Large Public Utility Holding Company
Microsoft Teams Enhances Company-wide Communications
What if... we could create a single hub for employee communication and collaboration?
Our client is a North American energy infrastructure company that provides tens of millions of consumers with electric and natural gas services.
Adopting Teams as a New Collaboration Tool
Our client, a large public utility holding company, was planning an implementation of Microsoft Teams as a communication and collaboration tool to improve employee productivity. However, the company’s IT department had struggled with user adoption of new technology solutions in the past and needed help.
The client asked our organizational change management (OCM) experts to support and ensure successful user adoption of this critical enterprise-wide rollout.
There was a challenge, however. The COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold, and more and more people working from home. Our OCM team needed to accelerate the timeline and speed up the change process in a completely virtual environment.
Ensuring a Smooth Transition
The change management team began by hosting “case for change” and stakeholder analysis workshops to develop a timeline and to define the scope, purpose, and goals of the project. We needed to ensure all stakeholders were ready, willing, and able to sustain the change.
We distributed communication artifacts to build awareness and generate excitement, and provided end-user support via our IT training site in Teams, which promoted hands-on learning. More than 600 users leveraged that user community, asking each other questions and getting answers from our team and power users throughout the organization.
Applying our tailored and unique approach for Teams deployments, we conducted 37 training courses in a modularized, scalable format and using the Teams platform itself. More than 2,300 employees attended live, and sessions were recorded for on-demand playback, increasing the reach of our team to the target audiences. The request to accelerate training and user adoption for 16,000 users was addressed in two large migration waves.
I’m very satisfied. The Perficient team has been very impressive in its contribution to this project … proactive, thorough, flexible, and thoughtful throughout.IT Collaboration Services Director
Results
Teams Drives Productivity and Hands-On Learning
With our expert OCM guidance, stakeholders experienced no disruption to business activity as a result of the Teams implementation. At go-live, the help desk received fewer than 10 calls regarding Teams.
Users were very pleased with the new capabilities offered by Teams and were interested in working in the application. Thanks to our case for change, they understood how it could improve their productivity.
Overall, more than 4,500 unique users visited the IT training site. There were more than 35,000 total visits, which indicates that users voluntarily returned to learn more about Microsoft Teams functions, FAQs, and helpful training videos.
By customizing strategic planning and deliverables to suit the client's unique needs, the company’s employees were ready on day one to begin making the most of its new Teams platform.
