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Migrating from Windows XP SP3 & Office 2003? Learn how support can make the shift easier

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Support for Windows XP and Office 2003 will end in April 2014. As organisations move to newer, supported Windows and Office versions, they are faced with many challenges. These challenges include not only completing the technical implementation quickly and within budget, but also supporting employees post-migration. Both the business and employees expect a smooth transition; they expect the new software to be easy-to-use and questions solved quickly, all without any disturbance to their workflow.

In many organisations, Microsoft Office is mission critical. It is what allows your employees to work more efficiently, while providing a rich set of experiences to meet your organisation’s unique communication and business needs. Moving to a new version of Office can be difficult for users if several versions are “jumped” in the process, and it is critical for the organisation to recognise this and provide appropriate training and support to maintain operational efficiency.

Different users require different styles and levels of support, and providing generic training may not be the most effective or efficient route, and has the potential to inundate the helpdesk with calls, lose employee productivity to training hours, and decrease performance due to frustration.

  • Increased helpdesk call volume. With improperly implemented rollouts, tier-one helpdesk calls rise; often rising past the point of the ability for the helpdesk operators to handle the load, with the need for added IT support employees, or long hold times for callers. Additionally, these helpdesk calls are not cheap: the average tier-one call costs £14.
  • Lost employee productivity. Business managers will complain about lost hours due to either the time spent in the classroom or on the computer with eLearning. OR, due to the hours lost via the hunt and peck method, where more time is spent trying to figure out and adjust to the new applications than is spent on actual real productive work. And, it appears, most do have good reason to be worried. The International Data Corporation (IDC) found that the average information worker spends 8.8 hours per week searching for information. That’s more than 20% of the work-week, per employee.
  • Frustrated employees. Users become dissatisfied when frustrated. When previously simple tasks change, or become not as simple, users become frustrated. Dissatisfied employees are a drain on the organisation. Satisfied employees are proven to be more creative, complain less, learn faster, have more energy, make better decisions, etc. Dissatisfied employees, on the other hand, cost the company. The conservative estimate for one unhappy employee, with the annual salary of £25,000, boils down to lost productivity, brain drain on fellow employees, more sick days, turnover, etc., costing companies an average of £49,000 per unhappy employee.

Performance Support from Ontuitive can address all of these issues and costs. It increases employee productivity by providing support when employees need it most – on the job. It is embedded in the workflow, contextual to the user, and provides just enough information to solve the issue at-hand – in the moment of need.

“You used to get people saying ‘I can’t do that because I’ve not been trained’ and looking to the organisation for answers. With so much changing in all of our working lives the only sustainable approach for the long-term is to help people to learn and develop themselves and to support themselves to a greater degree,” says Alison Ward, ICT Training and Development Manager at Warwickshire County Council.

Public sector organisations such as: Greater Manchester Commissioning Support Unit, Buckinghamshire County Council, Cheshire East Council, East Northamptonshire Council, Medway Council, Somerset County Council, Leicester County Council, and Warwickshire County Council all use Ontuitive's Performance Support to drive the adoption of new desktop applications, as well as implement and support new ways of working.

If you would like to find out more about Ontuitive's Performance Support, they are running a public sector-focussed webinar on 15 Jan. Sign up to attend today.