Increase ROI of SAP ERP Implementations by Improving User Adoption

8/8/2019 Increase ROI of SAP ERP Implementations by Improving User Adoption

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According to the latest

Gartner report, SAP ranks

number one in the world in

ERP, CRM and SCM. The reason

for this is, "SAP is continuing tosuccessfully position themselves as

the safe choice and the big stable

market leader," said Jim Shepherd,

Vice President of Research at

Boston-based AMR Research Inc.

But without trained employees, SAP

becomes a nightmare to implement,

use, and maintain. One of the main

problems is, training can not be just aone time event. Trainings all about

knowledge transfer and making

permanent changes in process,

procedures and peoples behavior, at

the speed of change. The fact that

57% of SAP customers don't believe

they have achieved a positive ROI

and 40% of the ERP systems

implemented experienced adoptionproblems points out the difficulties of

implementing this very complex

system.1 Yet, according to Boston

based ARM Research, over 70% of

organizations surveyed plan to

increase their ERP spending in the

next year and plan to spend an

average of $5.1 million on all ERP-

related activities to improve revenuesand operational efficiencies.2

The reason for this projected surge in

investments in the next year is due to

improvements in the global economy

that are now allowing companies to

shift their IT focus from cutting coststo creating revenue and improving

operational efficiency. Corporations

of today face a global economy that

is changing on a daily basis. They

are exposed to continued pressure to

keep up with the changing economic

environment and increased pressure

from global competitors. So, where

can companies invest inimprovements that can

have a dramatic

impact on maintaining

and increasing their

competitive position

in their respective

markets? The answer

is to invest in the right

people and insure thatthey have the right

skills, tools and

resources in order to

capture new

opportunities and

remain competitive in the market. To

make significant strides in this area,

corporations will have to bridge what

Javed Silkander, the Director ofIndustry Architecture at Microsoft,

calls the Result Gap. "The Result

Gap is the gap between how 'people'

work and the way 'systems' work.

Systems are monolithic, one-size-

fits-all, transactional, clunky, difficult

to customize, hard to use. Learning is

a social experience where people

work collaboratively to analyzeinformation and make decisions.

They live in the real world where

stuff happens; exceptions are the

norm. While the systems take a

happy path, people need to deal with

all the mess that happens around the

fixed processes."3 The goals of this

paper are to look closer at the role

knowledge transfer plays indeveloping a long

term sustainable

learning environment

and how DA.

Consulting Groups

(DACG, INC.)

Cornerstone

learning methodology

can play an essentialpart in the future

success of any

company.

In the early 1900s,

management viewed workers as units

and, as a result, productivity was flat.

As new thoughts in management

evolved, we learned that productivityand employee satisfaction improved

dramatically when management

showed interest in their daily work.

This has evolved over time into

DA CONSULT ING GR O U P, IN C . W W W.D A C G .C OM 215.338.8505

57% of SAP

customers don't

believe

they have achieved

a positive ROI

and 40% of the

ERP systemimplemented

experienced

adoption problems

PG.2

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1 Nucleus Research, The Real ROI for SAP, Research Note, D23, 2003 Nucleus Research, Inc.Wellesley MA 02481 www.NucleusResearch.com.

2 AMR Research Inc., Microsoft Press Release, AMR Research Report Shows Microsoft Business Solutions Top Choice for Enterprise ResourcePlanning Solutions in Market Poised for Huge Growthhttp://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jan06/01-24MBSTopChoicePR.mspx

3 Javed Sikander Director, Industry Architecture DP&E, Microsoft Corporation, http://blogs.msdn.com/javeds/archive/2006/06/09/624553.aspx


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organizations trying to get more out

of their employees through employee

involvement in shared values,

mission and vision statements,

development of new systems and thecontinual search for

productivity

improvements so

that the company

continues to be

stronger in this new

and evolving global

economy. Are these

changes becomingjust words and

wasted efforts in the

changing marketplace?

