AB World Foods

When AB World Foods embarked on a global ERP transformation programme, it was clear the scale of change would be significant. Responsible for household world food brands including Patak’s, Blue Dragon, Levi Roots and Capsicana, the business operates across the UK, Poland, North America and Thailand.

Project HALO was the global implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365, replacing two legacy ERP systems with a single, aligned global platform. The rollout included an ambitious go-live period, with the UK and Poland going live in week one, followed by Thailand and North America in week two. Delivering training to prepare all four hubs within this condensed timeline was critical to success.

With legacy systems moving out of vendor support, HALO was not just a transformation project but a business risk mitigation exercise and a growth enabler. The vision was to create a modern, connected technology platform that would support the entire workforce, harmonising processes globally and reducing reliance on a small number of key individuals.

Initially, AB World Foods planned to develop and deliver training in-house, leveraging the knowledge built during the design and build phases. However, as the project progressed and the demands of build, test and UAT intensified, it became clear that internal resource would not have the capacity, and that a third-party ERP training partner was required.

Optimum was engaged to provide specialist end-user training development and delivery support across six key workstreams: Prerequisites, Reporting, Finance, Procurement, Order to Cash and Quality.

Working collaboratively with the HALO team, Optimum conducted a RapidScope® exercise to define the full training curriculum, outputs and delivery approach. A blended learning solution was designed to meet the diverse needs of the user community, including in-person and virtual classroom training, Digital Self Learn (DSL) eLearning modules, tutorial and concept videos, and step-by-step system reference guides.

Given the global footprint of the business, localisation was essential. Optimum delivered finance training on site in Thailand and provided Polish-speaking trainers for classroom delivery in Poland. Selected materials were then translated, ensuring users could learn in their local language.

The programme also addressed significant behavioural change. Many users were transitioning from green-screen technology and manual spreadsheet-driven processes to a modern ERP environment with automated workflows, inter-company functionality and real-time transaction processing. Training was carefully designed to build trust in the system, reinforce new processes and give users time to practise within the new interface.

Sean Wain, Finance Lead for Project HALO, commented: “The team at Optimum hit the ground running really quickly. They were very flexible around the kickoff (knowledge transfer) sessions, and that really helped us get a great start on the training part of the process.”

He added, “Working with Optimum was excellent, a really good experience, and they really came to our help at our time of need on the project.”

Throughout the engagement, Optimum integrated closely with AB World Foods’ project and change teams, maintaining flexibility as the programme moved from testing into the intensive training phase.

The result was a professional, globally aligned training programme that supported a successful go-live across all four hubs. By combining specialist ERP training expertise with a collaborative partnership approach, Optimum helped ensure AB World Foods’ HALO project delivered not only a new system, but the user capability and confidence to ensure ROI.

To summarise, Optimum’s involvement gave the HALO project team confidence and reassurance at a critical stage of delivery, ensuring the successful implementation of Dynamics 365 across all hubs. Reflecting on the partnership, Peter McCormick, Business Lead for Project HALO, said:

“I felt a sense of reassurance that whatever the state of play, it was always going to be achievable in terms of delivering end user training. I’d recommend Optimum as a training provider. I found their approach was really professional and the more they understood about our programme and our business, the more flexible they were.”