As Published In May 2004

Getting Users On Board for Collaboration
By Minda Zetlin

The demo was compelling and persuasive, you convinced your CEO to sign the requisition, the implementation happened on schedule—but no one is using the software. Why not?

"In some companies, you see collaboration software take off like crazy," says French Caldwell, vice president and research director at Gartner Inc. "In others, you don't. The difference has to do with whether you've made a good business case for the product—not just to the people funding it but also to the individual users."

Therein lies a challenge that is completely different from the technological issues faced during implementation—and possibly even more important. How do you get individual users to switch from their tried-and-true communication methods to the new world of collaboration?

Give plenty of warning. "Most companies fall down on the education of users," says Scott Jenkins, senior partner at Enterprise Business Solutions (The EBS Group), which provides Oracle Collaboration Suite as an Oracle partner. "One way to avoid that is to let them know well in advance what's coming and what will be newly available when the software arrives."

Focus on process, not features. If you're an IT executive, your natural instinct may be to talk about new software in terms of its functionality. But your users may not care about software features. Instead, approach the software in terms of the business processes users must deal with and how Oracle Collaboration Suite improves those processes.

Focusing on business objectives helped speed the adoption of Oracle Collaboration Suite for the Phone Directories Company, L.P., according to Tammy Sweat-Chipman, director of information technology. "In the Alaska Bush Territory office, they're behind our home office by three hours," she says. "In the past, if they wanted a document or supporting materials from us, they had to request the material by phone, during our work hours, and we would send it out overnight."

Today, managers in the Alaska offices can get the documents they need on their own schedule, by going through a portal into the company and accessing shared files. "They can have what they need within minutes," Sweat-Chipman notes. "That will keep those managers coming back."

Use metrics. As with any new implementation, the best way to start is with a pilot program that lets a small group of users try out the software, see if it works for them, and give feedback that can be used to adjust the user interface. All of this is very important—but it isn't enough, according to Chris Langdon, professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. "Why do I do a trial? Because I want to find out something," he says. "So I have to find a way to measure the variables that will help me determine what benefits the software will bring."

Obviously, it's a lot easier to do this with, say, an account processing system that reduces human work time than with collaboration software whose benefits may be less immediately evident. The solution, Caldwell says, is to keep in mind the business goals that brought you to collaboration software in the first place. "What are the metrics you're trying to affect?" he says. "Are you trying to shorten new-product time to market by allowing R&D and product development people to work together more effectively? That's a measurable goal."

Phase in new features slowly. "Ninety percent of salespeople don't want to stop what they're doing long enough to learn something new," Sweat-Chipman says. "Every second they're not selling is lost money, to them." That's why, she says, Phone Directories is rolling out its Oracle Collaboration Suite implementation slowly, one feature at a time, allowing each to become well integrated into employees' daily work routine before moving on to the next.

For similar reasons, when John I. Haas replaced its Microsoft Exchange system with Oracle Collaboration Suite, it began with an e-mail-only implementation. "The right approach for us was to start people out by just getting them used to the same functions they had before," says Kyle Lambert, vice president of information solutions. "Then, once they were accustomed to that, we did a presentation and said, 'Wait—there's more!' That's when we told them about Collaboration Suite's other features."

Have a get-together. "It's presumed that because this stuff is so easy to use, people don't need training," The EBS Group's Jenkins says. And that's true; most people could learn to use Oracle Collaboration Suite features on their own. But, he notes, "It's impossible to change people's daily behavior without some training."

The best way to do this is with a live, in-person gathering. "There is nothing like a group meeting to make sure everyone's getting the message at the same time and in the same way," he says. "So we try to encourage live training or do it for customers ourselves." The live meeting reinforces the organization's goals of having all users adopt the software. Doing it in a group tends to make people feel more comfortable and secure. It can also create peer pressure that might counterbalance their natural resistance to trying something new.

All this, though, is only half the equation. The other half—in which users actually learn and become comfortable with the software—requires some self-teaching time. "You have to give them access to tutorials and training materials so they can learn and view this themselves at their own pace and their own convenience," Jenkins says.

Let key users help. At the John I. Haas presentation, Lambert says, trainers gave users an overview of new features but did not go into detail. "We showed people the new features and functionality they could take advantage of, if they so chose." Interested users had to ask to learn more, and many did just that. "The presentation generated interest and requests, so we knew whom to target with certain features. Those people then become advocates and marketers for the software."

The very nature of collaborative software helps with this process, he adds, because it's useful only when many people participate. "Someone who wants to share files has to ask coworkers to cooperate in the file-sharing system," Lambert explains. "Then those coworkers find that it really works well, and they tell more coworkers. And so we find that success builds on success."

The most effective advocates of all are often management leaders, and if they become early adopters, they can bring many users in with them. "Any change in any organization will be bought into if the boss is using it and saying that this is the way we're doing things going forward," Jenkins says. This works especially well with collaboration software, which a manager can designate as a preferred communication method, he adds. "If the boss says, 'You can continue to use your old ways, but there's no guarantee that I'll get the message or respond,' that's a powerful motivator."

Make a good first impression. This is why experienced IT executives stress the importance of slow, carefully orchestrated software rollouts that begin with pilot programs and leave plenty of time for collecting user feedback and making necessary adjustments. "If you roll it out fast and it's not a useful tool, people will never revisit it," Sweat-Chipman says. "It has to be complete enough so that when people go there the very first time, they'll find what they're looking for."

Make it feel like a home (page). "Education can help people get past their fear and trepidation about using new software," notes Scott Jenkins. "But even once you get to that point, there's a structural barrier where they say, 'I've been doing it this other way for 10 years and I don't want to change now.' One way to get around that is to use it as your corporate intranet, so users are directed to find all corporate information at the corporate portal and the Oracle Collaboration Suite elements are glued in around their familiar corporate information system. It truly becomes part of their home environment."