5 Must Have Tips for a Successful Google Apps Migration

Have plans to migrate over to Google Apps in 2015? Brace yourself. Change isn’t easy and with change comes resistance. The Google Apps change will affect your entire organization so why not turn to a few folks who have been through it and gain some helpful, actionable advice?

If your organization is about to Go Google there are lots of resources out there designed to help companies face the burden of change management. We even created a few of our own by tapping into the experiences of others who have gone down the Google road….and succeeded.

Need a few helpful tidbits? Check out the presentation below “18 Tips for Successful Google Apps Migration & Change Management” to get your company started on the right foot.

Below is a sampling of our favorite tips from the presentation:

• Communication is crucial. You need to create a positive atmosphere around the initiative to minimize negative chatter and effective communication can accomplish this. Spend time developing key messages about the implementation and create collateral materials for your rollout campaign.

• Start small when it comes to the rollout. People are fairly connected to their software so it may be best to start the company off with one particular piece of Google Apps at a time. For example, start with Gmail and let your employees absorb and get the hang of this one area as opposed to going all in with Google Apps on day one

• Create a training website dedicated to Google Apps. A website is a great way to promote all the training content you’ve developed. Add videos (using Google Hangouts!) to help people brush up on the basics. Add a training calendar where users can click on a particular training course and sign up. Add Q&A materials for the most common questions regarding the rollout. The training website can easily be your company’s one stop shop for all things Google Apps related.

• Make it fun! Make the transformation go beyond an ‘IT Thing’ and show everyone how the technology can help people do their jobs better and more effectively. For example, show your staff how Hangouts can help them communicate better with fellow colleagues and customers.

• Take advantage of Google Advocates training. Send a representative from each department to take the training so that they can get really in-depth knowledge about Google Apps and serve as the primary point of contact for the whole department. This ensures they will push the department further when it comes to the technology.

Need a few more tips? We’ve got them. Check out our slide presentation “18 Tips for Successful Google Apps Migration & Change Management” and if you have a tip or two, share it with us below in the comments section.