You’ve set up your ERP software and now you’re ready to harness the power that Intact iQ can bring to your business. Alongside our collaborative implementation process and a dedicated maintenance team, our extensive training methods provide everything you need to master your Intact system, pre- and post-go-live.
With a stack of training courses and workshops to support you through every step, we’ve developed our approach to training to make sure you can get to grips with new functionalities, improve your existing methods and upskill your employees with greater ease.
With a specific focus on our post-go-live processes, we’ll take an in-depth look at what you can expect from our ERP training so that so you can get the best out of your business.
Our Train the Trainer model
Great training is all about giving your employees knowledge that they can then impart to others across the business. That’s what our Train the Trainer model is all about. We train the business unit owners across each of your departments who are responsible for signing off on processes to become subject matter experts within your organisation.
Our optimisation team will also support these same business unit owners after go-live to ensure they’re as fully equipped and educated as possible. Basically, we steer them forward to the point where they can easily field questions from their team, getting them thinking about things like “what do I need to deliver in this session?”, “how do I impart that knowledge to my end users”, and “how do I ensure they benefit from my training?”.
How do we train our customers?
Training starts from the very outset. There’s a planning meeting, followed by a kick-off meeting. Depending on the project, we may then get Intact iQ installed if it hasn’t been already.
Two weeks after the project has commenced, we’ll endeavour to set up key user induction training with the project manager and their project team who will be signing off on the processes. This gives them a chance to get to grips with iQ for the first time.
From there, we enter the Business Process Review (BPR) and Configuration phase. Though this process varies depending on the size of the project, it typically takes up to a month or more. It’s a crucial step, however, since after that we’ll move on to System Admin training – which relies on key users experiencing iQ as they intend to use it after the go-live date.
The independence this provides means users won’t need to lean on our consultancy staff. And since the use of consultancy services is chargeable, you’ll also be saving money in the long run.
Here, attendees will learn how to amend existing forms and design new forms from the ground up.
Elements of these training workshops are delivered one to one, which gives the attendee a chance to figure out what the system needs to look like. The beauty of iQ is that it can be stripped down to the bare minimum so that users can navigate it with ease. Conversely, it can be packed with more complex configurations to benefit, say, the CFO of your company.
Whichever configuration you need, we empower our customers to make these choices by properly training them on how to do this.
Once we’ve worked out the configuration that will best suit your needs, our consultant will work with your key users to get them up to speed using Sandbox, a training version of iQ, right up until go-live. We’ve found that some customers are very pro-active and will have scripts already written for their end users once they’re happy with the workflow of particular areas.
Whether this happens or not, we encourage our customers to do the following. With their existing system, let’s say that 20 orders come in that day. They should replicate 10 of them in iQ so they can get to grips with what to do with things like part-delivered orders and returns within their new system.
User acceptance testing (UAT)
UAT essentially takes place at the same time as the above workshops. Doing so allows customers to carry out the necessary testing of the system before offering feedback which we then use to tweak things.
Depending on the size of the project, the number of users, and the areas that require workshops, the UAT phase can take months. Usually, workshops are approximately one month themselves, so we suggest a period of six weeks post-workshop as a concentrated period for testing.
To help with this, we can conduct pre-go-live walk-through sessions with these same key business owners. In these sessions, we’ll gather people from the likes of sales, purchasing, stock and finance to look through their processes end-to-end in front of each other. This way, everyone is on the same page and has the confidence to explain everything to end users in time for the system to go live.
From printing out sales invoices to double-checking the form design, the more testing you can do here, the better.
Involving your end users
We’ve found that there are a lot of customers who are very reluctant to get end users involved until it’s too late. And we can understand this way of thinking; there’s a fine balance.
There are times when you won’t want everybody who’s part of the project to be involved with every single step. But if there are too many voices in the room, then it can lead to confusion and unclear communication. We’d prefer the customer have these kinds of discussions outside of our consultancy workshops since they can often be an expensive use of their time.
At the same time, involving too few end users at this stage means that issues might slip through the net. Come go-live, you might find that their experience using the system is a frustrating one – something that could’ve been easily rectified had enough users tested the system.
How can we help overcome this and find the right balance? Generally, we suggest that one person signs off workflows and processes, but there are also up to three other people involved in the actual configuration. All other end users should then have a chance to use the system, offer feedback, and then we can set about implementing any changes.
We hope you’ve found the above an insightful look into our training processes. For more information on how Intact iQ can help to future-proof your business operations, check out our product page here or get in touch with us today.
