Eskom gets 20 000 employees up to speed on HR self-service with SAP Tutor 2

Eskom is currently upgrading to the second version of SAP Tutor in order to acclimatise 20 000 employees to the self-service functions on SAP's human capital management module.

Eskom's implementation of SAP R/3 from 1996 to 1998 was one of the largest and fastest of its time. It earned several international awards for exceptional project management skill in bringing the implementation in on time and under budget. In the process, Eskom became an SAP Customer Centre of Excellence through its Finesse Solution Centre, which is responsible for ongoing SAP support and training throughout the organisation.

So far, Eskom's SAP user training has focused on the 7 500 geographically dispersed users of the six modules on materials, asset and financial management, management accounting, project accounting and plant maintenance. Training has been classroom based, using SAP Tutor as a simulation tool in the classroom and as a support tool at the user's desktop computer.

However, when the SAP HR module comes on stream this year, another 13 500 employees will be working with SAP, largely through its employee self-service functions. To train and assess that many users in the shortest possible time, Eskom will provide SAP Tutor 2 on their desktop computers.

"The upgrade to SAP Tutor v2 complements Eskom's newly established e-learning strategy, in terms of which employees can upgrade their skills in their own time and at their own pace from their work stations," said Leonora Vincent, Eskom's SAP training manager. "It also meshes with Eskom's empowerment strategy, aimed at giving employees the competencies to manage their own careers through our new human capital management system."

According to Tebogo Makhwelo, the Finesse Solution Centre's technical training systems specialist, SAP Tutor v2 makes web-based training particularly easy in two areas. The first is that a user who is stuck at a particular point in a transaction can click straight through to an online adviser facility that picks up where he or she is in the transaction and walks them through it in real time. "It saves users time and eliminates the confusion caused by clicking out of what they're doing, going into SAP Tutor, trying to identify the help they need, leaving SAP Tutor again with some scribbled notes and picking up where they left off in their original task."

The second major benefit is the ability that SAP Tutor v2 gives training management to assess the progress users make with learning. By accessing training material via a knowledge warehouse, users take pre- and post-assessment tests at their desktop computers. Automated reports then tell the Finesse Solutions Centre exactly what happened during each assessment - such as the number of times a learner tried a test before passing it, how long he or she took on each attempt and what the learner's specific difficulties were.

"All of which helps us avoid teaching learners what they already know - saving us money and time and enabling us to target individual learning much more tightly," Makhwelo said.

Additional SAP Tutor v2 enhancements include more realistic simulation options. Learners can use real-time dates and data instead of having to work with data recorded at the time content was created. SAP Tutor v2 also offers faster development times and a considerable reduction in disk space.

"We participated in the Beta testing of SAP Tutor v2, making a number of recommendations to the developers," said Makhwelo. "So we are confident that it will deliver the results we want."

SAP Africa's education consultant for public services, Johann Pretorius, pointed out that "input from clients like Eskom, who share our long-term view of user education, is what makes SAP Tutor a superb strategic learning tool".