End user adoption actually begins before you even choose a collaboration technology. Way back in the beginning, you need to get business buy-in. But that's not all: this deck walks through all the steps, from getting influencers on board to rewarding end users. See more at http://sharepointsupported.com

1. End User Adoption

2. “…all of the companies identified users as the biggest barriers to faster and deeper adoption of Enterprise 2.0. Entrenched practices and mind-sets and some degree of technophobia combine to limit the pace of adoption.” Andrew McAfee, Enterprise 2.0

3. Herculean efforts are often involved launching SharePoint – all this effort is for naught if your users don’t actually use it, though. Driving adoption is critical. This presentation guides you through the steps to be successful. Business Case Governance Training Change Mgmt Strategy Branding Development Support Project Mgmt

4. Top-Down Support Every SharePoint deployment requires executive level support. There are business cases to be built and budgets to be approved. This support must continue once SharePoint has gone live, but the support expands from simple backing to actually setting an example. Your organization’s executives need to use SharePoint, and they need to use it in a highly visible way…

6. At least one executive in every division should create a blog. This is an easy way to engage with users and show off SharePoint.

7. Ask managers to refuse to open emails to multiple people with attachments; insist the documents be uploaded to a document library. Find other simple tasks (such as assigning tasks) that can be moved from Outlook to SharePoint, then enforce it.

9. Identify Influencers Don’t know where to start? Pick successful leaders who have been around a while. Or conduct a survey (via SharePoint of course) asking users to nominate someone in their department.

10. Sell Them on Solutions Once you’ve got your influencers, you need to make them enthusiasts. They do not care about the tool; they only care about how it can help them. SharePoint, Jive, Box.net, HyperOffice…these are all tools used to facilitate collaboration. All have their own advantages and disadvantages. Users don’t care. What do they care about? “How will this solve my problems? How will this save me time? How will this make my life easier?” Focus on the how and why, not the what.

11. Train Your Users If you want people to use SharePoint, you need to show them how to use it. The right training is critical – if you rely on “self-serve” training you run the risk that many users simply don’t take the training, or they learn bad practices. Training should be required. You should offer instructor led training; e-learning content should be offered as refresher courses. * This presentation covers training in detail.

12. Take It Offline Most corporate communications come via email. I ignore them. You probably ignore them. Assume that ~25-50% of your user base will not read them at all, or will only give them a cursory view. When a new iPhone launches, there are commercials, billboards, and news articles talking about it. You need to treat a SharePoint launch like an internal iPhone launch: Put up posters, talk about it the corporate newsletter, set up shop in your cafeteria or lobby and let people check it out (you want to make sure you have some compelling uses to show them), have department heads discuss it during regular all-hands meetings. Another high-touch way to get users’ attention: have an invite to login waiting on their desk one morning.

13. Take It Offline Here are some great examples of getting users’ attention outside of email: Images from http://gobigalways.com/dont-pee-in-the-pool-one-customers-rollout-strategy; note that these examples are from Jive’s Clearspace and not SharePoint, but are instructive nonetheless.

14. Reward Use Give awards and recognition to users for participation in wikis, blogs, and discussion forums, or providing help on SharePoint to their colleagues. Show off great sites as examples of what SharePoint can be, and share internal case studies of business units using SharePoint to make their lives easier. #1

15. If You Don’t Measure It, It’s Not Happening What’s the adoption rate of SharePoint so far? Is it stagnant, growing slowly, or exploding? Are users taking advantage of the full breadth of its features, or using it as a fileshare? You may need to change your strategy on the fly, but you can’t do that if you don’t keep a pulse on how SharePoint adoption is actually going. 47 38 14 15 21 92 60

16. End User Training and Support Products SharePoint Strategy and Tips www.sharepointsupported.com On Twitter @SPSupported