Management surveys continue to

support overwhelmingly the premise

that people are the most important

resource that any company has in

order for them to maintain a viablecompany in a competitive global

marketplace. Not just any people

skilled, retrained, energetic,

motivated, and fully engaged

employees who are being asked to do

far more with fewer resources.

However, executives are faced with

an ever-shrinking pool of financialresources, and this lack of resources

causes management to think far more

creatively than ever when answering

such questions as, "Where can I

focus money and resources that will

give me the best return on my

investment, driving my revenues up

and my costs down?" The answer is

always the same. Better trained

employees perform at higher levels

and can provide companies with a

higher earnings ratio per employee not just once but year

after year. But the

continuing debate

among executives in the

corporate board rooms

is, "How and where can

we make an immediate

investment in our

workforce that will giveus a short term increase

in market share and

shareholders value?"

In 1959, Donald Kirkpatrick

developed a four-level model for

evaluating training programs that

continues to be the gold standard.

This model was designed to betterunderstand and evaluate the success

of training programs as they related

to changing peoples actual day to

day behaviors. The basic premise of

his model is to add structure to the

training process so that the

executives in the company can more

clearly understand the successes and

short comings of their goals. TheKirkpatrick model was developed to

better address these four questions:

1. Did the training result in a

change in behavior?

2. What final results occurred in

the training program that may

impact the company?

3. What were the results of the

employees feedback throughcomment sheets and

participation?

4. Did the training have an

impact on increasing

knowledge, skills and change

of attitude?4

All four questions are a necessarypart of the learning process and need

to be addressed by the entire

organization prior to an investment in

any major enterprise software

product purchase and roll out. To

better address these issues,

companies considering an investment

in these software productivity and

process systems should seek externalexpertise to help them facilitate the

knowledge transfer to the end users

and insure that the enterprise system

is used and maintained effectively.

DACG has developed and tested a

training approach and solution that

provides an ROI that gives

sustainable and measurable results

throughout all levels of theorganization now and into the future,

as systems continue to evolve and

change. Cornerstone Sustainable

Learning is the solution that can

provide the organization with a more

effective knowledge transfer and

stronger return on the training dollars

DA CONSULT ING GR O U P, IN C . W W W.D A C G .C OM 215.338.8505 PG.3

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The "Result Gap"

is the gap

between how 'people'

work and the way

'systems' work.

4Donald L. Kirkpatrick, Evaluating Training Programs, Second Edition. Copyright 1998, Berret-Koehler Publishers, Inc. , San Francisco, CA 94111


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invested in a shorter time span than

any other approach on the market

today.

Thousands of companiesuse SAP to manage their

business processes. SAP

has proven to be one of the most

effective business improvement tools

available to companies in this

decade. However, it also has proven

to be one of the most complex

systems for everyone in the

organization to learn, understand,effectively use and, most importantly,

maintain. To complicate matters, two

key factors contribute to the cost and

difficulty of maintaining a smooth

day to day operation.

1. SAP is a dynamic system that

continues to change and

improve. Each upgrade andeach improvement requires

retraining of the organization

in order to maximize the return

on the investment.

2. The employee base is ever

changing, which makes it

difficult for new hires to

quickly grasp and begin usingthese productivity systems on

day two. Companies must

develop methods to ensure that

these employees can quickly

assimilate and use these

complex systems. Knowledge

transfer must be a sustainable

process that does not rely on

asking the experts or getting

inside help. The process must

support the organization, notrob it of resources.

To effectively solve these problems

DA Consulting Group, Inc. (DACG,

Inc.) has developed a process called

Cornerstone Sustainable Learning,

which has been proven to be an

effective learning methodology, to

address the needs of organizationsand to keep pace with ever changing

business requirements and the

subsequent training needs of

employees as the SAP platform

continues to evolve.

Cornerstone Sustainable Learning is

a methodology and process that

provides a training road map to

address the organizations ultimate

goal of changing each employeesbehavior, leading to measurable

business improvement in the shortest

time with the highest ROI.

Cornerstone Sustainable Learning

begins by understanding the goals

and objectives that your organization

is trying to accomplish and how, in

part, these goals and objectives canbe met through the training process

and the establishment of a

sustainable learning environment.

