I was participating the annual European SABA-Centra User Group Meeting in Henry Ford College in Loughborough in UK.
Please find my notes herewith shared to you:
2007-07-04 Day one
Alun Cope-Morgan, EMEA President, Saba
He has been with Saba a couple of years. Currently there is a lot more activity on the market place and talk on the press like the Guardian, the Sunday Times and Financial Times. Saba has been releasing a new Saba release covering talent and performance management etc. All are now talking about the talent management.
Saba and Centra 282 Customers in Europe for both Centra and Saba. Including 94 customers in Saba in Europe. 29 partners currently existing in EMEA serving customers are SABA does. Currently there are 12 technical persons increased 40 % during last month.
Jakob Alkil, Ford Motor Company
Ford company founded in 1903, now family of brands including Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda, Lincoln and Land Rover etc.
The Challenging Factors are +10000 dealers in Europe, a franchise network, staff turnover, competition, legistation, increased segments/fragmentations as well as rapid product development = more training required but with same or less budget. The mission was “sell in” a new LMS to 30,000 car dealer staff and get them study via eLearning. Influencing people do not work at Ford, spread around.
First to find out the actual target group. Then what to communicate, at first looked like as an IT problem, but it turned out to be a change management issue. People between Ford HQ and the actual target group were having five levels of people. A lot of work required when approaching from top-down. Different messages/justifications delivered into different target groups. eLearning = a new way of learning. ( My comment: Why not use bottom-up approach in addition to top-down for accelerating the change?)
Launching massive SABA-environment and then regional face-to-face workshops as well as learning approach animation overview for launching the initiative. As well as publications were utilized. Ford managers could be following up who have been passed the course contents. The contents are using Central invitation emails helping them to see how they have done.
In 3 months 10820 persons logged into the system. Getting rid of the binders that almost nobody were reading and not automatically creating 18 hour long eLearning programmes. eLearning used as a foundation training then continuing with paper staff as well as face-to-face meetings.
Ford recipe for making eLearning engaging: control (small chunks to choose and build, previews and reviews, news; learner responsibility), relevance(only get what you need), emotion(controlled failed area, humor, surprise, drama and stories), action(solve problems, set challenges, debate with others, immediate involvement in task), multi-sensory environment(animation, audio/video) the CREAM model !
Shown evidence that eLearning does work ok, because salesmen are selling more. Communication done via different languages etc. Currently at Ford as well as in other big companies there are a lot of Learning Management Systems in use for different purposes. Training contents are arranged via the internet just behind the firewall.
Steve Dodd, Training & Development Manager, Wilkinson
Remembered to be delivering a chocolate during user group meetings ! Wilkinson having 170 million customers, 1.5 million GBP still as family owned, 25000 products of quality & diversity,
two distribution centers, over 23000 people recognized as investing in people
Saba implementation including one PC per store, very low frequency of use per a team member. Wilkinson is assessing and recording competences, certifications and reviews.
Exciting experiences – the bad old days using pen and paper (PAP-system) using complicated reprinting, reproducing with different IT-systems, now SABA replacing that processes. Including sertification paths for different target groups in Wilkinson including 90 % of compliance for our employees. Saba opportunities: quality assurance, rapid implementation, take ownership for customer satisfaction. Wilkinson opportunities: bigger challenge than you think, harder challenge than you think, don’t get too excited because it takes longer than you think.
Opportunities for the future: system resilience, prescriptive rules and report subscriptions, user friendliness, functionality.
Joe Mousley, Wilkinson
From procurement to implementation behind the work – rapid implementation plan doing in two years since June 2005 until June 2006 including training, workshops, configuration, pilot, hierarchy, interface issues (at first time failed) as well as limited user training. Opportunities do exist, while no HR hierarchy existed. Also quick start guide should be needed…from June 2006 until June 2007 broadband rollout and training pilot, various blogs, SP 1, roll-out, system admin resourcing, system crashes (due to large amount of users, 20 crashes during Feb 2007), training evaluation.
