Lately, Kiefer has had several conversations with clients that are requesting help to quickly and efficiently deploy Microsoft Teams to enable their remote workforce. With remote work becoming the new standard we at Kiefer Consulting are ready to help you get your organization up and running!
Although the deployment process for Teams is straight-forward, there are background tasks and governance issues to take into account. With proper planning, Kiefer Consulting can not only help you rapidly deploy Teams but make it into an integral way that your employees get their work done. Not just for the current emergency that we find ourselves in, but also for the future growth of your organization.
Determine your roll out strategy
The first step in in deploying Teams is to decide how you want to roll out Teams to your end users. There are two main categories that this falls into: Deploying Teams for Chats, Meetings, and Video Conferencing, or deploying the entire Teams suite including real time document collaboration, organizing tasks with Planner, group chats and email functionality, and several more. We have found that a staged roll out fits most organizations well. By deploying Teams for chat, meetings, and video conferences first, it gives your users time to get comfortable with the Teams client before adding in additional functionality. This can vary by the current needs of the organization, for example if document collaboration is needed quickly, we can accelerate to Teams roll out to include that needed functionality.
Establish Teams Governance Policies
Next, we must get into setting some governance policies around Teams. This will vary greatly depending on your roll out plan, and what features you choose to enable. With our staged roll out method, Kiefer Consulting recommends setting up policies for only the areas of Teams that will be made available to your users. Going forward we can help you configure policies for the additional features of Teams as you roll them out. Some examples of these policies include: external user access, retention of documents generated in Teams, naming conventions, conditional device access, and permissions in Teams.
Training Your End Users
Lastly Kiefer Consulting can help you with the actual Teams deployment, training for your end users, and driving user adoption. We have a structured methodology that focuses on 3 areas of knowledge transfer, Exchange, Equip, Empower. This approach has successfully helped our clients rollout new technology and drive adoption of the solution.
The Practical Application for the Modern Workplace
Teams is a great, multifunction tool to empower your users to get tasks completed if they are in the office, working from home, or halfway around the world. Just last week, Microsoft announced that in one week, Teams added 12 Million Daily Active Users! We have a proven Microsoft Teams deployment methodology and can help your organization get the most out of Microsoft Teams. We are offering a free consultation with a Kiefer consultant to help you roll out Teams to your users.