BlueScope Steel - 1SAP Program

The 1SAP Program vision of '1 Business, 1 System, 1 Way' aimed to provide BlueScope Steel with a platform for improved performance across sites. Both the NZS and PKSW projects have been hailed by SAP as two of the most successful major SAP implementations in Australia. This success has been endorsed by Peter Robertson, PKSW SAP Business Owner, "We are putting in the best ERP software available to us with this implementation. It should equip PKSW with an up-to-date and robust ERP for many years to come". Other 1SAP Program representatives also recognize both implementations as being delivered to scope, on time and on budget, and consider this a major achievement given the size and complexity of the 1SAP Program.

Such success required the strong leadership and sponsorship of BSL senior management and the delivery of an intensive change management and training program to over 2,000 people within PKSW, and approximately 750 at NZS. Significant focus and investment was made on change management and training, which is recognised as a major factor in the success of the 1SAP Program. BlueScope Steel partnered with Cubic Consulting for this component of the project to develop and implement the transition strategy.

Project Scope - PKSW

PKSW Project scope focused on key functional business areas with the following SAP modules:

• Finance - Financial Accounting (FI), Investment Management (IM) and Controlling (CO)
• Maintenance - Plant Maintenance (PM) and Quality Management (QM)
• Supply - Materials Management (MM), Warehouse Management (WM)
• Engineering - Project Systems (PS)
• HR - Human Resources (HR).

Also in scope were the following cross applications:

• Supplier Relationship Module (SRM),
• Reporting - Business Warehouse (BW), and
• Process Automation - Workflow (WF)

Key Objectives

In support of the 1SAP Program vision, the key objectives of the training and change management effort were to:

• Empower and effect successful knowledge transfer and ongoing sustainability through the development and support of a comprehensive Power User and Change Agent network within the business
• Prepare end users through the transfer of skills, knowledge and confidence, along with education and a robust support network
• Maintain flexibility in materials development and training delivery in order to support functional teams working to tight design, testing and delivery deadlines
• Deliver comprehensive role based training packages to facilitate business alignment
• Incorporate BSL processes with those of their alliance partners through unified training and change activities
• Deliver an online Cubic Learning Centre containing all course materials and reference documentation for all BSL sites as they Go Live
• Establish and promote an online Training and Events environment for ongoing management of personal qualifications and development plans.

Approach

The PKSW Project transition strategy centred around three key initiatives: Change Management; Communications; and Learning & Performance Support.

Change Management

Key change activities focused on the need to engage stakeholders and to provide a sustainable support model enabling users to perform ongoing change agent roles within the business. A change agent network was to assist with communications and to build system knowledge. Members had the opportunity to participate in functional team activities such as testing and data cleansing prior to Go Live, and also participated in numerous workshops and forward training activities. Around 250 power users and change agents representing all areas were inducted into the Project as 'subsidiary' team members. Change managers, functional team members and business representatives alike also worked closely with BSL alliance partners to work through identified issues or barriers to successful implementation.

To supplement this change agent activity, comprehensive job impact assessments were undertaken for roles within each of the functional areas, with the aim being to provide an understanding of the level of expected impact, and to subsequently determine recommendations for the change management approach. Perceived impacts were communicated to project team members for inclusion in system design and course materials, and were managed closely by the change team ensuring appropriate communication and mitigation within the end user community.

The business was also surveyed regularly to gain a measure of change readiness of each of the affected stakeholder groups with results being incorporated into the communications strategy via required activity.

Communications

As part of the change management initiative, a comprehensive communications strategy ensured two - way, consistent, relevant and reliable communications about the change, targeted to each of the stakeholder groups.

Media, such as a dedicated email account and a Program-wide web site provided a 'one stop shop' for all assistance and enquiries during the months before and shortly after, Go Live. Posters and newspaper articles were also used as a means of advertising key information regarding the project; such as the Go Live date, support network and sources of further information. Newsletters were used to communicate via email with each individual user, conveying the latest news and information from the project. Newsletters also served as a key means of user preparation in the lead up to Go Live with checklists, count down activities and last minute direction able to be emailed directly to all those affected.

A series of workshops or roadshows supplemented such communications by focusing on the areas of greatest change; being the maintenance and supply functional areas.

Learning and Performance Support

The aim of the transition team was to provide training courses that focused on the functionality of the SAP system which would effectively transfer adequate, role based knowledge to end users, enabling them to operate comfortably post Go Live.

The training solution was role-based, including a mix of instructor-led and on line training courses as follows:

• 227 Instructor Led training courses
• 125 Online Training courses
• 80 Process Change Workshops
• 12 Quick Reference Cards

To ensure alignment between the solution and training documentation, trainers were physically embedded within the appropriate functional teams making them privy to design issue resolution and SMEs at all times.

Cubic Consulting's Cubic Learning Centre tool was employed by BlueScope Steel to deploy 1SAP training and support materials to the end users. All courseware, e-simulations, process flow charts, Quick Reference Cards etc were available through an intuitive customised menu path and merged seamlessly with the NZS environment following Go Live to deliver a single repository for all training resources.

Outcomes

Key transition-based statistics and outcomes of the project include the following:

• Establishment of 250 business Power Users for ongoing user support
• Establishment of business ERP Coordinators in each capability area for ongoing coordination of Power Users, master data, system administration, and continuous process and system optimisation and improvement
• Over 2000 users placed in direct contact with the Project team through a centralised email group
• 1,400+ users attended formal instructor-led training
• 2,000+ users completed at least one CBT course on the Cubic Learning Centre
• Over 10,000 CBT courses have been completed online in the Cubic Learning Centre, Note - this represents significant cost saving in training delivery and a cultural change to do online, self-paced training at all levels of the business
• Establishment of the Cubic Learning Centre as a single repository for business process and training information to support users across PKSW and NZS. This has major benefits of reinforcing one way of doing things and providing training and support on demand for the users
• Establishment of a project website as a single channel for 1SAP related communication
• Training quality was rated by users at over 97% positive.