Fluor Corporation has been using SAP software for a decade now. The company, founded in 1912 as a construction firm that now delivers engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, and project management to governments and clients worldwide, is well past the go-live “excitement” stage and now into the maturity model of, as Julie Stokes describes it: How do we keep things alive and make everybody smarter?

Enter SAP super users—a program that had languished over the years at Fluor but that Stokes, training strategist at Fluor, recently worked to revive and re-launch four months ago.

Approximately 60 percent of SAP shops claim to have an SAP super user program in place — a network of expert end users who other employees can go to with questions and problems related to their SAP system. But often these programs fade away or never really work due to a few simple reasons, according to Michael Doane, a long-time SAP consultant who now runs Doane Associates. Either super users retire, quit or simply can’t hold the role anymore, and no one replaces them. Or the pleas of managers who never really buy in to the system and often tell those employees to get back to their “real jobs,” finally take their toll.

“The programs fail because of neglect and lack of continuity,” says Michael Doane, who helped Fluor with its project. Doane’s firm focuses on helping companies develop SAP Centers of Excellence, of which a super user program is one component.

What makes an SAP super user program last?

1. Make Being a Super User “Legal”

Oftentimes in organizations there are de facto super users—people everyone goes to but who toil away without the formal title. This can put the super users in a difficult spot when it comes to balancing the difficulties of their “regular” job with helping out colleagues.

Fluor decided to “license” its super users.

First, Stokes identified them. She sent a survey to all employees encouraging them to nominate their picks.  She received more than 200 nominations, of which 180 became official power users, as Fluor calls them.

Those employees then signed a form (co-signed by their direct supervisor) that authorized them to be power users. It defined the scope of their roles and responsibilities, as well as what percentage of their time can be devoted to related activities. Fluor’s power users devote 10 percent to 20 percent of their time, depending on the geography and how many people are in that office.

These aren’t legal documents, but they hold sway. “Everyone takes it seriously,” Doane says.

Users find the power users by searching the company intranet where the “Power User” organization structure and contact names are posted, along with a link to any recent SAP-related communication.

And for users whose problems lead to them pacing around the office, each power user has a giant foam finger they keep above their desks, proudly announcing: “I can help you! I’m a Fluor Power User.”

2. Keep It Local

Super users are not super heroes, and they can’t be everywhere at once. Fluor has 60 global office locations, and aims to have as many local power users as possible. If there is someone new—say, someone transferring into the department—it is extremely valuable to have people locally to get the new people up to speed, Stokes says. In turn, locals have the best knowledge of how that system may be unique in that particular geography, since the system is changing all the time.

It also helps to break super users out by business process—such as finance, human resources, project sales and procurement.

3. Incentivize—Even if It’s Soft Benefits

Shocking as it may seem, there isn’t a big budget for super user programs out there. In Stokes’ case, it was zero.

But, encouraged by the examples of what a fellow ASUG member had done at her company, Stokes made sure her power users were offered “soft” benefits. Today, those power users participate in exclusive quarterly teleconferences with subject-matter experts, and are invited to suggest business process improvements and help with the testing. They receive letters from senior management and small gifts—things to bring awareness to their extra contribution, like the foam fingers.

4. Line Up Replacements

If there is no mechanism to replace someone who quits or transfers, then the super user program will fail through attrition alone, Doane points out. To combat that, every one of Stokes’ power users has nominated two replacements.

5. Track the Results—Before and After

Before she kicked off the program, Stokes collected statistics from Fluor’s help desk: how many times people were calling in, where they were located and what sorts of questions they are asking. She also sent out a survey to end users asking them to assess their own level of competency.

Stokes then went to one of the senior managers who oversees all of finance to get buy in for the program. She explained what she wanted to do and showed him some of the metrics.

“He really didn’t have an argument,” she recalls.

The end user survey will be reissued at the end of the year, and the help desk numbers re-evaluated to see if and how they change. One of Fluor’s best practices is that end users aren’t allowed to call the help desk directly but must first seek a power user. (Power users can call the help desk if they deem it necessary.)

“What we want to do is keep driving [people] to their co-workers,” Doane says, pointing to statistics that claim that in using this method, approximately 75 percent of help desk calls disappear.

There are other benefits: Seeing all the trends of what kinds of problems people are having and where they’re coming from—and whether the questions are actually decreasing—will help to identify what challenges people keep having and how to fix them.

“You definitely want to make sure you measure,” Stokes says. “You need to have a way to prove this whole effort was worthwhile.”

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2 Comments for How to Build an SAP Super User Program That Will Last

Rao S

Courtney – Excellent article!

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Aileen

Great article!

Courtney, how can I get in touch with Julie Stokes? I am interested to be a SAP Super User at Fluor. Kindly reply to my email. Thanks much.

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