Going Google A practical guide to change management for Google Apps adoption Apps for Business
This guide is dedicated to our customers and partners who shared their experiences and insights with us. —The Google Apps Team © Copyright 2012–2014 Google, Inc. All rights reserved. Google, the Google logo, Google Apps, Google Apps Mail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sites, Google Video, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Message Filtering, Google Message Security, Google Message Discovery, Postini, the Postini logo are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Google Inc.
What’s in this Guide Change Management Matters 4 Change Management Task Timeline & Checklist Build Your Change Management Approach Phase 1: Core IT 56 Phase 3: Global Go-Live Customer Examples 12 21 Phase 2: Early Adopter Life After Go-Live 10 71 91 101 Customer Acknowledgements List of External Resources Change Management Guide 113 116 3
Change Management Matters Congratulations on your decision to move to the cloud with Google Apps for Work! Moving to the cloud has tremendous benefits, but it’s a big change. Big changes at companies require thoughtful guidance and communication even when the change has as much upside as Google Apps. Sometimes the success of the change hinges not on the change itself, but how it’s managed.
Change Management Matters About this guide There’s no single approach to change management—what’s best depends on your company’s size, culture, industry, and more. But with all the companies we’ve seen “go Google,” there’s no doubt that the most successful deployments have certain things in common. We’ve tried to capture these success factors in this guide and describe an effective change management model for deploying Google Apps.
Change Management Matters Get Ready, Communicate, Train! You’ll find many models for change management, ongoing scientific studies, and approaches to organizational changes. This guide uses Get Ready, Communicate, Train. It’s a simple model to execute your Google Apps change management strategy—a way to break down each phase of your effort and help assign key tasks.
Change Management Matters What changes am I managing? Here are the general types of changes that can affect your users or organization as you move to Google Apps. Later, we’ll discuss some tools for identifying these changes and responding to them in your change management plans. • Product changes—Any new tool requires time to get users up to speed.
Change Management Matters The Google Apps Rollout For a company of 250 or more employees, a standard Google Apps transition is divided into three phases: • • • Phase 1: Core IT Phase 2: Early Adopters Phase 3: Global Go-Live Each phase generally lasts about four weeks, although this varies with the size of your company and the specifics of your legacy system. The transition is usually complete within 90 days.
Change Management Matters Phase 2: Early Adopters Between 5–10% of your company begins using Google Apps. These Early Adopters are a cross section of your company that includes representatives of as many roles and office locations as possible. During this phase, you may begin migrating data from your legacy system, including user accounts, mail, and calendar data. The purpose of this phase is for you to perform a full Google Apps transition for a comparatively small number of users.
Change Management Task Timeline & Checklist Here are the suggested change management timeline and checklist for a Google Apps rollout, and the activities for each phase—Core IT, Early Adopter, and Global Go-Live.
Change Management Task Timeline & Checklist Build Your Change Management Approach Get Ready Make change management part of the project Build your change management proposal Secure executive support Conduct your deployment planning workshop Build your Change Management team Phase 1: Core IT Get Ready Start your Google Guides program Assess company-wide change impacts Create your marketing strategy Complete the communications plan Send key messages to users Train Send a user re
Build Your Change Management Approach Before the rollout begins, you’ll lay the groundwork and secure resources for your change management efforts. Planning sessions can conjure visions of unfocused meetings, polite responses to not-so-good ideas, and low-fat muffins. But it doesn’t have to be like that.
Build Your Change Management Approach Make change management part of the project For the most effective deployment, you’ll coordinate your change management efforts with the rest of your Google Apps project team from the beginning. Start by understanding your goals for the overall project. Let’s say: 2,000 users on Gmail within the next three months. You’ll track key decisions, such as the email migration strategy, supported mobile devices, and which Google Apps services will be rolled out.
Build Your Change Management Approach Build your change management proposal You’ll want to finish this guide before working on the change management proposal, but when you’re ready, this step is critical.
Build Your Change Management Approach Build your change management proposal (continued) Your change management approach needs to be the right fit for the culture and context of your organization. Make it play to your native strengths. If you’re a franchise-driven company, you likely have a large population of self-learners. This can lead to a more informed allocation of, say, your training budget. Use the information you gathered from discussions with your project team about past changes at your company.
Build Your Change Management Approach Secure executive support First, you’ll present to your project team for their input and feedback. Next, prepare your change management proposal to present to an executive sponsor or leadership group. In most organizations, your executive sponsor is usually the IT Director, CIO, or CTO—someone with authority to promote change management. The team will have a respected, authoritative name to back up the mission, and will speak to it as part of the company’s strategy.