Jonathan Taylor, Business Sponsor, Royal Mail
Introduction
Longest corporate history – over 360 years, 4 businesses, every house 28 million addresses, 84 million letters and packets delivered daily, 9 Billion GBP business, 196000 employees as largest single entity employer
Jan 1 2006 market liberalisation ending 360 years of monopoly, the most aggressive liberatisation, industry regulated through Postcomm, owned by the Government, union resistance to change -> need to be come more flexible in working practices, invest in technology and improve capability
Challenge for performance management – competitive, commercial environment require business leaders who drive performance improvement. Policies, processes and tools must motivate and inspire, but the biggest challenge is the change management. Diagnostics showed work required in all areas
Royal Mail Group Vision
Looked to market rather than build our own, bolt on to RMG HR systems, integrate performance with development and learning, use “Best in Class” product, key strategy not to customise package – version 5.3, aggressive implementation programme, deployment 1st phase within 90 days – performance, complete roll-out within 10 months – learning, look to expand scope in year 2 of programme with talent and succession planning
Kevin Mason, Royal Mail
Deployment Challenges
Data interface is currently an absolute nightmare, challenges around data integrity (line management chain, organisation structure, 2 master sources – SAP and Infinium, training history), training (how we tackled, challenges faces, lessons learnt)
Technical Challenges
Infrastructure (issues with version of Internet Explorer), secure web link, file attachment virus protection if used from Home PCs, IT supplier /hosting), reporting, using standard reports, customised reports ( not provided by Saba, management information)
Findings & Improvements Opportunities
Achievements are as follows: implemented performance and learning, removed five legacy systems, 9500 users have completed objectives and are going through the review cycle, increased use of on-line learning, transformed learning processes, established link from performance to development – leadership behaviours and technical competencies, extended 360 feedback as development tool, allowed external accreditation of professional development
Learning achievements are as follows: replaced legacy system, improved learning admin processes, reduced call-up from 2 weeks to 2 hours, integrated learning needs with self-assessment and 360 feedback, link to portfolio to address skills and competence gaps
System is being perceived as valuable support tool but not as progressed as far as envisaged due to performance management issues – lack of buy-in from users – what’s in it for me?, therefore user feedback has generally been poor, for performance – perceived slow system and is not user-friendly, user training is essential. Perception that Royal Mail has road-tested the Saba product, but Royal Mail is determined to embed a performance management system in the business, working with Saba to make it happen.
Saba, Ben Willis, & Maksim
Ovsyannikov, Saba Product
Management
Moving the needle - traditional HR (administered, local/departmental view, good at acquisition, models that speak to current users, planning based on proven capabilities, training organizations, HR Perspective) – strategic Human capital management (planned, managed, global view of talent, fact-based decisions, good at repetition, speak to everyone, including next generation, planning based on unproven workforce, training individuals, manager & employee)
Business Leaders taking action – creating own processes and systems, creating talent ownership if not selected and supported by corporate HQ ; non-linear benefit of an integrated HCM suite – operational lever to adjust workforce output (behaviour, knowledge, skills/competencies, bench strength)
Saba Product Investment Model – our execution strategy: balanced investments for superior products, product investment pillars (leadership, vision…), industry leadership(#1 product on-the-market), advanced architecture (cutting-edge technology & standards), innovation/revolution (constantly re-inventing – protecting your investment), intuitive user experience (easy to use, fun!), excellent ownership experience (total quality, implementation capabilities & functional design tuning)
Industry leadership including new market leading solution for talent, enhanced blending learning (enhanced integration between Saba Learning and Saba Centra Live; powerful new certification ordering), new person profile…advanced architecture (portlet syndication through WSRP, prescriptive engine performance tuning, full multi-tenancy support, intro of rich-internet architecture(RIA)…
Innovations mentioned Saba Centra Live! including web 2.0 informal knowledge capture and sharing, my success plan ! including unified, actionable view of integrated learning, performance and talent processes, governance & object ownership
Excellent ownership experience – investment for total quality baseline (5.3 SP2), new sprint development approach, revised quality assurance organizational structure, new Saba education learning portal on saba.com
My success plan feature will be introduced including eLearning packages and their progress in one sight, registrating for the whole path, launching Centra (for specific user groups in Saba for specific time)
Talent dashboard features including name, job, flight risk, potential, succession pools, opportunity pools, development/other pools. Seeking for talents are integrated for competence and ratings. Side-by-side analysis of selected candidates including limiting possibilities with must-include-competences including and showing competency vs. potential
Gary Lombardo, Saba Product Management &
Product Marketing
Denali 7.6. – Tangible Benefits for the End Customer
Centra will become the authoring tool of choice for SMEs and any user wanting to share knowledge and experiences. Sessions will be more engaging for interactive learning and collaboration and less time will be spent managing events and more time on creating quality learning. Using and tracking content for Saba
Centra Virtual Labs with Surgient integrated – virtual lab a virtual instance of a PC environment accessible by an end user allowing him/her to interact with software applications, direct scheduling (via Centra Symposium scheduling also include add lab too), creation and launching from within Centra. Benefits do include greater leader-participant engagement and learning, no need to have software installed locally saves on IT cost and time, more secure, surgient integration especially for IT.
