All your hard work is about to pay off. You’ve identified your organization’s most pressing pain points, you’ve engineered a solution with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to address them, and soon your end users will be using it.
 
Your deployment, however, will only be successful if your end users actually use it. Follow this checklist and use the ready-to-use materials to get your end users excited about Office SharePoint Server 2007.
 

1. Refine your message

What would you think if your manager told you that he understands how difficult your job is and that he’s going to do something to address your problems? You would be excited, right?
This is the approach you can take with your end users.
 
Office SharePoint Server 2007 is designed to streamline processes and eliminate some of the mundane tasks that get in the way of doing your job. An easier way to do your job = more excitement adopting the new technology.
 
The Microsoft PowerPoint presentation we’ve provided in the downloadable SharePoint Internal Buzz Kit will help you inform your co-workers by showing them the rich features and new ways they’ll have to get their jobs done more efficiently with SharePoint Server 2007. A picture is worth a thousand words, so we’ve included a video to help illustrate all the new features in SharePoint Server 2007.
 
If you haven’t yet held a session to excite your users about SharePoint Server 2007, plan one at least two weeks before you launch.
 

2. Design an internal e-mail campaign

Telling your users about everything that SharePoint Server 2007 has to offer may be overwhelming at first. Focus on the top reasons that each group has for using SharePoint. It might be that one team has an urgent need to track workflow for a major project, while another wants to focus on MySites to identify expertise, and another group is interested in using role-based templates to focus their efforts on their day-to-day activities.
 
Use those needs as a hook to get them excited about Office SharePoint Server 2007.
 
You can use those pain points to create teaser e-mails to build excitement. We’ve included a sample launch e-mail, but you can customize it to reflect your organization’s specific needs.
 
The e-mails should also contain a specific step that the users can take to learn more about Office SharePoint Server 2007. That step could be attending an informational meeting, a brown-bag discussion, previewing Office SharePoint Server 2007 in an open lab, or going online to review training or demo materials.
 
The sample e-mail uses three needs as a teaser. You can use it as it, customize it with your own needs, or break it up into three separate e-mails to build up to the launch.
 
Here’s how you might break it up into three e-mails. Customize these e-mails with your own Web site address, dates, and next steps.
 
E-mail #1
Is it harder to fill out the paperwork than it actually is to do the work?
 
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is coming in two weeks. Sign up for training here: (insert URL)
 
E-mail #2 - Invitation
Is it easier to improve sales than it is to track them?
 
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is coming next week. Attend a brown bag lunch event tomorrow at noon to learn how it can help you. (insert URL)
 
E-mail #3
Is your version control out-of-control?
 
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is coming tomorrow. Learn more here: (insert URL)
 

3. Conduct a poster campaign
 
Even after you’ve sent e-mail, held training sessions, and developed a community of Super Users, you may still need to remind people that Launch day is just a few days or weeks away.
 
We’ve provided some sample posters in the SharePoint Internal Buzz Kit that you can customize for your own company using Acrobat. Post these around your company, in lunch rooms, supply rooms, near elevators, and anywhere employees gather at your company.
 

4. Hold a brown bag session

Even after training, many users may still have questions. A good way to address them is through a brown bag event. Invite users to bring their lunch and their questions.
 
You may want to invite someone from the executive team to show that the company is committed to addressing users’ needs. You may also want to invite several of your Super Users to share their excitement with the rest of the group.
 
Use the videos from the Office SharePoint Training, available in the SharePoint Internal Buzz Kit, to build excitement about more advanced features such as Key Performance Indicators and dashboards. If you haven’t done this already, share the templates that you’ve made available for individual job roles, such as marketing, HR, and sales.
 
During the lunch, ask the attendees if, after training, there are any features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 that they still don’t understand. If you note any trends, you could put together additional training or alert your support staff to help them prepare for questions.
 

5. Provide an open lab

Everybody learns in different ways. Some people learn best by seeing things. Others learn through hearing. Still others learn by doing. Having an open lab where users can play with Office SharePoint Server 2007 is a great way to get them excited about it and ease their concerns.
 
How you run your open lab depends on the interest from end users and your resources. If you’re able, you may want to set up Office SharePoint Server 2007 on all the computers in a training room and invite users to try it over a period of a couple of days. Ask the Super Users to attend, and include your IT staff to answer any questions.
 
If you don’t have the resources for an open lab, you could set up several machines in a conference room for a few hours, and invite users to schedule time to get help. Encourage users to experiment in these sandbox environments.
 
Some hands-on experience may be all it takes to help users adopt SharePoint Server 2007.
 
Remember to schedule open labs and brown bags well in advance, and check to see if there are any conflicts with major projects or events at your company.
 

6. Get your support staff ready

No matter how well you train users, there will undoubtedly be questions. You need to decide how you will handle those questions before launch day.
 
While most users are good about finding the answers themselves and asking questions only after they’ve exhausted other resources, there are people who will call support constantly, often with questions they’ve already asked.
 
You can minimize support calls by making sure that the end users know where they can find self-help resources. Include the links to training and other self-help in all your e-mails to employees.
 
Also, make use of your Super Users. Set up a community discussion board on SharePoint Server 2007 that your Super Users will moderate. Publicize it through e-mail announcements, in your training sessions, and through internal communication vehicles, such as newsletters.  

Finally, when users contact you for support, consider directing them to the applicable self-help resources rather than giving them individual step-by-step instructions. That will promote self help and allow support staff to concentrate on problems that users cannot solve for themselves.
 
Learn more about setting up Service Level Agreements and governance policies in the Engineer section of this tool.
 

7. Set up kiosks

Set up computers that can run as kiosks in the community spaces in your company. Allow users to play one of the seven videos we've provided, or use our videos as an inspiration to create a video that is customized to your company, using screen shots from your own site.