An interview with Arno Hogervorst

There is something new going on at Mprise Agriware: the Agriware Competence Center. In this virtual center, Agriware knowledge will be managed and transferred through video courses. Who are these courses for, what is the goal, what is it about and when can we expect more news about this? We talked about this with Arno Hogervorst, responsible for the Competence Center at Mprise Agriware.

Arno, what is the Agriware Competence Center?Hogervorst_Arno_1


"The Agriware Competence Center is a new activity within our company that will manage the knowledge around Agriware and the horticultural business processes centrally through an online learning platform; a "central knowledge hub" around Agriware 365. We believe that our knowledge should be available to the entire Agriware community and for different proficiency levels. We thus provide knowledge to our own organization as well as to external organizations such as customers and partners. The products we provide are learning

 solutions that are offered in an online learning platform with short videos."

What is the purpose of the learning solutions?
"Learning solutions are very practical training courses that you can purchase, in which you are taken through the Agriware 365 program step by step or, for example, can follow specific training courses for a certain functionality or business type. There is also a collaboration with the existing Mprise Academy, so that in the future there will be one place for customers where all training is offered centrally. A difference with the current 'classroom' trainings is that the Agriware learning solutions are exclusively online. That means you can follow them at any time or anywhere in the world. It is our goal to enable our customers, partners and employees around the world to develop continuous knowledge and competencies around Agriware."

Who are these learning solutions for?
"We focus on a number of selected segments that we embrace as a company within the horticultural world. The focus here is on both knowledge of business processes and knowledge of specific functionalities in our software. For example, explanation of a concept, examples of a process or an instruction on how to set up the system. All the training material we now produce is based on Dynamics Business Central 17 and higher. Because many of the concepts in this version correspond to earlier versions of Agriware, we expect that customers who are still on older versions will also be able to use the learning solutions. Of course, it won't look exactly like they're used to because you're looking at a BC17 screen."

Do the learning solutions make it easier to migrate to Dynamics Business Central 17?
"There are already a number of customers who have indicated that this is a great opportunity to take a look at the latest version. For some existing customers it will be useful to take advantage of this, others will benefit more from working in the old way (training with a consultant). The latter can of course still be done or a combination of these. But we are indeed focusing on the fact that the learning solutions will ensure that the threshold that is sometimes experienced to switch to a newer version is lowered."

What are the learning solutions about in terms of content?
"The learning solutions are about all three products of Agriware 365: Business Central, Operations and Analytics. So both the ERP system and the mobile apps as well as analyzing and managing data. The intention is also that the learning solutions will eventually become part of our project approach. So new customers, or existing customers who are upgrading to a new version, will be able to use them. One of our goals is that fewer consultancy hours will be needed to train users and that work can be done more efficiently on the project. Another advantage is that the knowledge about standard Agriware is documented and secured in this way."

By whom are the videos made?
"At the moment I still make many of the videos myself in our recording studio in Veenendaal. Because we have just started, it was also a bit of pioneering to find the best form and method to transfer the knowledge properly with video courses. Later this year other colleagues will also start recording videos. The learning solutions will also require continuous maintenance because new versions will include changes in topics, making it a continually renewing service. Because of the size of the Agriware product and the various market segments in which we are active, we have to make choices in the development of the learning solutions. We are therefore taking a step-by-step approach, by sector, feature and competency level. We will soon be providing more information on this. Later on, the trainings will also be offered at the Mprise Academy in addition to their existing trainings."

Did the idea for the Competence Center come from Agriware or from the customers?
"Both. Customers have previously indicated a need for this. This often stems from the cost perspective but also from the new generation on the job market who are used to other ways of learning. Training users is crucial to the success of a project, but consultancy days are quite expensive. So, if we address the training component more efficiently, it can save costs and time to get users to the right level. Consider the situation where key users are trained at a much earlier stage on a project with the learning solutions. As a result, they start a project with a higher basic knowledge of Agriware before a consultant gets started. This allows the consultant to focus more on the real challenges of a project such as exceptions and more specific business situations. We therefore do not see the learning solutions as replacing a consultant but as complementing it; we are a people business after all."

Why are the training courses done through video?
"More and more knowledge transfer is now taking place via video. We have to keep up with this trend; it is old fashioned to go through thick documents with text and to maintain them. The younger generation in particular does this less and less. So, with an eye on the future, we are working towards a sustainable solution when it comes to training. Internally, this also has an advantage: we can train partners and employees worldwide in their own time zone. In this way, new employees can be trained more quickly and existing employees can develop themselves more efficiently into specialists. Both consultants and technicians can acquire knowledge quickly. This improves our capacity for specialists."

How and when will our customers have access to the Agriware Competence Center?
"The learning solutions can be purchased separately through our commercial team, in addition to the standard Agriware 365 package. At the moment, this still involves a limited number of market segments, but this will soon be expanded. It is financially very interesting for our customers, because it is much more affordable than consultancy hours. Also, the customer can train new employees on their side faster with standard video training on Agriware. In the future, we will expand this service by developing customized training programs for certain companies. So, we are still building out the training programs this year and will be launching a number of learning solutions during this year. We will keep our customers informed of when the learning solutions become available. So keep an eye on the Agriware news!"

 

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