Build Your Change Management Approach Secure executive support (continued) Tips for a successful sponsor: • Don’t let your sponsor be shy. Make the sponsor visible to all users. • Don’t surprise your sponsor. Get agreement on a plan for how the sponsor will be engaged with the project from the start and be specific. • Bring your sponsor into your communications plan. People want to hear from the leader of the change.
Build Your Change Management Approach Conduct your deployment planning workshop Now that you have executive support to make change management part of your deployment, you can make key decisions with the Technical Configuration and Project Management teams in your deployment planning workshop. A deployment planning workshop is a session where you make decisions that will determine the tasks and activities that make up your project plan.
Build Your Change Management Approach Build your Change Management team Who should be on your launch team? We’ve seen teams as big as 20 and as small as one. The size of your company figures heavily here, but so does something else: attitude and passion. You don’t get great outcomes without the right kind of people. Step 1: Inventory the skills and expertise you need We started with a small pilot of 5 people. Then we had a pilot with about 125 people because there were so many people who were interested.
Build Your Change Management Approach What do you leave with? As you move through the rollout, you’ll adjust your change management plan.
Phase 1: Core IT This is a phase of intensive research, planning, and often creativity. What you do here sets the groundwork for how users go live with Google Apps moving forward. At the end of the Core IT phase, a small group of your company’s IT staff will begin to use Google Apps.
Phase 1: Core IT Profile your user community Time frame: Weeks 1–2 What and why: You know the users who frequently pop up on your radar: The ones who reach their email quota every month, need to install the latest software, or call for help accessing email whenever they travel. Now you’ll need to know some additional things about your user community as you move them to Google Apps. You’ll profile your user community to: • Target user groups that might need extra help making the switch to Google Apps.
Phase 1: Core IT Profile your user community | How to Start a map of your user community and capture information about each group—a description, its location, level of impact by the change, language needs, and total number of users.
Phase 1: Core IT Profile your user community | Best practices As you get started profiling your user community, use these best practices: • Partner with your Human Resources department. Your HR department is tasked with understanding the people in your organization. They are one of the groups that communicates with every employee. Ask HR for information about employee locations and your company’s language translation practices.
Phase 1: Core IT Profile your user community | Best practices (continued) Identify accessibility needs. Do you have any blind, low-vision, or deaf workers? Disabled users often have highly specialized software and hardware and may need targeted training and documentation. See the accessibility resources at the Google Apps user learning center for more information. “It’s important to have focused communications depending on each user group; not all users are the same.” • Connect with your user community.
Phase 1: Core IT Create your marketing strategy Time frame: Weeks 1–2 What and why—marketing the change: It’s not enough to tell users that something big and important is coming. You’ve got to do it in a memorable way that feels fresh but is also part of the company’s character.
Phase 1: Core IT Create your marketing strategy | How to Step 1: Build the team The best resource is often your Marketing or PR department. Maybe you’re not the creative type? They probably have someone who is and can help you in the following areas: • Developing key messages • Creating collateral and production support (for posters, artwork, etc.
Phase 1: Core IT Create your marketing strategy | How to (continued) Here’s an example from MeadWestvaco, a global packaging company with 15,000 Google Apps users: • Creative concept: An internal marketing campaign that used ideas about connecting across the company to increase awareness and excitement about the move to Google Apps. • Theme: “A new way to work as one.” • Delivery: Multiple channels, including posters, email campaigns, and websites.
Phase 1: Core IT Create your marketing strategy | How to (continued) Step 4: Select marketing channels How will you get your marketing campaign in front of your users? Evaluate the different marketing channels by assessing their reach, frequency of exposure, and impact. Consider the channels that have worked well for other campaigns.
Phase 1: Core IT Create your marketing strategy | Customer examples Here are stories from two companies about why they chose Google Apps and the benefits. Delta Hotels and Resorts Delta Hotels and Resorts is a Canadian hospitality chain. Why Google Apps? We needed a way to provide access to messaging and collaboration tools for 90% of the company’s 7,500 employees, without adding additional IT staff. What are the benefits? • Google Apps has increased front-of-house user productivity by 10%.
Phase 1: Core IT Create your marketing strategy | Customer examples (continued) The Roche Group The Roche Group is a global leader in research-focused healthcare. Why Google Apps? • We wanted an easier way for our employees to collaborate. • We were impressed with the outstanding service and rapid innovation of Google Apps. • We wanted a single product for our 90,000 employees to work better together, from anywhere.
Phase 1: Core IT Create your marketing strategy | Best practices “We used Google t-shirts and signs around the building to promote the switch to Google Apps.” Keep the elevator pitch messages real. • Not good—“We want a more flexible solution that gives us quantifiable ROI by Q2 going forward.” • OK—“The benefit for IT managers is that you get a cost saving.” • Good—”We can use Google Apps any place and on any device—at home, at work, on our phones, and on tablets.
