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Recently, ZNA successfully implemented SAP. They hired Human Interface Group to assist in the process of training and change management to guarantee a smooth transition. Discover how we can guarantee better user acceptance.

The project

ZNA (Antwerp Hospital Network) is Belgium’s leading healthcare provider offering affordable and high quality healthcare in the Antwerp metropolitan area and beyond. ZNA was established in 2004 as an independent management structure of the former public hospitals of the city of Antwerp. ZNA is composed of 3 general hospitals, 8 day centers and 6 specialized care centers (children, psychiatry and geriatrics). ZNA employs 6,000 people of whom 600 are medical doctors and 2,650 nurses, caring for 6,000 patients every day.

In February 2007, ZNA selected SAP and Partezis to provide its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Focusing on financial and logistic processes, ZNA decided to implement Partezis’ Azis 2.0, a hospital information system based on SAP® ERP and SAP for Healthcare solutions. ZNA hired Human Interface Group to assist in the process of training and change management. June 1st, the SAP implementation was a fact and a great success.

The challenge

From the start, ZNA understood the scale of the challenge they were facing, particularly since ERP implementation programs often encounter user reluctance. To facilitate successful implementation, early user participation and an overall system acceptance, ZNA decided to be assisted by professional training and documentation experts. Previous positive experiences made ZNA decide on Human Interface Group as their partner for this part of the project.

The challenge for Human Interface Group consisted in providing over a hundred ZNA employees with the knowledge and skills to use this all-comprising administrative tool. In addition we assisted ZNA management in gaining user acceptance of the changed work processes which were to be aligned with the new ERP software.

To add to the challenge, all of this was to be done in a very short timeframe. Between mid March and June 1st 2007 ZNA has:

• Organized key user demonstrations of the new software
• Analyzed the current work processes and transferred these into working instructions for SAP
• Trained all users

What we did

Human Interface Group’s mission consisted of assisting the training program, developing the training material and the setup of a documentation environment in SharePoint, guiding workshops for 40 key users and providing end user training for about 400 users.

Human Interface Group carried out the following project stages:

• Guiding workshops with 40 key users to analyze the process changes, the users’ tasks, workflows and day-to-day practices
• Developing the documentation and training concept
• Creating an SAP Getting Started guide and general workflow documents for each SAP module
• Drawing quick reference cards for principal SAP functionalities 
• Elaborating task-based working instructions
• Assisting in organizing the SharePoint documentation intranet
• Organizing the training sessions for 400 end-users
• Offering support in training and documentation after the go-live

(Click images to enlarge)

The project was carried out over a period of 2,5 months, by two consultants and one project manager of Human Interface Group. In order to meet the short timeframe requirements, the first project stages were conducted in parallel.

In all phases of the project, from the preparation of the SAP implementation to the “going live”, ZNA and Human Interface Group listened to the concerns of the users and kept them actively involved along the entire process. Working instructions and other supportive tools were continuously validated. This was done in close collaboration with the (key) users who tested all materials in real-life situations. Their critical feedback was instantaneously consolidated so that the review cycles were short and efficient. This also allowed for the merits of their efforts to be almost immediately visible. That is why the training sessions met such high user satisfaction.

Results

Thanks to the excellent preparation and the professional training, we found the users to be far less reluctant to make the switch to SAP. They were well prepared and made minimal errors in the first few weeks following the implementation.

Related pages

Refer to Services: Support for more information about user documentation.