A risk management associate for a top 10 U.S. life insurance provider was new to Wdesk when she started using the classic version this past July. She liked the tasking and the ability to link information from one spreadsheet to other spreadsheets, documents, and presentations.

It wasn't much later that she started using the next generation of Wdesk after the Workiva Customer Success team identified files that the insurer could start transitioning.

"We transitioned a couple of files and tried to get a better feel for how to use it, which was pretty seamless," the associate said. "What we really liked about next gen was how easy it was to toggle between slides or presentations. Everything was just a lot smoother. And, once we got more comfortable, we started transitioning all of our files. We only have a couple left."

Favorite next gen features

The risk management associate has already started to see positive impacts of using the new platform.

Classic Wdesk enabled users to work together on a project if they were in different sections. An individual user had to hit the "share" button before anyone else can work in the section. In next gen, users can be in the same section and work together in real time.

"I am a huge fan of real-time collaboration. I like that people don't get locked out. I like that I don't get locked out," the associate said.

"Being the owner of most of these documents or presentations, if I want to do a quick formatting change while someone's updating the content, I can do that without having to say, 'Hey, can you please save your changes?' It's really nice for me to have that flexibility with the real-time collaboration."

In the next gen platform, document owners can see unpublished links and publish them for other users.

The risk management associate said one of her favorite features of the new platform is the cell history. "I find it very useful to be able to see when updates from me are made to specific cells and who made that update," she said. It has come in especially handy on one spreadsheet that is updated about once a month by about 25 to 30 people.

"There's at least 100 different updates that could potentially be made or changed," she said. "I maintain this master tracker, so if something looks a little off or looks like it hasn't been updated, I quickly just check the cell history, and I follow up with that person. Cell history is very useful for me."

Helping colleagues move to the next generation of Wdesk with you

Having made the transition to the new platform, we asked the risk management associate what she did to make the move easier for her whole team.

She said she emailed collaborators letting them know the transition was coming. She included:

• A next gen overview: "It was really nice for people because it showed next gen and classic side by side and what changed and what's different," she said.
• A specific date and time range that she was moving documents to the next generation environment. "I could let them know, 'Hey, if you make any changes during this time period, they might not be captured' based on when I transitioned them," she said. She didn't want any updates to files to be left behind in classic.
• A reminder that colleagues no longer have to share their files to share changes.
• A note to use next gen in Chrome, the free browser from Google.
• A screenshot showing how to find documents in the next generation environment.

Click here to download the full case study. Find and share more tips for helping your team make the transition in the Workiva Community.