AMERiCA LEARNiNG MEDiA

Over 400 vendors and sales managers were trained online, through world class content and methodology, with the objective to contribute to their professionalization and achieve higher levels of productivity. Analysis of the case.

(@americalearning) Considering Cisco Systems need to train dynamically and efficiently its partner network distributed in Spanish-speaking countries, Transelling – Cisco Business Learning Partner enabled to provide sales training to the entire Cisco ecosystem-, developed the project "Introduction to Demand Creation and Business Management" oriented to salespeople and sales managers of the multinational company and its business partners.

The project has a budget of approximately U.S. $ 40,000, and included the implementation of Moodle platform (provided by e-ABC Learning), and a portal developed by Transelling, where students can find additional material: papers, audios, videos and webinars, among others. The coordination and e-learning consulting project was delivered by MB Consultores en Procesos Formativos.

Until now, three self-administered courses have been developed with 6 to 8 hours of duration full online, which include the participation of a mentor in the coaching session after the completion of each online course.

During the first six months (November 2012 to May 2013), about 400 people took the first of three courses. Countries involved were Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina.

Courses 2 and 3 were launched during the second quarter of 2013.

"This project required a strong pedagogical work. The definition of specific skill tree customized for commercial profile of partners allowed us to work with a case presentation methodology (with characteristics of storytelling) highly relevant for this type of user and training goals", Maricela Ballatore said. She is the provider of e-learning consulting project and Executive manager at MB Consultores en Procesos Formativos.

Enrique Maldini (project content development manager and Transelling director), was asked on the advantages of e-learning modality to a project like this. He highlighted the shorter period of initial training, consisting in three introductory modules of content related with sales training state of the art. "It also has an academic content developed by experts in sales. Its main objective is to contribute to the professionalization of commercial executives through world class content and methodology. In this way, employees achieve higher levels of productivity in the companies for which they work", he said.

"It was a pleasure to work with a team highly involved in the specific sales content and simplify it from the academic perspective, for a greater users understanding, noted Transelling director”.

Meanwhile, Maricela Ballatore considered that the autonomy that the user can find when it comes to train (in to environments where time factor use to be an obstacle), is a competitive advantage. "With this methodology the user can study any time he needs and as many times as he wants”.

"It is also an advantage to have a Moodle platform and a methodology as easy to follow by the user, since the use is very intuitive. Another advantage is monitoring the student through the platform (advance of courses, score obtained, etc.)”, Ballatore added. In this way e-learning will solve travel costs for students and instructors.

Maira Florez -responsible for quality assurance and project management- said “from administrator viewpoint was easy and practical to learn everything you need to run the project and use information about students behavior to optimize the process”.

Implementation team

Transelling team: Enrique Maldini is content development manager and Maira Florez, quality assurance and project management.

The external team: Maricela Ballatore is virtual training processes expert as provider of e-learning consultancy; Angelica Enz, didactic design and Sergio Boero providing graphic design and programming.

Moodle platform was provided by e-ABC Learning. "We implemented our version of the e-learning platform configuration and plugins, according to Transelling requirements in relation to the needs of its client CISCO Systems, including developing effective training process to sales executives in different Spanish-speaking countries", Pablo Raganato (e-ABC Learning Executive Director) said.

"We adapted to customer requirements, ensuring that users perceive intuitive, simple, flexible, scalable platform that can be adapted in the future to cover other requirements of the company" added Raganato.

"As a company providing e-learning solutions, we know that lack of education may complicate companies operation. In this sense, for achieving demanding targets proposed by Transelling (and CISCO Systems), e-ABC Learning provides excellent service in the implementation of Moodle platform, technological and pedagogical support, providing a professional team specialized in innovative technologies for education, with over 10 years of experience in the market”, Pablo Raganato said.

Cisco Systems is a global enterprise oriented to manufacture, selling, maintenance and consulting for telecommunications equipment, with more than 50,000 employees worldwide.

Transelling operates throughout Latin America and is a company specialized in improving sales productivity through the development of high performance sales teams, implementation of proven sales processes, training for skill development, and coaching to managers and sales people. Transelling services include consulting, training, coaching and support, sales BI tool (Twister) and talent and skills assessment tool.