WWT and Cisco Webex Enable Virtual Employee Training for a Global Workforce

Using Cisco Webex for employee training

For a Global Telecommunications Company, employee training is critical to success. The company delivers more than 40,000 instructor-led training sessions per year, with topics ranging from technical field education to leadership courses.

To reach more of its global workforce and decrease travel expenses, the company started a virtual training program. The program failed to find its footing, however, due to sparse endpoints and unpredictable collaboration tools.

Instructors were spending an inordinate amount of class time troubleshooting technology. The company often had to send instructors to the field to complete a course. 

To cut travel expenses and offer a modern solution for their global workforce, the organization needed a collaboration platform that was both multi-functional and effective.

Creating a virtual classroom at scale

When evaluating the company's collaboration needs, our experts found that while they had Cisco Webex deployed in their environment, they were not taking full advantage of the investment and could use the platform to improve virtual training for employees across all locations.

We worked to demonstrate the latest Webex options like Webex Meetings, Webex Events and Webex Live Stream and distinguish their features and capabilities. We created three virtual classrooms with the latest Cisco Rooms video endpoints for the company's annual meeting of approximately 200 leaders within the training organization. With our experts on site, leaders could engage in proofs of concept that demonstrated how Webex could be tailored to their different use cases.

Incorporated Webex features

With many complex courses related to core services, the company's virtual classrooms must offer a high level of engagement between the instructors and participants. To meet this need, we showcased upgraded endpoints that incorporated features such as speaker and presenter tracking. These Webex tools make the training experience more realistic and allow for participation in an online setting.

From a user perspective, a big advantage the participants saw in the virtual classrooms was the ease at which they were able to join and engage with a colleague online. Using the latest in Cisco's Webex room series, users are able to join a meeting with just one button, or even with their voice. This simplifies the meeting experience by offering both instructors and participants a clear understanding of how to join and participate in a virtual meeting.

An optimized experience across the globe

After learning about Webex feature sets and the user experience provided by the new Cisco endpoints, the Telecommunications Company scaled the solution across the organization. We began by upgrading their 200 current endpoints to the MX700 series, then began building out new endpoints throughout the country.

The organization's training group now utilizes 1,300 endpoints, and the number is growing each month. As knowledge continues to grow around Cisco's Webex platform, the customer plans to expand efforts in new facilities and conference rooms.

A fully integrated Cisco Webex platform helps cut a large amount of travel costs by changing the way they train their employees. The new endpoints provide a useful video conferencing platform, resulting in happier instructors and in-depth, consistent training with higher employee engagement.

WWT Adoption Services

As a large veteran telecommunications provider, the organization had the resources and understanding to know what this project would entail from an IT infrastructure perspective. However, a large part of successful collaboration involves familiarizing the workforce with new tools and processes. Deployment alone doesn't result in success – if employees aren't using the platform, the investment is a waste.

One of the key drivers when integrating this solution was the use of our Adoption Services offering. Working with our customized methodology, the customer was able to successfully implement the best technology for their use case and fully engage the workforce with the new endpoints.

WWT adoption experts created training materials across various platforms and focused heavily on documentation for the purpose of knowledge sharing. Deliverables included FAQs, instructional how-to videos, reference guides and click-and-learn modules. These four custom interactive training components were each created for a specific aspect of the technology: navigating Cisco Meeting Center, Event Center, Training Center and interoperability between the Webex meeting app and video endpoints.

Our consultants initially provided on-site Webex trainings for instructors and currently check in with the customer's leadership group on a weekly basis in order to help them stay up-to-date with the newest features and troubleshoot any issues.

Future collaboration opportunities

Through thoughtful collaboration and adoption techniques, WWT was able to greatly expand the customer's video collaboration footprint and capabilities around the virtual training user interface. The instructors can engage with the Webex platform to simplify their lives and complete the training requirements they are assigned to deliver.

Going forward, the organization now has a solid platform for carrying out thousands of virtual training courses. With WWT's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) Lab Services and global integration capabilities, they can engage with each new collaboration tool in our on-demand lab environments, strengthening their platform even further and developing their Webex use cases throughout the entire organization.