Now the Real Work Begins – Driving Adoption

[Kimberly Kelley (kimberly)]

If your organization has recently added video to your collaboration solution, or you’ve had video for a while and are looking to enhance or expand your deployment, you’re probably already working on a plan to make sure your employees use and embrace this powerful new technology. Depending on where you are in your adoption journey, your plan will likely require different approaches and may require multiple steps to get from where you are today to where you want to be.

Polycom recently published a guide to help you increase utilization of video collaboration in your organization. The guide details 5 easy steps you can take to create awareness and drive adoption.

Step 1 – Identify video champions within your organization. These champions will serve as evangelists and promoters of the new technology – making sure others in the organization understand the benefits and become interested in trying it themselves. This step is a great starting place for New Users and Innovators, as described in the guide.

Step 2 – Make sure your network, systems and rooms are ready. Nothing kills adoption faster than a poor experience and network performance, system capabilities and room configurations are all critical components to ensuring your users have good video experiences every time. From HD quality video and easy-to-use scheduling tools to keeping equipment up-to-date, make sure your solution is ready for use. Step 2 is an ideal starting place for Legacy Installs, defined in the guide.

Step 3 – Promote your video. Employees can’t use what they don’t know about. Make sure everyone in your organization who can use video is aware of its availability. Holding a launch party, sharing success stories or offering incentives to top users are some ways to drive awareness.

Step 4 – Train users on LOB applications and value (not products). Most users don’t really care about the “how” of the technology solutions they use every day. They primarily care about what they can do with it and need to understand why they should want to incorporate it into their daily workflows. Emphasize the why and what in your user training while also covering the basics of how. Step 4 is a potential starting point for Heavy Users, according to the guide.

Step 5 – Track your progress. We’ve all probably heard the adage, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. That concept may be especially true for technology solutions. Make sure you’re tracking utilization, resolving problems, keeping systems current and calculating the return on your investment. Knowledge is power and will help you make the best decisions as you manage, enhance or expand your video solution.

Given their 2.4M minutes of usage each month, longtime Polycom customer AOL would likely be described as a Heavy User by anyone’s standards. Their culture revolves around “one big family” and they “need to optimize, innovate and collaborate on a daily basis.” They’ve progressed beyond the 5 steps described here and have embarked on an even deeper level of adoption. They’ve moved video beyond the conference room walls to include web-based solutions. Most of their video meetings are ad-hoc now rather than scheduled. They have embarked on an “Anybody, anywhere, anytime model where users can get connected with one click.” You can learn more about AOL by reading the AOL story and watching the video.

Increasing adoption of video, or any technology, is not always an easy task. It requires a well thought out plan and often a multi-level approach. But for organizations like AOL, the task has been well worth the effort. Visit Polycom’s “I need to … increase adoption” page to learn more.