Global Knowledge provides solutions to a variety of training needs, from the standard to the most complex custom solution. There have been many instances where Global Knowledge was the only solution for a customer who needed a large, complex training program implemented with both speed and quality. This section describes some of the stories behind the solutions that we've provided companies around the world.

Headquartered in California, an international, integrated oil company is one of the world's largest integrated energy companies, conducting business in more than 100 countries. The company is engaged in all aspects of the crude oil and natural gas industry, including exploration and production, manufacturing, marketing and transportation, chemicals manufacturing and sales, geothermal, and power generation.

Situation: Worldwide Roll-Out of Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 Training

The energy company had an enormous project on its hands. It needed to train over 80,000 end-users and 4,000 IT support personnel on Windows Vista and Office 2007. These professionals were located across more than 1,300 locations in over 100 countries. Complicating the matter further, the company did not have a corporate-level learning and development office. From a training standpoint, it was decentralized, with each office site or regional operating unit making its own training decisions. The company would need a very consultative approach with each unit to "sell" the training to each site or region. There would also need to be massive schedule coordination across the company, as the training at each site would need to be conducted within 1 - 2 days of end-users receiving their new hardware platform. This would allow the end-users to retain the most knowledge from the training and ensure they used the new technologies right away.

The company had tried to employ similar learning project rollouts in the past but had poor results. With this project, however, failure was not an option.

Solution: Customized, High Quality, Just-in-Time Training Solution

The energy company partnered with Global Knowledge to develop a training program focused on teaching the new Vista and Office software features to ease the students' platform transition. Global Knowledge used experienced and certified Microsoft instructors that were very familiar with the client's corporate culture. They even understood how different user groups used the Microsoft Office platform. According to the client, "The learning experience-not just the information-[would be] critical to success. Great learning experiences are created by quality, skilled instructors who do more than simply present information."

The training solution's theme was "Just in Time. Just Enough. Just for Me." Global Knowledge had to design a training strategy to minimize business operation disruption while customizing a configuration of training schedules for the sites. The Global Knowledge team consulted with each individual site to understand their unique needs, and then prepared the instructors accordingly with "Teach the Teacher" sessions, while implementing quality assurance and remediation programs. Training modalities included instructor-led Classroom and Virtual Classroom e-Learning, Self-Paced e-Learning, one-on-one mentoring sessions, and special VIP-level training. Global Knowledge tracked the efficacy of each instructor, modality, and site to provide the energy company with weekly input and recommendations as the program evolved.

Results: Employees Better Prepared To Use Their New Desktop Applications

The client was concerned with three main factors that would impact the overall training project ROI:

• Learner ROI-Training in the workplace required that the students' time was well spent. The training had to be useful, targeted, just enough, and delivered just-in-time. The goal was to minimize business disruption and maximize relevance.
• Quality Learning Experience-The learning experience, not just the information, was going to be critical to success. Great learning experiences need to be created by quality, skilled instructors who would do more than just recite information.
• Consistency and Flexibility-An enterprise-wide program would require a consistent approach to learning. But in a global organization, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. A standard approach built from modular components would allow the flexibility to address the needs of different types of users and different preferences of learning styles and modalities.
• Global Knowledge was able to deliver on all of these requirements and provide the company with improved training ROI.
• Ten days after the training, and then again 45 days after the training, students were surveyed on how they felt about the training they received:
• Users who went through the training program were more satisfied (70%) with the new desktop environment (Vista/Office 2007) than those that were not trained (55%).
• Users who had training were also more pleased with their experience in communications satisfaction: 87% vs. 67% of those not trained.
• Satisfaction in the support they received was higher 80% vs. 58% of those not trained.
• Most telling is that 94% of users trained stated that their training experience made them feel better prepared to immediately use their new desktop applications.