The rollout of the digital workspace for care organisation Envida – live interview

What is involved in the rollout of the digital workspace and how do you ensure good adoption within the organisation? On Thursday 2 September, our Customer Success Maker Marianne van Dijk talked to care organisation Envida and partner TCC about their experiences. During this live session they told us all about the rollout of the digital workspace and how Envida, along with TCC, successfully launched the digital workspace within the organisation.

Would you like to watch the event? You can! Watch the on-demand version here. 👇🏻

The first steps towards a digital workspace for care organisation Envida

In 2018, Envida wanted to switch from a traditional workspace to a modern digital workspace. That’s why, it entered into discussions with TCC about digital transformation and the transition to SaaS.

With over 4,000 employees, it was of great importance that this process would run smoothly and would be rolled out in steps throughout the organisation. Together with TCC, they mapped out the ideal route and looked at the current and future IT landscape.

Implementation of the digital workspace

In 2019, Envida implemented the new digital workspace for household and district healthcare staff. In 2020, they wanted to implement this step for nursing care staff, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was postponed for a while. After a period of inactivity, they decided to get going again and in early 2021 they successfully rolled out the digital workspace throughout the organisation!

The rollout of the digital workspace

How do you start the rollout of the digital workspace, who is involved and what challenges can you expect? For the transition to a digital workspace to be successful, it is important that employees are involved in the transition from the first step. This starts with the creation of a project team.

Who was involved in the rollout of the digital workspace?

Together with TCC, Envida put together a project group that rolled out the digital workspace within the organisation. The following people from Envida were involved:

• An information manager
• A communication manager 
• District healthcare managers 
• A functional application management team leader 

 The following project members were involved from TCC: 

• The management team: led the project 
• Account management: managed the budgets 
• Software architect: ensured a smooth transition 
• Consultant: ensured close technical and functional cooperation with Envida 

What were the milestones during the rollout of the digital workspace?

During the rollout of the digital workspace, there were a number of milestones for Envida, which they reflect on with great pride.

1. The rollout of the digital workspace to 700 household care employees: these people are not the most digital-savvy employees, through a personal adjustment and step-by-step explanation of how the digital workspace looks and works, they gained confidence in the new workspace and it led to a success!

“Go to the people! Take people through what the digital workspace looks like, how you can log in and be available for a week to take questions. This makes it easier for employees to drop by if they have questions. It also gives them confidence.” Louise van Bronswijk, Functional Application Management Team Leader at Envida 

2. Creating personas: To properly map out the needs of each type of employee and which applications they need, Envida developed personas. This has helped greatly with the design of the digital workspace.

3. Going live with the digital workspace: This was of course the most important milestone. In February 2021 Envida went live with the digital workspace throughout the organisation!  

 “What was impresive from Envida, and what can be called a milestone, is that they also had to make a transition in the area of networks at the same time. Parallel to the rollout of the workspace, they also provided all locations with completely new network equipment. This was done before the workspace came along, making the rollout of the digital workspace a success,”- Tom Herberighs Director Sales & Business Development at TCC.

What were the challenges during the rollout of the digital workspace?

The rollout of the digital workspace was temporarily halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The transition to a digital workspace had to be made quickly in order to provide all employees with a workplace at home. For a time, some teams were already using the new digital workspace and the nursing staff was still working with the old system. Working with two different systems was complicated, so after a while they continued to rollout the digital workspace to the nursing care teams.

Besides rolling out the digital workspace, Envida also switched to ONS Nedap. Envida has noticed that it is very difficult for employees to switch to two different systems at the same time. It is therefore important not to expect too much from your employees all at once, but to integrate new technology step by step.

Lessons learned from the IT partner’s perspective

TCC rolls out many digital workspaces with different customers and each customer has its challenges and milestones. We asked Tom Herberighs, Director Sales & Business Development at TCC what lessons they have learned in recent years:

1. Talk to customers: In order to successfully rollout a digital workspace to customers, TCC sometimes meets with several customers simultaneously to discuss the pitfalls and points of attention. By means of these sessions, it becomes clear to the client in advance what they have to take into account and what the points of attention are. This way, they can rollout the digital workspace appropriately within their organisation, they are better prepared and the risks are mapped out beforehand. 

2. Outline your vision of the new digital workspace: Switching to a digital workspace should not be underestimated and should be clearly mapped out in advance. Who manages what and who gets which rights? By mapping out the current IT landscape, rights and administrators well in advance, the rollout of the digital workspace will also proceed more smoothly. 

3. Ensure good adoption: Change is always difficult for employees, especially for those who have been working with a certain system for a number of years. Involve your employees in the rollout of the digital workspace from the very start and ensure a personal approach. A manual is not enough, visit your employees, make instructional videos and ask them for feedback. Then, employees will gain confidence in the new digital workspace and feel that they are involved in everything.

“It is important to involve the employees at an early stage and to let them be part of the process, a manual is not enough! Through workshops you find out how the employees feel about it and what their level is. You mustn’t assume that every employee understands it all at once.”- Tom Herberighs Director Sales & Business Development at TCC.

The next steps

Now that the digital workspace has been rolled out within Envida since February, the next steps are already being planned. These are:

1. Tackling the social intranet: Currently, Envida uses a SharePoint environment that is linked to the digital workspace. The next step is to integrate more intranet elements into the digital workspace, making it a less static environment and allowing employees to collaborate and communicate better.

2. Transitioning to the cloud: Envida still uses many legacy systems. For example, they still use Citrix a lot, but they want to get rid of this completely in the next two to three years and they want everything to be in the cloud.

How does Workspace 365 support your digital workspace rollout?

Naturally we are here to help your organisation with the adoption and rollout of your digital workspace. By working closely together, we can make the rollout of your digital workspace successful. Together, we look at the different personas within your organisation and offer free templates that you can use.

In addition, we like to think out-of-the-box and continuously monitor how the project is progressing. We always have items on our roadmap that we integrate, in order to set up your workspace in the best possible way, based on the needs of your organisation. Is something missing from our roadmap? Let us know orTry a Workspace 365 demo and simplify your online workspace!

Discover our Ultimate guide to Digital Workspace Adoption and download our free templates! 👇🏼