PhoneGuide LIVE! Case Study

Most people find it difficult to change.  But what do you do when it’s time to upgrade your communication technology, and this change is about to impact 50,000 employees?  How do you meet your goals of improving your organization’s ability to collaborate and increase your accessibility to customers without creating chaos and decreasing productivity along the way?

This was the recent challenge of a state government with a broad population base of working environments.  In replacing an outdated Centrex system with the latest unified communications (UC) solutions from Unify, the State recognized the key role that employee training would play in a successful transition.  But, how do you train so many employees with different devices across so many locations throughout an extended rollout period?

The answer?  Put a personalized tutor at the desktop of every employee.  As the transition began, the State offered instructor-led sessions with “hands on” training for basic phone operation and UC, as well as generalized web-based training.  But knowing that not all employees could or would attend the classes and understanding that the learning retention rate can be low, the State relied on PhoneGuide LIVE! for personalized anywhere, anytime training.   PhoneGuide LIVE! is a web-based solution for training employees on how to use their phones and voicemail boxes. 

• Customized to the user’s exact phone model and button layout.  Eliminates confusion of general training sessions and assures users know how to use each feature of their phone.
• Multi-modal training so employees can watch, listen, read and/or download and print documents.  Everyone learns differently so users can select the method that is best for them.
• Tracking the employees that have accessed training. 

gET THE WORD OUT
However, the greatest tool in the world is of little value if no one knows about it.  So, how do you market the tool to the employees?  The State used a multi-pronged approach:

• During training classes, the tool was referenced
• Promotional cards were distributed with the new phones
• “Quick Tip” reminder emails with PhoneGuide LIVE! link and instructions
• PhoneGuide LIVE! link on internal State website
• As employees call  the help desk with questions, they are sent an email with two links:  one to the Learning page of their internal website, and one to the  PhoneGuide LIVE! link.  The help desk staff   then walks  the employee through these tools to help them find the answer.  Hence, employees quickly learn that PhoneGuide LIVE! is their personal tutor – today and any day in the future when they need a refresher.

“With a large deployment like this, we all quickly recognized that PhoneGuide LIVE! was the best option for educating the employees,” stated Davis.  “As the project progressed, we also learned that marketing the functionality of a new system to the employee base cannot be undervalued.”

oPTIMIZE THE TRAINING BUDGET
Successful projects not only meet their functional goals but they also stay within budget.  For large projects with a wide geographically dispersed base of employees, training can bust the budget due to travel expenses and personnel costs.  Sheila Rosin, Partner at ComSolutions, states, “After years of working with customers to develop training programs to meet their individual needs, PhoneGuide LIVE! is a creative solution to incorporate into traditional training plans.  PhoneGuide LIVE! makes it possible to reduce cost by bringing high quality training directly to the desktop.  Our customers appreciate the highest return on their investment in PhoneGuide LIVE! because they make a single purchase and the training is available to their employees long after our trainers leave the project.”