allfields won a competitive tender to deliver end user training across the entire Ministry of Economic Development. Close to a thousand staff needed to be organised into training sessions, and then trained while their desktops were being upgraded. Allfields worked closely with the internal project team and vendor [Fujitsu] in helping make this a smooth transition.
The Ministry of Economic Development is delighted to provide a reference for Allfields Customised Solutions Ltd in respect of the contribution Allfields made to our implementation of Windows 7 and MS Office 2010 with security (Win 7 project).
MED commenced its Win 7 project in September 2010 and completed 11 months later on budget, but six weeks behind schedule on account of two devastating earthquakes in Christchurch. MED issued an RFQ for the tasks of developing, scheduling and delivering User training. Allfields was the successful tenderer.
From the outset Allfields brought their experience to the project board assisting us to make decisions which, in hind sight, we recognise as critical to the project’s success. Project delivery was disrupted and Allfields worked with MED to revise the schedule where necessary and keep on track. Allfields displayed a high degree of competence and professionalism in the delivery phase. They had staff in our key locations and travelled without fuss to our satellite offices. User feedback informally and in the project survey exceeded expectations.
MED has retained Allfields services for our ongoing staff induction program and would willingly use them again for future projects.
Andrew Wagg - Manager, Strategy and Innovation – Ministry of Economic Development
the approach
Allfields had been consulted from very early on in the planning stages of this project. MED wanted to get this right from a Change and a User Perceptive. The last similar rollout had taken 3-4 years to complete. MED had a window of 4 months for this project, it needed to be done well!
Project Board – Shiree Hart was invited to sit on the MED BDP3 Project Board which was made up of Key MED staff and Key suppliers. This ensured there was full consensus of managers, key staff and the Vendors were all aware of the process going forwards
Scheduling – It was a massive effort to obtain names, locations and machine details of all staff to be trained. Not only did we need to schedule staff for training, but also obtain their machine details and software requirements so their desktops could be completely upgraded (sometimes changed) while they were in the training
Training delivery – Allfields delivered courses on site at MED to approx 900 of the 1100 staff. There was a set schedule, starting with Desktop champions, early adopters, remaining staff, then mop up sessions for those who missed a class. Allfields had Jo, Eddie, and Kate training on site in Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton, Christchurch and Napier when it was their turn to be upgraded.
Floor Walking – One of the keys to the success was allfields doubled up resources to provide Floor Walking support. Staff were followed back to their desks, and immediately someone was available to help them if they had any initial urgent questions. This lessened the load significantly on the Service desk and put peoples mind at rest in their first few days of use.
the result
This was a fantastic project to be involved with. To 99% of the MED staff, they saw an effortless and easy transition to Windows 7/ Office 10. Behind the scenes though a lot of people were working overtime, and very hard to ensure that each and every single staff members experience was positive and as pain free as possible. This was a great team effort.
