Buying a business communication platform is a big deal for an organization. It can sometimes be a big culture shock and the thought of instant messaging in the workplace will mean something different to each employee of your organization. Some will embrace it, but for the wrong reasons. Some will completely forget about it. Some will flat out resent introduction of even more technology. It’s your job to evaluate these 5 things when choosing a business IM platform to encourage the best possible acceptance rate by users:
Ease of use. You need to be sure that whatever software and platform you implement into your organization fits the culture of your organization. Try to get input from the employees who feel they’re not typically listened to. This will have a two-fold beneficial effect on your business. Firstly, the frequent grumblers will be more likely to use the new platform, improving the chances of other employees buying in and using the product. Secondly, listening to employees has been proven to raise morale. Improved morale results in improved production and quality.
Company culture. If your company is full of millennials, you might need to consider something flashy. Something that will grab and hold their attention. Millennials can become familiar with complex technology at a much quicker rate than the other generations. That said, they typically lose interest quickly.
Conversely, if your company is full of baby boomers, the easiest solution will be the best platform.Baby boomers are used to confronting a problem directly and seeing a job through until it’s finished. They’re typically not as tech-savvy and rarely care to be. They want to get the information they need and move on.
History retention. It’s important for users to be able to refer back to old conversations they’ve had. One of the best ways to ensure your users won’t take the IM platform seriously is by not having adequate history retention. If users have a conversation about a list of important business items that need to be completed in a certain order, they are definitely going to want to refer back to that conversation from time to time. Be sure to consider the length of chat history retention.
How intrusive is it? If an IM software is really intrusive and keeps bothering people, they’re not going to want to use it. They’ll exit the program and just not log back in. You can’t implement a solution that will actually cause employees to be less productive than they were previously. The solution is supposed to be a useful tool for them to use when they need it, not a worthless obligation when they don’t.
Can it be monitored? It’s important for your management team to be able to monitor these business chat platforms. One of the biggest risks to implementing IM in the office is that it will be abused. People shouldn’t be spending their time gossiping through chat rather than working. Users will be more likely to accept and use the software solution if they know their coworkers aren’t abusing the tool and that the system is monitored by the IT department.
When choosing an IM platform for your business, consider the above mentioned aspects to encourage user adoption, increase productivity, and keep your employees happy.
Fidelus Technologies, based out of New York City is a Professional and Managed Information Technology Services company focused on customer success and business efficiency . Our services provide seamless networking, data center, wireless, security and unified communications expertise for medium and enterprise sized businesses. We have a consultative life cycle approach that includes requirements gathering, assessments, solution design, planning, project management, engineering, adoption and evolution (training) services to fully support the IT needs of your organization.
If you’re looking for more information on how Fidelus can help with your organizations technology please contact us here. To access our in-depth analysis on how IT teams across the country are using IT services and products within their organization click below.
2017 U.S. IT Services Report sponsored by Fidelus
