2/27/2105 (T-10) First Day of Training

2/27/2105 (T-10) First Day of Training

The day started off as kind of a mess. Something happened with the VPN setup that caused our internal IP addresses to get mixed up. Any computers that shut down yesterday, have an IP address that isn't on our network. The two new computers I set up for training, our RF Scanners and a couple other computers cannot connect to the network.

We were scheduled to start admin training first thing this morning but getting the network fixed was a higher priority. Our controller took my slot to start GL Integration setup instead.

We moved to the bigger conference room this morning. There was a 20 minute conversation about coffee. Evidently, nobody in the building with the bigger conference room drinks coffee. Several people in our meeting wanted coffee. Why not waste valuable time talking about getting coffee today, and how we would get coffee on Monday.

Our engineering department's training was scheduled for today. The entire department came down to learn how to setup new stock codes and structure Bills of Materials in the new system. The custom program to import BOMs into the system is nearly done. There are a few tweaks to the import program are required after reviewing how it works.

The actual training was a little awkward. We kept getting interrupted trying to get a GoToMeeting setup with remote facility #1. The phone connection would drop, and we would have to stop what we were doing to fix the connection. We spent 2 1/2 hours watching the lead consultant go through the screens and demonstrate about half of what is currently used in our current system. Everyone was released to go work on the two training computers plus the plant manager's laptop.

After about 20 minutes, we realized that nobody knew navigation in the system at all. Simple things like finding and saving records weren't even covered during the training. I addressed this with the lead consultant and he was apologetic. He thought the system was more intuitive than it was to anyone that hadn't used it yet.

After lunch, purchasing came in for their training. The consultant took my advice and broke for hands on training after every small session of training. He was sure to cover navigation with the buyers. We went over simple items like setting up vendors and manual purchase order entry. It seemed to go pretty well for the time allotted. Let's hope they don't forget what they learned by go live date.

After purchasing was done with their training, the lead consultant and I had a breif discussion about file conversions. He wanted to make sure that he had all of the required files. There were a few of them left off the list, and he had questions about the files that were already sent to him. We reviewed a few of the files together to define fields in question.

The fax, email and barcode software were received. There was discussion about how to set it up. Since it is being hosted on HQ's servers, should they be supplying an outgoing fax number and line? Which outgoing email server should be used? How are we to map the zebra printers across the VPN to print correctly? Those are items we will work on next week.