Driving Successful IT Change Management through User Engagement

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1 Driving Successful IT Change Management through User Engagement October 2017

2 Driving Successful IT Change Management through User Engagement Key Challenge Bringing new technology and tools into organizations increases productivity and is critical for achieving digital transformation. But according to a study by MIT Sloan Management Review and Capgemini Consulting, 63% of managers believe that the pace of technological change in their workplaces is too slow, primarily due to lack of urgency and poor communication about the strategic benefits of new tools. The job of a manager is to help people cross the bridge- to get them comfortable with the technology, to get them using it, and to help them understand how it makes their lives better. Didier Bonnet CapGemini Consulting Increasingly, savvy managers are realizing that the key to realizing the full potential of IT investments lies in their users fully adopting and embracing it. Maximizing user adoption requires an effective change management strategy that: z Articulates behavior changes and expectations z Encourages adoption from the top-down z Provides appropriate help and support, at the right times z Measures usage and adoption against stated goals Nexthink Engage approach Nexthink s Engage module helps organizations manage their communications with users on new technology, taking into account differences in familiarity with, and interest in digital technology. Creating a strong communication channel with user communities closes the loop in change management processes and provides a more effective way to streamline IT services. By taking into account user feedback, organizations can develop effective IT change management strategies that results in greater business productivity. Overview of the change management process (4 phases) Should your organization be moving from one set of tools to an entirely new platform, a full change management approach is warranted one that touches on each of the four phases shown below. Planning (Before change) Pilot Phase (During change) Deployment (During change) Closure (After change)

3 1.1 BEFORE CHANGE (PLANNING) It s been proven time and again. A comprehensive change management plan and fully engaged executive sponsorship is critical to success. Organizations experience maximum reception and uptake if planning is completed early on- planning early on at least four months in advance of general rollout. This first phase consists of: z Articulating the business case. Focus on the most important user tasks and make sure everyone understands the benefits z Define success criteria. Sharing concrete data showing positive changes brought about by the rollout 1.2 DURING CHANGE (PILOT PHASE) A pilot deployment prior to a full rollout is essential because in most cases it will be impossible for testing labs to accurately simulate every aspect of the infrastructure. During this phase, be sure to document key learnings including what went well and areas for improvement. This data can be leveraged for successful long-term operations. 1.3 DURING CHANGE (DEPLOYMENT) Enlist the entire project team to ensure each department is ready to support the influx of user queries. Monitor progress and adjust plans based on user reception and feedback. Help Desks are where new users will go with questions. Be sure the support team is well prepared with information and troubleshooting tips to help new users. 1.4 AFTER CHANGE Help desks are on the front line for providing end-user support. The level of support could directly impact user satisfaction and their adoption of new technologies. For example: If a user is unable to resolve issues or get their questions answered in a timely manner, they may determine that the new software/platform is too hard to use. Introducing user engagement into it change management processes Nexthink has identified three areas within the IT change management process where user engagement is critical for success: Awareness, Learning and Adoption. Planning (Before change) Pilot Phase (During change) Deployment (During change) Closure (After change) Awareness Learning Adoption

4 1.1 AWARENESS Awareness A good awareness campaign informs, involves, and inspires end users, resulting in higher adoption rates. Awareness creates the buzz around a new product or technology. It is important to address change with positive but sensitive messaging, enabling users to see the value of the new technology and how they can benefit from using it. To ensure the right message lands in the right hands, it is critical to organize a proactive communication strategy for your end users to send the message you want your users to receive. Begin your planning with the end goals in mind. An effective awareness and change management campaign helps users fully understand the change and how it impacts or benefits them and the organization. It reduces ambiguity and frustration, and helps realize a quicker return on investment by minimizing the end-user learning curve. Engage users with targeted engagement campaigns to: z Inspire and drive new behaviors After identifying the behavioral changes needed for adoption, targeted engagement campaigns can provide customized training possibilities. Campaigns enable users to click on links where they can find videos and reading material readily available. z Plan communication tactics Use engagement to implement a broad marketing campaign to drive awareness. Below is an example of a set of campaigns to improve awareness about change management projects using Nexthink Engage: What Why When Did you know that campaign Create curiosity around the product Before pilot/deployment What your colleagues are saying about campaign Motivate usage with real case examples and testimonies Halfway through pilot/deployment Example: Figure 1: Create curiosity with Do you know campaigns.

