Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/10646
a revolution in our approach to user adoption. In this article, I look at the responses from organizations using Central Desktop and SharePoint, but while this article looks at two specific tools, the findings are generalizable. The Central Desktop Respondents Central Desktop is an online team collaboration and Intranet solution. People from over 200 organizations using Central Desktop responded to the survey—but note that just under 85 percent of respondents came from organizations with less than 100 employees. The most commonly used strategies were Web-based training, pages on the Intranet, and over-the- shoulder watching. See Figure 1 for a chart that ranks the use of many dif- ferent user adoption strategies. Now compare these results with the strategies that are actually effective in user adoption in Figure 2. Web- based training is one of the top most effective strategies, but notice the others that rank highly that aren’t commonly used. For example, “Real- to-Life Scenarios” was ranked eighth (8) in being used as a strategy, but is the fourth most effective strategy (48 percent of respondents using the strategy said it was either “Very Helpful” or “Extremely Helpful”). Likewise, for the “Zero Other Options” strategy: it is one of the least used strategies, but it ranked third in effectiveness—49 percent of respondents using the strategy said it was either “Very Helpful” or “Extremely Helpful”. Later in the survey, the focus shifted to probing respondents about strate- gies that worked well for them, and what they would do differently if they were to start again. The results here picked up on the earlier ques- tions, but respondents mixed in a healthy dose of their own advice too. In ranked order, what worked well in user adoption were the zero other options strategy (Central Desktop is the place to work, and we have © “User Adoption Strategies: The Central DEsktop Approach” (March 2010), published by The Michael Sampson Company. Used with permission. messagingnews.com 13