This involves an in depth analysis to

identify those specific business

processes, procedures and

Cornerstone Sustainable Learning


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or

Routine ecific

Corne

rstone


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transactions that make the operation

of your organization unique among

all other companies in your market

space (Diagram A). The

Differentiators are what we call yourorganizations Cornerstone. They

are those sets of

unique and specific

business processes,

procedures and

transactions that

differentiate your

company from all

others inhow

youmanage and operate

your business. It is

the "secret sauce"

that provides your

company with its competitive edge in

the marketplace. Georgia Pacific is

an example of a company that

continues to be the market leader in

commercial tissue and continues tomaintain low cost manufacturing

excellence. The question becomes,

What business processes,

procedures and transactions allow the

55,000 employees at more than 300

locations to sustain this competitive

edge? Getting this part right is one

of the essential differences of the

DACG, Inc. Cornerstone approach.Most training companies and internal

company training staff focus on

accomplishing the routine operations

that represent 90% of the day to day

transactions and processes. While

DACG recognizes that the 90% is a

necessary and a very important part

of the process, it is also the area

which is the easiest to implement

because all of the educational

materials have been fully developed.

It is the routine part of everycompanys day to day operation.

Cornerstone

Sustainable Learning

addresses the 90%.

However, DACGs

unique approach

identifies and

documents your

specific 10%, anddesigns the training

initiatives to insure that

your Cornerstone is

integrated into the

other 90%, or routine training

process.

Knowledge of the unique

Cornerstone of your organizationempowers DACG, Inc. to design a

training program that effectively

targets your specific needs and

determines the most effective method

to provide a training process that is

both time efficient and makes good

economic sense. While you may be

familiar with these principles from

previous training initiatives, it'sbeneficial to consider how DACGs

approach can be uniquely applied to

your training program. Let's examine

two of the Cornerstone principles.

Individualization

This could also be called the

Snowflake Principle, since it

highlights that no two organizationsCornerstones are the same. The best

training program for your

organization will target your specific

weaknesses, address past failures,

provide sufficient time for behavior

change, and be structured to provide

the greatest output for the available

training input. Since there is no other

Cornerstone quite like yours, thereis no other Cornerstone focused

training that can provide optimal

results other than the one specifically

designed with your 10%, your

secret sauce, in mind.

Specificity

The Principle of Specificity may be

the most important of all for

organizations looking for business

improvements to heed. It simply

states that the more specific a

training activity is to a given business

function, the more it will contribute

to increasing performance of the

overall company. Therefore, for a

business function to produce

meaningful gains in the long term

growth and performance of the

company, the training has to be

tailored to be markedly similar to

those business functions that

individuals in the organization need


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Cornerstone

is the "secret sauce"

that provides your

company with its

competitive edge in

the marketplace.


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to get the job done on a daily basis.

Obviously, training exercises that

involve simulated training tools and

exercises targeted at actual day to

day business transactions are themost specific and will have the

greatest transfer to the learning

process and performance.

Effective training must also target the

specific Cornerstone business

processes and transactions most used

in your business. As

an example, when

Georgia PacificCorporation acquired

Fort James

Corporation, DACG,

Inc. was contacted to

assist in the Systems

Integration Project.

Through its

acquisition of Fort James

Corporation, Georgia-PacificCorporation continued its ongoing

transformation strategy to become

the leading paper tissue provider,

serving customers across North

America and Europe from the

worlds largest tissue-manufacturing

base. The Chairman and Chief

Executive Officer remarked, "The

combination gives Georgia-Pacificthe capability to deliver

low-cost manufacturing excellence

and superior marketing and

brand-building expertise."

