Frustrated with dwindling platform support and spiraling features and technology constraints, the top technology provider swapped their aging learning system with a next-gen ExpertusONE Cloud LMS for superior reach and performance.
Company Overview
A global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, and the world’s largest provider of environmental technologies.
Its Building Technologies Division (BTD), specifically, is the global market leader for safe and energy-efficient “green” buildings and infrastructure − with best-in-class offerings for building automation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), fire protection and security.
Challenge
The company was already frustrated with its limited, 16-year-old learning management system. So when the platform’s current provider announced they would no longer support the aging LMS, they knew it was finally time to update their legacy system.
“One Chicago-based company unit originally purchased the legacy LMS to serve their small, internal group… which initially worked fine,” the Manager of Education Services explained. “However, as the years passed and the learning audience grew to now cover our entire US-based Building Technologies Division’s employees, distributors, and customers, the system simply couldn’t scale to meet our expanded needs.”
Specific challenges and limitations of their aging LMS included:
- No Scalability/eCommerce − Unable to serve multiple learning audiences, including new external learners like distributors and customers.
- Poor Usability − Hard for users to find training (no dynamic learning paths and difficult to navigate UI); also challenging for admins to create roles and managers to assign training correctly.
- Minimal Online Learning − Majority of training done in person; no centralized, simple-to-use system for extending web-based training to 1000s of remote customers and operators.
- Limited Reporting & Analytics − No standardized way to generate reports; unable to automatically track and evaluate learner and manager performance.
- Poor Functionality & Reliability− Outdated, hard to update, and integrate architecture with frequent system breakdowns.
The Failing State of the Legacy LMS
“More than 70% of large companies have an LMS, and almost 30% are considering replacing or upgrading them.”
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES REPORT
“91% of ASTD members use an LMS; still, 22% are ‘unsatisfied’ or “very unsatisfied” with their LMS’ functionality.”
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT STUDY
“One-third of learning professionals believe the LMS can impede learning.”
E-LEARNING GUILD SURVEY
Vendor Selection
Originally, this world-class technology provider was looking to add a learning portal on top of their existing LMS. And they chose to partner with PeopleONE because they were one of the few vendors with the necessary experience and talent to handle a complete LMS – portal integration.
“Over the past 16 years, we were forced to heavily customize our LMS software, dramatically modify its data tables, and change its underlying database. So we needed to partner with someone we could fully trust to accurately and seamlessly transfer all of our complicated dataset,” the Training Coordinator said.
However, after extensively reviewing the company’s learning system architecture and desire for a more usable, scalable platform, PeopleONE recommended doing an LMS replacement versus a portal overlay.
“It was, quite simply, a better long-term path for their success,” PeopleONE’s Director explained.
“ExpertusONE has an industry-best library of 100+ REST APIs that make integrations with legacy platforms, eCommerce, and SAP systems painless.
“It also provides an incredibly reliable, scalable and user-friendly design… which eliminates the hassle of continuing to update and fix their outdated platform, while lowering their total cost-of-ownership and yielding a high ROI.”
Award-winning Customer Service
Another reason the company chose PeopleONE was for its award-winning customer service.
“PeopleONE was established enough to do an excellent job, but not so large that they’d sacrifice personalized service and attention,” the Manager of Education Services said.
“We also wanted to be at the table when decisions are made about ExpertusONE’s growth. And we didn’t believe we could have gotten that had we gone with someone like Saba or SumTotal.”
Solution
“The company needed to overcome both the feature limits and technical constraints of their legacy system and build a true multiple audience learning platform,” PeopleONE’s Sr. Director of Client Services, said. “Not only was ExpertusONE able to deliver all of the features they desired and serve several internal and external audiences… but it also provided the exceptional user experience and platform performance they were hoping for.”
Three Learning Groups. ONE Platform.
The global powerhouse has three core learning groups: employees, distributors, and customers. And thanks to ExpertusONE’s renowned extended enterprise functionality, they are now able to serve all learners from one platform, which was rebranded as “ES Online”.
- 8,000 Employees – Provide a mix of onsite and web-based training (WBT) to support all BTD products, including: installation, operation, and maintenance info; sales techniques; and marketing programs.
- 400 Distributors (Dealers) – Offer classroom and WBT to their distributors, who in turn train their employees (nearly 1,000 per year) how to design and install Business Technologies products.
- 2,500 Annual Customers (Users) – Previously trained 2,500 product end users each year via live, hands-on instruction. Now with ExpertusONE’s robust extended enterprise and eCommerce functionality, the company plans to (eventually) reach all 50,000 customers through classroom and eLearning venues.
Superior Usability & Performance
In addition to now serving both internal and external learning audiences, the ExpertusONE solution solved its other LMS usability and performance challenges via the following:
- Unparalleled User Environment − After 16 years of LMS customizations and database upgrades, user training was very hard to find. ExpertusONE, however, dynamically pushes learning to its users (i.e., real-time learning plans, calendars, recommended content, and more) all from one centralized “My Learning” page.
“It’s great!” the Manager of Education Services described. “Learners simply log on and get a graphical display of units in their personalized training path. So now, in seconds, they see where they are, what’s next/needed, and other helpful, related learning resources.”
- Intuitive User Interface − Built well before modern, Web 2.0 design, Siemens’ legacy platform’s user interface was difficult to navigate and looked dated. ES Online now offers a “heuristic” design with the same streamlined navigation and simplified look and feel of today’s top websites (i.e. Google, Facebook, and Amazon).
- Automated Administration − Because of the old LMS’s age, it was very challenging for admins to create roles and managers to assign training. But ExpertusONE automates these tedious processes so: 1. admins can implement role lists faster and easier; 2. managers can expediently and more accurately prescribe learning via built-in filters that narrow down choices.
“In addition to the obvious time savings, three key benefits,” Waid noted, “of our automated admin systems are: fewer errors, better manager/learner communication, and higher training adoption.”
- Advanced Reporting & Analytics − ExpertusONE delivers much-needed, highly advanced reporting and analytics tools. So Siemens’ learning management can finally, easily monitor the entire learning system and optimally evaluate learners’ and managers’ performance. Next-gen features include: SQL query, visual designer, and both ‘in situ’ and ad-hoc reports.
Results
Recently launched, ES Online is quickly garnering “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from management and learners alike.
“Management has enthusiastically embraced ExpertusONE, and we’re already seeing a dramatic increase in overall LMS use, efficiencies, and effectiveness,”
– MANAGER OF EDUCATION SERVICES summarized
Other areas of noticeable improvement include:
- More acceptance in the field and happier internal learners
- “Dramatically improved” manager processes
- Reduced admin and manager errors
- “Impressive”, easier to use Web 2.0 experience
- Superior data integrity and system performance
- “Outstanding” reporting and testing analysis capabilities
“All in all, they are extremely pleased with their ExpertusONE LMS,” the Director concluded. “We delivered a next-gen learning environment that not only meets their current, multi-audience training needs, but one that will continue to seamlessly keep pace with their future learning goals and requirements.
