to creating and implementing training resources for all.
• Hope – Maximize use of ALL O365 components.
• Fear – The new intranet will require too much training and employees won’t be able to use collaboration tools effectively.

Our Sr. Client Strategist went to the #ALI_SharePoint SharePoint and O365 for Internal Comms conference today and learned TONS! Way to go @aliconferences! #internalcomms #EmployeeEngagement pic.twitter.com/M2vyz1VYV6

— Brilliant Ink (@brilliantink) May 23, 2019

Key Takeaways for SharePoint & O365 Strategies

• Transformation takes commitment! Develop a rollout strategy and commit to the time and challenges it takes to implement a new digital workplace across departments and employees.
• Data tells us that 60-80% of digital projects fail. To create a new digital workplace project requires time and patience.
• Collaboration is crucial to the success of the project. Make sure that all departments are aligned.

Didn’t get a chance to join your peers at this conference? Register for the O365 for Internal Communications: SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Power Platform, and More, Dec. 3-5, 2019 in New York City.