Best practices on training for ERP

Now that I know a little bit about training, let's go back to the important issue: how do I train people for ERP?

Let's see what Google popped up.

Gartner. ERP training best practices. I'm not too proud to look at what our friends at Gartner write (or at least the public ToC). We have a list of best practices:

1. Follow adult learning methodology
2. Role-/process-based training
3. Give end users time
4. Use certification as a gate for system access
5. Built a great team
6. Couple training with change management
7. Management and project team commitment
8. Engage business
9. Superuser involvement in training, pre- and post-go-live

1. And some training program development best practices
1. Needs assessment before course development
2. Use templates and standards
3. Address business function/processes and transactions
4. Actively identify training content
5. Minimize course variations
2. Best practices for sustaining training
1. Assign training oversight responsibility
2. Evaluate training programs for CI
3. Put training the app support budget
4. Retain and nurture trainers with a program
3. Other considerations
1. Match training method to worker and application
2. Design training to extend beyond tech reqs
3. Dedicated staff for training needs assessment and curricula development
4. Training sessions are short
5. Create training intranet
6. Maintain SLA/metrics

Worst practices for ERP training from Panorama Consulting.

• Worst practices:
• Use out-of-the-box training
• Pull resources from training teams
• Focus on transactional training

Best practices for ERP employee training from Inside-ERP and quoting Forrester:

• Problems include too little training, not enough focus on process change, no training post go-live
• Best practices:
• Create a training plan outlining: ownership, details of program to maintain qualified trainers, budget estimates for internal and external resources, who will be trained and what they need to know, how job duties will be covered while employees are training, education timeline and schedule, required documentation and who will prepare it.
• Budget for ongoing training
• Keep documentation up to date
• Prioritize user buy-in
• Tailor training to users
• Invest in post-implementation training
• Evaluate results to identify improvement opportunities

Klee Associates -- Trends and best practices in ERP training:

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• Average SAP training budget = 3.6%
• Cushing Anderson: "Projects allocating 7% of the budget to training were significantly more successful than projects where only 4% of the budget went to training"
• Certifications present good value; high performance team spend less time deploying and fixing and more time maintaining and improving.

Resources www.CLOmedia.com Aligning training with the business: www.brandon‐hall.com/solutions/linking_central.shtml Core principles for a CLO: Core principles for a CLO: http://www.consortiumwi http://www.consortiumwiki.com/CLOHollyHuntley

• Learning governance (via learninggovernance.com) -- improve alignment and build consensus among leaders to increase adoption; manage risk; establish best practices.
• Identify critical skills, inventory currently skills
• Options: simulations, instructor led, virtual instructor led, self-directed elearning, learning on demand, social learning
• Lots of corporate learning systems: saba, cornersone ondemand, plateau systems, sumTotal, learn.com, outstart, IMC, meridian knowledge solutions, mzinga, certpoint, element k, etc.
• End-user metrics: www.knoa.com
• Instructor success:
• Teaching skill
• Ability to handle real world questions
• Background as an implementation consultant
• Quality and detail of training manuals
• Critical knowledge taught in limited amount of time

ISC Technology: Seven pieces of the ERP training puzzle

1. Planning. Deliverables must consider:
1. Prerequisite end user skills education plan to outline skills and knowledge pre-training
2. Staffing plan for training outlining talent mix and committed resources. Assesses gap between required resources and available resources
3. Training delivery plan: needed tools, logistical challenges, infrastructure limitations, delivery mechanisms, timeline
4. Curriculum matrix lists tasks to be trained and information to be presented for each job role in the new environment. It will also serve as a completion checklist
5. Budget
2. Budgeting
1. IDC Learning Services show orgs spend 15% of ERP budgets on training; 17-20% gets better results
2. Gartner -- those than spend less than 13% are 3x more likely to have their projects run over time and over budget compared to those that spent 17% or more
3. Cost categories:
1. Hardware
2. Software (LMS, sandbox, etc.)
3. Tools (WebEx, courseware, etc.)
4. Upgrades
5. Administration
6. Internal staff for job coverage
7. Consultants/training developers
8. Travel
9. Training support (websites, translation, classroom set-up, workstation installation, etc.)
10. Vendor classes
11. Team fun
12. Facilities
13. On-going support
3. Staffing

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2. Training team lead: conducting audience assessment, developing training strategy and plan, contributing project plan items, selecting and securing other team members, developing a project orientation for other team members, contributing to change management strategy; keeping team moving towards milestones, training team on tools and systems, communicating and resolving team and project issues, communicating status, prepping and delivering training presentations to the business
3. Instructional designer: curriculum development, course design, course development for class or web, train the trainer workshop design.
4. Online learning developer: training development tools for web, producing online learning, visually communicating ideas
5. Trainer, grow-your-own or hire them: become familiar with course material, assist instructional designers, load practice data, deliver user training, participate in assessment.
6. Training coordinator: scheduling, tracking completion, scheduling make-ups, adjusting schedules.

4. Partnering with the business
1. Super Users. Change management, with project management, will identify departments where there is major process redesign and then identify super users.
2. Super users will spend 50-100% of their time on implementation, up to six months. They do process design, testing, and prep training material.
5. Organizational issues: start early, align leadership, set realistic expectations, communicate specifically and continually, identify new teams and roles early, develop competency
6. Curriculum development. Sim tools might help (STT Trainer, FireFly, Expert Author, InfoPak Simulator, KS Helper)
7. Implementation

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