How do companies increase employee acceptance for Microsoft teams? Part 2: Five tips for the introduction of Microsoft teams.

When introducing Microsoft teams, it is not enough to disable the tool for all employees. If the cooperative solution is to change communication in the long term and improve cooperation, companies must do their homework thoroughly. With these five tips for the introduction of Microsoft teams, the project succeeds.

1. Taking into account company culture

When introducing Microsoft teams that are directly integrated into Office 365, companies must take into account their own corporate culture. "Companies use the solution very differently due to their respective culture," says Sabine Erlebach, Managing Director of datac Kommunikationssysteme GmbH, who supports companies in digital transformation and also offers training to Microsoft teams. "For example, if a company has a good feedback culture and mistakes are allowed, you deal openly with teams," Erlebach says. A company whose culture is focused on error avoidance, on the other hand, communicates differently through the tool.

2. Include management level

The introduction of teams usually succeeds only with an accompanying change management that excites employees. "If the managers are not involved, you can leave it at once," Erlebach says. In order to benefit from Microsoft teams, all department levels and employees need to be involved.

Three. Track down quick-wins and make teams tasty

Companies should at best find topics that can be implemented immediately before the introduction of Microsoft teams. "Employees have to say,'class, I've been waiting for this for a long time.'Or'great, it's much simpler,' Erlebach says. These could be simple things like the dining plan from the canteen, which can now be viewed centrally by all employees. Or another sharing of information that was not possible in the past. It could also be the chat function in the app, if employees could not communicate in this way before.

Four. Create guidelines for employees

Companies should formulate guidelines for all employees on how to work with Microsoft teams. "Companies must make clear statements here," Erlebach said. "It is important, for example, that the members of a team discuss the channels through which their communication should be conducted." The Guideline should also specify when the solution will be used, especially when companies are already using tools that serve the same purpose as Microsoft teams. Example storage space: "Teams provide an additional possibility to store data. Here it is necessary to clarify which data are to be stored at which location,"Erlebach says.

Five. Using Microsoft help

The software company is, of course, more interested in the long-term use of Microsoft teams. "In the past, it was all about selling licences. Today, Microsoft is massively supporting companies in establishing the solutions,"Erlebach says. Microsoft offers free courses for decision-makers, administrators, IT experts or end-users. In addition, companies can focus on the Group's websites, such as the "First Steps in the Introduction of Microsoft Teams" page. According to Microsoft, this guide focuses on team user acceptance. Microsoft's Customer Success Unit (CSU) is also pushing this issue forward.

Telekom workshop: acceptance management teams

For important IT projects, companies should focus on their employees rather than technology. With a good acceptance management, companies win over users for new communication tools and can prepare them for new ways of working as well as comprehensive training. A comprehensive insight into the methods of acceptance management can be found in the Telekom workshops. Personal consulting services are provided to companies under the free expert hotline 0800 33 0444 or by their contact person by Telekom. All workshops on Microsoft solutions can be found at www.telekom.de/microsoft.

Read in Part 1: Good change management is so important when introducing new tools.