5 1.2 LEARNING Learning Learning about usage and adoption patterns provides real-time insight into the change management process. Understanding usage behavior, such as the number of users running the software and average CPU usage, enables organizations to test their planning assumptions with reality. Technical data provides one perspective, but having the insight into real-time adoption provides the complete picture. Obtaining regular feedback and having open communication channels is vital, as a result. REGULAR FEEDBACK TO CORROBORATE TECHNICAL DATA Using user engagement surveys provides insight into users knowledge and experience. Campaigns can help determine when to best roll out new solutions, and provide concrete benchmarks for evaluation. What Why When Run a baseline campaign Gather data about users knowledge and experience of using the solution Before pilot/deployment Run a baseline campaign Update the data about users knowledge and experience of using the solution Halfway through pilot/deployment Run a baseline campaign Make final adjustments of general training and awareness material After pilot/deployment The timeframe for realizing results may take a couple of months or longer since familiarity with a new solution will not happen overnight. OPEN FEEDBACK CHANNELS Throughout the rollout, it s important to offer employees a way to ask questions or give feedback. Be sure to create a feedback mechanism and address end-user inquiries promptly. Example: Figure 2: Run a baseline campaign to understand the end-users experience.

6 Figure 3: How happy are they with the current solution? Figure 4: Visualize the state of current readiness 1.3 ADOPTION Adoption During the rollout process, collect user feedback, monitor usage and modify procedures and resources with the information collected. This task is important before starting the process over again with a new user group. z Provide ongoing support. Provide first-level help desk agents with troubleshooting resources. z Measure usage and adoption

7 Typical User Engagement Campaigns for adoption will focus on: What Why When Run an overall experience campaign To assess user satisfaction with the rollout process After rollout (4 weeks after launch & every quarters to measure user adoption) Example: Figure 5: Run a campaign to gauge end-user satisfaction. Figure 6 : Use Nexthink dashboards to analyse end user experience before and after the change. Conclusion: Ultimately the quality of end-users experience in any transformation project will define its success or failure. By using Nexthink Engage organizations are build a holistic picture of the project status. Empowering managers to proactively adjust project parameters and preempt major frustration.

8 Appendix 1.1 BEST PRACTICES FOR ASKING FEEDBACK TO PEOPLE When we re asking people for their feedback, we re trying to achieve three goals: z We want to maximize the number of people answering: not everybody who ll receive the questions will answer them but the more answers we get, the closer to the truth we ll be (i.e., the confidence level will be higher). z We want to maximize the quality of the answers: if people don t understand questions, don t find an appropriate answer or answer randomly because they just want to resume their business as quickly as possible, the accuracy of the data we report won t be good. z We want to minimize the burden on people: we re asking them a favor by asking them to answer a few questions. We should keep this in mind and treat their time as more valuable than ours. To achieve these goals, there are a few best practices to keep in mind. Some are generic and some are related to specific types of questions. GENERIC BEST PRACTICES You should ask questions in a way that is understandable for the person, and this on two levels: z In their language: not everybody speaks the same language and if they receive questions in a language they don t understand (well), people are likely to ignore them or not answer correctly z Using their vocabulary: any person in the organization can be asked questions but not everybody is tech-savvy. For example, while it s obvious what Exchange is for a person from IT, it s preferable to simply talk of for other people. People are more inclined to take the time to answer questions if they feel that it s a real person who they may know who s asking them. Therefore, we recommend adopting a simple, direct and personal tone in the questions as well as adding your picture. It s also a good practice to briefly explain the reason why you are asking the question and how answering will eventually help them. Keep in mind that people can be frustrated if they took time to answer questions and they don t see any action taken at the end. Most likely, they won t answer next time you ll ask them question because they ll consider it a waste of time. Potential actions can be to contact personally people who expressed a strong dissatisfaction or can be as simple as sharing the overall results and explain the actions that will be taken accordingly. SINGLE/MULTIPLE ANSWER QUESTIONS With this type of question, people will choose one or several answers among a set of options you ll provide. That s why you must provide clear and easily understandable options, that are ideally not too long. If your question has ten long and complex possible options, it ll take a lot of effort for the person to decipher them. You are likely to lose this person. Remember that their time to answer is more valuable than yours to write the question. You should provide clear and non-ambiguous answers. For example, if you re asking What do you like in your PC? and you re providing the two options it s lightweight and it s fast and doesn t crash, what do people choose if their PC is fast but does crash often? You should ask one question at a time. For example, asking what is the fastest and most economical way to go to the office is not good because the fastest way might not be the most economical one. Such a question would confuse the person and it would be difficult for them to answer it. In single/multiple answer questions, you are providing the list of potential answers: be sure to cover all options. For example, if you re asking What s your favorite food? and the only two options you re providing are Pizza and Sushi, people who prefer something else won t be able to answer; they would have either stop answering the campaign or choose a random

