Budgens has contracted change management specialist First Friday to develop a training programme and internal communication strategy in preparation for its latest Epos project.

Budgens has withheld details of the project, but its understood to be a significant systems replacement.

Of the retailers 6,000 staff, those affected will be cashiers through to store management teams and trading and finance departments.

Budgens IT director Mark Treverrow said “IT projects are only partly about the software and hardware. IT departments need to look at educating people on how new solutions will help them do their jobs more effectively.”

Penelope Ody explains how to increase operatational efficiency and retention by optimising the staff available - First Friday's Training Director, Tony Wright, comments in the feature "Training shouldn't just be purely operational, it needs to be put into the wider business context so that employees can really believe in the changes IT enables". Tony Wright suggests that typically, training in new IT applications slips within 18 to 24 months, in part due to staff churn, so that the promised benefits of specific IT packages start to diminish as they are no longer being optimised. This degraded performance often leads to further IT investment in the mistaken belief that the original package is nolonger delivering benefits. By providing a training boost at this stage, the need for that investment can often be avoided
Reproduced with kind permission of Retail Systems magazine

Article describes how First Friday's Chip and PIN training communication programme includes training on new processes and the use of new equipment and technology and details new procedures. Also how it focuses on customer contact skills and how to integrate the new process into the normal service process, how to explain the changes to members of staff and how to pass this information on to the customer
Reproduced with kind permission of Retail Systems magazine

Training Magazine and Personneltoday.com
Jan 04
Overflowing with success -
River Island's project manager Steve Cassidy explains why training is the key component to success in any systems project

River Island is entering the final stages of replacing its Point of Sale (PoS) system in 200 stores with 1,000 PoS terminals across the UK and Ireland, which involves training more than 2,500 staff - Tried & Tested, top marks for Ease of Use, Value for Money, Impact, Memorability

River Island has brought in a training consultancy to map out its requirements

The article describes how Thresher Group, the UK’s largest independent specialist drinks retailer, has invested First Friday to train staff across its 2200 stores to use a new retail IT system.

This news item outlines the bespoke training programme created by First Friday for Thresher group to support the implementation of a new merchandising system. This includes staff briefings across their 2,200 branches
Reproduced with kind permission of Retail Systems magazine