Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/9825
EARLY ADOPTER TALES: PILOTING OFFICE 2010 PRE-LAUNCH • Educate employees about what’s to come (via e-mail, newsletters or the company intranet). • Create an employee education campaign that includes live, expert training and support. • Offer instructor-led, Internet-based training. • Provide access to a self-service learning portal with Office 2010 audio and visual tutorials. • Train internal IT staff on basic, intermediate and advanced concepts that are the targets of frequently asked questions. LAUNCH • Continue the employee education campaign, with live, expert training and support. • Offer advanced instructor-led, Internet-based training. • Provide access to a self-service learning portal with hundreds of audio and visual tutorials. • Provide immediate, expert support on Office 2010 applications, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. • Offer live, Web-based training sessions covering the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of specific applications: Excel, Word, PowerPoint. POST-LAUNCH • Continue the employee education campaign with live, expert training and support. • Continue to offer instructor-led, Internet- based training. • Provide access to a self-service learning portal with hundreds of audio and visual tutorials. • Provide virtual open lab times with expert trainers present. • Deliver a monthly e-mail newsletter featuring tips, tricks and shortcuts. By continually offering education and training sessions during all stages of the plan, we are able to keep users informed and aware of the changes that would come with the implementation of Office 2010. Educating users helps them become more comfortable with their new work environment. In addition, helping trainers become expert in the material they are teaching gives them credibility with the pilot groups, who then have more confidence in what they are learning. The virtual labs allow the pilot group users to carry over what they have learned in the training sessions to their own practical, hands-on learning that they can pursue at their own pace. AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE From the beginning of our project planning, we invited stakeholders from various departments to test and view Office 2010. The departments included in our pilot were marketing, human resources, information technology, and a select group of legal staff and their assistants. We met with these groups to invite them to www.iltanet.org Microsoft 17