Sometimes in shifting to new systems as a result of an acquisition or merger, companies don’t always have time to bring their users up to speed on how to make the most of the new software.

Case in point: Dade Behring Holdings, the world’s largest company dedicated exclusively to clinical diagnostics. In 1996, Dade Behring (then called Dade International) purchased DuPont’s diagnostic business with an eye to expanding its leadership in clinical chemistry.

That same year, the company began switching from a DuPont-developed system to an SAP Flexible Planning Module. Unfortunately, once it got off the DuPont system, Dade Behring, which offers a range of products, services and systems designed to meet the needs of medical labs, discovered there were problems in getting users to adjust to the new software. “We had our first experience with training in using the SAP module,” says Bill Magagna, global Instructional System Design (ISD) lead for Dade Behring.

The implementation was hardly a success. In fact, because it couldn’t get its users up to speed on the SAP system, Dade Behring for eight months was unable to update forecasts on the system, according to an article by John Dougherty, a senior partner at manufacturing and educational consultancy Partners for Excellence who did consulting work for Dade Behring. New forecasts had to be generated manually.

Fortunately, Dade Behring managed to surmount this obstacle. Since then, it has continued to roll out new and updated applications, including additional SAP modules as well as internal sales and services applications from Siebel Systems, now owned by Oracle. “The objective was to leverage an interactive, real-time training program. OnDemand Software was the solution,” says Susan Klein, Dade Behring’s director of I.T. portfolio management, referring to a vendor.

More specifically, Dade Behring has had to ensure that more than 3,000 end users employees who speak a variety of languages and serve in key customer support areas including customer management, logistics and finance& could quickly get up to speed when new software came into play. “It’s our job to make sure every employee is knowledgeable and comfortable with the software applications they need to provide the best customer service,” Klein says.

Given that end-user adaptation, or lack thereof, is a major reason for failed implementations, this was one of those challenges that can make or break a company.

Lessons Learned

For its most recent training initiative, which began several years ago and is ongoing, Dade Behring selected OnDemand Personal Navigator from OnDemand Software, the King of Prussia, Pa.- based division of Global Knowledge. “OnDemand Personal Navigator served as the backbone of the end-user support solution to the different business areas and customers,” Magagna explains.

OnDemand Personal Navigator, a synchronized platform, supports all phases of a software rollout project life cycle from blueprinting, design, configuration, testing, simulation and documentation, to training and ongoing learning support. Its complementary product, OnDemand Knowledge Pathways, rounds out the solution with a content/knowledge repository to manage training materials.

The platform enables developers to create content in multiple languages, an essential feature for a global company such as Dade Behring. It also delivers multiple types of output as required by each member of the project team for each phase of the project life cycle. “All of the training materials are role-specific, providing users with just the information they need to know to get their job done,” says Diane Seghposs, an OnDemand spokeswoman. These outputs include business process documents, test scripts, simulations, training manuals and performance support.

Perhaps the platform’s most important feature, Magagna says, is that it enables companies to drive change management and achieve organizational readiness. “With a single functional group, we were able to use one solution to spearhead the company initiative of training the end users and deploying the new system,” he says. “We set as our goal, effective and efficient training material. And we drove standards throughout the instructional design cycle, from assessment to evaluation. All work procedures, training and documentation going forward were to be version-controlled and quality-certified.”

Typically, end users start the learning process with live instructors in a training facility, which can be situated either at a customer site or at an OnDemand location. “Training events occur at multiple sites at the same time,” Magagna explains. From there, end users continue their education virtually, accessing the software from the Internet or downloading it to their desktops. Content developers also receive a disk as part of the training process for developing content. The end users train through OnDemand, and do not receive disks.