Rollout training smoothes the way for Pilot Upgrade to MS Office 2010 and Windows 7

Case Study for:
Macmillan Publishers

Learning solution:
Microsoft Office

Industry:
Media/PR/Advertising/Market research

Company Profile

Global Publishing House

With over 7000 staff operating in more than 80 countries, our client is one of the largest and best known international publishing groups in the world. It is characterized by high-quality academic and scholarly, educational, fiction and non-fiction publishing in many forms.

Business Requirement

In preparation for a company-wide rollout of Windows 7 and MS Office 2010 the client was looking to train a pilot group of users on the new platform. The pilot users were hand-picked from different departments to reflect the diverse range of users within the organisation.
The training solution would need to concentrate on Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook as well as picking up on productivity tips for Windows 7.
At the end of the training the pilot group would return to newly upgraded PCs. Their experiences would then inform the wider rollout of the upgrade through the organisation.

Solution

Both the Client and STL were aware of the importance of the pilot training being delivered effectively. There were several considerations:
1) Making the training relevant to staff from different departments and job roles
2) Ensuring the reasons for the training are clearly communicated, key influencers won over and ultimately gain wide approval to the training
3) Delivering excellent levels of communications and feedback at all stages

It was agreed between STL's Client Services and Projects Delivery team as well as the client's L&D and IT Departments that a scoping day would be required. The scoping day was successfully run approximately 6 weeks before the pilot training event:
1) A lead STL training Project Manager was able to meet with both the client's IT rollout team as well as selected pilot users
2) Together they were able to discuss in detail the course content, any elements required to reflect company culture and procedures

This led to a one day tailored instructor led course for 8 delegates delivered in classroom-style with hands-on use of computers all running the new software.

Benefits

Having a trainer-led course meant the group could get up to speed while their machines were upgraded with the new software. For many the layout of MS Office 2010 was completely new so the training enabled people to become productive more quickly than if they had been left to find their own way around the new software.
The training also made it easier for delegates to ask questions relating directly to their day to day work. By learning together everyone was in a much better position to support each other when back at their desks. In addition the tailored content also covered frequently asked questions for those who would be providing support after the rollout

People quickly saw how they could make the most of productivity savings when using features such as SmartArt, Conditional formatting and improved Headers and Footers. The group also had an opportunity to consider the implications of compatibility and sharing files with colleagues who had not yet upgraded. Great deal of surprise at how slick the new interface looked and how attractive documents using the new features looked.

Comments from the day

“The course was very good and (the trainer) very knowledgeable and humorous! Course better than expected.”

“Best course I have had”

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