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The unwanted effects of postponing things to tomorrow

It is September 2018. Every morning, I dedicate 15 minutes to update me on Office 365 Roadmap. Today i find that 67 updates are currently being rolled out and 234 that are in development.Roadmap

My thoughts go away (once again) to all companies “out there” and the crew and individuals who have some form of responsibility for Office 365, either in its entirety or for any of its services. How about you?

  • Do you have full control of all updates?
  • Do you have a plan for how to apply these updates?
  • Do you know how to inform your colleagues about new functionality?
  • Can you ensure that user adoption is carried out in the most effective way and with the desired effect?

If you answer yes to these questions then you are  quite unique. Too many companies let updates and news launch without being in control of the positive and negative effects it brings.

“Whether you are a fast runner or good at hiding, you will not be able to escape the reality. The longer you wait, the harder it will hit you.”

I’m not a strong supporter of scaring people into action but unless you and your company have a very strong focus on Governance and User Adoption, you will not be able to take advantage of the full potential of your platform. The risk is rather that ignorance and poor planning cause disorder, misunderstandings and security problems. In plain text, this means that you will not achieve the profits and goals you wish

How can you get started?

A good (and compulsory) first step that creates great value is to define service owners/Change agents. A service owner shall be responsible for his/her service and keeping up to date on the Office 365 Roadmap and to follow related blogs (a good source of information is the Microsoft Tech Community.

Next step, when the service officers are appointed and have got their routines in place, is to establish a Change-/Governance Team and provide it with a tool that supports their needs.

When should you start?

It’s only a day left until tomorrow. Procrastination is not an option (It is not often that it is). Put this on the agenda today and start planning now. If you do not have the time or resources, there is always someone who can help you. It is better to use the time on planning than on putting out fires later.