“Keeping open, honest lines of comm­­­munication between employees and managers with purchasing oversight is the first order of business,” King says. “All too often, the decision to buy specific applications or software packages occurs far upstream from the people who actually use them day to day.”

Asking users to share their opinions and assessments can help determine the value an organization gets from its purchases of software and services, he adds.

This also ensures that organizations don’t install a best-in-class application that goes unused simply because users haven’t been sufficiently trained or don’t understand its value.

“Make sure that whatever you’re providing is just as easy and useful as what employees are already familiar with,” says Mike Fratto, principal analyst at Current Analysis.

Many software vendors also promote adoption. For example, Microsoft is introducing end-user awareness kits and end-user training for some fundamental usage scenarios associated with Office 365.

Microsoft FastTrack for Office 365 is a free onboarding benefit available to customers who purchase 50 seats or more of eligible Office 365 plans. Mott MacDonald, a global professional services organization, took advantage of this resource to encourage adoption of its new Yammer enterprise social network. The firm launched a “30 Days of Yammer” campaign, according to Simon Denton, a Mott MacDonald business architect.

“The biggest obstacle in terms of change management is that taking the ‘if you build it, they will come’ approach no longer works,” Denton says.

“We’re in a time now where we can’t just expect everyone to use what we provide. We’ve got to put more effort into not only launching a product, but also promoting, supporting and fostering its adoption for the long term. Employees want to understand how a new product is relevant to them and their work, and how it will help them help their clients.”