Voice activation – ability for speakers to have VOIP enabled, configurable by domain, leader will have control; CTG enhancements – correction of audio delay, greater leader control and interaction;
H.263 video codec – superior quality video, cross-platform to the Macintosh, live in-session broadcast/receive video on the Mac, In-Session Tools – evaluations, closed captioning, audible alerts, other enhancements, benefits: greater leader-participant engagement and learning, greater ability to monitor learning progress, deeper accessibility options for users with disabilities and in need of 508 compliance
Evaluation enhancements- scoring questions, overall evaluation criteria, customizable fields, in 7.6 evaluation results back to the Saba
Closed captioning – audio transcribed in real-time by an in-session closed captioner; audible alerts – associate an event in session with an audible cue. Mark-up tools are available also over HTML, PPT slides, save entire agenda as a pdf, welcome page modification
Event wizard – approval prior to registration, waitlist capability, detailed user info, unenroll registered users, limit participation to registered users, option to extend calendar beyond one month, event setup – domain default for PPT import format, best-practise OOTB default values, turnoff text chat, desktop and remote control AppShare by domain, hyperlinked event/meeting names to access details, outlook scheduler, default to date/time selected on calendar, edit/insert text
Centra will stay open for other LMSes, Vista supported on August 2007
Plan on Collaboration 2.0 for learning management, performance management, compensation management including real-time eMeetings-webinars-virtual classes-rich presence-chat-data-video-voice, common communities – wikis – blogs- RSS; CKC Learning Management “Lite” – structured, formal learning CKC like capabilities, Content Management System
Initial ideas on Centra recording studio 2.0 highlights – recording made easy for podcasting: audioblogging, videoblogging, single click publishing (multiple file formats) including step 1: Lauching recording studio from Centra login-window, 2: Import/create content (add appshare for content sequence, pause recording in anytime), 3: Save vs. Export vs. Publish (single click publish in multiple file formats, 4. Publish.
Meeting Notes – Day Two
Bjorn Larsson, Business
Development, Lernia
Saba Centra – making Lernia´s vision come true. Lernia´s vision is to become the leading HR-partner in Scandinavia. This will come true by offering the market a full HR-service including
strategic HR-planning, learning services as well as access to Saba as a hosted service.
Lernia is helping SME companies for running Saba and doing ASP service. Own content production or brokering are used for delivering the content.
An Audience with Bobby, Saba CEO, Bobby Yazdani
Poll results among audience were as follows: organizations are somewhat capable for change, to attract and to retain employees are career growth and worklife balance, the biggest barrier is lack of centralised database, on the senior management retirement the most of the organizations less than 10 % are retiring, using talent management schemes are used for 30%, but not including the scheme for 30%, inspirational leaders are good leaders, still most the organizations do only the teleconferencing within their organizations, for 40 % age matters for leadership
Collaboration should be put into a process should give more value, that only collaboration as itself would not give so much value. Collaboration should be included into different business processes like sourcing and HR processes. Concerning Microsoft they have collaborative environment, but how they work with the processes. Especially over the firewall activity. Saba will attach the collaboration into a process like CRM systems and HCM processes. A complete new mindset with the internet is there utilizing the real-time collaboration.
Saba challenges in mid-turn and long-turn. The most important thing is a culture of our company. The growth takes the energy in Saba, so we should concentrate on customer interface and be more adaptive for the change. Company building is going on. Like customer advisory boards in order to invest R&D wisely. In the US we have a significant growth appearing, similarly all the markets are growth. So building up the competences among our partners is a challenge. We have seen better responsiveness among the senior managers for our products. We would like not to be an ERP supplier, so customization is needed for each customer.
The European Markets are going to be similar to the US markets, but now there are still more. Learning and performance management are not tighted together into compensation and for other processes. The methods for finding new ideas not coming from our customers: interaction with the analysts, via acquisitions of small companies as well as executive team has been responsible for feeding new ideas. I would like to integrate webservices like with MS Outlook. We have really smart customers like HP, IBM and Cisco, that are very advanced in their thinking.
We have got two sets of issues. One piece of it is to stabilize after-sales support finding right skillsets. Other thing is to communicate and to train among the customers. We need to make better support in Europe because there is a difference. We should look at the benchmarks for not to trying to arrange user support with 1,5 persons for 20000-30000 personnel. We would respond to their needs.
As a software supplier I should respond that is the bad idea to have open-source. It is relevant for creating software. Open-source LMS systems are brought into customers, but they are not enough. For example some opensource companies do use Saba. For university sector the market is horizontal and cost for complexity is the issue. For industry sector the market will become vertical, so having energy sector solutions etc. For example retail industry is very different because of different processes. The same thing will happen as for SAP and for CRM. There will be more sharing knowledge among similar industries.
Within HCM there are 120 providers including a lot of vendors, so there will be a lot of consolidation. The key thing is that if you have not the webconferencing yet then it is too late. The winner is the one that will get the first thing right.