Learning @ the Speed of Change
A Winning Approach to Business Adoption How Pfizer gained business adoption for its Global ERP implementation, and in the process won the 2014 SAP Education Best Practice Award! By Mike Conners | Communication Lead, SAP Education North America When Beth Fenwick and Kris Jackson of Pfizer, Inc. stepped to the front of the room at SAPPHIRE NOW + ASUG Annual Conference to accept the 2014 SAP Education Best Practice award, it was in recognition of a job well done, but not a job completed. “We’re not done yet,” said Fenwick, who is the Director of Global ERP Training for Pfizer, when I spoke to her a few days before the event. It’s hard to imagine any sense of unfinished business given the Pfizer team’s achievements to date. Future deployments aside, the feeling that they haven’t accomplished everything they set out to do is a reflection of this award-winning team’s high standards and desire to sustain what they’ve achieved. So what was the impetus behind this effort? “I am not a technologist by training. I am a business guy with a strong interest in how technology can support and enhance the business,” explains Kris Jackson, Pfizer’s Senior Director of Global Business Adoption. “Having spent a number of years leading a usability group, I came to appreciate the importance of a positive user experience. In my opinion, it is as important as the technical functionality.” Jackson lobbied for a strong focus on user adoption and Pfizer’s leadership agreed, giving him the green light to create the team. Beth Fenwick, center, and Kris Jackson, right, from Pfizer’s Global ERP Business Adoption team, pose with Dave Osborne, head of SAP Education in North America at the 2014 awards breakfast at SAPPHIRE NOW +
ASUG Annual Conference.
“Go as fast as you can without compromising on quality” Pfizer started implementing SAP in 2010 as part of a multi-year global initiative that will eventually include 44 separate deployments across three global regions, many happening concurrently. The user population will consist of more than 25,000 users in commercial markets, logistics centers, and manufacturing plants. The deployment impacts transaction processing across the Procure to Pay, Supply Chain, Order to Cash, and Record to Report process areas and also includes comprehensive reporting and data analytics. Additionally, SAP Business Intelligence and Advanced Planner and Optimizer are included in the scope, as well as some additional bolt-on applications such as Global Trade Services. Pfizer expects the completed SAP implementation to provide significant steadystate savings through improved processes, fewer systems, and better decision making enabled by global access to information and data analytics. “The challenge was to go as fast as you can without compromising on quality or compliance,” Jackson said.
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Achieving business adoption To meet the challenges of this large and fast-paced initiative, Jackson’s team employed an overarching Business Adoption Strategy (Figure 1) that includes: Training Change management Communications Organizational alignment Pfizer followed a multi-phased deployment methodology for system implementation. It incorporated business adoption activities into every phase. Figure 1. Pfizer’s business adoption approach “The Business Adoption team is responsible for managing the end user experience and ultimately ensuring end user acceptance of the system and commitment to the overall program.” Kris Jackson Senior Director, Global Business Adoption, Pfizer
Training: Essential to ensuring business adoption Pfizer developed a training strategy to address the needs of senior management, the project team, and end users. Senior management training. Senior management including site leads, business unit leads, and key stakeholders were offered an abbreviated version of Jumpstart, a multi-day class designed to introduce SAP and the interconnectivity of the different modules in the context of the standard Pfizer business model. Project team training. Project team members participated in a training curriculum by phase. Early training, designed to build SAP knowledge, included Jumpstart and self-study with SAP’s web-based Business Process Foundation (TERP) courses. In subsequent phases, project team members were trained to support system configuration, testing, and trainer preparation. End user training. For new end users, Pfizer employed a blended learning approach that included instructor-led (ILT) and web-based training (WBT), along with multiple tools to sustain and support users post go-live. July 2014
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Web-based training, or instructor-led training? In developing its end user training program, Pfizer confronted the same questions that many organizations face: Should we use primarily web-based training? Or do we also need instructor-led training? “We had to fight resistance from people in our business who wanted WBT for the entire project,” explained Beth Fenwick, the training director. “A lot of people assume that WBT is the way to go. It’s less impactful on people’s schedules, and it’s cost-effective because it eliminates the need for an instructor.” Ultimately, they chose a blended program that employs WBT for introductory level training. Instructors provide training for topics that have more technical content, or where a complex business process requires the presence of a subject matter expert to answer questions and help learners work through the information. “We tried using more web-based training in early deployments. But it’s difficult when you’re implementing a new application and no one knows the application or the new business processes yet. You need follow-up business process sessions and people with expertise to answer questions,” said Fenwick. She added that over time, as people learn the software and the super user program matures, Pfizer will be able to provide in-house super users to help new learners. Table 1 shows the total number of courses employed by Pfizer, and what percentage of these courses is web-based. Table 1. Percentage of WBT courses used by Pfizer, by functionality Functionality
Total
% WBT
Basic Navigation
1
100%
BI Reporting
33
6%
Commercial Ops
65
12%
Finance
38
39%
Logistics (Distribution)
36
31%
Manufacturing & Quality
201
3%
Material Master Workflow
19
100%
Procurement
28
57%
Supply Planning (APO)
32
75%
