Why User Engagement is so Important?
Technology is driving a profound change in user demand. Today, every brand is struggling hard to be perceived as truly customer-oriented. At a time when digitization is intensifying competition and giving consumers more power, loyalty is a real challenge. Today, a product or a brand only exists through the experience it provides. Engaging users/customers successfully throughout the cycle is a really hard job to imagine, design, build and test the countless possible experiences with the levels, consistency, excellence, and agility. To be able to provide the best experience, you have to understand how users engage with your product/brand on a set of offers and are able to act on the various levers of ‘interaction.
Office 365 & SharePoint
When we look at SharePoint now, it probably gives the best example of keeping up with eth user engagement, and the key of success behind it is that Microsoft has rightly cracked the trends that go in its favor. Based on the updates that Microsoft is deploying rapidly in Office 365, it won’t be unfair to say that a new direction is the only direction that can be adapted to engage users through this rollout of Office 365.
SharePoint Development, upgrade and migration have now become a whole new ball game, especially when it comes to the Office 365 applications. For those who have been deploying SharePoint for around 10 years, surely now that the training and mentoring methodologies are not as same as they used to be a few years back. This is because a lot has changed, and a lot is needed to be considered to catch up on the pace. You must not take deployment of your SharePoint and Office 365 lightly, and it must not be put into analysis paralysis, which is where we have seen most of the organizations getting stuck.
Trends That Boost the User Engagement of Office 365 & SharePoint
Modern organizations are progressively using SharePoint and Office 365 to help their users achieving their desired targets and needs for the fundamental applications. However, they either lack the fundamental understanding of the system or else failed to cope up with the latest trends. Keeping this in mind, we would like to share 5 user engagement trends that are giving way to increase Office 365 and SharePoint user engagement.
1. Roadmaps & Phases
If you think that you can roll out the entire Office 365 in one go, then it is exactly like wishing to eat an elephant in one bite. As quick as the Office 365 updates are rolling out from Microsoft, there are chances that new features may not or maybe there, by the time your product release, especially in the case when the planning cycle is prolonged. In that case, remember to roll out a few things, such as what works, and repeat. Don’t forget, if Microsoft can do it, then you and your organization can also do it.
2. The Trick of ‘When to Use What’
The trend of providing essential guidance about which application to use is one of the most common scenarios, and it tends to go a long way. This is commonly termed as governance conversation. To keep it simple for your users, which guides them is trending, as it makes the process easier for the users. For instance, if you are rolling your SharePoint Homepage out at the same time simultaneously as Yammer (a social network for internal communication within business corporations).
3. Sync Active & Populate Active Directory Information to User Profiles
Any program that is capable of providing employee information always stays at the heart of an organization. For countless years now, organizations have been reliant on updating legacy people search systems and spreadsheets. Delve information and profiles on people are rapidly becoming a central part of an Office 365’s feature enhancements. Listening to your customers is the latest trend as it provides you with first-hand information. Just like Microsoft, which is listening to its users and coming up with better and improved user experience and engagement features. This indicates that populating on the profiles of your users is the key component to engage your users.
4. Customer Relationship Management
This is probably the most important trend of all. But this is not about your relationship with your consulting company, but about the relationship that you have with your customers/users. Remember that they are your users, and no service provider will hold your hand forever. Therefore, while deploying Office 365 to your office, don’t be afraid of setting up a meeting with your end-users to make sure that they are following up. This will help you learn if the deployment is going smooth; if your users are encountering any challenges, or if you are required to make any changes in the future, etc. Also, don’t forget that the environment is changing rapidly; hence, it is vital to stay in touch with your users so that you can maintain feedback in the loop. It is crucial to keep in mind that your users tend to hold back critical information, which could be of real use for your business.
5. Training
Training is something that is still trendy and will always be. But unfortunately, this is something where organization usually cut most of their budgets, and end up with some serious issues. However, advanced methods of training such as video portals, third party tools, and lunch and learn methods have given way to quick learning for SharePoint and Office 365.
Admin
Marshal Hubs
Priyanka Srivastava
John Stephen