SAP Enable Now Implementation – Introduction Workshop

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Software implementation is a serious business. This also applies to a learning platform like SAP Enable Now. Successfully implementing Enable Now requires the right people to be involved, strategic decisions to be taken and certain prerequisites to be met. My Enable Now implementation strategy consists of 7 steps, which I would like to explain in 7 blog posts. Written from a consultant’s perspective and based on my personal experience.

SAP Enable Now Implementation Approach

This first blog post focuses on the Introduction Workshop. For me this is more than a standard project kick-off where deadlines, procedures and administrative guidelines are explained. We dive straight into the content. The main goal of the Introduction Workshop is to provide everyone who is involved in the Enable Now project the same foundation and starting point. With a bit of imagination, you could compare it with preparing key users in an S/4HANA implementation for their role in the Fit-to-Standard workshops.

Starting point

I would like to avoid explaining what Enable Now is in every session or workshop again and again. It takes time and there's a fair chance that I will tell the story slightly different each time. Some people will to hear my explanation maybe even 3 or 4 times. That's neither efficient nor effective. It's better to explain what we are going to do, to the entire group at the beginning of the project. This includes planning, responsibilities and an overview of the workshops and training sessions that are coming. Everyone’s questions and confusions can be addressed immediately. This not only prevents miscommunication but (hopefully) also withholds people from making their own assumptions.

Is this a big gathering in the main lobby of your office? Indeed, that's quite a risk. Therefore, think carefully who is really needed for this project. Who will create content? Who will validate content? Who will publish content? Who is responsible for the technical aspects? Who will manage the project? Who will make decisions regarding functionality? These are the people we want to see later in the Scoping Workshop and the Author training. And therefore in the Introduction Workshop as well. Please think beyond the 'usual suspects'. Key users from your S/4HANA implementation are already running out of time, since they are testing, are involved in data migration, need to validate the new authorization concept and handle many other project tasks. Often, they even need to keep the daily operations running during the project. And then they also have to create learning content? Do we really want to put even more pressure on their full schedules? Aren’t there some super handy Gen Z colleagues in the organization who don't have a role in this S/4HANA project, but do have a strong affinity for creating learning content. Who are the hidden gems in your organization? I am pretty sure there are more than you can imagine.

Roles and responsibilities

A project brings tasks and responsibilities. This also applies to an Enable Now implementation. Even a cloud solution requires decisions to be taken and has customer specific configuration that needs to be done. It is important to explain who is doing what and maybe even more important who is not doing what. Better to provide clarity upfront than have an unpleasant discussion later. Is the Enable Now consultant the one who prepares the application? Or is this also the person expected to do project management? Do you prefer the consultant build the templates based on your input and then transfer the full package to the prospective application manager? Or do you want the consultant to first train your application manager who then works on the templates himself? The result may be identical, but the path is fundamentally different. These kinds of choices do make quite a difference.

I always explain that my focus is primarily on implementing Enable Now. Not on composing a content development plan, coming up with a naming convention or monitoring progress of content development. Of course I'm happy to discuss these things, I certainly have ideas about it and I can absolutely help you with it. But whose responsibility is it in the project? I can tell you, these are Master Author’s tasks. Let it be clear for everyone from the start. Next to the project roles, we need some other departments as well. Involvement of the marketing department when it comes to properly applying the corporate identity. Or from the IT department who needs to ensure that Single Sign On is set up and SAP Companion is integrated. It makes sense to clarify this at early stage in the project. At this point I usually also try to start the discussion that after implementation, someone will need to manage the Enable Now application. In most cases this hasn't been thought about at all and someone needs to be assigned last minute.

Examples

We can talk endlessly about how user-friendly and powerful a tool is and how impressive the end result will be. The decision makers no longer are in doubt at this point. Otherwise, they wouldn't have paid money for it. But not everyone was involved in the selection process. Not everyone attended the demonstration sessions. That's why I reserve quite a big part of the Introduction Workshop for a detailed product demonstration. To give everyone the same reference. The reference that is needed later in the Scoping Workshop to determine which content types or deployment channels we are going to implement. It stimulates thinking, provides material for discussion and ultimately leads to better decisions. It will probably also raise questions, but answering these is exactly what the Introduction Workshop is about.

In my opinion, showing examples still works best in a session like this. Not just examples from the Enable Now Info Center, but also my own Best Practices. Over the years, I have built up a nice collection of refences. Everyone can imagine an online quiz, but it really comes to life when I show an example quiz. Of course, I can tell how well machine translation works in Enable Now, but people get really enthusiastic when they experience it. Everyone understands perfectly that you can make a screen simulation of S/4HANA, Ariba or SuccessFactors. But not everyone may know that this also possible for a lot of non-SAP applications. Suddenly, people start seeing all kinds of possibilities to support applications that are in use in the company for years. Things that can considered and discussed further in the Scoping Workshop. I dare say that it results in better decisions after an extensive demonstration.

Conclusion

Make sure you involve everyone who plays a role in the Enable Now implementation right from the start. I once was tempted to skip the Introduction Workshop and instead of that start the Scoping Workshop with a short demo. Under the pressure of a holiday schedule and the argument that it was the same audience anyway. Looking back, I don't think that was a good move. My advice is therefore not to skip step 1 or incorporate it into another session, but to really let it be step 1 and not step 3a.

Next Time

Now that everyone is aboard, we're ready to rock. And we start with the technical aspects. Maybe not the hottest topic, but very important for a successful implementation.

Despite Enable Now being a cloud solution for most customers, technicalities still take (lead) time. In the next blog post, I will discuss the Technical Workshop.

Let’s Enable!

Transform an SAP project into a success that goes beyond time and budget. Make your SAP solution is truly adopted by your people. Enable Now is SAP's platform to accelerate the development of training materials and support effective training and support of employees. A foundation for creating and optimizing learning content. Not only for SAP, but for other applications as well. The knowledge and experience of Let's Enable guarantee utilization of the full potential of Enable Now.