Posted by Dana Larson on October 18, 2010
How many products have you used that welcome feedback? And even if they say they welcome it, how many actually make it easy to send feedback? And then, how many of those ever respond? Trust me, sometimes leaving feedback isn’t worth it.
But we aren’t like that at all! We love getting feedback from our OnePlace users. Anytime we hear how well things are going or - eek! - if there are any issues, we are thrilled. We can always fix issues, and are willing to do what we can to make our customer’s experiences with OnePlace fantastic.
Posted by Dana Larson on October 11, 2010
Guess what? Choosing a new software system doesn’t have to be dull and boring. Make it fun!
When you’re using OnePlace, try to integrate some fun little games into the system to encourage your teammates to start using OnePlace more. Create a discussion to generate ideas for new baby names for a pregnant coworker. Generate a list of all the nearby places to go for lunch. Upload and edit silly photos from your office holiday party. Anything you can do to make using OnePlace more fun will get more and more people into the solution, and will encourage them to use it more frequently.
Posted by Dana Larson on October 04, 2010
Sometimes gradually accepting a change is best. It gives the team time to learn about the new change, accept the change and begin implementing the change. This is exactly the recommendation we give to new OnePlace users - integrate gradually.
You need to take your time to understand the OnePlace features and how they will fit in with your business processes. Start using OnePlace for a couple projects, or for a couple clients. Or, use OnePlace to help build out the processes of one team. Then, once you’ve got everything figured out, roll it out to the rest of the team to use. This will help everyone understand OnePlace more easily, and they will like seeing users and data in the solution already.
Posted by Dana Larson on September 28, 2010
So, you think it’s time to implement a new collaboration solution. Great! We think it’s time too. Business collaboration can bring about many benefits, and really connect teams.
If you know all that, you’ve just got to get your boss’s approval to move forward with the implementation of your new solution. This may sound easier than it actually is. A lot of times, supervisors know they want a new solution, but they aren’t sure how to put it in place, or aren’t willing to take the time to figure it out and understand it.
Posted by Dana Larson on September 27, 2010
Before you can start using OnePlace, you need to understand how it should be used. This isn’t just following the steps to using all the features we have because we give you instructions; this is about understanding your current business processes, and making them fit into OnePlace itself.
Think about how your business information is organized. If you work with clients, perhaps you should have a Workplace set up for each client. If you work on a lot of proposals and outreach programs, you may want to organize this information into Projects and Sub-Projects under a Sales or Operations Workplace. If you want to have open communications so everyone has access to all office chatter, create many open Discussions for your entire team to read.
Posted by Dana Larson on September 20, 2010
When you’re starting to use a new software solution, you have to make sure you USE it. Don’t just learn about the new offering - dig deep, get your hands dirty and play around with it.
That is exactly what we recommend for new OnePlace users. Play around. Input a bunch of information to learn the system. You aren’t going to break anything.
Posted by Dana Larson on September 13, 2010
It’s hard to pick up something completely on your own. No one ever learned how to play baseball or football without some intense training. The same is true for any software system - training will always help you in the long run.
This is why OnePlace offers one free 30-minute training session to every new account administrator who signs up. We want OnePlace to be as easy to use as possible, and going through one of our training sessions to learn the basics of OnePlace and to ask questions to the team can definitely help ease the transition from no collaboration solution to a great one.
Posted by Dana Larson on September 07, 2010
When you open a new television, or set up your new smart phone, you may think it’s okay to skip over the instructions and set up your piece of equipment all by yourself. If you’re more technologically inclined, you can probably figure out the setup of your new equipment on your own, and not have to worry about those pesky instructional guides.
However, when adopting a new team collaboration tool in your business, you may want to at least review the instructions to point you in the right direction. And while OnePlace is not nearly as complicated as putting together a bookcase from IKEA, our Support Center can provide valuable information for setting up your account, using new features and working with your team.
Posted by Dana Larson on August 30, 2010
It seem that, across the board, the success or failure of team collaboration adoption into the well-known business processes hangs on one factor - a designated “champion” in the office. This person, if assigned, can help push the idea and benefits of team collaboration to others in the business.
Posted by Dana Larson on August 23, 2010
One of the biggest hinderances in choosing the right business collaboration software is that there are so many to choose from. Companies don’t know how to start researching or how to go about choosing which software solution is right for them.
A big tip we at OnePlace can give you is to test out the options. Sign up for as many free trials as you are able to fit into your schedule and get to work connecting with your teammates and collaborating on small tasks together. This will help you understand which features you like, which you don’t, and which are must-haves when you go forward with your choice for a collaboration solution.
Posted by Dana Larson on August 16, 2010
When it comes to online business collaboration and team collaboration solutions, there will always be a learning curve when adopting the new tools and processes. This just comes with the territory.
Unfortunately, there are businesses that, when faced with this learning curve, opt not to continue with the tool, labeling it as “unintuitive”, “challenging” and “complex”. While this can be said about some of the available collaboration tools, many options will work in a business team as long as they are properly integrated into the business processes.