In the late 1990's, a large multinational company began one of the most comprehensive and ambitious Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations ever. The new system would link all businesses worldwide and would ultimately replace more than 1,500 legacy systems. The company assembled internal and external resources from many countries to begin the tasks of redefining business processes and preparing the ERP software for use. In order to ensure the successful implementation of the ERP system, thousands of employees, vendors, and customers would need to be educated in the new ways of doing business—with as few interruptions as possible to business operations.

Gillespie Associates provided us world-class instructional designers and at much less cost than the large, nationally known consulting firms. They were capable of working in an ever-changing environment, with little time and large volumes, and producing quality end user training. We have been able to reduce development cycle times and costs, and have successfully met every launch.

- Project Manager, Worldwide ERP Training

Gillespie Associates was selected to design and develop a comprehensive, global training curriculum that would ensure a successful "go-live" transition from the multiple legacy systems to the new ERP system. Over the course of the project, the Gillespie Associates team:

• Designed and developed training materials and job resources for thousands of end users
• Continuously modified materials in short cycle times to meet every "go-live" implementation around the world
• Provided on-site project management to ensure the successful coordination of training development within aggressive deadlines
• Began the conversion of vast amounts of classroom materials to self-paced, hands-on learning modules delivered through an intranet
• Designed and developed online help systems to enable end users to access step-by-step instructions on a given task while working at their own workstations
• Developed web-based interactive training for end-users and project team members worldwide that would have otherwise received no formal training

End users worldwide, ERP implementation project team members worldwide, and external customers and vendors

• Classroom-based training materials
• Self-paced training materials
• Job aids of many types and formats
• Executive presentations
• On-site project management
• Strategic consulting
• Assistance in writing proposals and project documentation
• Online help systems, containing thousands of procedures in multiple languages
• Web-based interactive training systems
• Web-based job resources
• Task-based simulations that run through a browser

The ERP system was successfully implemented worldwide and the effort continues today. Through an integrated approach to training development, end users are able to use the system to get work done. A variety of methods are available to help end users learn and perform their jobs-instructor-led classes, web-based learning modules and resources, self-paced training resources, online help systems.

The global approach to training design allowed each area of the world to easily localize the materials to their individual needs. In addition, training materials were designed to accommodate software upgrades and conversion to different media, as desired.

Gillespie Associates helped set the standard for future ERP implementations in the marketplace. Within this corporation, many of the web resources were "breakthrough" and helped position the entire organization to move into a new era of e-learning.