Schneider Electric

Challenges

Large, global organizations typically operate disparate business systems around the world – increasing IT costs and impacting service consistency for customers. To increase efficiency and performance, many enterprises choose to optimize their operations based on globally standardized ‘core’ systems. This is the case at Schneider Electric, the world’s premier energy management specialist. Through its ‘Bridge Core Systems Program’, Schneider has replaced 130 major business applications in 18 countries with PeopleSoft for HR, Salesforce.com for sales, and SAP for all other business functions.

To maximize the return of investment from this global application rationalization project, Schneider needed to train around 130,000 people on the new systems quickly and cost-effectively, in 18 countries. Traditionally, Schneider has delivered classroom-based training for employees with ‘Dedicated Training Environments’, which are live versions of applications used for training. But to meet the global, multi-lingual requirements of the Bridge program, more than 30 different training clients would have been needed.

Solutions

To minimize training costs and deployment risks for the Bridge program, Schneider decided to deploy the Assima Solutions. This works by cloning business systems to create a simulation-based training environment, with no need for expensive training clients.

Using Assima Cloning Suite clones, employees can input data, search for information and complete transactions just as they would in the live applications – helping them learn by doing, with no risk of breaking the live system. Working with consulting teams from IBM France for SAP, Accenture for Salesforce. com and Capgemini for PeopleSoft, Schneider established the scope of training required to support the Bridge program. IBM’s offshore development team then captured clones of the required SAP system modules in the Assima Training Suite and built more than 1,000 simulation-based training exercises for employees in less than 6 months.

Each of the training exercises has builtin instructions, showing employees how to complete specific tasks and transactions in Assima Training Suite clones step by step. The Assima Training Suite training exercises are grouped together within broader training courses and available on the company’s intranet 24 hours a day. While initial training is still delivered in the classroom, trainees can gain additional confidence by repeating exercises online from their desks. Schneider also uses Assima Change Management Suite (ACMS), Assima Performance Suite (APS) and Assima Multilingual Suite (AMS) to support end-user adoption and performance.

Results and Benefits

With the Assima solution, Schneider has quickly trained 130,000 employees on PeopleSoft HR, 20,000 on SAP, and 2,000 on Salesforce.com. As a result, the organization has maximized the efficiency benefits of the global application rationalization project and increased the quality and consistency of services for customers.

Faster, more effective training

The solution is supporting an effective blend of classroom training and eLearning to effectively support the Bridge Core Systems Program. Employees are initially trained on the new systems in the classroom, but Assima training exercises are available on the Schneider extranet 24 hours a day. This means staff can repeat exercises when they return to their desks, helping them gain the skills and confidence they need more quickly.

Annual training cost savings of 30%

The centralized Assima training solution has eliminated the need for 30 different global training systems, which means 30 times less hardware and maintenance costs. What’s more, by helping to integrate eLearning into Schneider’s training strategy, Assima has reduced reliance on costly classroom teaching methods. All this has helped the company achieve year-on-year training savings of 30% compared to Dedicated Training Environments.

Time savings for trainers

Assima's unique cloning and digital assistance, is delivering significant time savings for members of the Schneider training team compared to traditional training methods. With Assima, trainers no longer waste time preparing data for every training session and fixing bugs in training clients, reducing workloads significantly. What’s more, the Assima system is always available, which means more employees can be trained more quickly and cost-effectively. Guivarch says: “Trainers must be capable of managing a course or dealing with inevitable bugs or specialized questions. When a new version of the live system is released, Assima Training Suite is used to capture new clones, allowing training exercises to be updated quickly and effectively. This eliminates the need to make manual changes in multiple Dedicated Training Environments, delivering significant time and cost savings.

Excellent, consistent customer service

With just one set of master clones, Schneider can be sure that training is standardized, accurate and up to date, wherever trainees are located. This is helping improve the quality and consistency of training globally, enhancing business performance and ensuring customers receive consistently excellent service worldwide.