Inadequate Training: The Smoking Gun At An AX Crime Scene

High profile SAP R/3 ERP failures such as Hershey and Whirlpool are common knowledge and have been the focus of many case studies. What may be less well known are some newer Microsoft Dynamics AX failures. Before I begin, I must add the caveat that I am not aware of any cases where the actual Microsoft Dynamics AX software has been proven to be the problem.

In order to get to the cause of some of these failures, we should review the parties involved and make some broad assumptions. For purposes of this discussion, I am going to assume the Microsoft Dynamics AX partner is qualified and has successfully delivered similar type solutions in scope and in complexity--also, that adequate infrastructure, appropriate architecture and quality code exist and that the customer has provided the best and brightest employees to the project team.

Then we must ask, why do these implementations fail?

Would you believe training, to be more specific, end-user training is often the culprit?

In my experience with difficult implementations, the "core team" is usually adequately trained--the "Smoking Gun" 9 times out of 10 is a lack of extended "how to" training required to support the newly designed business processes.

Let's take a closer look at the impact of such poor training at a $500M apparel manufacturer that was almost slowed to a stop by an unsuccessful Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation. The original training program failed to deliver the necessary level of "how to" training in the area of production and shop floor control. These areas are particularly vulnerable to problems as often English is a second language for production employees and many employees have limited technical background or experience. It should be noted that adequate training is the areas ...