Phase 1: Core IT Complete the communications plan Time frame: Weeks 1–2 What and why: A communication plan is important for organizing all the messages your users will receive about the project.
Phase 1: Core IT Complete the communications plan | How to Here’s a sample communications plan and suggested timeline with links to customizable Google Apps communications templates from Setup & deployment on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site: Message and Details Date Announcement email As soon as your organization decides to go Google First announcement of company’s plan to switch email and calendar platform to Google Apps.
Phase 1: Core IT Complete the communications plan | How to (continued) Message and Details Date Email 3: Switch reminder with preparation 2 days before users are migrated Reminder with steps to take to prepare for migration. Audience: All users being migrated in that phase Email 4: Final switch reminder Final reminder about account migration. Includes instructions to print documentation.
Phase 1: Core IT Complete the communications plan | Best practices Edit the sample communications plan so it’ll work best for your company and your user community: • • Include your internal marketing activities. You identified ways to promote Google Apps among your user community when you created your internal marketing strategy.
Phase 1: Core IT Complete the training plan Time frame: Weeks 1–2 What and why: Google Apps for Work is easy to use, but everyone learns at their own pace and learns new things differently. So how exactly will you make sure that you meet the needs of your users? Answer: Create a training plan. A training plan simply lists the training courses or resources needed to educate your company’s users.
Phase 1: Core IT Complete the training plan | How to Here’s a list of common courses delivered during Google Apps deployments. A Google for Work Partner can help you develop these courses for your company’s training needs.
Phase 1: Core IT Complete the training plan | Best practices Here are a few things to consider as you complete your training plan: • • Incorporate targeted training needed for special user groups. You’ll want to address your user community’s needs in your training plan. Maybe you’ll need special training for the Communications team on Google Sites. Be sure to include those needs in your plan. Use existing training resources and formats.
Phase 1: Core IT Send key messages to users Time frame: Weeks 2–4 What and why: Once you have finalized your communication plan, it’s time to start executing the plan. The messages that you share play an important role.
Phase 1: Core IT Create a training site and materials | Best practices Here are some best practices to consider as you’re developing your training site: • Promote your training resources. Increase usage of all the great assets you’ve pulled together by plugging into these useful sites. • Add a call to action on the home page of your site.
Phase 1: Core IT Send key messages to users | How to Before distributing messages during the Core IT phase, make sure you’ve reviewed the content of the message with the project team, asked for input from the sender of the message, and confirmed you have an accurate list of the users who need to receive the message. “You need to get your initial communications right for your Core IT users. Their experience can really set the tone for your project.
Phase 1: Core IT Start your Google Guides program Time frame: Weeks 2–3 What are Google Guides? To ensure the best possible experience for both your users and support staff, you need a solid support plan in place on day one. You know that some of your users are apprehensive about the change. Many need live help getting started no matter how much documentation and training you provide. This is where Google Guides can make all the difference in a smooth rollout to your user community.
Phase 1: Core IT Start your Google Guides program | How to Step 1: Design the specifics of your Google Guides Program • Responsibilities: Define your guides’ tasks. Usually, guides provide a few hours of support during the first few days after Go-Live. A large, distributed company may give some guides additional responsibilities such as sending out communications to their peers and presenting information or informal training about Google Apps to their teams.
Phase 1: Core IT Start your Google Guides program | Best practices Don’t be shy about asking for Google Guides. When asked why they didn’t run a Google Guides program, most IT organizations cited reservations about asking for help from the company. Google Guides can really make a difference to everyone’s productivity and reduce possible user frustration during the Go-Live period. • Ask your managers or supervisors to help by either calling for volunteers or nominating participants.
Phase 1: Core IT Create a training site and materials Time frame: Weeks 2–3 What and why: Once you’ve finalized your training plan, you can start to pull together the materials you’ll use to educate end users. You’ll also want to create a central location where users can access all the training materials. Many organizations use a Google Site as a onestop shop for all training materials for users. The result: You have a training site and a set of training resources that are ready for your users.
Phase 1: Core IT Create a training site and materials | How to Google provides a variety of learning resources to get you started. You can find these resources and more at Setup & deployment on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site. Ready-to-use user learning center Point your users to this public site, which includes user guides, eLearning videos, tips and tricks, and more.
Phase 1: Core IT Send key messages to users | Best practices Communication Don’ts: • Don’t send off messages without a thorough review. Run your communications drafts by a few people who are unfamiliar with the project. A simple user test can validate the content before you send your emails to hundreds of users. Also, consider having your messages copy edited by people in your company who specialize in communications—technical writers, marketing specialists—or simply someone with writing expertise.
