The Client
Dairy Crest is the UK's premier chilled dairy foods company focused on building leading positions in branded markets across the dairy sector.

The company operates in two divisions. The Foods division consists of spreads, cheese and fresh dairy products (via Yoplait Dairy Crest), while the Dairies division incorporates liquid products, household and ingredients.

Dairy Crest has over 7000 employees across 21 sites throughout the UK and Ireland, including the company's joint venture, Yoplait Dairy Crest.

The Dairy Crest Oracle Release 11i Applications e-Business Suite Project is a consolidation of the Dairy Crest group of companies onto one ERP platform.

Dairy Crest recognised the critical role that training would play in the acceptance and efficient use of the new software systems. However without the time and expertise to organise an effective training programme Datasky was identified as the suitable Training partner.

The Challenge
The main challenge was to devise a comprehensive training and education programme to cater for all ORACLE users located at the Head Office in Esher and 20 regional sites located across the UK before go-live of the new systems.

The Project Scope
The scope of the assignment was to include;

End User Training
Head Office and Sites - GL, AP, FA, CM, OFA, Discoverer

Finance Business Processes Capture, Update and Document Business Processes

Onsite Customised Training
ILT classroom training reflecting business processes

I-Learning Programme
Developed for 11i POMS (400+) and iExpenses (700+) Users

Training Database
Training instance with full refresh/purge capabilities

Controls and measures
monitoring to assess effectiveness of Training

Sustainability
training programme that can be handed over in steady state

Post Go-Live Support
4-6 weeks end user support

Business Process Documentation
The programme commenced with the Capture, update and document all the business processes in order that new processes were understood and the training materials could be developed.

Training Needs Analysis (TNA)
The Training Needs Analysis consisted of a series of Interviews and some analysis that produce a set of course synopses which break down the training requirements for a business unit.

The course synopses included the content of the course, target audience, delivery method & duration.

Training Plan
From the information gathered from the TNA a detailed Training Plan was devised. This indicating the key milestones and activities required to deliver successfully the training programme Timetable, resource requirement, budget, issues & risks.

Training Material Development
Complex business systems necessitate the development of task-specific materials with process led scenarios that address the real-life jobs of trainees. This could only be accomplished by developing courseware tailored to Dairy Crest’s needs.

The Datasky team of specialist trainers set about designing and building different classroom courses and specifying the content for the iLearning courses.

Each training course required the development of the course and its materials specific to Dairy Crest and the use of their system covering all Oracle Financials modules, Discoverer and OFA.

The development of paper based and/or electronic material was required to deliver the complete training programme to the end users.

In addition, Workbooks, quick reference guides, e-learning, practice data, exercises and Lesson plans were developed to ensure the outcome resulted in trained and confident users

Training Management
Datasky ensured that the Training Project Manager maintained full control of the programme implementation at all time. Key activities included:

- Control of time, cost and quality
- Reporting of progress Updates
- Managing Change control requests
- Regular Progress reports
- Evaluation of learning.

Sustainability handover of training programme in a ‘steady state

i-Learning a must for Dairy Crest

i-Learning Strategy
The strategy was set to ensure that people could fit in their training whenever it best suits them within a given period of time.

I-Learning Programme developed for

11i POMS (400+) users and iExpenses (700+) Users.

For more information on Datasky Training Services Email info@datasky.com

Business Readiness
The on-line education and training programme included not only a series of specific process driven courses with system simulation, but also a number of Business Readiness driven modules:

Business Insight

Why?
What’s changing?
What does it mean to me?

Process Overview - the big picture

The Benefits

Cost Effectiveness
Combination of on site e-learning and traditional Classroom ILT training to over ten thousand users from 9 companies.

Customisation
Programme offered fully customised materials that mirrored Dairy Crests processes thereby eliminating the need for any additional training.

Sustainability
Steady state handover ensuring long term sustainability of the Training Programme.

Effectiveness
Datasky were able to meet the learning requirements at Whitbread using the solution most suitable to them.

Return on Investment
The benefits of having Educated users is already been felt throughout the company.