The Southern Co-operative

Optimum, the ERP training consultancy, has designed, developed and delivered user training for more than 100 staff of the retail and funeralcare group The Southern Co-operative around the implementation of a new Agresso finance and procurement system from Unit4 Business World (Agresso) ERP system.

The user-focused training ranged from two hour leadership presentations for budget managers and approvers to interactive eLearning courses for finance teams and for requisitioners working across the business. In addition, Optimum designed and organised requisitioning courses specifically for the funeralcare side of the group, as well as writing and producing WebEx sessions, which would allow the remainder of the field-based staff to be properly trained.

Karen Lay, The Southern Co-operative’s head of strategic planning and projects, said: “Optimum’s approach was very user-focused. Each course was designed specifically around our processes and our system build so the content was totally relevant to each set of users. That meant they were confident in what they were doing, first practising on Agresso and then after go live.”

As part of the project Optimum created a set of full process manuals, in both paper and electronic formats, for the finance teams. In addition, a set of quick reference cards was produced for ‘back-at-desk’ help for procurement staff.

The Southern Co-operative opted to use a professional training consultancy because of the scale of the project. The group also felt that training on Agresso was a specialist skill and those resources weren’t available in-house.

Lay observed: “This was a big system change and we wanted users to be trained properly. Bringing in Optimum showed our staff that we were serious about investing in them. The feedback has been really positive at all levels in the group. In fact, the training has been one of the best parts of the project in terms of delivery.”