Elearning - April/May 2008 - (Page 33)

gies. The team was also willing to put dollars behind its commitment, but not without a few strings attached. Technology investments had to show a rapid return on investment, and the team expected to see high-impact, quality results within 10 weeks of the new system’s launch. KICK-STARTING THE PROJECT Samargya and his team decided to form an LMS task force, composed of representatives from each stakeholder group: IT, HR, operations, finance, legal, marketing, curriculum development, sales, technical support, and education. The team conducted workshops with task force members to identify, agree upon and prioritize business needs, system requirements and project scope. The task force carefully reviewed the features of the nine legacy systems and identified the features that the company needed to keep and those that needed improvement. Additionally, members also spent much time discussing learning trends and what CA employees would likely need and want in the future. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of forming a task force for initiatives like this,” says Michael Yakiemchuk, vice president of learning systems and infrastructure. “Besides expediting information gathering and ensuring that all stakeholders have opportunity for input, the task force spreads out the responsibility for decisions. When things go wrong, finger-pointing is very limited.” Once the team had established a common vision, all members agreed that a new system was needed in order to fulfill the identified requirements: >> Providing an e-commerce solution to customers, so they could browse a global catalog of courses, register, pay on the spot and, in the case of online learning, click straight through to the selected course. >> Improve consistency and reduce learning costs by moving to a single system. Efficiencies and cost reductions would be gained with a centralized group of super admin users, who would manage content and administer the system. Development costs would also be reduced since internal and external courses had to comply with a single set of integration requirements. >> Gain flexibility for technology partner integration and upgrades to accommodate learning needs of the future, such as podcasting, virtual labs and collaboration. SELECTING A VENDOR The team decided that purchasing a hosted solution was the company’s best option, given the aggressive implementation timeline and advanced feature requirements. The selection process was actually based CA’s new learning management system, which has a user interface in multiple languages for CA’s global user base. In order to ensure rapid learning response time for learners around the globe, CA added the Akamai hosting solution that mirrors all CA content internationally. The primary supporting application for the LMS is SAP, CA’s system of record for HR, contract and financial information. ‘The support team has to be in place and ready to react the day you launch.’ —CA’s Brad Samargya on Bersin & Associates 7-step selection methodology, described in its LMS research: A business case for the project was developed jointly by CA’s education organization and its IT department. The case was used to gain executive buy-in. The LMS task force used the identified business needs to develop a list of vendor requirements. Extensive market research was conducted on potential vendors. Eight vendors were selected and contacted for information. After review of available independently collected information along with completed RFI’s from the eight vendors, the team then created a short list of five vendors. Each of these vendors received an RFP. Each of the five vendors conducted onsite presentations. The team then selected two vendors and conducted a 5-year total cost of ownership review with each. The team also conducted an extensive ROI analysis that examined fixed and variable costs, vendor fees and associated internal costs. It calculated current and projected costs per learner and other key metrics and compared the findings to research findings for organizations of comparable size. This cost information played a key role in the selection process. FULL STEAM AHEAD The task force selected Plateau Systems as The implementation initiative focused on the following main features: catalog search, learning history, learning plans, reporting, and a robust administration function. The next phase of the launch (2008) calls for separate employee and customer views, including a shopping cart as well as the ability for customers to browse the course catalog without logging in. In addition, the learner experience was enhanced by integrating the learning management system with key technologies: >> Single sign-on. CA’s SiteMinder was deployed to allow internal users to enjoy the convenience of single sign-on. Once CA employees log into the CA network in the office or via VPN, they can log into the learning management system without logging in separately. >> Collaboration rooms. The Q2 Learning technology extends the reach of informal learning and continues the exchange of ideas from the classroom to the cube. >> Virtual labs. CA added the Surgient virtual lab technology to the LMS solution in order to give learners the ability to practice what they have learned in a realistic but safe environment before doing it “for real.” >> Virtual classrooms. Interwise virtual classroom technology is a critically important tool for CA and integrated with the LMS. Elearning! April / May 2008 33 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning - April/May 2008

Elearning - April/May 2008 Editor's Note Contents News Targeting Africa Locating Courseware People in the News Upcoming Events Deals Trendlines Web Services Building a Learning Culture Measuring the Learning Experience Making Learning Fun and Social LMS's 2008: What You Need To Know Learning Leader: CA Case Study: AVI Case Study: IBM Case Study: QualComm WBS Case Study: National Center for State Courts Case Study: Grundfos Pumps Case Study: Virginia Tech Pop Quiz Last Word

Elearning - April/May 2008

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