Making Virtual ERP Training a Success In the Wake of COVID-19

Sysdoc partnered with the Open University to provide training to support their SAP ERP implementation and wider Core Systems Review (CSR) programme. Just as the programme was preparing for User Acceptance Testing (UAT), the COVID-19 crisis hit and lockdown measures were put in place. The planned classroom-based training needed to be quickly moved into the virtual environment but maintain high-quality standards and meet the objective of ensuring their UAT testers were prepared and ready for testing.

The UAT Familiarisation training course had originally been planned as full days of training in a classroom with a clear objective that by the end of the training, participants would be ready to start UAT.

The Challenge

The course covered both navigation in the relevant SAP systems (SAP S/4 HANA, Fiori and SuccessFactors), and an explanation of the UAT process, the role of the UAT tester, and familiarisation with test scripts and the systems and tools used to support UAT. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown this training now needed to be provided remotely, but it also needed to adhere to Sysdoc’s rigorous quality standards and guidelines on delivering virtual online learning.

The Outcome

The design of the course was changed to ensure:

• It was delivered to small numbers of participants at a time
• It provided frequent opportunities for participant interaction
• Participants didn’t have to attend all topics on the same day
• Participants only attended content that was relevant to their area of testing.

Changes to the delivery of the training included:

• Taking time to ensure everyone could hear and be heard
• Explaining and encouraging the use of emoticons to interact with the trainer
• Providing frequent breaks and encouraging participants use these to step away from the screen
• Utilising break-out rooms to allow participants to work together and boost engagement
• Using an additional host to ensure any issues could be resolved quickly without disrupting the training.