Is digital transformation just overused buzz words? How much do we need to change with the times? What is the impact on our staff if we do? Or don’t?

One of the significant changes many businesses are facing is the adoption of Microsoft 365 – and how it fits into culture, systems, and changes in people’s behaviour. This article looks at the changing landscape of information sharing and communication through the times, and how the Intranet looks in today’s world.

Back in the old days…

Company communications used to be through large annual meetings. Monthly newsletters were printed. The public website was the main means of communicating company news. Updates were often lengthy or irrelevant. We progressed to emails with faster delivery, but with many of the same challenges. Ring binders contained manuals, SOP’s, and policy documentation, printed in triplicate for dispersed locations, often outdated before it was updated.

20 years ago, this worked. It was the only choice we had and fitted in with the way the rest of world functioned.

A portal to broadcast information.

The emails and paper paved the way for the “Intranet” – a supposed one-stop shop for employees to find everything they need to do their job. It was intended to inform. This information, however, often mirrored the paper versions: static, duplicated, outdated. Mistrust in the content meant people continued to stash local copies – hard or soft.

Intranets moved from servers (only accessible when you were in the office), to cloud based solutions (where people only needed a browser window and a log in). They were still largely managed by IT. Most were not responsive to mobiles and updating content was hard. Overall engagement was still poor. Glossy newsletters that transformed into picturesque intranet pages were still a one-way broadcast. Staff were used to being told, but they were not being engaged.

Bringing communication into the fold

To address the “communications” issue, vendors (including Microsoft with Yammer) started to bring in the social technologies that were becoming commonplace to people in everyday life and integrating these with Intranets. This provided two-way communication, enabling staff feedback, and made the intranet feel more alive.

Some businesses followed this journey. For others – the intranet was something that got lost in strategic plans. Many thought email and file shares quite enough to serve their needs but I question if they served the needs of the staff?

.. Then came COVID…and Teams

We were all thrown into an online world: video conferencing and working remotely. Zoom, Facebook, any means to connect. This highlighted two key things

• the information staff needed wasn’t accessible from outside the office
• habits and behaviour had to change instantly

Some companies, who had been on Microsoft 365 for months, discovered the Microsoft Teams application. Awesome! People could have video calls and chats. But for most, THAT is where it stopped!

Back to the Intranet Story …

For those continuing their digital transformation, many are moving on from just “Teams for Meetings”. People are discovering the benefits of online team collaboration, easy ways to share files, manage projects and communicate….yeh! But where does that leave the Intranet?

The Digital Desktop

Teams becomes your digital desktop, bringing other Microsoft 365 tools to the forefront. It integrates other business activities like managing tasks, informal note taking, simplifying processes like hazard reporting, or automating paper workflows. And it is all at your fingertips. SharePoint as a document repository becomes the filing cabinet that sits under the desk but keeps files within reach from your Teams Desktop.

Integrated ways of working

The Intranet can also become 100% part of Teams.  Set up correctly, an org-wide Team can replace (or create) an Intranet, making relevant information and access to controlled documents easy – all from the digital desktop people use.  Viva Connections brings a Home site right into the Teams App. This means a simplified experience for staff. There are now many options.

Note: The way you decide to structure your Teams environment depends on size, culture, volume of information in your organisation.

And…Welcome engagement!

Social technology has become part of the normal way of communicating in life. There has to be an avenue to support that at work. People expect it.  Sharing knowledge is a common practice in our personal lives, it needs to be the same at work.

Modern forms of engagement include ‘reactions’, replies, open discussions, not just a reply to an email with a limited audience. The Teams experience makes communication part of the norm, using short messaging not long winded drawn-out formal comms. 

All of this needs to support people where they work, on any device, when they need to. Businesses need to match societies’ expectations of information ‘on demand’.

Changing the IT Landscape

The traditional model of IT also radically changes. Power can be given to businesspeople to manage these tools. Rolling out new apps and initiatives can be iterative and modular, rather than big bang meaning we can respond faster to changing needs.  Failure to get onboard with this approach only results in frustrated users. People find their own solutions to achieve the results they need, causing more security concerns.

Collaboration and communication should be the primary objectives. IT (both internally or your provider) needs to support and enable the business through this, not control and block it. 

What do you choose?

Stand still? Is an aging workforce or a culture resistant to change an excuse? Can you afford to always do what you’ve always done?  What are the consequences? 

Standing still is like giving your staff a pay cheque and asking them to visit a bank to get their wages. Imagine the response!

If you have not yet fully embraced these new ways of working, perhaps it is time.

Time to meet the expectations of your changing workforce, make it easy and keep pace with how the rest of the world operates.

What are you waiting for?

ShareThePoint has a virtual (with a live instructor) Microsoft Teams course coming up in June. Or get in touch, to plan your next steps with Teams.