Acceptance Methodology – Case 2

Need

A manufacturing company was planning a significant upgrade to its product cost estimating software. The estimating tool provided an essential link between the company and its customers. Company management was concerned that if customers didn’t quickly accept the new tool or if they did not learn to use it correctly, there might be serious economic consequences. Management foresaw the problem to be that company personnel lacked expertise in the skills necessary to meet key challenges of this major change initiative.

Solution

To make sure of customer acceptance of the new software, Dashe & Thomson provided change management, communication planning, along with a high quality training design, in which we:

• Identified project strengths and risks.
• Developed strategies and tactics to mitigate those risks and build on the organization’s strengths.
• Implemented change implementation tactics, including developing an effective communication plan to help establish early customer buy-in.
• Created an instructional design for the training materials and developed and delivered the training.

Results

• Development of a change management plan that included user acceptance and training activities.
• Design of internal organizational and process change activities to support the roll-out.
• Design of a training plan including a variety of training experiences designed to meet the needs of the various training constituencies and various user roles.
• The training included an instructor-led training course, a WBT module, a WebEx training session, a PowerPoint presentation, and Electronic Performance Support System.