At Mozzaik, we are in the business of creating tools for companies that are digitizing their business. We have learned a lot about this process during our integration with our clients. Today we are sharing with you the 9 best practices that we believe allow a company to successfully digitalize. Are you ready for it?
1. Stop trying to do everything right away
When launching a project, enthusiasm sometimes overcomes caution. A common mistake is to integrate very powerful, comprehensive but overly complex tools. These tools do not fit into the daily lives of employees and are quickly abandoned. This is a waste of time, money and satisfaction. Indeed, the frustration of not having succeeded in mastering a software can create a feeling of failure or lower user satisfaction.
Here is the method we use when choosing our priorities. Select the most urgent jobs and rank the tools using the MoSCoW method:
Vital: Emergencies
Essential: important but not urgent requirements
Comfort: the unnecessary but interesting ideas
Luxury: ideas with little urgency or relevance to the company's strategy
How do you do this ranking? Simply by listening to your employees.
2. Give your employees a voice
This advice is based on the concept of Product-Market-Fit. You wouldn't launch a new product without asking the end customer, would you? Similarly, if you are proposing a new work tool to your teams, it is necessary to know their needs beforehand and to involve them in the project.
Involving your employees has several advantages:
Their needs will help you prioritize which tools to integrate;
The rationalization of the digitalization strategy is crucial for the success of a digital transformation. On the one hand, it limits the resources invested in the project to the useful elements. On the other hand, it spreads the digital transformation over time, giving employees time to adapt.
Moreover, the proliferation of tools increases the risk that some software will be put on the back burner and gradually forgotten.
Opting for tools that are integrated with your existing solutions can therefore be a winning strategy. For example, Mozzaik integrates with your Microsoft work environment. As a result, you rationalize your investment. Another example of integration is Klaxoon, which provides a suite of collaborative tools. The interoperability between Klaxoon and the Office 365 suite allows you to access the tools directly from Microsoft Teams.
One thing is certain, you can't do everything at once. Picking your battles is therefore essential.
Remember, streamlining does not mean cutting back on the user experience! The goal is always to create a seamless experience and give users a sense of simplicity. This brings us to the next point.
4. Keep it simple
Target the primary needs of your teams with great precision. This will allow you to create an ecosystem of tools adapted to their reality in the field. Adoption will be the best and change management will be the smoothest under these conditions.
For the Digital Workplace, simple things are often the best. They are more effective because they can be deployed more easily in your business units and because user satisfaction is higher when they are easy to learn.
Do not hesitate to anticipate uses and choose tools that will be easy to change when new needs emerge.
When a project is implemented over the long term, the initial needs may evolve. The users' needs change and the expression made at the beginning of the project is often different from the one expressed during the delivery.
The agile method allows you to learn from your mistakes and adjust the focus quickly. This method emphases collaboration and promotes the autonomy of everyone. How do you do it?
In the agile method, we advance by iteration, planning actions for only 2 or 3 weeks. This brings flexibility and agility. At each stage you are able to adapt your development to the feedback from users.
Agile methods are above all a culture. One that emphasizes sharing and values feedback. This notion is important, because it allows us to progress and improve.
Don't worry, you don't need to know how to do everything. If you are not an expert in this new software or in change management, don't hesitate to ask for help.
6. Get support
The integration of a digital tool is just as important as the selection of the tool. The integration and configuration of the tool must meet your expectations. Change management support is essential to facilitate adaptation.
Once you have chosen your tools, your technical stack, the integration stage will come.
This is the job of the integrators!
Their role is to support you in all technical aspects, implementation, configuration, and also adoption by end users. The integrator is like a bandmaster, who will take your digitalization from the idea stage through to reality.
This is also where change management comes in. It is a crucial step. Indeed, a study conducted by Moovone shows that 67% of employees feel that management does not take their feedback into account and 63% say that they have not had the opportunity to express themselves on this subject. So, integrating your employees into digitalization is key. This will allow you to bypass a major issue: resistance to change.
7. Become autonomous with your tools
While getting support in setting up tools is a key point. Becoming autonomous is the ultimate goal. Indeed, it would be unthinkable to have to call on an external service provider for the slightest request. So take advantage of the support provided by integrators to train yourself.
Be aware that a tool is constantly evolving. So remember to keep up to date with its uses by constantly training yourself. Subscribing to the newsletter can be an excellent way to keep yourself informed of updates and new features. At Mozzaik, Clément Poulain, our Product Owner, does this job. He sends a monthly summary of Mozzaik365 news to users.
8. Keep your tools alive
The worst thing that can happen after implementing new tools is that they are not used. To keep the tool alive, a committed community must be created. They can help each other and can later train other employees.
Don't hesitate to dedicate a few minutes to presenting your new tools in a team meeting. Conviviality is an excellent way of dealing with change.
9. Make your employees actors
Involving your employees in the implementation of your digital transformation is essential. You can designate referents for each tool. For example, a community of referents for the Office suite, another for Yammer, etc. These are people who develop specific expertise and take on an additional transversal mission.
In practice, a company directory is an excellent way of finding internal experts on each subject. If employees have questions, they can turn to a member of the community for help.
You are ready to take up the challenge of digitalizing your company! What about you? What good practice would you add to this list?
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