When it comes to leading large-scale technology transformation projects, kicking off with confidence is key.

You have to start strong. Leaning on your support teams. Leveraging your resources. Laying a solid foundation that will help shape the tech stack and capabilities of your organization for months — even years — to come.

During our journey workshops, we talked to dozens of customers around the world — gathering their feedback and listening to their experiences — to learn what they needed to feel more empowered on their path to success. Since then, we’ve focused on producing content and reimagining our digital delivery tactics to help our customers get even more value (and joy!) throughout their Citrix journey.

We understand how daunting getting started can be — it’s why we’ve been putting so much focus into building our library of planning tools and resources.

In our last few posts, we covered the importance of success planning and success readiness — highlighting the critical roles they play in driving effective transformation and outlining why they’re always central in the most successful deployments. We also discussed change management and end-user experience, and why they’re vital to the success of any project — from planning to rollout and beyond.

But before you can dive headfirst into planning, it helps to be ready (and excited) for the road ahead — to know what to expect and to anticipate what’s coming. Build a basic understanding of your subscription, the tools you’ll use to manage it, and the teams available to help you support it.

We saw an opportunity to condense the basic, foundational information all our Citrix Cloud customers need into a single resource — almost like a pre-planning guide — to serve as an approachable complement to our many in-depth technical onboarding resources.

The Kickoff Guide – Citrix Cloud Services

The Kickoff Guide – Citrix Cloud Services — also known as the Cloud Kickoff Guide — is a simple, non-technical, how-to document designed primarily for new Citrix Cloud customers (though it’s also a great resource for those who have been with Citrix for some time).

The Cloud Kickoff Guide is filled with foundational “getting started” information to help guide you through the basic — yet critical — steps for getting your Citrix Cloud account up and running. It also contains information about the support services available to you, contact details for various key Citrix teams, and links to additional tools and resources.

Let’s take a quick tour of the Cloud Kickoff Guide.

Part one of the guide includes seven key steps for getting started with your Citrix Cloud account — from finding your welcome email, to granting your full admin team access to your account, to linking your Citrix Content Collaboration licenses.

Each of these seven steps is accompanied by helpful screenshots and advice so you’ll know exactly what to look out for.

Part two outlines the roles and responsibilities of the primary support teams most Citrix Cloud customers work with throughout their journey. We’ve also included links to the contact information for each of these teams, so you don’t have to go digging on our website.

Part three is focused on the Success Center — the one-stop-shop for all things Citrix, and the best place to go to find journey-aligned tools and resources. We outline a few key elements of the Success Center in The Cloud Kickoff Guide:

  • Citrix Journey Framework: The heart of our success methodology. Our journey framework is so important that we built our entire Success Center experience around it. We’ve included detailed descriptions of each journey stage on the Success Center site so you always have a clear sense of where you are and where you’re going next — and gain confidence to move through your project at your own pace.
  • The Journey Toolkit: Our comprehensive collection of tips, tools, and resources (like the Cloud Kickoff Guide) — organized by journey stage and milestone.
  • The Success Plan Tool: An interactive tool that provides step-by-step guidance for creating a personalized Success Plan. For a deep dive on all things success planning, check out this recent blog post.

Finally, part four of the Cloud Kickoff Guide highlights the many other resources available to all Citrix Cloud customers—whether you’re looking to deepen your own (or your team’s) Citrix skillset, want an expert opinion, or just need some additional help or guidance.

What’s Next?

We’re continually adding new tools and resources to the Journey Toolkit in the Success Center — so be sure to check back regularly for the latest and greatest.

Also keep an eye out on our blog for more in-depth tours of our new journey-led deliverables. There’s lots more to cover, and our content library is continually expanding.

Finally, we’d love to hear from you!

Are there any particular templates or guides you wish you had? Are there challenges you encounter regularly that you’d like help solving — or that you think other people could benefit from learning about? Do you have any thoughts or feedback on our new Journey Toolkit resources?

Contact your Citrix CSM, shoot us an email at CSM@citrix.com, or leave us a comment below. We’re eager to hear what you think.

— Pippa Armes, Senior Content Strategist, Customer Success Management