Dynamics 365 Adoption guide
Why does adoption matter? In the era of digital transformation, dramatic change is the new normal. The most successful companies are already reaping the rewards of digital transformation. Digital transformation enables organizations to attract the best talent, empower employees, and deliver innovative products and services all with streamlined operations—centered around exceptional customer experiences.
But many organizations find the idea of making a digital transformation a challenging one and have been slow to change. That’s why we created the Dynamics 365 Adoption guide.
Select this link to download a PDF version of the Dynamics 365 Adoption guide.
Help for you and your team
In this Adoption guide, we’ve compiled an easy-to-follow how-to guide that walks you and your team, step-by-step, through the best way to roll out Dynamics 365 to your organization. The insights here come from our most successful customers, who have maximized the power of their investment, adopting multiple, integrated technologies that now form Dynamics 365. Throughout this guide you will find links to additional tools and resources as well as the Adoption planning workbook where you can build your custom approach to adoption.
Many organizations are currently launching Dynamics 365 technologies and you can connect with them in the Microsoft Dynamics community of experts and peers.
The successful adoption of new technology requires behavior change. And change can be hard. It takes more than learning a new app. It's a fundamentally different way of working. This change is about people. And we're here to help.
We know from experience
The successful adoption of new technology requires behavior change. And change can be hard.
| Finding | Source |
|---|---|
| Change doesn't happen automatically. Most employees don't want to use new technology rolled out by their organization. | Creating organizational transformations, July 2008, McKinsey Quarterly, www.mckinsey.com |
| CEOs matter. When the CEO was engaged, the transformation project was more successful. | SharePoint End-User Study, April 2013, Microsoft Corporation |
| Setting targets is key. A well-defined set of financial and operational targets is a key component to successful transformation. | Microsoft 365 Usage Research, May 2016, Microsoft Corporation |
| Learn from each other. Learning from coworkers is one of the most effective ways to adopt new technology. | CIO Executive Board Business Productivity Database |
Hurdles to success
Among the challenges you should prepare for:
- Launching a new technology is more than a technical migration.
- Employees continue to use technical solutions that are not deployed by IT.
- Technical readiness and user readiness must go hand in hand.
- Your adoption approach can accelerate or impede results.
- Resistance to change is a normal human behavior that needs to be addressed.
- 80 percent of end users admit to using their communication tool of choice.
- Plan, pilot, and deploy both readiness activities together.
- Understand team member personas in order to sell the value of the technology to users.
Successful customers navigate adoption by:
- Defining a vision: Companies were most successful when they had a clearly defined vision and knew how the new technology would be used.
- Getting leadership support: Successful projects obtained proactive support from senior leadership to encourage new technology use.
- Training end users: Organizations used multiple training formats to engage with employees across business units.
- Raising awareness: Top performers used email, employee portals, posters, teaser videos, and newsletters.
Envision, onboard, drive value
Our easy-to-follow Adoption Framework guides you through the adoption process and helps optimize results. Each phase is broken into simple steps that guide you to the best practices, resources, and tools you need to build and deploy a customized adoption approach.
Phase one: Envision
Identify and prioritize scenarios while learning about available resources as you plan for rollout. This stage is critical to your journey because you're setting business goals to measure success. In this phase, you will:
- Assemble your team.
- Define business strategy.
- Determine readiness.
Learn more: Envision
Phase two: Onboard
Work with your key stakeholders to build and launch your adoption plan. Prepare your environment and test your adoption approach with Early Adopters. Use feedback to make adjustments before scaling to the business. In this phase, you will:
- Build your adoption plan.
- Launch to Early Adopters.
- Adjust your plan.
Learn more: Onboard
Phase three: Drive value
Full-scale deployment and business success depend on usage and satisfaction. This requires planning through the Envision and Onboard phases plus ongoing operational excellence. In this phase, you will:
- Monitor end-user adoption.
- Measure and report usage.
- Encourage ongoing engagement.
Learn more: Drive value