How many of us use Microsoft Office at work? Or what about Microsoft Office 365? Research tells us that there are hundreds of millions of us. Microsoft Office combined with the tools available from the Office 365 platform can create an environment ripe for collaboration and synergy but only if everyone understands the tools and what they’re capable of. Time and time again I speak with customers who KNOW they aren’t seeing the real value in an investment in the Microsoft platform. They know why they invested in Microsoft for their business, but they struggle to understand how to leverage the tools to take advantage of all their features. At times, I’ve felt like Don Quixote waging a one-man war against Office 365 ignorance, but last year I participated in a unique training program designed to help me and others like me educate end users about the potential of Office 365 and how it can transform businesses through efficiency gains and collaboration. That program is called the Customer Immersion Experience, or CIE for short.
The Customer Immersion Experience is designed to allow you to spend a day in the “virtual shoes” of a company using Office 365 and see how the products can be used to solve problems you experience in your own organization. The experience is delivered at your location or a Microsoft Technology Center. A conference room is required and a commitment to engage the participants, but after that, we provide the rest. We set up the conference room with as many multifunction devices as necessary, each one configured with a “persona” of an employee that works for our virtual business. Sitting down in a chair around the conference table means you might be acting as the marketing manager, or a customer service rep, a sales rep, someone in HR, or even the CFO. Having people at your company step outside of their normal role to take on a different persona during the CIE program has lots of positive benefits independent of the technology gains you will undoubtedly experience.
Once the roles are assigned and people are logged in to their devices, users are allowed to explore the entire Office 365 environment for themselves with nothing being off limits. The session starts with a little bit of brainstorming, trying to uncover pain points in your business that relate to technology. Sometimes a CIE leader will ask a question like “What is the biggest time waster in your day?” or “What part of your work day to you least look forward to?” The answers will often surprise the groups. These pain points are listed on a whiteboard and without too much more thought, the users are encouraged to start exploring their virtual environment to look for ways to solve some of these issues. The process is efficient on two different fronts because it uncovers some pain points within your organization AND it helps users become more familiar with different tools available to them from Office 365. A CIE trainer is there only to suggest and help users uncover different ways to accomplish tasks and provide technical support.
Typical CIE sessions last 4 to 8 hours and the investment is always worth it. Initially designed to help provide the ever important “user buy in” to investments in Office 365 during the sales process, I find more and more interest from organizations who are already using Office 365 but aren’t using much more than their Office 365 email. Recognizing that the software and platform provide new and unique ways for coworkers to interact but not fully understanding those ways is a great reason to reach out and schedule a CIE session. These sessions are offered free of charge and other than the time your users spend away from their desks during the session, there is no cost to you.
If you are considering an investment in Office 365 or if you login to your Office 365 portal and are overwhelmed by the “waffle” in the upper left-hand corner of the page and don’t use more than 2 or 3 of the tiles there, you need to participate in a CIE session! Contact us today to schedule your session.
