Collaboration with Microsoft 365

Due to the pandemic, SV SparkassenVersicherung introduced the use of Microsoft Teams for coordination purposes and for holding meetings while working from home in 2021. In addition, SV sought add-ons for its Teams collaboration to further support the modern workplace.

SV relied on adesso’s change management expertise while introducing and anchoring the new tools. As the use of all the tools is voluntarily, a particular challenge was to achieve a high level of participation and acceptance as well as to use Microsoft 365 in a way that is profitable. What is more, neither personal nor group or replacement drives were replaced by cloud storage. The establishment of Teams as a digital workspace prospectively allows for the replacement of the no longer supported SharePoint 2016.

A comprehensive usage concept was created in order to satisfy the individual internal usage scenarios at SV and SVI (SV Informatik GmbH, SV’s subsidiary) and to identify added values. All change management measures followed the individual use cases that were drafted. Along with preparatory measures relevant to organisational matters, its change management scheme also included communication and qualification measures. Information events, consultation hours, web seminars, WBT sessions and short educational videos were used in cooperation with external e-learning and training service providers to support performance.

The close cooperation with SV’s specialist departments, both Corporate Communications and Human Resources Development, is particularly noteworthy, as it was how parts of a communication campaign were created, for example, the visuals, slogan and logo. In addition, an avatar called ‘Mike Rosoft’ was introduced, who acts as a sender of important information, author of the intranet blog and an imaginary contact person for answering questions.

The envisaged solution came in the form of realising a modern workplace and using Microsoft Teams effectively. The adesso experts lent their support in this, particularly as concerned the technical and regulatory requirements as well as the measures regarding communication and qualification during the introduction in the approval phase.

An erasure concept, a security concept, an authorisation concept, a logging concept, a data protection impact assessment and protection requirements assessments were needed. Moreover, company agreements with each service – SharePoint Online, Teams, OneDrive and Microsoft 365 – were to be designated as required documents. In addition, various submissions from the works council were required for the approval of individual project phases to comply with the regulatory framework. Finally, the agreement of the stakeholders concerned – group works council, steering committee and compliance service provider – is to be stipulated as necessary approval.

The company-wide team ‘Fit for Microsoft 365’ reduces the workload placed on the first level support team and pursues the goal of modernising learning within SV. A forum for colleagues in which they were able to benefit from the experiences of others was also evaluated as helpful. The forum offered the opportunity to access expert advice and use case transfers as well as knowledge, as needed.

Furthermore, it is important to ensure the sustainability of all change management measures and to increase productivity with Microsoft 365 beyond the course of the project. Building a community of champions to further penetrate and increase the adoption rate helps to achieve this. These champions support the dedicated in-house employees who take charge of the transfer of responsibilities to the departments of SV and SVI.

• Microsoft Teams
• Agile project methods
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Office 365