ASSA ABLOY, the UK’s largest lock group, recognises that user engagement with new systems and processes will be a key success factor in their world-wide business transformation project. User training consultancy Optimum has been selected to help achieve this.
The project, known as ProjectMAX, is one of the biggest Dynamics AX implementations in the UK at present and ASSA ABLOY needed a specialist training partner that was capable of supporting a global project of this size. Optimum, the IT training consultancy, was selected to develop a tailored user training programme to ensure all core and general users would fully engage with the new systems and processes.
ASSA ABLOY found that Optimum was the only training consultancy that had the skills they needed and the ability to meet the demands of the project. Also, Logica, the implementation partner for ProjectMAX, was already aware of Optimum’s credentials and had worked with the training consultancy on other projects.
The new AX system is being introduced as a phased rollout across ASSA ABLOY’s global business regions with the initial implementation in the UK. ASSA ABLOY is a fragmented organisation that has grown rapidly through acquisition and, as a result, there were eight different ERP suites across the UK business. The first phase required two of the legacy systems to be moved across to Dynamics AX, with go live at the end of Feb 2012, and the remaining six systems being transferred across by the end of 2012. As part of the solution, global templates have been developed by Optimum to ensure that ASSA ABLOY employees worldwide are trained in a consistent manner across the business locations.
Currently the Optimum team is supporting the next phase of the AX system rollout to the ASSA part of the business due to go live in June. By this point over 700 users will have been trained, either directly through classroom sessions, or via eLearning and webinars on the enterprise portal elements. The final stage will be to handover to the internal trainers using a “train the trainer” approach for the rest of the UK roll out.
The response from employees to the training already received has been very positive. According to Carly Baker, Business Change Team Leader at ASSA ABLOY, “the feedback has been fantastic.”
It was important to ASSA ABLOY that the employees saw Optimum as part of the overall business transformation project. The Optimum consultants worked as an internal training unit, based at the ASSA ABLOY site, and liaised closely and regularly with all the project team and super users. A training consultant attended the weekly meetings to keep up-to-date and to identify any changes that may impact the training requirements.
The objective of ProjectMAX is to achieve “one vision” of the business performance across the ASSA ABLOY Group. The role that professional end-user training plays in ensuring users will engage in a consistent way with the new processes, as the system is rolled out across the business, is recognised by those involved in the project. Carly summarises: “Training the everyday users how to work with the new system is fundamental to the successful achievement of our business transformation objectives.”
