As digital technologies reshape business processes, culture, and working environments, lifelong learning has become accepted as an economic imperative. Companies and business leaders hasten their pace to equip their employees with the best possible learning tools and resources to keep them engaged, skilled, and be at the top of the game.

When the implementation of Monitor ERP (previously called Monitor G5) takes place in a company, it presents both benefits and challenges for our customers and their employees. While you may harvest all the benefits Monitor has to offer in your manufacturing operations and maximize your return on investment, the underlying challenge companies face, has been –‘How’ to effectively train the team to utilize such a powerful software to its full potential?

Today, we are going to introduce you to Robert Djeerf, the brains of Monitor and the mastermind behind Monitor Academy – the online learning platform that is distinct from the competition. Robert joined Monitor ERP System headquarters in Sweden, in 1997 after university. He worked as a consultant for a few years, and later became a system specialist for G4 for several years. He was then the Product Owner and Project Leader of Monitor ERP when the project started about eight years ago. He led a team of developers to build prototypes for Monitor development, with the aim of creating a new generation of Monitor. Around a year ago, he assumed the Head of Monitor Academy.

Let’s dive deeper into how Robert brings his vast experience gained from extensive years of ERP development at the highest level, and expert insights from working with consultants and partners over the years, to the foundation of a virtual learning platform – Monitor Academy.

What inspired you to start the project (Monitor Academy)?
Monitor Academy set out to be an internal learning tool for our employees to learn about Monitor, the internal processes, support, development, and more. It was then designed as an external learning platform for our customers, to achieve a higher efficiency in learning the ERP software.
With the same amount of manual training hours from our consultants, the Academy creates more values that allow customers to reach the basics they need to know about Monitor further. This saves time and provides a fast track for our customers to shorten the software implementation time.

How long did it take to develop the project?
The selection of the technical platform commenced one year ago. It was one of the most critical decisions to make as there were about ten different learning management systems (LMSs) from Europe and US to choose from. And, we finally decided on Eloomi, a Danish LMS.

We started producing the basic courses’ videos in July, and the first course was published in August 2019. Our target is to create two to three courses a month.

We have over 100 courses in both English and Swedish, at the moment. The content production is an ongoing process as there is a long list of courses to produce for the future.

How is the customer response?
We released Monitor Academy to customers in Sweden six weeks ago, and to customers outside Sweden two weeks ago. They enjoy free access to basic courses upon Monitor ERP order placement until two weeks after they go-live. There is a total of 450 of our customers, who are already Academy users. We’ve surveyed and they really like it. They think this learning approach increases the efficiency of the project implementation. It is a self-paced learning, which requires self-discipline to complete the course within the Monitor implementation timeframe.

Which facet do you think has helped our potential and existing customers learn more effectively?
The Academy enables companies to place an internal administrative or manager, so a deadline for course completion can be set for their team. There are also automated reminders that give employees a nudge when the deadline is approaching. This helps to put some pressure on the users and bring them back to complete the course.

Both our consultants and the managers can track the employees’ learning progress easily. It is important to monitor each learning phase of employees throughout the course. The progress tracking tells our consultants when to make the next visit for onsite training. The best part is that a certificate will be awarded after you have completed a basic course to attest the new expertise attained.

The quality speaks for itself. When you invest in Monitor, it is equivalent to scoring a partner with more than 40 years of solid foundation in the manufacturing industry, and knowledge from more than 4,000 companies across the globe. 

Is there a larger vision for the platform in the future?
At the moment, we want the Academy to be a normal learning approach for customers to learn Monitor. We have gone far in the process to reach a higher volume of users and will keep on adding more content to the platform. We will continuously review and update the existing content such as videos, in accordance with Monitor’s latest development. We are also planning to include more people in the team to create and develop more courses, adding different voices (narratives) and professionals to optimize Monitor Academy.

Gamification is one of the features of the forethought. There are a few ways to make it work by adding elements such as leaderboards, badges, points collection, and progress bar. E-learning programs with gamification functionality have proven to be effective and fun. Not only can it boost the employees’ engagement, but it creates positive competition and improves learning outcomes.

What is your take on e-learning? How important it is to have an online learning tool such as Monitor Academy, in the future?
The How without a Why is quite pointless – my approach to learning is not only to know how to do things but to separate information from knowledge.

The approach of Monitor Academy is to put knowledge in context and let you understand the whys. When I demonstrate a function to users, I will provide them with background information and let them know why the function suits them; what does it give you; what is the purpose of it. Many e-learning courses show users how to do something, but they fail to address why users need to do it, the purpose, or what do they gain from it.

Online tools make remote learning possible. It can improve knowledge retention rates by helping you to train new hires without time and location setting constraints. E-learning is booming, and it will become an integral part of the future of learning different things.

Traditional learning approaches can prove to be challenging in teaching sophisticated software like Monitor. Training without digital aids such as high-quality videos, animations and simulation training, will quickly lose its steam. Having a thoughtful learning experience that supports both collaboration capabilities and learning motivation among employees is no longer a bonus, but an essential for any company.

Since we have unfolded the ‘How’ like Robert said in this article, we will piece together ‘The Story Behind Monitor Academy’ in our next blog post, to tell you ‘Why’ you should use Monitor Academy for ERP training and roll out the benefits you can reap.