The Importance of Having a Microsoft 365 Change Management Process

The Microsoft 365 change management process is categorically one of the most important areas of an IT function, with the ability to heavily influence the perception of the service you provide as seen through the eyes of those who consume it, from those at c-level to those in the mail room.

Furthermore having a change management process aligned to ITIL and ITOM methodologies is widely acknowledged as best practice for any IT function, and one that plays a significant role in how an organisation functions efficiently, especially when leveraging cloud services, such as Microsoft 365.

A properly designed and functioning change management process will at its core, enable the product team to identify, review, action, and report on changes that will impact IT Services. This encompasses processing a change that falls foul to security or compliance rules, or providing communication to users relating to something that will impact the way they work.

The challenge associated with staying on top of changes aligned to cloud services is not insignificant. However, investment in the change management process is not always at the level it should be, with budget often directed to products and services where an ROI is easier to calculate.

Let's face it, estimating the cost of not doing something can often be a finger in the air exercise or subject to the presumption that a negative event is unlikely to happen, or as I like to call it, 'burying your head in the sand syndrome'.

At the outset, I stated that change management can influence the perception of the service you provide through the eyes of those who consume it. So, what's the cost of such perception?

Let's take a look at it from the perspective of three distinct roles: 

• The IT Director
• The Product Owner
• The IT Operations / Service Desk Manager

IT Director's Perspective on Change Management

The IT Director, Head of IT, CTO, call it what you will, is responsible for providing the technological requirements of an organisation, and a significant element of that within any business is now cloud services. Key elements of the role include ensuring IT services keep up with technological advancements, mitigating risk by understanding the potential for technological disruption, and strategic planning through awareness of technological trends and relevant product roadmaps.

All these areas are likely to create significant change, and as I've said, how well change is managed has a direct impact on the perception of the service as a whole, and ultimately the perception of how well the CTO is performing.

So, what is the cost of perception?

Microsoft 365 Product Owner's Perspective on Change Management

The responsibilities of a Microsoft 365 Product Owner are varied and many, but some of the key areas include:

• Understanding and communicating the product vision and strategy
• Change and release management
• User adoption and training

Again, these are all areas significantly impacted by the requirement for an effective change management process.

Product vision and strategy involves understanding the product roadmap, and through the change management process, constructing a plan of action with appropriate resources in order to execute it. These changes may include new feature or bug updates, and they all need to be reviewed, categorised, actioned, and communicated to users. Failure across any of these not only negatively impact the service and stability of the product, but also the perception of the product, and potential the product owner in the eyes of those who consume or support it.

What is the cost of perception?

IT Operations Manager / Service Desk Manager's Perspective on Change Management

The IT Operations Manager or Service Desk Manager is often at the mercy of how effective, or not, a change management process is.

Responsible for specific SLAs and KPIs, by following the ITIL framework the IT Operations Manager will operate the service desk in a way that ensures problems and incidents are recorded, actioned, and completed in a way that provides the best possible service to those who consume it.

Again, perception is everything to the service desk. Problems may not be of their making, but they are the front line, they are at the coal face, and they are the first point of contact for users needing to record and log their displeasure.

If the product owner has not dealt with or communicated a change effectively, that could have a direct impact on the ability of users to consume the product, and therefore on the number of calls made into the contact centre. That in itself could then have an impact on how long users need to wait for their call to be answered by the service desk, and therefore on the perception of how well the service desk and/or the IT Operations Manager is performing.

What is the cost of perception?

So, when all is considered, investing in an efficient and effective Microsoft 365 change management solution should be an easy decision.

After all, perception is everything.