Supporting organizations going through change
Impact at a Glance
A structured, role-based training program built the skills and confidence Al-Pac's workforce needed for SAP S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, and ECP — one piece of a ten-year, business-led transformation journey to support continued growth and solidify its position as the largest single-line pulp producer in North America. A central part of that journey was a multi-phased ERP program launched in 2019 — SAP S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, and Employee Central Payroll (ECP) — spanning ten business domains. But this was ground Al-Pac had never covered before: the organization had no formal training function, no established change management practice, and a workforce whose decades of hands-on operational expertise didn't automatically translate into confidence with a new system. Success meant building both a change and training capability from scratch — fast enough to support go-live, and durable enough to carry the rest of the transformation forward.
“Seeing the change ambassadors being proactive and engaging their teams in this way — and how confidently our people have taken to the new end-user training — is encouraging and quite frankly impressive—something I’ve not seen at Al-Pac before.
Many thanks to the Harbinger Team for getting us this far, please continue the amazing work!”
Michelle Sulz, Project Manager, Al-Pac
Who is Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Ltd?
Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Ltd. (Al-Pac) is the largest single-line kraft pulp producer in North America — an industry leader known for product quality, mill operations, and responsible forest management. Al-Pac places strong emphasis on workforce development and long-standing partnerships with local communities, with many team members bringing decades of tenure and deep operational expertise.
What was the challenge?
At its inception, Al-Pac possessed leading technology systems, operational machinery, and processes. To support continued growth and solidify its position as the largest single-line pulp producer in North America, Al-Pac embarked on a ten-year, business-led transformation journey. A major milestone was a multi-phased ERP program beginning in 2019 — SAP S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, and Employee Central Payroll (ECP) — designed to enable sustainability by adopting industry-leading, proven business processes.
The program centred on three focus areas:
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Modern Integrated Platform — replacing an aging portfolio of core business systems, simplifying processes, reducing customization, and building robust integrations, including LIMS, LRM, QMS, Forte, and Rader interfaces
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Improving the Speed of Business — automating manual processes, providing access to quality information for sound decision-making, and equipping teams to manage cost-intensive initiatives such as mill shutdowns
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Sustainability and Growth — responding quickly to new business requirements, adopting industry best practices, and uncovering new opportunities to innovate
The functional scope was substantial, touching ten business domains: finance and accounting, project accounting, purchasing, inventory management, enterprise asset management, production planning, quality management, sales and distribution, transportation management, and human resources and payroll.
Although Al-Pac had experienced change before, the scope and magnitude of this implementation were unprecedented — and from a learning and change perspective, the organization had no formal training function, limited learning infrastructure, and resource constraints across functional areas. Al-Pac engaged Harbinger to lead the Change Management (CM) and Learning program for the ERP implementation, with a mandate to empower formal and informal change leaders and support a long-tenured, change-experienced, and diverse workforce through the digital transformation.
What did we do?
Harbinger led both the training and Change Management workstreams for the program. Training was the primary lever for building day-one readiness across Al-Pac's workforce, backed by a Change Champion Community that reinforced adoption on the ground.
Training Strategy
Harbinger developed a comprehensive training strategy defining scope, objectives, governance, and execution across the ERP program — a foundational artifact for planning, delivery, quality control, and evaluation. The strategy was built to support the SAP S/4HANA implementation and broader business transformation while establishing training capabilities that would endure well beyond go-live.
A strong “What's in it for me” (WIIFM) lens guided the design, emphasizing role-based learning, just-in-time enablement, and hands-on practice to build user confidence and drive adoption. A blended learning approach — combining digital, instructor-led, and experiential methods — addressed the diverse learning needs of a workforce with decades of operational tenure and enabled effective learning at scale.
Training Material
All training materials followed a consistent project style guide and delivery templates, creating a structured, reliable learning experience throughout the project. In total, Harbinger developed:
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50+ course books
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450 work instructions
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150 Quick Reference Guides (QRGs)
All materials were hosted in Al-Pac's Learning Center, giving learners easy access to both formal training and ongoing operational support.
Training Environment
A dedicated training environment supported more than 400 learners, enabling realistic, hands-on practice during virtual classroom sessions and building user confidence ahead of go-live. Significant effort went into creating relevant, familiar training data while protecting sensitive and confidential information through appropriate data governance controls.
Training Delivery
A blended delivery approach supported diverse learner needs and enabled training at scale. eLearning was built in SAP Enable Now — SAP's own authoring platform — for audiences of 20 or more users, letting learners safely practice procedures without relying on the live system. Side-by-side training, delivered by Al-Pac Functional Leads and subject-matter experts in small groups, focused on hands-on execution of tasks in the training environment, while pre-recorded video tutorials communicated concepts and process overviews at scale.
Harbinger Instructional Designers delivered approximately 90 Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) sessions over a three-month period. To mitigate the challenges of remote delivery, learners participated from dedicated on-site training rooms, with Functional Leads providing in-person facilitation and classroom support. Sessions combined contextual framing, live system demonstrations, guided practice, and supporting work instructions for sustained on-the-job reference.
Training Evaluation
Training effectiveness was continuously monitored through post-course surveys covering content quality, delivery, logistics, and learner confidence. Using Power BI, Harbinger delivered real-time training dashboards to the project team and business leaders, providing visibility into training completion and attendance, summarized learner feedback, and drill-down views by course, business area, and business unit.
Supporting Change Management
Training was reinforced by a dedicated Change Management workstream. Harbinger launched with virtual stakeholder interviews across more than 40 employees, then built a tiered Change Champion Community — a Change Sponsor, Change Leaders, and more than 30 Change Ambassadors — to localize the change vision and support teams directly. Bi-annual Change Readiness Surveys tracked sentiment and fed into go/no-go decision-making, while a tailored strategy addressed the highest-impact groups: Plant Maintenance and HR.
What was the outcome?
A Lasting Capability for Al-Pac's Next Decade of Transformation
Most importantly, Al-Pac was left with a repeatable, sustainable training and change capability that continues to support system adoption and future transformation initiatives — turning a one-time ERP rollout into a durable organizational asset.
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100% training completion achieved shortly after go-live
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Consistent attendance above 95% throughout the program
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Ongoing Hypercare support, including reinforcement training, end-user assistance, and additional QRG development for high-impact areas
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90% of employees agreed the changes resulting from the implementation were manageable, per the final Change Readiness survey
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85% agreed they would be able to perform their jobs as of go-live
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30+ Change Ambassadors identified and activated as informal change leaders, later transitioning to Key Users for hypercare — resolving almost 50% of incidents before they reached the Help Desk over eight weeks
For an organization with no prior formal training function, Al-Pac now has an enterprise training model, a governed content library, and a change-ready workforce — with a Change Champion Community continuing to reinforce adoption well past go-live.