9 answer that doesn t conform to the truth. In both cases, it would be bad. Make also sure to include a No opinion or Nothing option whenever it applies. OPINION SCALE QUESTIONS With this type of question, you are asking people to rate along a scale their satisfaction of anything like their PC, a service, etc. The two main aspects to consider are the type of the scale and the number of steps. TYPE OF SCALE There are two types of scales: Bipolar Such a scale has values going gradually between two opposing concepts (e.g., unhappy vs. happy). The following scale is a bipolar one: z Very unhappy z Slightly unhappy z Neutral z Slightly happy z Very happy Unipolar Such a scale offers values representing gradation of a single concept (e.g., happy). Here is an example: z Not at all happy z Slightly happy z Moderately happy z Very happy z Completely happy We recommend using unipolar scales because they are easier to deal with for people. For example, in the bipolar example above, what is the difference between slightly happy and slightly unhappy? Someone slightly happy with something is at the same time slightly unhappy with it. It s ambiguous for the person answering the question and for the person interpreting the results. NUMBER OF STEPS Both examples of scales that we provided above have 5 steps. This is the number we recommend because it provides the best trade-off between granularity and ease of answering (e.g., in 10-step scales, it s not easy to tell what s the difference between a 7 and a 8 ). On top of it, it allows you to use textual labels instead of numbers: for people, it s easier to understand what means very happy than APPENDIX 2: DEFINE SUCCESS CRITERIA Coming up with a formal set of success criteria is critical for measuring the impact resulting from software rollout. While some results will be seen and felt quickly, collecting a comprehensive and accurate representation of the gains from a rollout requires planning. You ll need to determine what should be measured, create the data collection surveys, and select the dates for distribution and collection of data.

10 EXAMPLES OF SUCCESS CRITERIA Below some examples of the criteria we can use to measure the success of the deployment. Success Criteria Method / Source Metrics Increased adoption Increased usage correlates to the users adoption of the technology. Quantitative: Nexthink Software usage metrics campaigns Increased usage correlates Quantitative: Nexthink Help Desk reports Software usage metrics Number of support tickets campaigns Training platform feedback Reduced operating costs Increased adoption correlates to reduced usage of third-party tools to accomplish same task. Quantitative: Nexthink Help Desk reports Shadow IT Support tickets for other platforms campaigns Increased productivity Increased adoption correlates to faster communication and decision-making, shorter time to complete tasks. Quantitative: Project Management tool Project metrics campaigns Improved collaboration Increased cross-team and cross-location communications. Employee satisfaction Improved employee satisfaction Improve employee satisfaction through increased engagement. Employee satisfaction ABOUT NEXTHINK Nexthink provides digital experience management for the enterprise. Leading global companies know that satisfied employees generate more satisfied customers. With Nexthink, organizations can deliver consumer-grade experiences to their employees to increase satisfaction and productivity. Nexthink combines data collection, monitoring, analysis, remediation, intelligence and communication, to engage with employees and gather the right context for continuous optimization. Nexthink is privately held with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and U.S. headquarters in Boston, Mass. Nexthink and the Nexthink logo are trademarks of Nexthink S.A. Copyright 2017 Nexthink S.A. All rights reserved