March 24, 2020

People Manager Framework and TeamsHub by Cyclotron: Adopting Microsoft Teams made easy

San Francisco based Cyclotron Inc., a fast-growth company recently announced using the People Manager Framework to help Enterprises thinking of deploying or having recently deployed Microsoft Teams adopt it better, faster and easier. Along with its flagship TeamsHub by Cyclotron product, this makes Microsoft Teams experience much better for both administrators and end-users.

A common scenario in any IT organization is to roll out a new application or software. This is done by the IT department after the decision by the executive sponsor has been made. However, the rollout and change enablement process most of the time involves very few training or immersion sessions. Champions are involved sporadically and getting buy-in from some business teams is a formality. This is then followed by mass communication and training sessions for everyone.

In many cases, the wrong first experience creates end-user frustration. Also, all end users cannot be trained, all end users do not sit in the same office, or there is no one size fit all methodology especially in a multi-generational, distributed workforce. This is true for Microsoft Teams’ adoption as well.

 People Manager Framework is a simplified path for Hockey Stick adoption of Microsoft Teams by focusing on a starting point for the best end-user experience. By focusing on the persona of the employee and automating tasks such as Team creation, channels linking them to various Yammer and Stream groups, Forms and Flow, leads to manage resistance and increase adoption. This also helps in cutting down training costs and service desk tickets.

Using TeamsHub by Cyclotron, provides you an intelligent, automated and intuitive system to manage all the governance, security policies, end-user experience features across the organization through a single interface. Using bots such as HR Assistant and communicator apps drives inclusivity as compared to email or other add-ons.

About Cyclotron
Cyclotron was proudly founded in San Francisco in 2014 with the sole intent of accelerating the success of our clients by solving mission-critical business and technology challenges, through a proven network of industry-specific frameworks. We’re a trusted strategic partner to many innovative organizations in the financial, health and life sciences, public, retail, and technology sectors. Our solutions combined with your investment with us boost productivity, enhances collaboration, and integrates intelligence across your entire enterprise.

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March 20, 2020

Microsoft Teams adoption made easy using TeamsHub by Cyclotron

In this article, we explore the best practices for Microsoft Teams. Using TeamsHub by Cyclotron makes this process faster, efficient and provides users with an engaging platform to enjoy collaborating with their co-workers
Microsoft Teams Adoption

Introduction

Technology evolves and revolutionizes the future workplace in efficiency and productivity. However, people have been reluctant to embrace change and adapt to them quickly. Why do businesses face major IT failures after a successful implementation? Even cutting-edge technological solutions lack end-user adoption.

Do people really fear to adopt new initiatives? The answer to this question is if that specific change can connect with user needs and wants.  Also, businesses have not implemented best practices and simple communication. These two factors are critical for any initiative to be a success.

Microsoft Teams adoption

Microsoft Teams also has similar challenges for any organization. Adopting Microsoft Teams requires detailed planning, meticulous documentation as well as a good governance handbook.  Microsoft has provided a quick start flipbook on adopting MS Teams. Microsoft’s site contains more detailed reading material.

Drive faster adoption by making it simple, efficient and easy with TeamsHub by Cyclotron. So let us answer the question – “How do I help my business groups adopt Teams?” and how TeamsHub by Cyclotron can help.

Firstly, by making governance rules applicable across Teams in a standardized and consistent manner. Secondly, by using the various features made available in TeamsHub by Cyclotron.

Although IT professionals are important, it is the end-user adoption that makes or breaks a system roll-out. Here TeamsHub by Cyclotron scores over many other such products. By making it a single interface to collaborate across teams and also have employee engagement platform built-in.

We specifically designed TeamsHub by Cyclotron around end-user adoption and engagement. Here we provide a single aggregated source of information across various digital streams. For example, corporate news and communications, recognitions and rewards as well as celebrating important milestones such as birthdays and anniversaries.

To know more about TeamsHub by Cyclotron, please visit our site http://TeamsHub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com to request a demo.

About Cyclotron

Cyclotron was proudly founded in San Francisco in 2014 with the sole intent of accelerating the success of our clients. We solve mission-critical business and technology challenges, through a proven network of industry-specific frameworks. We are a trusted strategic partner to many innovative organizations in the financial, health and life sciences, public, retail, and technology sectors. Our solutions combined with your investment with us boosts productivity, enhances collaboration, and integrates intelligence across your entire enterprise

Read more

March 11, 2020

Microsoft Teams Governance Best Practices

Microsoft Teams governance best practices lead to better ROI and an engaged workforce that is productive and efficient.
Microsoft Teams

Introduction

Firstly, we will explore how Microsoft Teams Governance best practices lead to better ROI and an engaged workforce that is productive and efficient.

Governance is a dreaded word in the IT industry. People think this leads to a lack of freedom and lockdown.  People regard the IT department as a blocker to productive work and the creator of unwanted processes. However, a lack of governance leads to a wild, wild west collaboration scenario resulting in terrible user experience and decreased engagement on the platform. Users become frustrated with too much governance. Consequently, this leads to a lack of freedom thus hampering creative uses and productive work.

Common Governance Scenarios

Let us explore some of the Governance problems specifically for Microsoft Teams

Implement simple and easy governance by considering a few things before rolling out any application across the organization. Implement a few steps correctly go a long way to provide structure. Let us look at the few common scenarios in Microsoft Teams that cause chaos –

  • Teams sprawl – First of all, creating too many teams results in confusion and chaos on each Team’s intent and collaboration purpose. 
  • Content sprawl – Secondly, wastage of time and effort occurs to find the right content if many versions of the same content exist across Teams.
  • Thirdly, a bad user experience results due to incorrect features being enabled or disabled.
  • Lastly, users avoid adopting the system if they are not coached, trained or communicated about the purpose and the various business problems that it intends to solve.

Solve all of the above-stated scenarios and problems by addressing the following. However, before going for the big bang there should be a pilot group of early adopters to test the waters and provide feedback. Based on this feedback, iterate and improve to roll it out to alpha and beta users for further iterative improvements before doing the final big bang push across the organization.

Best Practice: Roles and responsibilities

Considered assigning roles and responsibilities properly as it determines a few points discussed further in the article. The right assignment of role goes a long way in maintaining order in the system. Assign important roles with responsibilities to people who are proactive, excited and enthused.

Best Practice: Permissions

Based on the roles, determine the permission model for your organization. This helps maintain the structure as the permissions determine who creates and maintains teams.

For example – Create people who understand the system and can manage the responsibility as Team Owners, others remain Team Members.

Best Practice: Structure

Teams are organized by topics which in turn decides structure. It is the digital metaphor for an open office to encourage conversations, discussions and ad-hoc meetings and to share ideas and solve problems

Remember to have standardized names that are easy to find and intuitive. Structure everything around topic or content.  The content becomes a Team and a topic can become a channel

Best Practice: Features

Also, do not neglect many of the seemingly simple but effective features. Always enable features that can increase engagement and collaboration. The majority of users seldom use advanced and powerful features. Plan for advanced features, use cases or business problems you intend to solve if they are being rolled out early as well.

Best Practice: Training

Based on the roles and responsibilities along with a permission model created focused training sessions. Identify people who can be part of these group training sessions and have them engaged early on.

Best Practice: Communication

This is the most important aspect of any rollout or Governance model. Communicate early, always over-communicate than under, have engaging sessions during the training. Always gather feedback and improvise.

You can find more information on Microsoft Team’s Governance article

To know more about automating Microsoft Teams governance using our product – TeamsHub by Cyclotron, please click here

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