Phase 1: Core IT Assess company-wide change impacts Time frame: Weeks 2–4 What are change impacts? Change impacts are things that will be different once your organization switches to Google Apps—updates to business processes, applications or policies. Tracking these changes helps prevent foul-ups and needless duplication—and you can identify opportunities as well. Start with your project team: Many of these changes depend on the technical decisions and scheduling.
Phase 1: Core IT Assess company-wide change impacts | How to To get started, create a table where you’ll track your change impacts. Identify the owners for these changes, what the solution looks like and which change management activities—training, communications, internal updates—might be needed to support it. You’ll continue to track these items throughout your deployment and execute your communications and training through Go-Live. “We left the old world behind. We did not migrate mail or calendar.
Phase 1: Core IT Assess company-wide change impacts | Best practices Some tips on identifying and evaluating change impacts: • Cooperate with key stakeholders in your organization. Many change impacts require decisions to be made outside of the project team. For example, you might need HR or Legal to make a decision related to a revised policy. • Focus on the user. A minor decision for IT could be viewed as a major change by your user community.
Phase 1: Core IT Deliver and evaluate Core IT training Time frame: Weeks 2–4 What and why: During this phase, you launch your user learning center site with all of your training materials and deliver the first courses for your project. Courses typically delivered during Core IT: • Google Apps for IT Administrators: A course to teach IT Administrators key tasks related to managing services in Google Apps, such as using the Google Apps Control Panel and provisioning accounts.
Phase 1: Core IT Deliver and evaluate Core IT training | How to Now that you have created training materials, it’s time to put them to the test with your Core IT users.
Phase 1: Core IT Deliver and evaluate Core IT training | Best practices Here are some best practices for delivering Core IT training: • Give IT administrators an opportunity to practice. Your IT administrators will be responsible for many tasks that use the Google Apps Control Panel. Rather than just telling them about the Control Panel, give them an opportunity to practice.
Phase 1: Core IT What do you leave with? As you complete the Core IT phase you should have: • A summary of your user community including a detailed list of the user groups that make up your organization • A list of key company-wide impacts resulting from the move to Google Apps • A list of the people who will create a peer-to-peer network of support for your user community or Google Guides program • An internal marketing plan that includes: Elevator pitch Creative concept Marketing channels Over
Phase 2: Early Adopter By the end Early Adopter phase, a cross-section of your users (typically 5–10%) begin to use Google Apps. This includes your Google Guides so they can gain experience with the new services.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Launch your marketing campaign Time frame: Weeks 5–9 What and why: In the Core IT phase, you designed your internal marketing campaign and secured staffing and resources. Now, as your Early Adopters start to use Google Apps, you’ll launch your campaign to build awareness and promote resources about the switch. “Use your communications to build energy and excitement among your user community.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Launch your marketing campaign | How to 1. Secure resources. Reach out to your Marketing, HR, and Communications departments for help with production, design, and distribution. You’ll find experts who have run company-wide campaigns and are happy to assist with the transition to Google Apps. 2. Start delivering through your channels and collateral. Here’s a sampling of options. Consider which work best for your company and pick at least three to deliver.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Launch your marketing campaign | Best practices Use these best practices as you roll out your campaign: • Set a date to officially launch your marketing campaign. You want people to take notice, so coordinate your first marketing events to debut on the same day—posters, email blasts, and your intranet site launch. • Get people’s attention, be memorable. Make your marketing materials stand out from the normal office clutter. Find language that speaks to your users.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Send key messages to users Time frame: Weeks 5–9 What and why: Messages don’t work unless they are sent often and with the latest info. Just because this group of users is only a part of your user population doesn’t mean they don’t deserve frequent updates about their migration. This is your practice run for moving your entire organization to Google Apps. Give them a positive experience so they become Google Apps champions.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Send key messages to users | How to Send these messages to the Early Adopters (including your Google Guides) who are being migrated to Google Apps: • Early Adopter announcement and schedule • Migration notification and reminders • Training announcement • “Welcome to Google Apps” message “We had senior leaders send out communications explaining how things will work with Google Apps.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Send key messages to users | Best practices Top tips for communicating with your Early Adopters: • Remind people about co-existence. In many cases, Early Adopters live in two systems—Google Apps and the legacy system—during this phase. For example, they may need to use their legacy system to reserve rooms or to look up global contacts in their legacy email. Let them know what to expect and that it’s temporary until the Global Go-Live. • Get feedback from your users.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Complete training materials for users Time frame: Week 7 What and why: The Early Adopter phase is the first real test of your training plan. You’ll expand the content you created in the Core IT phase—your intranet sites, presentations, and training. With the Early Adopter phase, the audience now includes business users, and you typically need to pay special attention to your executives, executive assistants, and your helpdesk or support staff.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Complete training materials for users | How to You’ll be delivering some courses for the first time, so make sure the course materials are ready to go. Remember, you don’t have to start from scratch. You’ll find great resources in the user learning center on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site, or you can work with a Google for Work Partner.