Experience · Microsoft 365
Network Rail: national Microsoft 365, Teams and Windows 10 rollout.
Lead Business Change Manager for a national rollout, training and adoption programme reaching 40,000 end users across Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 and Windows 10. Delivered while employed by Capita.
- Organisation
- Network Rail
- Employer
- Capita
- Programme
- National Microsoft 365, Teams and Windows 10 rollout
- Role
- Lead Business Change Manager
- Duration
- April 2019 to March 2021
- Users reached
- 40,000 end users
- Location
- Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
The challenge
A national rollout needs adoption at scale, not just deployment at scale.
Network Rail was rolling out Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 collaborative products and Windows 10 to 40,000 end users across the United Kingdom. The programme also involved migrating users away from Skype for Business.
The risk was that a technically sound rollout would leave large parts of the workforce confused, undertrained or reverting to old tools. Adoption had to be planned, measured and owned as part of the programme, not treated as a communications exercise at the end.
“Andy played an important role in shaping the way forward by directly engaging with our consumers to ask them what they needed. He is proactive and dependable. When he says he’s dealing with something, you know it’ll be handled quickly and effectively and with minimum fuss.”
What Andy delivered
Change leadership for a workforce of 40,000.
Andy led business change, communications, engagement and training while employed by Capita, working in an Agile delivery model with Azure DevOps and PROSCI ADKAR methodology.
- 01
Business change strategy
Developed and led the business change strategy for the national rollout of Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 collaborative products and Windows 10, aligning adoption with operational outcomes.
- 02
Communications and engagement
Created and delivered communications and engagement plans that reached frontline staff through to C-suite executives, building understanding and trust ahead of go-live.
- 03
Change impact and readiness
Ran change impact and readiness assessments to understand where the change would hit hardest, then targeted support, training and messaging to the audiences that needed it most.
- 04
Champions and super users
Built a Champions Network and Teams Super User community to create peer-level support, reduce reliance on a central helpdesk and embed new ways of working locally.
- 05
Learning and training
Developed learning and development materials and roadmaps that moved users from first login to confident everyday use, including the migration and decommissioning of Skype for Business.
- 06
Agile delivery and governance
Worked within an Agile framework using Azure DevOps and PROSCI ADKAR methodology, tracking adoption metrics and iterating the approach based on evidence.
The outcome
Adoption improved more than tenfold in six months.
Microsoft Teams user adoption improved by over 10x within six months of go-live, reaching 32,500 users.
The programme moved beyond deployment metrics to behaviour change: users were supported by Champions and Super Users, training was targeted by readiness, and leadership had a clear view of adoption progress.
The migration from Skype for Business was completed with communications, training and peer support in place, reducing disruption and giving users a clear path to the new tools.
Questions
Microsoft 365 adoption at scale, answered.
- What did Andy deliver on the Network Rail Microsoft 365 programme?
- Andy provided the lead business change management for a national Microsoft 365, Teams and Windows 10 rollout to 40,000 Network Rail users, covering change strategy, communications, engagement, readiness assessments, Champions Networks, training and the Skype for Business migration. The role was delivered while Andy was employed by Capita.
- Can Adoptis support large-scale Microsoft 365 and Teams adoption?
- Yes. This programme reached 40,000 end users nationally and achieved over a 10x improvement in Microsoft Teams adoption within six months of go-live, using a mix of leadership engagement, peer support and practical training.
- Does Adoptis work with private sector and government clients?
- Yes. Adoptis works with UK local and central government, public sector bodies, utilities and large corporates on Microsoft 365, Copilot, Teams and AI adoption, with current SC and NPPV3 clearance held.
Considering something similar in your organisation?
We work with UK public and private sector organisations on Microsoft 365, Teams, Copilot and AI adoption, bringing the same senior-led approach to the people side of large technology programmes.