Results from Superhub Cloud Adoption Survey

During COVID-19, the pandemic enabled an increase in demand for remote work, where staff stayed home and still remained productive while maintaining social distancing.

From a recent Cloud Adoption survey aimed at providing different stakeholders of a company with insights to gain better understanding of the technology trends and plan for a digital transformation, we saw a great shift trending away from the physical office to remote work with work-from-home policies.

·   88% of respondents had remote work or work-from-home arrangements in varying degrees during the COVID-19 outbreak.

·   54% of respondents affirmed their productivity resulting from working from home.

·   78% of respondents had adopted virtual meetings on or before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Even though 65% of respondents perceived the usefulness cloud technology in aiding remote work policies, they understand that adopting new technology involves change, and change can be daunting. This is even applicable to organizations that embrace the most innovative and cutting-edge technologies.

As quoted from Microsoft, “Working remotely full-time can challenge us as humans because we are hardwired for connection. …In a moment where meeting face-to-face is impossible, how do we continue to connect to one another?”

Employees Feel More Included When Everyone Joins Meetings Remotely

Source: Harris Poll survey commissioned by Microsoft May 26-30, 2020, among 2, 285 total adults aged 18+ who are currently working remotely across the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Mexico and China.

An insightful finding from the survey is that employees feel more included when everyone joins meetings remotely. This is where technology adoption and change management comes into play. To maintain human connection without interrupting daily productivity, transitioning to cloud technologies may be the best solution.

We have witnessed teachers conducting lectures in virtual classrooms, CEOs and stakeholders in organized virtual town hall fielding Q&As with thousands of employees, or project teams sharing their updates via Teams channels – we are progressing every day and continuously learning and looking for solutions to stay connected through hard times.

However, most organizations in Hong Kong still have a very low adoption rate of Microsoft 365 products, especially SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. These two are key applications for virtual collaboration across the organization.

Majority of HK Companies have Low M365 Adoption

Few Ways to Drive Cloud Adoption

We have seen the increasing demands of remote work and cloud technologies, but most organizations may experience a few hurdles when deciding to take the initiative to change current habits and adopt new technologies.

Here are the top 3 challenges faced by organizations when adopting cloud technologies, as well as some useful recommendations to assist in overcoming hurdles and to kickstart promoting a change within the organization to adopt cloud technologies, which will lay the foundations to implement productive remote work.

1.     Stakeholders’ Support for Innovation

With the adoption of new technologies, many stakeholders or managers might have cause for concern justifying from the financial and manpower investment perspectives. They may see the change as a distraction to employees’ routine, then making it counterproductive.

To gain the support from key stakeholders and address their concerns, the organization can pilot using a focus group, whose aim will be to showcase some quick-wins as hard evidence of its benefits and values for stakeholders’ reference. The “wow” effect can be presented to the CEO and other key executive team members on how successful the Microsoft 365 pre-rollout is.

An Early Adopter Program (EAP) gives an organization early insights before the official launch of certain technologies to the entire company. Below are some good examples of relevant users who should be involved in the EAP user group:

·   Users across different lines of business and departments: Gather initial feedback and identify potential stumbling blocks to help shape your final launch plan.

·   Users who typically struggle with technology: It is important you understand their needs and address them during the launch.

·   IT/help desk team members: Provide support to users during the pilot and post-launch.

Implementing an EAP in the organization will help bring Microsoft 365 to life for all users. Think of it as a dry run among a representative group that reflects the organization composition, which will help in preparation when the time comes for the full-scale launch.

To read more about Early Adopter Program, please visit https://aka.ms/M365AGEarlyAdopter for a Microsoft 365 Early Adopter Program Guide.

2.     Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is a normal behavior that needs to be addressed. Most employees would be unwilling to adopt the new technology rolled out by their organization, and it will take time to overcome human behaviors.

One possible reason for the end-users’ reluctance to adopt new technologies is insufficient training. To fully implement new technologies within the organization successfully, consistent education of staff as to what and when can cloud technologies can be used effectively, and equipping staff with usage methods have to be factored in.

Ideally, organizing training sessions, such as lunch & learn or brown bag sessions either physically or virtually, will help introduce the new technologies to employees. In turn, this will help them understand and gain the relevant know-hows, and eventually get accustomed to using it, resulting in higher productivity and adoption rate. There are market-leading adoption support companies that provide self-paced online learning materials for staff to learn anytime, just a click away.

With Microsoft Teams, here are a few tips to help kick-start the remote work experience:

1.     Microsoft Teams allows team members to work together on a document, spreadsheet or presentation. Collaboration is done in real time and ensure all ideas, changes and updates are incorporated and in sync with fellow teammates. This feature is available on desktop, mobile and browser.

2.     Scheduled meetings will always be an important part of the workday, and the “Scheduling Assistant” feature on Microsoft Teams provides users with the convenience and ease of locating everyone’s availability. This feature syncs across Exchange calendars, therefore allowing users to browse through all available time slots of meeting participants at a glance.

3.     Complicated Follow-up Actions

Deploying new technologies is more than just a technical migration. Technical and user readiness are some recognized challenges that IT Team with limited manpower have to follow-up with, in addition to their heavy monitoring, support, and coordination workloads.

Below are some valuable tips and services available to help IT teams with their follow-up on the adoption progress and to drive value.

·   Regular monitoring and reporting on user adoption.

·   Conduct a survey midway through the launch to gather data about users’ experiences with Microsoft 365, and use the results to make any necessary adjustments.

·   Create awareness and new training content to address any outstanding needs that arise.

·    Share success stories showing how staff are using Microsoft 365 in innovative and impactful ways.

Superhub Point of View Associated with our Products / Services:

·    Taking the plunge to drive adoption and change management is crucial to make remote work productive.

·    Superhub is committed to guide you through the entire change management and adoption process for a smooth transition, with our customer success value-added services including but not limited to, best practice onboarding, on-going learning and adoption services, regular feedback and monitoring on adoption status.

·    Microsoft and Superhub are looking forward to assisting you with your exploration into adoption and change management. 

·    Superhub 365 Academy offers a self-paced learning platform that you can access anywhere with any device on hand. The Academy includes a wide range of adoption videos for continuous learning.

·   Do not hesitate to contact our Cloud Account Managers here for a live demo of 365 Academy.