Welcome to IFS online training. The training material presented here is designed for a focused and flexible learning experience. You can easily select the subject areas that interest you and complete each lesson in less than one hour—whether in a classroom setting or on your own.
This chapter presents an overview of the elements and structure of a typical training course, addressing the following aspects in particular:
A course contains the training material for a complete main (business) process, such as procurement, quality management, or recruitment. Included in each course are the main elements shown below. Note: You can view a diagram of the corresponding main process by clicking the course folder icon in the Navigator.
Course Description: The course description is a good starting point to help you decide whether a given course meets your needs. It outlines the scope of the course and the main points of each lesson, as well as its intended target audience and prerequisites. The course description also indicates the time needed to complete each lesson and the course as a whole.
The courses are divided in three levels; Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Where the Basic course is intended to give the students an overview of the contents and functionality of the area. Intermediate will give the student a general knowledge of the area, while the Advance course goes more into more complex and less used functionality within the area.
Tips & Tricks: This page offers practical information for using the course material. Such as special needs for a specific function, tips on how to avoid getting stuck when running a functionality, etc.
Course Test: Course tests are a valuable feedback tool helping you and your instructor to assess whether you have understood the information presented in the course. Course tests are applicable on the Intermediate and Advanced courses. They should be printed out, filled in, and handed over to the teacher who corrects the test.
Chapters: Chapters make up the main portion of a course. Each chapter covers a major area of a given main (business) process and offers a comprehensive introduction to the respective functionality, such as creating purchase requisitions, devising control plans, or selecting and appointing candidates. A chapter is made up of one or several lessons.
Lessons: Lessons typically consist of a presentation (slideshow) and associated exercises, which together should take about 45 minutes to complete. There are four types of lessons:
Introductory Lessons: Some courses include introductory lessons. They present general concepts and background information you should know as you begin a course. Generally, introductory lessons do not have related exercises.
Key Lessons: Key lessons present basic or frequently used operations within the given functionality and, therefore, represent "must know" material for the chapter. For each chapter, there is one key lesson. Each key lesson consists of the following pages:
- Learning Objectives: Specifies what you will learn in the lesson.
- Benefits: Explains the overall benefits of using the functionality described by the lesson.
- Basic Data: Specifies which data is required to use the functionality covered in a lesson. Links take you to the appropriate Basic Data and Requirements (BDR) lesson(s) and exercise(s), where you can set up the data if you have not done so. To return to the Basic Data page, click Back in your browser window.
- Functional Description: Presents definitions, overviews and, above all, practical information concerning the subject functionality.
- Exercises: Lists all pertinent exercises and provides links to the corresponding exercise file. To return to the Exercises page, click Back in your browser window.
- Summary of Exercises: Summarizes what you did in the exercises and what you learned. For each exercise, there is at least one summary page.
Each lesson page may also present information in the notes below the page. This area is used for more detailed information about the functionality being discussed, explaining, for example, how to select from possible values or which data is exported to other parts of the application. The notes also provide full windows to the relevant window or tab window.
Each key lesson has related key exercises, which you can access using the links provided on the Exercises page of the presentation. The exercises serve as the hands-on lab for the subject functionality and are based on the IFS Racing database, as outlined in Database Information below.
Extended lessons: Extended lessons complement the key functionality for the chapter, presenting alternate, advanced, or add-on functionality. Extended lessons are optional. A course may have no extended lessons and related exercises, or it may have several extended lessons and related exercises
Extended lessons generally include the same pages as the key lessons. And like key lessons, extended lessons have a set of related exercises based on the IFS Racing database, as outlined in Database Information below.
Basic Data and Requirements Lessons: BDR lessons specify the data that you must set up in the IFS Racing database before you can complete the key and extended exercises of the chapter. The general data setup is performed in the BDR exercises, which you can access from the BDR presentation. If you need to adjust the basic data to meet the needs for a certain lesson, this will be stated in the beginning of the Exercise page for the Key and/or Extended exercises.
Note: Even though you can open the BDR lessons directly from the Navigator, it is recommended that you access them via the links provided in the key and extended lessons. In this way, you will get a better understanding of the rationale behind the data requirements. Once you have completed a chapter, you can always use the Navigator to return to the BDR lessons and reinforce what you have learned. Also refer to Course Sequence below.
One of the premises of IFS online training is to use material that accommodates both instructor-led training (ILT) in a classroom setting and independent self-study. This section provides information for both learning approaches, outlining how to teach or take a course most effectively.
Both approaches use the IFS Racing database, on which all exercises are based (also see Database Information). As a rule of thumb, do the data entry as part of the lessons and in the context of the specific functionality being discussed, not apart from them. This has the advantage that you learn not only where to enter data but also why.
All training exercises use data from the IFS Racing database. To some extent, the database contains already completed tables for basic data and requirements, as well as reference customers, suppliers, parts, product structures, and other useful records that support the lessons of all IFS online training courses. For most exercises, however, you will also need to add your own lesson-specific data into the database so you can complete the lessons.