The Impact of an Ineffective Microsoft 365 Change Process

Staying on top of Microsoft 365 cloud updates is one thing, but what happens when an effective change management process is not in place?

Handling the Shift from On-Premises to Microsoft 365 Evergreen Cloud Services 

The single most desirable feature of Microsoft 365 cloud services is its ability to provide the end user with an evergreen, feature rich, always available portfolio of products that increase productivity and collaboration with peers. This is in stark contrast to those users who are employed by companies with ageing on-premises deployments that are unable to deliver or compete with their cloud counterparts.

Cloud services are indeed an attractive alternative to legacy on-premises solutions, but with it comes a need to ensure you remain on top of the constant flow of updates, and the need for a robust Microsoft 365 change management process.

Staying on top of M365 cloud updates is one thing, but what happens when an effective change management process is not in place?

Let's look at a few example where organisations have fallen foul to missed updates.

These are all real world examples of items posted within the Microsoft 365 Message Center, and the effect of either not acting upon them, or not being aware of them in the first place. You'll notice that the first two of these examples seem quite unexceptional at first glance. However, the impact of not acting upon them has caused significant pressure on IT Operations to rectify and created a negative perception of the services provided by IT.

All this could have been avoided had the organisation had an effective Microsoft 365 change optimisation process in place.

MC519245 - Send Word Documents to Kindle

On the face of it, this update to Microsoft Word seems pretty harmless, and indeed quite useful to many a user.

However, some in the finance and legal sectors who have strict security and compliance policies in place required swift action when they realised this update was to be turned on by default.

Those who did not notice the update until it was too late rushed to switch it off. They then had the arduous task of identifying the users who had made use of it, request that they remove any business-related documents, and then inform them that they were removing the functionality.

MC814583 - Ability to rename 'General' Channel in Microsoft Teams

Again, on the face of it this is quite an uneventful update. However, in addition to the original M365 Message Center item MC814583, a further update was released that among other things, prevented the first channel in a new team being called 'General'.

For those that missed the update to the original item, they were faced with users reporting issues when they attempted to create a new team. This was because the templates and workflows IT had created to automate the process had not been amended to reflect the fact that the first channel could not be called 'General', and therefore the process failed. 

Under pressure from users for a fix, time and effort was required to update the workflow. Whereas, if the update had been seen, the workflow could have been updated in a more controlled and timely manner with no impact on the user or the IT Operations service desk.

MC804766 - Retirement of Legacy Notification Infrastructure

This Microsoft 365 Message Center item related to Microsoft retiring support for their legacy services infrastructure for chat messaging in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft recommended updating Teams Rooms on Android and Teams Phone Devices with specific application versions to ensure they continued to work as intended.

Those that missed this update faced complaints from users that Meeting Rooms were not working as prescribed and a significant increase in calls to their IT service desk. Incoming call notification and proximity-join for meetings was affected. This resulted in the need for room systems to be updated with new firmware at an expedited rate, and a reduction of service capability to end user while this remedial action was being undertaken.

Again, had the M365 Message Center update been noticed and reviewed, this work could have been planned with minimal impact to users and the IT service desk.

So, what have we learnt?

Well firstly the Microsoft 365 Message Center is a notification hub where Microsoft communicates planned changes and other important announcements, so it should be reviewed regularly. As stated, the very nature of M365 cloud services enables organisations to embrace the latest features and functionality from Microsoft's ever increasing product suite, and therefore provide users with the tools they require to be truly productive.

However, if updates and product roadmaps are not monitored, the converse is true, and these same updates could lead to a negative impact on business and user productivity, as well as a significant impact to IT Operations. Being proactive and able to plan for events upfront is a far better course of action than being reactive and under pressure from users and the business to resume normal service.

Secondly for an organisation to truly benefit from their investment in Microsoft 365, its processes for managing change should enable quick identification of the critical updates it needs to review, categorise and act upon. This change optimisation process should include automation and workflow in order to reduce the time and effort required to deal with the pace and extent of change we currently see with Microsoft 365.

Thirdly, all of the above changes would have had an impact on IT Operations, especially calls to the Service Desk. Being proactive in how you approach Microsoft 365 change will significantly reduce the impact on IT Operations.

Finally, check out the Microsoft 365 Maturity Model for Microsoft 365 when applied to service change management and review your current process to understand what you need to put in place to attain Level 500 in your organisation.