Using Rapid E-learning for a Major Product Launch

Factiva provides content, technology, and supporting services to help companies integrate news and business information into daily workflows.  The company was created in 1999, when Dow Jones & Company and The Reuters Group merged their online business intelligence service divisions.

Rapid Timeframe for Product Launch

In 2001, Factiva introduced its first major new product, Factiva.com, a powerful search and tracking engine for web-based news and business information.  Because this strategic product replaced the two legacy products from the partner companies, customer-facing employees needed extensive training before it was debuted to the public in August.  And since a beta version of the product was not available until mid-June, the window for training was short – a mere six weeks.   In charge of this seemingly impossible mission was Factiva’s newly created Learning Programs, a group within the company’s marketing department comprised of professionals formerly responsible for sophisticated customer training.

The Learning Programs group recognized that traditional, instructor-led training would require months of lead time to reach the targeted audience – 400 sales, customer service, and support personnel located in nearly 30 cities worldwide. Therefore, the group embarked on employing a new approach that relied on web-based technologies and easy-to-use tools for content development. Today, we call this approach “rapid e-learning”; back then, there was no name for this largely untested delivery method.

Live E-Learning Solves the Problem

The foundation for the Factiva.com training initiative was comprised of WebEx conferencing and simple conference calls.   The Learning Programs team developed one-hour modules on a variety of product-related topics – including a product introduction, search features and techniques, NewsPages, and administrative tools.  Working literally around the clock, the team trained 100-percent of the company’s customer-facing employees in just five weeks – at 20-percent of the cost of face-to-face training.

According to Caputo, many employees welcomed the new approach and recognized immediate benefits.  For instance, employees outside of the United States were thrilled to get information at the same time as U.S. employees. With traditional training, these employee audiences were typically among the last to receive information.

Executive Support and Incentives

One of the keys to the program’s success was the support of Factiva’s president and CEO, Clare Hart, who endorsed the new training method and attended some of the online sessions.   The company made it mandatory that employees pass an assessment on the new product before obtaining a password to the new system.  It also offered incentives to high-scoring individuals.

Now Rapid E-Learning is a Process at Factiva

Four years later, Factiva is still a big believer in the value of rapid e-learning. Today, 90 percent of Factiva’s training is delivered via rapid e-learning. Over half of Factiva training is targeted to external customers, who have embraced the new learning programs as enthusiastically as Factiva’s employees.

The company uses Microsoft Live Meeting for live online events and Macromedia Breeze for executive communications and special programs. Brainshark is the primary tool for content development because of its simplicity, its ability to track and modify content quickly, and easy customization,

More than 200 employees – typically sales managers, product managers, and marketing personnel -- now use Brainshark to create and deliver rapid e-learning programs.   In addition to providing the training and reference materials for Brainshark users, The Learning Programs team also has created content templates to maximize effectiveness and gain consistency.

Workflow Methodology for Rapid E-Learning, from Rapid E-Learning:  What Works®

Factiva subject matter experts create short presentations, called eTopics, to address a variety of topics, such as new product features, product rollouts, new technologies, and new hire training. eTopic presentations are also used to train customers on various aspects of Factiva products. Factiva uses evaluation and polling questions to create assessments, and tracks both course completions and assessment scores through the Brainshark’s reporting functionality.

The company has a library of approximately 125 eTopics, which sales and marketing personnel can further customize with graphics, narration, customer logos, or new content. Caputo is quick to point out these presentations should not be used as stand-alone training. “After a live or self-paced session, you must provide learning aides such assessments, FAQs, templates, or quick reference guides,” said Caputo. “Rapid e learning is part of a larger learning picture.”