engie

Challenges

Major organizations worldwide use SAP CRM systems to support sales, marketing, customer service and a range of other critical functions. This is the case at ENGIE, the world’s largest producer of non-nuclear power. Headquartered in France, the company produces, transports, distributes, trades and markets gas, electricity, and related services, and has more than 138,000 employees worldwide. To increase global efficiency and give staff access to the latest CRM tools, ENGIE initiated project Calypso.

This had two goals: to migrate the SAP solution from a mainframe system to a new service-oriented infrastructure and to upgrade the existing SAP CRM environment to the latest SAP version including the latest user interface. Because many of ENGIE’s mission-critical processes depend on SAP CRM, the company needed to transition 4,000 internal and partner staff to the new release over a single weekend. The ENGIE training team had only two months to train them all! Siegried Jankowski, Change Management Training Team Manager for Calypso, says: “There was no room for error; our people had to finish their work on the old system on Friday night and begin using the new one on Monday morning.”

Solutions

The training team had the option to create training materials by simply grabbing static screenshots from the new SAP applications. However, this would have been time-consuming, and could not provide hands-on, interactive training for staff. To overcome this challenge in the time available, ENGIE chose to train staff using the Assima Suite, which had already been used to train teams in other divisions of the company.

Assima Cloning Suite works by creating clones of key application functionality. These clones are then used to build interactive training simulations for staff that precisely mirror live applications, allowing staff to learn how to use them before they are deployed in production. Five members of the ENGIE training team used Assima Cloning Suite to create 37 simulations and a user manual in just 75 worker days.

These simulations covered all aspects of the new SAP CRM applications and user interface, ensuring that users were ready to work with the live system as soon as it was deployed. “The whole team has been very pleasantly surprised. The development of the training modules was far more straightforward and time-efficient than we’d expected,” says Jankowski.

Classroom training was chosen as the most effective solution for ENGIE customer relationship management teams, who were not used to completing training online. Training sessions were first delivered to the training team who later trained supervisors, support professionals then ‘teleoperators’, who collect customer data and deliver frontline, customer-facing services. In classroom sessions held over the two months, trainers were able to demonstrate the new SAP functionality thanks to the Assima Training Suite simulations. Following the sessions, trainees were able to repeat the simulations to consolidate their knowledge and ensure they were confident working with the new CRM modules before they went live.

Results and Benefits

With the Assima solution, ENGIE was able to train 4,000 internal and external staff on the latest SAP applications in just over two months, representing a time saving of 30% compared to traditional training methods. In addition, ENGIE was able to significantly reduce the overall cost of the training with Assima, which would have cost up to €1 million using traditional training clients.

Disruption-Free System Upgrade Process

Because the Assima solution replicated the functionality of the new SAP CRM applications exactly, staff were able to begin working with them effectively from day one. This ensured that there were no disruptions to normal business during the SAP CRM switchover. “There are lots of risks associated with major systems upgrades, not least that employees will be unable to use the new applications effectively when they go live,” says Jankowski. “However, because everyone attended classroom training based on Assima simulations, and could also access the simulations online at any time, they could work perfectly well with the new CRM tools from the very first day. And that meant we had no disruption whatsoever to our normal processes and no lost productivity.”

Consistent Training for Enhanced CRM

Staff from ENGIE and its partners must work to a single set of standards to improve the quality of customer interactions. This process cohesion is now possible thanks to Assima, which supported consistent training for 1,500 internal staff and 2,500 employees from partner organizations. “With the Assima solution, we have been able to standardize CRM processes with our customers, whether they interact with us directly or via our partners,” says Jankowski. “As a result, we can provide consistently excellent customer experience and maximize the value of our CRM investments.”

Fast, Efficient Staff Training

By providing an interactive training experience, Assima helped all 4,000 ENGIE employees master the new SAP applications. “With Assima, users gained confidence in the new CRM system very quickly, and we were able to reduce training times and costs compared to a more static, screenshot based approach,” says Jankowski. “The feedback from everyone has been extremely positive, and we’ll definitely use Assima again the next time we have to design a major training program. The Calypso change management project has been a resounding success.”

Proficient, Satisfied Employees

Another advantage of the exercises was that they allayed fears about the new tool. Many had been anxious that it would be complicated and difficult to use but, after completing the training, the trainees said they felt confident and even eager for the new CRM version to be implemented. In a recent user-satisfaction survey, nearly 89% of employees were happy with the training, compared to a normal response of 60 to 70%. Other results showed that 87% of employees were satisfied with the mix of theory and practice in training, while 86% found the training to be relevant.