Originally published on August 9, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.
If you were one of the brave few law firms to make the transition to Office 2007 at some point in the last four years, you'll find that the move to Office 2010 is an easy one. In fact, your users will probably welcome the return of the File Menu, and the many small improvements to the Ribbon — especially its customizability. Let's face it — the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is nice, but it's just not the same as the visually-accessible Ribbon.
But if your law firm still uses Office 2003 or an earlier version still, you'll need to take the training aspect of the new Office suite very seriously. Is it harder to use? Worse or scarier than previous versions in some way? Well, no. Office 2010 offers a much better interface. And once you acclimate, you'll never want to go back.
But if you don't manage user expectations, your rollout may not go smoothly to say the least. You could have a full-scale staff revolt on your hands and many long nights in the office.
So how can you increase the odds of a successful upgrade? Follow the three steps discussed in this issue of BigLaw, and you'll come out on the other side of the rollout feeling better than you can ever remember after such an intimidating change management challenge.
Step 1: Promote the Benefits Early
Six months before the rollout starts …
Market the rollout. Provide an early warning. Give everyone time to adjust to the idea, and to accept that it's coming. No pre-learning at the early stages (and let's be honest: you won't be organized enough yet at this point to provide it anyway). Just some marketing and some positive bullets to put a good spin on the upgrade from the get-go: "faster", "more efficient," "greater compatibility with clients," etc.
Step 2: Pre-Learning
Start the pre-learning process about 30 to 60 days before users receive their upgraded systems.
Buy professional materials. Don't try to pull it together yourself. Could you? Even if you have sufficient bench depth at your firm to create the media, collateral, manuals and reference guides, why bother when you can buy products like Traveling Coaches' Office 2010 Rollout Kit at a very reasonable price (based upon the number of employees at your firm)?
Traveling Coaches' Rollout Kit includes the following materials:
• Detailed learning plans for staff, attorneys, paralegals.
• Videos that announce the coming of Office 2010 (essentially commercials).
• An interactive flash application that reveals the top productivity gains in Office 2010.
• Pre-learning lessons (for your intranet). Short and on-point interactive "how tos."
• Training materials (sample documents, training guides, quick reference cards, etc.).
• Floor support aids.
You can also supplement these materials as you see fit with some of the free content that Microsoft provides to help you with the transition. For example:
• Interactive "Then and Now" Guides. (I used to insert a footer in Excel 2003 by going to View/Header/Footer. Where is that now?)
• The "Menu to Ribbon" reference guides.
The key takeaway here is that you didn't spend any time preparing and assembling these materials. Someone else did it for you. And whether you elect to engage outside trainers or use internal trainers, these materials are still hugely helpful to wrapping your brain around what is involved in the effort, how to structure it, and exactly how to execute on the training aspects of the rollout.
Step 3: Training
Start the actual training itself as close to the time of your users receiving their upgraded systems as possible. Ideally, arrange the training to occur while their system is being upgraded/swapped out.
A lot goes into determining exactly how much training you need for Office 2010. Are you also upgrading any non-Microsoft products at the time? How many "power users" do you have? What third-party applications do you use and how do they integrate with Office 2010? Etc.
If you needed a wild but sophisticated guess as to how much training each user will require for Office 2010, I would suggest that you plan on about three hours of training per user for a basic level of introductory training when coming from an Office suite of 2003 or earlier (or from alternative suites such as WordPerfect).
If you've purchased the Rollout Kit mentioned above, by the way, the included learning plans contain a minute-by-minute breakdown of the training topics broken down in a very granular manner. If you're going to train this material with in-house staff, Traveling Coaches ensures that you can customize its training guide to coincide with the topic selections your firm identifies in the learning plan(s). For large firms with permanent staff dedicated to systems training, the Rollout Kit is really all you'll need to feel confident about the challenge in front of you. And more important perhaps than even your team's confidence, the included materials will make a lasting impression on your user base.
Conclusion
Why build it yourself when somebody has already done the heavy lifting? There are many freely or cheaply available resources out there that can help you achieve success with your Office 2010 rollout. And not only will they save your technology team from excess sweat and tears, but many of these resources are top notch, and will ensure that your Office 2010 rollout is a smashing success.
Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..
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