The acquisition made it imperative

that Georgia-Pacific consolidate and

improve business practices, processes

and applications in order to deliver

on the promise of "low-cost

manufacturing excellence." The

resulting Systems Integration Projectpresented new training challenges for

Georgia-Pacific as they began to

integrate four software platforms

(SAP R/3, SAP APO, McHugh

Transportation, and Manugistics

systems) across a large, diverse and

geographically

dispersed audience of

over 2000 end users.The goal of the

Systems Integration

Project was to create

one system for the

single organization. In

order to do that,

DACG worked with

Georgia Pacific to identify their

Cornerstone, or the 10% of theirunique business processes that would

allow the combined organization to

maintain their position as low cost

manufacturer and brand leader.

DACG, Inc. recognized the need to

produce Georgia-Pacific specific

training materials with content

general enough to be used by the

entire organization, but also targetedat integrating the Cornerstone

transactions and processes

throughout the combined

organization. With this

understanding, DACG, Inc. was able

to creatively apply their

understanding of Georgia Pacifics

unique business processes across

multiple platforms. DACG, Inc.

helped Georgia-Pacific leverage its

previous investment in system

support and was able to develop acomplete training solution - including

system tasks, job aids and process

flows. The result was a solution

targeted at achieving the companys

key business goals.

Cornerstone Sustainable

Training Continuum

With the identification of the

organizations Cornerstone and the

routine business processes, the

Cornerstone Sustainable Training

Continuum begins with the

development of a training

methodology that focuses on the 10%

differentiators and integrates this intothe 90% routine. Throughout this

whole process, the goals are to

provide a long term sustainable

learning environment that

concentrates on two of Kirkpatricks

key measurement outcomes.


change in behavior?


the training program that had a

positive impact on the

company?


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For us, DACGis a solution

provider - not just

a training

company.

Georgia-Pacific


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DACG, Inc. recommends that a

company develop a plan that is

focused on creating both a short-term

and long-term learning and support

environment that will increaseefficiency and productivity of the

SAP user community.

Implementation of the plan provides

companies with a sustainable

learning environment. At the heart of

the plan is the creation of a learning

infrastructure. This infrastructure

consists of state of the art toolswhich will allow for rapid training

material development and

maintenance methodologies. These

tools and methodologies become the

foundation for the corporations

learning and performance support

environment. It is the responsibility

of training companies to work with

your organizations staff to impart the

necessary knowledge to maintain this

solution for both short and long term

success. To do this requires a

commitment to a time tested systemand approach to the training and

implementation process as outlined

in Diagram B. The first step in the

process is to understand your 10%

how your 10% influences

development of the remaining 90%

to maximize the knowledge transfer

and provide a sustainable learning

environment.

Training Assessment

Once the organizations Cornerstone

has been identified, a more

comprehensive training assessment

should be conducted to better

understand the needs of the

individuals in the organization. It

has been our experience that most

users feel that they have very little

knowledge of how their efforts fit

into the overall business process.Although SAP provides some of

these courses during the initial

training, DACG has found that the

users understanding of where they fit

in the overall organization is the least

understood and the most critical

element in the successful adoption

and implementation. To better

understand the critical roles that eachperson plays in the organization, they

have to be provided with process

flow charts. These charts provide

each individual user with the

"upstream" and "downstream"

understanding of the business process

in relation to their specific role. In

addition, during the training

assessment phase, the companyshould develop a plan to address the

following organizational issues.

Change management strategy

and approach

Project plan with

development milestones

Training curriculum

Training standards and

template

Training delivery methodology

Training tool recommendation

Cost and resource estimate

Management Workshop


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Corn

erstone


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Prototype Design andDevelopment

An important aspect of this step is to

insure that the SAP materials are

made available in a "context

sensitive" fashion by creating an

Electronic Performance Support

System (EPSS). This method allows

the user to access supporting material

from within SAP. For example, if

the user is executing SAP transaction

code MM01 and needs help, they

would simply click on Extended

Help on the SAP Toolbar, giving

them access to all supporting

material for MM01. The benefit of

this type of support system is that the

users will find what they need

quicker and easier. Users will rely

less and less on Project Team

members, help-desk staff or co-

workers for support. The result is a

self sufficient work force saving

money and increasing productivity.

