Reduced SAP training time and maintenance costs with online training
Challenges
- Train thousands of employees globally on SAP-CC
- Deliver training to diverse business units across the EU, Americas and Asia
- Minimize time required for developing and maintaining training materials
Solutions
- Assima Cloning and Digital Assistant Suite
- More than 100 interactive training exercises
- Phased rollout with training initially delivered to 750 staff across Germany
Results
- Training available faster with materials developed before the live SAP system was finalized
- Time savings for training development and maintenance
- Multilingual capabilities support the global SAP rollout
So far, feedback from end users on the Assima training has been excellent, and we are now planning to extend training to thousands of additional employees across the EU, the Americas and Asia.
Mubea
Challenges
Large, global companies often inherit heterogeneous IT environments based on multiple legacy technologies. Often, replacing these systems with a standardized, group-wide IT environment can deliver significant efficiency gains. IT standardization is a top priority for Mubea, a leading manufacturer of lightweight, heavy-duty spring components and related products for the automotive industry. The company, which has 10,200 employees at 28 production, sales and development sites worldwide, is implementing a fully integrated SAP Convergent Charging (SAP-CC) environment across its business. With a new IT environment, Mubea aims to optimize process efficiency, enhance decision making, and streamline groupwide reporting. To ensure the smoothest possible transition from multiple legacy systems to the new, fully integrated SAP environment, Mubea needed to train 3,000 employees across Germany on the new system quickly. Detlef Gries, Head of SAP, Mubea Group, says, “We considered using traditional SAP training clients to train end-users on SAP-CC, but development, refreshes, and administration would have been extremely time-consuming. To meet our challenging training schedule, we needed a training solution that was much faster, more flexible and, above all, more efficient.”
Solutions
After a recommendation from SAP implementation partner Capgemini, Mubea chose the Assima Suite to train end-users across Germany on SAP-CC. The Assima technology was used to produce clones of SAP functions and create interactive lessons that closely mirror the functionality, as well as the look and feel, of the live system. An Assima consultant trained two Mubea SAP specialists, empowering them to generate clones and training exercises for staff in different business areas.
Their work was supported by two Assima developers who worked at Mubea premises for several weeks. “Working with Assima, we were able to quickly develop more than 100 training exercises that cover all the key functionality in the new SAP system, including Sourcing, Sales, Production Planning, Warehousing, Shipping, Quality Management and Maintenance,” says Gries. “Training exercises were combined in packages to meet the needs of employees in different roles and business areas.”
Initial training is delivered to groups of no more than 12 Mubea employees during interactive classroom sessions. In addition, the Assima training material is available online via the company’s SharePoint intranet, providing a useful basis for answering technical queries, as well as for training new employees.
With Assima, training is carried out independently of the SAP system itself, so we don’t spend any time refreshing or administering the training environment.
Results and Benefits
Assima training has now been successfully delivered to 750 staff across two business units in Germany. “We are using a phased approach to train staff three to four weeks before their business unit goes live on the new SAP system, preparing them for the transition away from the legacy environment,” says Gries. “So far, feedback from end-users on the Assima training has been excellent, and we are now planning to extend training to thousands of additional employees across the EU, the Americas and Asia.”
Fast, efficient training
With Assima, Mubea was able to develop the training materials it needed quickly, even while the development of the live SAPCC environment was still in progress. “Assima enabled us to develop classroom sessions very early on while the live system was still being finalized,” says Gries. “This helped us stay ahead of the challenging SAP deployment schedule and prepare all members of staff for the transition ahead of time.”
Time savings for development and maintenance
Assima has helped Mubea achieve significant time savings compared to traditional training clients. “With Assima, training is carried out independently of the SAP system itself, so we don’t spend any time refreshing or administering the training environment,” says Gries. “The time we have spent developing and maintaining the Assima training materials was far less than would be required for a traditional training client.”
Multi-lingual delivery
With Assima, training exercises can be translated into any number of local languages quickly and easily by simply applying local language dictionaries to existing Assima clones. “We are planning to use Assima’s multi-lingual capabilities, starting with the translation of materials into Czech next year,” says Gries. “Whichever languages we use, we will never have to duplicate our training materials, which makes things faster and simpler, and minimizes maintenance requirements.”