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Complete training materials for users | Best practices “During every major IT change, users experience a dip in enthusiasm just after Go-Live, when they face performing the same tasks using a different tool. Build upon the content you compiled earlier for your IT users: Keep your materials up-to-date. • Consider including new FAQs or information in your Google Apps user learning center or transition site aimed at your business users.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Start your Google Guides program Time frame: Weeks 7–8 What and why: In the Core IT phase, you defined your Google Guides program and lined up your guide candidates. At this stage of the Early Adopter phase, you hold your Google Guides kickoff meetings and begin to bring your guides up to speed. The result: Your Google Guides are energized and ready to help you lead the switch to Google Apps in your organization.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Start your Google Guides program | How to Typically the kickoff is run two to three weeks before Early Adopters are moved to Google Apps. A typical agenda for a Google Guides meeting: 1. Project overview: Share that great elevator pitch you created earlier in the project—explain the “why” behind the move to Google Apps and reinforce the benefits for your user community. 2. Role of Google Guides: Set expectations on how the Google Guides will be involved. 3.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Deliver & evaluate training Time frame: Weeks 7–8 What and why: Because you’ll be delivering training to a representative group of your whole user community in the Early Adopter phase, you’ll get valuable feedback that will help when you train even more users for Global Go-Live. You can also use feedback you receive to track user adoption trends.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Deliver & evaluate training | Best practices Best practices and advice for Early Adopter training: • Train your trainers. Give your trainers an opportunity to use the applications beforehand and deliver practice sessions. While they may be skilled trainers, they need time to prepare. • Test your training. You’re about deliver training to many users. Take a few minutes to test your set-up.
Phase 2: Early Adopter Assess team change impacts Time frame: Weeks 7–9 What and why: You started tracking changes resulting from the switch to Google Apps, now keep it up. The Early Adopters phase puts your first business users on Google Apps. You’ll learn about the specific business processes—automated email responses for sales leads or invoicing, for example—or department procedures that may be affected.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Global Go-Live—this is what the team has been working towards. You’ll prepare all of your organization for the switch, and continue the communications and training work, but at a global scale.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Send a user readiness survey Time frame: Week 10 What and why: How can you tell how well users are prepared for the transition? Use a survey to gauge the effectiveness of your change management efforts. The result: You have feedback from your user community that you can use to adjust your Go-Live strategy for maximum effectiveness. “We sent a user readiness survey to understand the concerns of our users. In our case, people wanted to understand how their data would be moved over.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Send a user readiness survey | How to The survey results can help identify who requires the most help and which communications have been effective. You can eliminate unwanted surprises during Go-Live, and make sure the right users get the right kind of attention. Some information to gather: “After surveying our American employees, we found 67% were already using Gmail in their personal lives, so we knew the transition would be pretty easy.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Send a user readiness survey | Best practices Why you shouldn’t skip the survey: • You might be tempted to not run a survey, but the results can help your team focus on the right areas of need, certain user populations, or locations. You want that visibility now to help avoid surprises on Go-Live.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Complete internal marketing activities Time frame: Weeks 10–13 What and why: This step is similar to what you did in your Early Adopter phase, but your marketing messages become more specific and actionable—everyone knows the Go-Live date and how to prep their mailbox. Move your users from a state of awareness to a state of motion.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Complete internal marketing activities | How to Earlier in the deployment, your marketing materials and events might have focused solely on the benefits of Apps to users. Now that you’ve got their attention, motivate them with: • Training opportunities: Increase awareness of all of your training resources, whether you’re offering live training, virtual, or online options.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Complete internal marketing activities | Best practices Remember to use a variety of marketing channels: • Create physical reminders using posters, flyers, or postcards. • Use virtual marketing channels like sites, videos, email, and blogs. • Get people excited with giveaways like T-shirts, stickers, or food with your project brand or logo. “The more types of communication channels you use, the more likely you are to reach most of your users.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Send key messages to users Time frame: Weeks 10–13 What and why: Keep up the constant communication as you approach the big day. You want to make sure all users are informed about the migration process at Global Go-Live. Be sure to implement any improvements you identified during the Early Adopter phase. The result: Your Go-Live users are equipped with all the information they need to be productive on their first day using Google Apps. “We communicated in waves.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Send key messages to users | How to Here’s a suggested timeline for sending out messages to users during the Global Go-Live phase: Task Time frame (by week number) Global Go-Live 10 11 12 13 Send key messages to Global Go-Live users 10 11 12 13 • Training announcement 10 • Email 1: First switch notification • Email 2: Switch reminder 12 • Email 3: Switch reminder with preparation tasks 12 • Email 4: Final switch reminder 13 • Email 5: Welcome message for mi
