Valo Intranet participated as a partner in the Modern Workplace Summit hosted by Knowledge Factory. MWSsummit was a two-day event on 8-9 September 2015 in Norway. The event was a great success and we want to share ideas on what it takes to build a positive, productive work culture of highly engaged employees.
Our booth is ready! 💥 Welcome #intranet geeks and newbies! #mwssummit #digitalworkplace #office365 #orangeisthecolor pic.twitter.com/bSgRumTlpM
— Valo Intranet (@ValoIntranet) September 8, 2015
There were five different tracks in the event: one for Business Decision Makers, one for Windows 10, one for Skype for Business and two for Technical Office 365 fans. We enjoyed presentations e.g. from Jan Skjøy (Microsoft), Joel Oleson (Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA), Jussi Roine (Onsight Helsinki), Naomi Moneypenny (Synxi, a ManyWorlds brand), Benjamin Niaulin (Sharegate) and Christian Buckley (Beezy). Thanks to the keynote and presentations, we got many fresh insights and we want to share our best three lessons for you.
1) Office365 is not a collaboration strategy
Having a platform or a tool is not a strategy. Collaboration strategy is more than just “right” IT tools. It is about people, culture, working habits, management, business goals, and much more. Figuring out what results you want and how to strengthen cultural values are critical, said Naomi Moneypenny. Following one is also a good one to keep in mind.
Transforming work = 80% organization culture + 20% technology, said @janskjoy #mwssummit #socialenterprise #esn — Valo Intranet (@ValoIntranet) September 8, 2015
2) Helping people to understand the big picture makes adoption easier
When adopting new technology to your organization, remember to communicate when & why, not so much how to use it, reminded Naomi Moneypenny. This will help end users learn and get motivation to use the tool. Success in technology adoption starts with the right questions. In this case, the question could be for example “Why do I need that tool?” or “I have Yammer, Email, Intranet,.. But when do I need them?”. Remember to give answers with real-life examples, not from the technical point of view. Christian Buckley told in his presentation that in adoption of technology, you need to go the extra mile to provide a better user experience. Product customization and personalization makes technology more customer-facing.
3) Give people tools to choose from
Internet is not a big and scary thing anymore, and people have learned to use the tools that best suite their ways of working outside the office (Facebook groups, Pinterest board, and Slack – just mention a few of them). At the same time people are getting tired of slow IT processes and reverting to rogue IT in order to get the job done faster and easier, to say more efficient. Why not give the chance to choose the tools the team or group prefers to use on a daily basis (e.g. Yammer, Groups and Delve in Office 365), instead of top-down-use-this-tool-we-gave-you approach? Thanks Benjamin Niaulin for the insight!
Valo doesn’t look like Sharepoint, that’s fantastic!
The biggest highlight for Valo was the attention we received from our evening event presentation. After the presentation of Jari Pullinen (Director of the Valo Team), we got many interesting contacts and conversations. We had a chance to impress many attendees with Valo’s live demo also! And even better, we got great feedback like “Hey, this is so cool product!”, “Valo doesn’t look like SharePoint, that’s fantastic!” and “Wow, the UI looks so modern! This could be easy for the end user to learn and adapt.” This means a lot for our team – it means that we are doing the right things in building this product and this business. Read more about this from Jari’s blog post.
MWSsummit attendees from the Valo Team
Jari Pullinen, Product Development and Marketing Director
Maiju Onnela, Product Specialist
Tiina Manninen, Product Marketing Manager
We are more than happy to network with you! :)
Thanks @bniaulin for mentioning #valo during your presentation! @sharegate sunglasses match our shirts! 😍 #mwssummit pic.twitter.com/q3NBLg8dTa
— Valo Intranet (@ValoIntranet) September 9, 2015