DACG, Inc. accomplishes this

through the use of two options:

1. Use of a Rapid Authoring tool

that generates material and

context sensitive help: This

dramatically reduces the time

needed to create and update

material. In addition, it provides

context sensitive help for the

user community. The Rapid

Authoring tool is designed to

be easy to design and to deliver

documentation and support to

the people who need it. It is

easily adapted to fit the

organizations unique business

requirements. Users can

access the help they need with

a click of the SAP help menu,

which means the entire project

team can be more productive

because users require less

support.

2. Provide a Learning Center:

The DA Learning Center does

not create material, but takes

existing material and makes it

available on-line, including

context sensitive help like

Word documents (within SAP).

The Learning Center provides

for integration of process

documents, work instructions,simulations and courseware by

employee roles. The solution

allows for dynamic linking of

all related documentation,

allowing users to access

content from multiple points

of entry. In addition, the

documentation is deployed

context sensitively from SAP,

allowing for just-in-time

performance support at the

point of application.

Delivery

Blended learning is considered the

strongest approach to knowledge

transfer and a long term sustainable

learning environment. Researchers

Heinze and Procter developed the

following definition for Blended

Learning. " Blended Learning is

learning that is facilitated by the

effective combination of different

modes of delivery, models of

teaching and styles of learning,

and founded on transparent

communication amongst all parties

involved in a course" or training

event. The diagram below is


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Concept of Blended Learning


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a modification of the Heinze and

Procter diagram of blended

learning and incorporates the

DACG, Inc. process.

Post-Go-Live

One of the key elements to a

successful and sustained knowledge

transfer is the post-go-live phase of

any implementation. It is the opinion

of most training managers surveyedthat post-go-live support is, and

continues to be, an important part of

the users day-to-day interaction with

the SAP system. That is why time

needs to be spent working with

Project Team members to focus on

developing a structure to support the

user community during the early use

of the system and beyond. Thisstructured support addresses the

ongoing needs of the end user and

the ability to

maintain a

continuum of

knowledge

transfer.

Reassessment

The reassessment phase goes back to

Kirkpatricks key measurement

outcomes.


change in behavior?


the training program that had a

positive impact on the

company?

These questions must be continually

evaluated during the process to insure

that the training is effective and

provides a long term sustainable

learning environment that results in

day to day behavioral change for

both end users and new users. Once

these measurement adjustments to

the sustainable long term learning

environment are made and additional

training modules designed to address

further knowledge transfer in the

organization, the result will be a

measurable return on the invested

training dollar.

Conclusion

Seventy per cent of organizations

surveyed plan to increase their ERP

spending in the next year, spending

an average of $5.1 million on all

ERP-related activities to improve

revenues and operational efficiencies.

But without trained employees, SAP

is a nightmare to implement, use and

maintain. Its all about knowledge

transfer and making permanent

changes in process, procedures and

peoples behavior. But to be most

effective and to give your company

the best return on your training

investment, the focus needs to

address the Cornerstone.

Knowledge of the unique

Cornerstone of your organization

empowers DACG, Inc. to design a

training program that effectively

targets your specific needs and to

determine the most effective method

to provide a training process that is

time efficient and provides you with

a strong ROI.


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For over 18 years, DA

Consulting Group, Inc.

(DACG) has provided

knowledge and training

solutions to organizations

implementing complex business

software such as SAP, Siebel,

PeopleSoft/JD Edwards and

other applications.

We have been engaged on over

750 SAP implementations

worldwide with a client list

of over 100 of the Global

Fortune 500.

DACG, Inc. is dedicated to

helping organizations make

the most of their technology

investments through user and

workforce performance

solutions. With innovative

solutions, proven methodologies

and leading-edge tools, we

enable our clients to master each

new technological milestone.

Our expertise in providing

solutions across the entire

business application space helpsus provide comprehensive,

customized user education and

performance support for all

facets of the enterprise. DACGs

solutions, which address a

broad spectrum of needs,

comprise a combination of

change communication,

business process mapping,documentation, learning content

development, end-user training

and performance support.

About DA Consulting Group, Inc

DACGDACGG

Increase ROI of SAP ERP Implementations by Improving User Adoption

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