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Send key messages to users | Best practices • Use multiple communications channels. Some of our most successful customers used videos to emphasize the most important information to users. “The surprise was that people would hit a saturation point on communications. We had to ration out how often we would send communications. We made the communications shorter and included links with more information.” • Ask your executive sponsor to send messages.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Complete training materials Time frame: Week 11 What and why: During the Global Go-Live phase, you’ll be training the largest number of users yet. You’ll want to make sure the courses you deliver in this phase are ready for prime time.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Finalize training materials | How to Now put the finishing touches on your training materials. Note: If you put your team’s collective eyes on these one more time, you’ll benefit from the wisdom you accumulated during previous phases. “We track training sessions with Google Calendar, and share training content and attendance records with Google Docs.” • —Patrick Liew, CIO, HSR Plan for translation time if needed.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Finalize training materials | Best practices Tips on organizing your training materials: • Use different formats in training materials to appeal to different learning styles. Some of your users might love watching videos to learn about Google Apps. Other users might prefer printing out a document they can read at their desk while exploring their Google Apps account. • Answer the common questions in your training materials.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Complete & execute the support plan Time frame: Weeks 11–13 What and why: The goal of this step is to put everyone on the same page for Go-Live day, have support ready, and provide users a smooth transition on their first day with Google Apps. Your role is to help your project team design the support strategy and ensure that your Google Guides are informed. The Google Guides are the first line of support to your users, so the more they know the better.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Complete & execute the support plan | How to Principles of the Go-Live support strategy: A good support strategy improves your users’ experience, speeds resolution of issues, and keeps your project team focused on any critical challenges. Set up clear roles and responsibilities, for example: • Level 1: Your Google Guides can provide local user support for basic issues and simple questions. • Level 2: Your help desk can provide help for more complex issues and troubleshooting.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Complete & execute the support plan | Best practices Some best practices for designing your support strategy with your project team: • Define the role of the Google Guides, the help desk, and the project team at Go-Live. • Identify the escalation path for issues. • Communicate the Go-Live support strategy to everyone involved in providing assistance at Go-Live. • Find a way to make support resources visible to users at Go-Live.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Deliver & evaluate training Time frame: Weeks 11–13 What and why: This is the big payoff. By the end of this you’ll be up and running with Google Apps for Work. You’ll be on the Cloud, working in the workplace of the future, and you’ll be able to do so anywhere, anytime, and with any device. The result: Your entire user population is educated about Google Apps and ready to go Google. “We find that it’s a best practice to have a representative from the client at all training events.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Deliver & evaluate training | How to Most companies deliver training a few weeks before Go-Live and continue to offer training in the week after Go-Live.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live Deliver & evaluate training | Best practices For the best learning experience: “We mapped out all the little things that people wanted to know. We used that information in our training so people knew what to do on day one.” • Conduct training as close to Go-Live as possible. If you conduct training too early, your users might forget what they learned. • Keep an eye on the feedback you receive. Respond to any actionable feedback items from users.
Phase 3: Global Go-Live What do you leave with? Leading up the Go-Live day, you’ll complete your change management activities to have: • Feedback from your user community you can use to adjust your Go-Live strategy for maximum effectiveness. • A comprehensive Go-Live support strategy that defines the roles of your project team, your support team, and your Google Guides. • A global user population that’s equipped with all the information they need to prepare for Go-Live.
Life After Go-Live Now that you’ve hitched yourself to the future—and to a better, more robust set of business applications—it’s time to ask: are we attaining our goals with the rollout, and how can we do it better? • Review progress against project goals • Continue to gather feedback from users • Plan for ongoing change management • Celebrate the success of your deployment • Set up an ongoing communications process • Create a maintenance plan for training materials • Provide advanced, ongoing
Life After Go-Live Review progress against project goals Let’s call this your “post-project reality check.” If you honestly assess now, you’ll see what’s working and what’s not. Then, you can use this information to: • Identify where you achieved your goals and celebrate your success. • Pinpoint where you haven’t met your goals and tackle any obstacles to your progress. The result: You have a more accurate measure of progress towards your project goals.
Life After Go-Live Review progress against project goals (continued) Here are some ideas and metrics you can use to assess if you’ve achieved some of the most common goals related to switching to Google Apps. If your primary goal is... Then....
Life After Go-Live Continue to gather feedback from users If you do this, you’ll accomplish two things: Your users will feel acknowledged and useful, and you’ll keep your efforts fresh and relevant. You can reuse many of the questions from the user readiness survey you distributed earlier in your project and the data you gathered previously can serve as a benchmark. You can use the change in the data to show powerful trends related to your Google Apps deployment.
Life After Go-Live Plan for ongoing change management Change isn’t something you can start and finish. With Google Apps, your user community gets access to new features nearly every week. To take advantage of this technology, change needs to become a part of the way your organization operates.
