Our organisation is moving from a dinosaur version of Lotus Notes to Outlook 2007. The TNA is already looking to be a massive job. Deciding what to include in the training is even worse. Microsoft's web site gives loads of info for people that are new to Outlook, but most of our staff are familiar with emails and calendars already. Has anyone done this migration before and do they have any training material? Or comments?
Thanks
Janice Ross
3 Responses
Migration
Hi Janice,
Yes, migrating is tricky. The biggest challenge I had (migrating from an old all-in-one to Outlook 2002) was simply the change management issue.
First, I would suggest you get the real business & individual benefits clearly communicated to your staff. I had 6000+ to get across and it took a fair while, the biggest complaint wasn’t changing to Outlook but that no-one knew it was coming (because they didn’t read their emails!!).
We focused on training for need. Most only needed mailing and, to be honest, training isn’t really the word. So many people now have it at home (or something similar) that a small leaflet did the job.
For others that needed more advanced info there were leaflets for calendar, tasks etc. as well as an FAQ page on the intranet and phone support. We did train key users to support the training and this would have worked if it had been restricted to Outlook (regrettably, because of the volume of users we needed SharePoint too – this wasn’t welcomed as openly as Outlook).
I’m happy to answer further questions, just drop me a line.
Scott.edwards@sussex.pnn.police.uk
Dramatically different …
Janice
Moving from any version of Lotus Notes to Outlook 2007 will be dramatically different for your users, even when they are familiar with general concepts of email and calendars, as you say.
We have a number of years of experience of this type of migration and would suggest that, in general, you focus on giving them access to what they actually need to do their job, as mentioned earlier.
It needs to be managed carefully but you might want to think about roadshow presentations to highlight the changes that are coming and then to support the actual implementation with ‘how to’ support materials and floorwalking rather than lots of training. That way, each individual takes what they each need.
It is a heck of a task you have got yourself and I am happy to share ideas and experiences in more detail if you want to contact me.
Good luck with it.
Jooli Atkins
Matrix FortyTwo
Possible contact for you?
Hi Janice
I don’t know whether this might help – have you thought about perhaps allowing people to dip into e-learning style modules as and when required? Might be a possibility for those who have some knowledge and want to do it for themselves, and those that want to start with the basics and practice or who want to be able to refer back often?
More than happy to give you a contact if it’s an option you’d like to explore.
Regards
Jacquie
http://www.iol-uk.co.uk
t: 01884 821870