In 2020, Brown & Root got approval to upgrade to JD Edwards 9.2, and the team wanted to emphasize training as a way to make the upgrade as smooth as possible. With the extensive changes to the user interface, numerous additional features, and increased functionality, Brown & Root looked to enhance its knowledge of version 9.2 and find training options that made the best use of users’ time and energy.

About Brown & Root

Brown & Root offers a full range of industrial services including engineering, construction, maintenance, on-call construction, turnaround services, and specialty services. The company was established in 1919 and became a separate private company in 2015 after a series of mergers and acquisitions. The global headquarters is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Brown & Root has 8,000+ employees, of which roughly 350 are JD Edwards users. Employees are located in regional offices across North America, Mexico, and Puerto Rico and have an on-site presence at more than 150 client facilities.

In 2015, Brown & Root was found without an ERP due to business spin offs. From 2016 to 2020, the company worked to consolidate several groups with five different ERP systems to version 8.0. It wasn’t until 2020 that an upgrade to 9.2 was approved with a targeted go-live of December 2021. The main goals of the upgrade plan were:

• A technical upgrade with limited enhancements
• Eliminate customizations where possible
• Identify future enhancements and functionality for post-upgrade projects

Brown & Root used Velocity as their implementation partner for the 9.2 upgrade.

The People Side of Upgrading

Brown & Root made the decision to train existing JD Edwards users on what would be different with 9.2. These users know the business inside and out, and the team felt that it would be better to train the subject matter experts directly. To help with training, Brown & Root partners with iLearnERP. Trainings focused primarily on:

• New user interface
• New functionality in 9.2
• New reporting tools
• New process flows

The 9.2 instance was not yet up and running, so Brown & Root was able to use iLearnERP’s sandbox environment to test new features, identify security issues, and gain hands-on knowledge of the platform and its newer features. The Brown & Root team divided content by team and role so that users were only focusing on the classes that were needed for their role in order to make the most of everyone’s time. As users took classes, they logged notes in iLearnERP’s EOne Academy (EOA) for easy retrieval. Users also had access to quick reference cards, implementation guides, and iLearnERP’s “Learn it Live” sessions. The Brown & Root team also took advantage of sessions provided at several Quest events like INFOCUS and JD Edwards Week to help improve their knowledge base.

To learn more about Brown & Root’s approach to training, check out the full INFOCUS Envision presentation below.