Life After Go-Live Celebrate the success of your deployment If you don’t celebrate, everybody will think you take them for granted. You also want to recognize the achievements of your team and your user community. You’d better celebrate. “We had to change the way we think when we were working with our users. We had to become more accessible.
Life After Go-Live Set up an ongoing communications process Someone is always telling you to communicate—and for good reason. Doing so can help identify and solve residual problems, improve adoption rates of core features, and set the stage to expand from core features to more advanced, specialized features. “Communicate about important new features and create realistic expectations. Your users will really appreciate that.
Life After Go-Live Create a maintenance plan for training materials You decided early on that this wouldn’t be another one-off effort, so get busy and make a maintenance plan for new training materials aimed at future employees. Keep an eye on new “real world” online media platforms that might be catching on both in the office and without. Connect with the people in your company who maintain training materials today.
Life After Go-Live Provide advanced, ongoing Google Apps training You did all that thoughtful work on your user community and adoption rates. Now use it to get more bang out of your new suite of apps. Offer training on other Google Apps features on your domain. If Gmail and Google Calendar were the primary focus of your deployment, you might now consider additional training to drive adoption of Google Docs and Google Sites, Google Video and Google Presentations.
Life After Go-Live What do you leave with? If you put these ideas into practice after Go-Live, you’ll have: • An accurate measure of your achievement of your project goals • An ongoing dialogue with your user community • A way to manage future changes related to Google Apps in the most efficient and effective way for your organization • Closure to a successful project • Users who are informed and not surprised about new Google Apps releases • Accurate and relevant training materials for your use
Customer Examples Many our customers find that the team-based change management process taps into a well of creative communications ideas. Here are some of the most successful and enduring. MeadWestvaco A poster from MeadWestvaco’s communications campaign to build awareness of their Google Apps deployment. MeadWestvaco (MWV) is a global packaging company based in the U.S. with 15,000 Google Apps users. MWV worked with Google for Work Partners Onix Networking and Tempus Nova to deploy Google Apps.
Customer Examples Visy Images from Visy’s Google Apps deployment including a poster and a page from the company’s Google Apps training site. Visy is a packaging and paper recycling company based in Australia with more than 3,200 Google Apps users. Visy worked with Google for Work Partner Accenture to deploy Google Apps.
Customer Examples Brady Corporation A poster from Brady’s “Destination Google” marketing campaign to generate excitement before the switch to Google Apps. Brady Corporation is a global manufacturing company based in the U.S. with 7,760 Google Apps users. Brady worked with Google for Work Partners Appirio and Tempus Nova to deploy Google Apps.
Customer Examples Genentech Google Squad characters created for Genentech’s marketing campaign for its Google Apps deployment. Genentech is a biomedical company with 17,000 Google Apps users. Genentech worked with Google for Work Partners Appirio and Tempus Nova to deploy Google Apps.
Customer Examples Softbank The cover from Softbank’s employee guidebook and an image from a video used to promote Gmail to users. Softbank is a Japanese telecommunications and Internet corporation with 24,000 Google Apps users. Softbank is also a Google Apps Reseller.
Customer Examples Salfacorp A poster and Google-branded swag used to get users at Salfacorp excited about the switch to Google Apps. Salfacorp is a multinational construction and real estate company based in Chile with 4,000 Google Apps users. Salfacorp worked with Google for Work Partner Soluciones Orión to deploy Google Apps. (Accelerates teamwork) (Optimizes productivity) (Improves the IT service level) (99.
Customer Examples General Services Administration An image of a video and a Google Guide badge from the General Services Administration’s Google Apps deployment. The General Services Administration (GSA) is a federal government agency in the United States with 17,000 Google Apps users. GSA worked with Google for Work Partners Unisys and Tempus Nova to deploy Google Apps.
Customer Examples Unéo , la nouvelle messagerie d’Unéo (Unéo’s new email system) Ne ratez plus (99.9% availability) vos rendez-vous ! (Don’t miss your appointments anymore!) Grâce à Google Agenda, organisez vos journées, envoyez des invitations et partagez votre agenda en toute simplicité (Thanks to Google Calendar, organize your workdays, send invitations, and share your calendar very easily.) 108 A poster from Unéo’s communications campaign highlighting the benefits of Google Apps to users.
Customer Examples Mortgage Choice MO NT H Google Mail Google Chat Google Calendar A poster promoting Google Guides at Mortgage Choice. Mortgage Choice is a real estate company based in Australia with 2,200 Google Apps users. Copyright © Mortgage Choice Get off to a good start with Mortgage Choice Google Mail, Chat and Calendar.
