The challenge: Take 50+ experienced users of Lotus Notes and migrate them to Microsoft Exchange/Outlook with no loss in productivity.
With years of experience with Notes, PKF Ross Melville’s users were well versed in getting the most from their email client. Whether in the office, or remote, they’d long since achieved a high level of skill in their use of email. Moving to Exchange and Outlook risked having to start again, building up new skills and losing productivity while they did so.
Partner Jugdis Parbhu stated that “the firm required expertise in migrating all users from Notes to Outlook. As email is an integral part of our business, the transfer to the new platform had to be quick, efficient and seamless. Kinetics had the experience in all of these areas.”
That’s where Kinetics could help. They split the project into two, with one team undertaking the migration and the other focussed on the users. The first team carefully planned and implemented the technical conversion. Over a weekend, they switched the two PKF Ross Melville offices across to Exchange, imported all the old email, and ensured that remote, mobile and Blackberry access was maintained.
Then the second team took over, working with users as their email was converted to help them get up to speed with Outlook as quickly as possible. With a combination of small in-house seminars, written reference material and floor-walking coaching, the staff of PKF Ross Melville were quickly using Outlook as if they’d never known anything else.
Benefits of Computer Coaching
Jugdis says “moving from one system to another not only involves re-training, but often re-assessing the way we use the new technology. This is where Susan’s (Kinetics coach) coaching best suited our needs. She assessed the way we used the old technology and advised all users how the new technology can be used – often using a better technique enabling them to achieve productivity gains.”
Practice Manager Michelle Stirrup adds “Coaching from Kinetics worked really well for us. Our staff really appreciated someone coming in and seeing them at their desk. They knew when the Coach would be in and could keep any queries until then. They often thought of new ones while Susan was in the office. We definitely found coaching very beneficial; it meant we could customize it for each person’s individual level and needs.”
Now PKF Ross Melville are moving on to use Microsoft SharePoint, they are again turning to Kinetics Coaches to help them adopt the technology quickly and efficiently and start enjoying the business benefits immediately.
