If any company should appreciate the benefits of online learning, it is tech savvy Toshiba Corp. Its Irvine, Calif.-based Toshiba America Business Solutions is a proud recipient of ASTD’s 2004 BEST Award for its Special Weekly Acquisition Training (SWAT) program. The eight-week training initiative indoctrinates new dealers and their sales reps in its new office products. 

One year later, the company’s training organization is again honored with a BEST Award for an offshoot of its SWAT initiative, a program called “Training to Go” that aims to boost the product knowledge of new dealer sales personnel quickly. The mobile learning initiative exposes greater numbers of sales reps to product knowledge, immediately impacting the bottom line.

Independent office imaging and automation solutions dealers sell multiple product lines with sales forces typically ranging from 12-70.  Both the SWAT and TTG programs were launched amid an aggressive campaign by Toshiba Business Solutions to increase the size of its dealer network.  The company previously trained new dealers with intensive classroom instruction at remote facilities, all at their expense. But the training was costly to conduct and unpopular with dealers, and ultimately became unmanagable. “Just factoring the cost of live classroom training, travel and accommodations, an average dealer would spend $1,100 per employee to train its staff on our product line – and that doesn’t even factor in lost sales from time out of the field,” says Toshiba.

It needed a new training program that would allow salespeople to quickly learn the information necessary for immediate sales success.  It needed to be affordable, effective and more convenient than those of its competitors.

Anthony Codianni, the company’s director of education and development, says the innovative TTG program was an instant hit with dealers. “We make them free, mobile and successful – that’s our new mantra,” he says proudly.  Codianni says freedom and mobility come from allowing employees to choose how, when and where they learn, while success comes from instant access to tools such as its FYI Web portal. He contends that Toshiba remains a full step ahead of its office products competitors by leveraging its many high-tech capabilities.  

Codianni’s 13-person Education and Development Group is the ultimate self-contained entity. It handles all learning content creation without participation by any vendor except for certain software solutions vendors, and Microsoft Live Meeting for delivery. Even its LMS, which is capable of handling all tests, enrollment and necessary tracking duties, was developed in-house. “If it’s non-software, we do it all,” he says.

Online self-study via its FYI Web portal was initiated several years ago with a program called Dimensions that focused on essential sales training.  The portal offered one-stop shopping of company information along with the Dimension 1 course. In 2003, the company introduced the SWAT program to cover all knowledge and skills that sales reps at newly acquired dealerships would need to sell its products.  The system consists of three training interventions, each a pre-requisite for the next: digital and product knowledge seminars, connectivity selling skills  and color solution selling.

Users navigate the modules at their own pace, but must pass each module test with a score of 80 percent or better before taking the final exam.  Online activities are combined with downloadable worksheets to be completed and reviewed by the manager.  A downloadable manager’s guide also is available allowing managers to quickly chart the progress of participants.

With SWAT firmly in place by 2004, Toshiba launched a customized program for independent, newly authorized dealers.  Training To Go distilled the three Dimensions of SWAT into a highly focused, four-day program consisting of only the elements that were deemed immediately critical for newly authorized dealer sales staffs.

To make the experience as convenient and user-friendly as possible, the company delivered all necessary training tools directly to new dealers from one of Toshiba Digital University’s four U.S. locations, says Codianni. Nicknamed “Training-in-a-Box,” the refrigerator-sized units contain up to 12 WiFi-enabled Toshiba notebook computers, a wireless network, a Toshiba LCD projector, and TTG participant materials (workbooks, sales rep guides and introductory CDs). In addition, a professional training team delivers a two-day, hands-on seminar. Five such mobile training kits and teams travel to dealerships to administer the training.

The blended approach combines synchronous and asynchronous e-learning with workbook-based and classroom learning sessions, says Codianni. The multiple methods increase retention, while the delivery of the information on-site ensures that participants can return to the field immediately to hone their new skills.

He says newly authorized dealers appreciate the mobile solution that eliminates costs, lost sales and personal stress of constant travel. “With the majority of learning done online through our FYI Portal, learning can be completed anywhere with an Internet connection—even at home after hours,” he says.

Sales associates who have no previous experience with the brand are able to sell confidently within four days. “They have learned how to sell our products, have gained valuable hands-on experience, and are aware of the additional learning opportunities available through our FYI Portal. Overall, they become competent representatives of our brand and are well poised for success,” says Codianni.

The training chieftain says the program has produced “a 180-degree turnaround from our previous training methods by making dealer learning a corporate investment and eliminating their monetary obligations.”  He says that while dealers appreciate this shift in financial responsibility, “our company truly benefits most because dealers can now afford to train their entire sales staff as opposed to just a few.”

Codianni says the results speak for themselves. Immediately upon introduction of the TTG program, enrollment rates increased more than 16 times the rate of enrollment from the last year of its previous training program.

One followup study linked learning to performance by measuring productivity and employee retention following acquisition. For example, two acquired companies with equal inventory loads were evaluated. The company completing the SWAT program archived 100 percent transition to its product line exclusively within six months, compared to a 10-12 month transition realized by the other company prior to the creation of SWAT.

SWAT’s retention impact was equally impressive. Using the old immersion method, employee retention rates for new dealers with no product experience averaged 83 percent at three months, 72 percent at six months and 60 percent at nine months.  Under the SWAT program the rates were 94 percent, 92 percent and 92 percent respectively, it said.