Customer Examples LAN Airlines Images from a video LAN Airlines used to communicate with its employees about the move to Google Apps. LAN is an airline based in Chile with more than 11,000 Google Apps users. LAN worked with Google for Work Partner Soluciones Orión to deploy Google Apps. Copyright © LAN Airlines (Google arrived!) (We’ll implement your email and calendar in Google Apps.) (In the next days you’ll receive more details on Google Apps use and the start date.
Customer Examples Office Depot 8 We can help! Now that you are all set up, be sure to complete your TRAINING if you haven’t already done so. Training is offered via webinar, onsite classroom style, or through eLearning. To access the eLearning, click on the “More” menu in your Google navigation bar and select “Learn Google Apps.” A section from Office Depot’s Getting Started Guide, a one-sheet reference for new Google Apps users.
Customer Examples The Weather Channel A poster promoting Go-Live day at The Weather Channel. The Weather Channel is a cable and satellite television network and based in the United States. It has 1400 Google Apps users. The Weather Channel worked with Google for Work Partner Cloud Sherpas to deploy Google Apps.
Customer Acknowledgements The recommendations and information in this guide were gathered through our work with a variety of customers and partners. We thank our customers and partners for sharing their experiences and insights with us. Google Apps Customers Admiral Pest Control Admiral Pest Control is a professional services company based in the United States. It has 50 Google Apps users. Ebby Halliday Realtors Ebby Halliday Realtors is a real estate services company based in the United States.
Customer Acknowledgements Google Apps Customers (continued) LAN Airlines LAN is an airline based in Chile. It has 11,000 Google Apps users. MeadWestvaco MeadWestvaco is a packaging company based in the United States. It has 15,000 Google Apps users. Mortgage Choice Mortgage Choice is a financial services company based in Australia. It has 2,200 Google Apps users. Motorola Mobility Motorola Mobility is a telecommunications equipment company based in the United States. It has 28,000 Google Apps users.
Customer Acknowledgements Google for Work Partners Boost eLearning Boost eLearning is a Google for Work Partner specializing in eLearning, and is based in the United States. Cloud Sherpas Cloud Sherpas is a Google for Work Partner based in the United States. Comprehensive Computer Consulting Comprehensive Computer Consulting is a Google for Work Partner based in the United States. Dito Dito is a Google for Work Partner based in the United States. eForcers S.A. eForcers S.A.
List of External Resources Change Management Matters p. 5: Setup & deployment on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site http://goo.gl/09sYY p. 6: Google for Work Partners http://goo.gl/e1Rqd p. 6: Setup & deployment on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site http://goo.gl/09sYY p. 7: Going Google introduction video http://goo.gl/4G3DW Build your Change Management Approach p. 13: Motorola Mobile Going Google video http://goo.gl/5xi0W p. 14: Change Management Proposal template http://goo.
List of External Resources p. 34: Email announcement to company http://goo.gl/bEKpg p. 34: Intranet announcement to company http://goo.gl/dHRqu p. 34: Google Guides recruiting email http://goo.gl/UMDZ2 p. 34: Training email http://goo.gl/5iwQP p. 34: Google Apps poster http://goo.gl/LhBwE p. 34: Email 1: First switch notification http://goo.gl/yN4aW p. 34: Email 2: Switch reminder http://goo.gl/xtCgL p. 35: Email 3: Switch reminder with preparation http://goo.gl/dh6a3 p.
List of External Resources p. 47: User guides http://goo.gl/jJAaB p. 47: Interactive user guides http://goo.gl/yd5nG p. 47: Training videos http://goo.gl/Gp81l p. 47: Tips & tricks http://goo.gl/OUiWM p. 47: Localized resources http://goo.gl/t08W5 p. 47: Setup & deployment on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site http://goo.gl/09sYY p. 47: Ready-to-use user learning center http://goo.gl/TWT74 p. 47: Customizable user learning center http://goo.gl/WS2Wb p. 47: Google Analytics http://goo.
List of External Resources p. 64: Training resources for administrative assistants http://goo.gl/SnGX0 p. 64: Google troubleshooting resources http://goo.gl/m53ng p. 64: Resources for mobile users http://goo.gl/qerCx p. 67: Google Online Store http://goo.gl/Vk1Xj Phase 3: Global Go-Live p. 72: User readiness survey template http://goo.gl/Aroao p. 73: User readiness survey template http://goo.gl/Aroao p. 76: Premier Salons goes Google with a splash of color http://goo.gl/Dx3ks p.
List of External Resources Life After Go-Live p. 93: Google Apps Marketplace http://goo.gl/XKGNS p. 95: Google for Work Blog http://goo.gl/38e3q p. 95: What’s new on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site http://goo.gl/sWVFf p. 97: What’s new on the Google Apps Documentation & Support site http://goo.gl/sWVFf p. 98: Google Apps user learning center http://goo.