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Introduction
Why Did They Choose an e-Learning Solution?
A critical success factor for most organizations today is the successful, speedy launch of new products and services. When launching new products and services, time-to-market driven by increasingly compressed product life cycles is critical to profitability. In many cases, the information about the new product or service is sought not only by employees, but also by extended partners, such as customers, vendors, and suppliers. From the employees, to the sales and distribution channels, and on through to the consumer, many diverse audiences must be reached and educated to successfully launch a new product, approach, or service. However, rapid distribution of this knowledge through classroom training is impractical for a globally dispersed workforce, just as providing written brochures and manuals is inadequate to meet the needs of the extended partners outside the organization.Using e-learning to address this need offers many benefits, such as:
Rapid access for a geographically dispersed audience to the requisite knowledge
Accurate positioning of the product or service
Consistent quality in the level of service
Dissemination of essential messages for successfully launching the product or service in the marketplace
This chapter presents three case examples of companies who developed e-learning programs to support the launch of new products and services. They include: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a global professional services firm; STMicroelectronics, a global high-tech manufacturer; and a governmental agency, The United States Department of Defense, Defense Acquisition University(DAU).All three organizations chose an e-learning approach to rapidly reach a broad audience with a consistent message and learning content. Also important to all three organizations was the need to maximize the capabilities and knowledge of subject matter experts to ensure a consistent message.
Rapid Deployment of Learning to a Broad, Geographically Dispersed Audience
As large global enterprises, the learners of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and STMicroelectronics are found in various locations worldwide. Likewise, although U.S. based, DAU learners are comprised of an extended audience of 9,000, including many outside their direct workforce of 500 employees. Although the content in these e-learning initiatives delivered varied significantly from methodology to technology to a certification program, all three organizations found that an e-learning approach afforded a cost-effective method for rapid delivery of the required learning to a broad audience in multiple locations. The speed of learning completion is represented in the experience of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu where they found that in addition to reaching their global audience, they effectively reduced the amount of time required to accomplish the goals of the training from 56 hours to 34. Similarly, DAU found that they were able to recapture over 300 work years annually through the efficiencies realized in applying an e-learning solution to the regulated certification requirements.
Essential Messages Delivered in an Effective Manner
Consistent content and messages were essential to the e-learning initiatives at all three case organizations in this chapter, whether they were launching a new product, service, or technology. One limitation of classroom learning, that they each recognized, is that the subject matter expert is only available to those who are able to attend in that moment, at that place. e-Learning enables the subject matter expert to convey clear, reliable content and knowledge over time and diverse geographies to multiple learners, in either live or self-paced e-learning formats. At STMicroelectronics, self-paced e-learning components provided the foundation for under- standing the technology, while expert online coaching sessions provided an opportunity to connect the learner with the right product subject matter expert for detailed questions about their extensive technical product line. At DAU, a decrease in the number of subject matter experts available, due to budgetary constraints and the retirement of the baby-boomer generation, limited their capacity in terms of the learners they were able to accommodate each year. By employing self-paced e-learning, enhanced by individual coaching from the subject matter expert faculty, DAU found that they were able to support more learners with the same number of faculty members, with no adverse impact on the learner experience.The case organizations in this chapter each have many gold nuggets of experience to share that amplify the usefulness of e-learning solutions when launching new products and services.
