Firesec Compliance and Vulcan Fire Mini Case Study
Overview
I was involved in supporting both Firesec and Vulcan following their Simpro go live.
Training new team members
The business went through people changes as a part of it’s evolution and new people needed training on Simpro. It’s always interesting training people who are new to both the business and the software, they often bring questions relating to both operation procedures and the software itself. In our operation at EA-RS Group we in the Digital Solutions team held knowledge on both so we could train people without the need for experienced operations staff being present. But under normal circumstances I would always advise that software training and procedure training are carried out hand in hand, ideally by one person, but if one person does not have the ability then both parties should be present and contributing to the training.
New people new ideas
New people also bought challenges to the table in how we we’re managing processes in the software. They had their way of doing things in their previous company, and would usually ask to emulate the naming conventions, screens and workflow that they had been used to. Interestingly there were not any gaps in functionality identified from the suggestions it was more a case of user preference. It’s important that when changes are requested we really understand why and what that change will bring positive and negative. Then we can make a well-informed judgement call on it, we didn’t implement any of the suggestions and whilst this may sound strange we have other businesses using the software in the same way without complaint and at a further stage of implementation which provided evidence of a solid platform and setup.
Specific Contracts
The business has specific contracts that it manages for high profile clients. These contracts required specific setup separately to other customers work in the system as they are held by dedicated teams that operate in a unique way to the main operational team. It was my role to carry out the data and setup work for these contracts and then roll out training to the teams in control of those contracts.
Simpro Multi-Company
The two businesses use separate Simpro companies (as they are separate legal entities) but operate in one Simpro build meaning that users can access both companies with ease, this comes with it’s own challenges as sometimes there is need to transact with each other. Ultimately though it was important that the transactions remain truly separated between the two business buying and selling goods and services between each other. This presented challenges during training as often people would try to simplify the process by suggesting bypassing steps, but all steps are vital to ensure compliance, this is where it’s important that the trainer sticks to the plan and escalate any extreme resistance or deviations to management.
Alignment
I started an exercise working with the operational team at group level to align the two companies from a system setup and workflow perspective. This would ensure consistency not only for those working in the businesses but also for customers, suppliers and other stakeholders interacting with the business. I meticulously went through every element of system setup in both Simpro companies and documented:
- Differences
- Similarities (for example setup elements with same names different rates).
- Additional Elements (setup items present in one but not the other).
I then presented findings to the operational team and we discussed the impact of all required changes over multiple in person and online which I then adjusted as required. Before changing anything in system setup it is always important to consider all the impacts.