“What does success look like?” It is a phrase used in many a project meeting, but what does that really mean? An organisation might be investing substantial amounts of money in to UC project or Intelligent Collaboration/ Teams project but how many use proper data to back up the success of a project? If we look back at historical projects, we will have all heard that line, but when we review those projects there is a large piece of the jigsaw missing.
A client might want to replace their legacy PBX with Skype for Business for example, the project goal is to move all voice to SfB and retire the legacy system. Wonderful, that is a great goal! Well done you 😊 but, the project goes through the motions, requirements, design, pilot, testing, production, sign off, roll out, etc. At the end of the project, the legacy phone system is decommissioned, all users are now on SfB or whatever the solution is. Everyone is happy.
But who goes back and checks? Who puts a quantifiable, measurable check on it? Yes, everyone has their new solution and tools, and the legacy solution is gone, whatever it may have been, but that is where projects tend to stop. Why do organisations not look for proof that their investment is being used properly and realised? Why does nobody say that success is when 90% of my organisation are using the new solution on a daily basis, or I want to see a 60% reduction in internal emails or even I want a 50% reduction in internal meeting travel? Where is that key marker? Where is that proof of cultural and habitual change? If I were a CEO spending, as in a meeting this week, c. €500k on Office 365 licensing alone, would I not want to see evidence that the new solution is being used as intended, and tackling any reasons why it isn’t?
When discussing Teams, we all too often hear organisations say that they have rolled out it to their users… that doesn’t mean anyone will use it. If you invest in Teams, the associated licensing, the pro services that go with it, then why would you just roll it out and hope for the best. Benchmark where you are, measure your success, not in terms of ‘it’s been deployed’ or “we’ve rolled it out”, but in hard numbers that mean something to the business.
“What does success look like?” It is a phrase used in many a project meeting, but what does that really mean? An organisation might be investing substantial amounts of money in to UC project or Intelligent Collaboration/ Teams project but how many use proper data to back up the success of a project? If we look back at historical projects, we will have all heard that line, but when we review those projects there is a large piece of the jigsaw missing.
A client might want to replace their legacy PBX with Skype for Business for example, the project goal is to move all voice to SfB and retire the legacy system. Wonderful, that is a great goal! Well done you 😊 but, the project goes through the motions, requirements, design, pilot, testing, production, sign off, roll out, etc. At the end of the project, the legacy phone system is decommissioned, all users are now on SfB or whatever the solution is. Everyone is happy.
But who goes back and checks? Who puts a quantifiable, measurable check on it? Yes, everyone has their new solution and tools, and the legacy solution is gone, whatever it may have been, but that is where projects tend to stop. Why do organisations not look for proof that their investment is being used properly and realised? Why do people steer away from saying that success is when 90% of my organisation are using the new solution on a daily basis, or I want to see a 60% reduction in internal travel costs or a 50% reduction in internal email with attachment traffic? Where are those key markers? Where is that proof of cultural, habitual change? If I were a CEO spending, as in a meeting this week, c. €500k on Office 365 licensing alone, would I not want to see evidence that the new solution is being used as intended, and tackling any reasons why it isn’t?
When discussing Teams, we all too often hear organisations say that they have rolled out it to their users… that doesn’t mean anyone will use it. If you invest in Teams, the associated licensing, the pro services that go with it, then why would you just roll it out and hope for the best. Benchmark where you are, measure your success, not in terms of ‘it’s been deployed’ or “we’ve rolled it out”, but in hard numbers that mean something to the business.
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