When you are sitting through a demo of your new ERP solution, the sales engineer or sales person walking you through makes everything look really easy. That’s their job after all. Often times, they make things look so easy that customers assume that their end-users will be able to catch on quickly so money isn’t spent on adequate training. Anyone who has seen this scenario knows that it is laying the groundwork for failure. That is why it is so important that your partners in this project understand just how important training your users is.
When you are reaching out to possible consultants to serve as your implementation partner, you should spend a good deal of time talking about training your users. If they never bring it up, you are with the wrong partner. When they do address the topic, here are some things you should expect from them.
They should insist on training
Training isn’t always cheap, and when the demos make things look easy you may start to think that you could either save those dollars you had allotted for training or use them to buy that module you didn’t plan for. Your implementation partner should talk you out of this immediately. You are spending a lot of money on your ERP solution and implementing it is not cheap either. They should reign you back in by reminding you that without training your project runs a high risk of failing.
They should train based on roles
All ERP solutions have many different roles. While there are organizations where a person may be responsible for multiple roles, each role has different tasks, processes and interfaces that they will work with. Your partner needs to address those things that are specific to each role.
They should employ multiple training styles
Not everyone learns the same way. Some people learn best through lecture, others learn on their own and some need to be hands on in their learning. Your partner should offer or incorporate a variety of learning styles in their training to ensure that your end-users understand what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it.
They should train for real life scenarios
People make mistakes, systems crash and problems happen; even with ERP applications. Your users need to be prepared for events that happen in their day to day use of your solution and should also know what to do when disaster strikes. Often times, people make things worse because they have never been taught the right way to deal with problems.
They should communicate with your end users
When users are the audience, your partner needs to keep a line of communication open with them. Users who are being trained need to know how to ask questions and request help when needed.
Training is an integral part of your ERP implementation’s success. If people aren’t comfortable with your ERP solution they simply aren’t going to use it the right way and your company will not see the benefits. Proper training starts with your implementation partner. Make sure that whoever is working with you through this process takes training your end-users seriously.
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