Supporting end users with a robust set of resources Going beyond training, Pfizer has put in place many different performance support resources to help end users learn, practice, and retain the information and skills they need to be successful. These include: Performance support tools. Integral to the training strategy is the use of performance support tools, which the team created using the SAP Productivity July 2014
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Learning @ the Speed of Change
Pak application by ANCILE. These tools include simulations used as training materials to supplement (or replace) their SAP training environment, and context-sensitive help and ECC reference materials to assist users after golive. To date, Pfizer has created approximately 1,400 performance support tools with SAP Productivity Pak. Site-specific content. Where appropriate, the deployment site teams created site-specific training content to supplement materials provided by the global training team. Materials such as business intelligence reports, interfaces, and special data elements support business processes unique to a particular site. Training and support website. Of course, performance support materials aren’t effective if end users and trainers can’t find them. Pfizer solved this with its ERP Training & Support website. The site, which is organized by functional area, houses all instructor-led materials, links to web-based courses, all content developed using SAP Productivity Pak, and other supplemental materials available to support training delivery. Figure 2. Pfizer’s ERP Training & Support website The Training & Support website links to web-based courses stored in Pfizer’s learning management systems (LMS). When a learner completes a course, the appropriate LMS creates a record of that completion.
Change management For the Pfizer team, change management is a fundamental part of preparing new users for the system migration, and for training. During the Solution Confirmation phase of Pfizer’s methodology, the team calls out processes that are changing from “as-is” to “to-be.” Then, they analyze the impact of the changes. Depending on the criticality of the processes and the size of the affected audience, Pfizer incorporates the changing processes into change management discussions and deployment communications. Managers receive discussion July 2014
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guides to help them facilitate meetings with colleagues about changes to roles, processes, functionality, etc. resulting from the migration. Additionally, the team 1 holds regular poster sessions , employee town halls, and functional overview sessions to prepare colleagues and increase their level of adoption at go-live.
Super users in the change management process Super users play a critical role in Pfizer’s change management process. As the training delivery period approaches, the team focuses on preparing the deployment of super users to deliver training and be the first line of user support before and after go-live. Preparation begins with a Super User Kickoff to ensure understanding of roles and responsibilities. Additional activities, such as knowledge sharing sessions, job shadowing, and test execution continue to build super users’ SAP knowledge throughout the deployment. The program also includes regular touch points to measure progress and readiness, and a Super User Readiness Survey to document progress. Some super users become ERP trainers. This requires participation in a qualification program to build their teaching skills and ensure consistency in training.
Organizational alignment To simplify access provisioning, Pfizer created global positions as part of its Global Model. A position is a combination of relevant SAP roles that pertain to a particular job (for example, accounts payable clerk, or manufacturing shop floor supervisor). Standardizing positions has greatly reduced the time and effort to provision colleagues for access. The ERP Business Adoption team works with the local business subject matter experts to map all colleagues to the appropriate positions. Pfizer employs an inhouse application, Access Request Interface (ARI), to manage the access provisioning process. End users must complete all their training before receiving system access. Pfizer documents the completion of training, both during deployment and after go-live, in one of its two LMS systems. These systems interface automatically with the ARI application.
Communications Pfizer develops and executes a comprehensive communications plan for each deployment. The plan maps the creation and delivery for messaging that: Provides relevant, current information about the program Builds colleague commitment Increases readiness for change Minimizes the spread of misinformation about the anticipated changes Demonstrates executive and business support and ownership for ERP
1
“Face to Face” or “poster” sessions typically take place at lunch or during break time. Major process components or system features are documented on a poster, and subject matter experts are on-hand to explain or answer questions. Also see Figure 3 on page 6. July 2014
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Equips the organization with the right information and preparation requirements at the right time to go live Encourages trust and confidence in the ERP program Figure 3. Pfizer’s internal communication channels for EFP deployments Pfizer uses multiple channels to communicate consistent key messages to the appropriate audiences.
The future Pfizer’s Business Adoption approach is maturing to meet the needs of the overall program and its end users. The team continues to refine training, change management, and communication activities as the global model matures and changes. One of their next challenges will be how to support deployment to small markets. The methodology needs to be flexible to be successful in the next phase of deployments where the project teams and even the number of end users are much smaller. Finally, over time Pfizer will continue to shift its focus to sustainability since the majority of users will be operating in SAP. The Business Adoption team will provide additional tools and support to the super user community as they maximize the proficiency of the end user population helping to ensure Pfizer is getting maximum value from its SAP investment.
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