Providing Support Through Outlook — Takes the Readiness Where the Users Are

"Today’s work environment demands that workers adapt to change rapidly and are committed to continuous learning. Business leaders and leaders in the human performance field have been calling for new ways to meet the needs of learners. COMET is a compelling example of how technology supports real-time solutions that allow learners to stay productive while developing new skills and knowledge."

Sales training offers e-Learning teams a wonderful opportunity to connect their work to the bottom line. This is especially true when e-Learning provides instruction that improves the performance of the sales force in front of clients. How much would it be worth to a company to be able to develop sales skills and knowledge with an improved rate of successful transfer — without taking the sales team away from the customers for excessive amounts of time?

This is the story of how one global organization did just that with an approach that provided a complete performance support plan, including structured learning online and off, real-time electronic performance support, and other human engineering interventions. It is mainly the story of how a collaborative effort created a performance support tool available within Microsoft Outlook for real time training and guidance. You could think of this as workflow learning, supercharged.

The problem

Microsoft’s Worldwide Enterprise sales force faces the challenges and unique opportunities of today’s technology environment. Working in tightly integrated teams in a diverse, globally deployed organization, the sales force must rapidly respond to customers in an extremely competitive marketplace. In this article, we use the term “readiness” to refer to a state in which the sales force has the skills, knowledge, and capability to provide this rapid response.

Enterprise and Partners Group (EPG) Worldwide Readiness is the group within Microsoft charged with providing learning and performance support to the entire Enterprise sales force. Until recently, the approaches EPG Worldwide Readiness used included formal classroom training, online learning, and a variety of performance support components including job aids, help systems, and online resources.

The customer relationship management (CRM) system, which was scheduled for a major upgrade in the fall of 2004, is one of the tools used by sales. EPG Worldwide Readiness partnered with The Mosaic Company, a custom training and performance consulting firm, to connect with Microsoft’s Enterprise sales force in order to gauge the effectiveness of past readiness efforts. The pointed and direct response was clear — past readiness efforts to develop requisite skills and knowledge took too much time away from customers, and was difficult to transfer back to the workplace.

This feedback was consistent with studies that indicate formal training often results in only a 10% to 15% successful transfer of skills and knowledge to the workplace. With the anticipated CRM upgrade, and with the goal of increasing effective customer face time, a new approach was required.

Global audience — regional needs

Microsoft’s sales force is 6,000 strong. They face the classic challenge of a worldwide organization: to balance the economies of standardization with the flexibility that allows employees to meet the diverse needs of customers.

The readiness provided by EPG must take into account not only regional procedural variations; it also must accommodate the many languages represented in the Microsoft world community. English is the dominant language, but if readiness is to be effective it will also have to support the regional linguistic nuances in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.

Readiness — a moving target

Start with the challenges presented by taking readiness to the user and providing a solution to a worldwide audience. Then multiply this by the number of tools, processes, and initiatives that are undergoing constant change driven by the dynamic nature of the market.

But we’re not done yet. For example, in addition to using a specific CRM, Microsoft also provides its sales force with related tools that cover everything from providing additional functionality beyond the scope of the CRM, to productivity tools that enable the sales staff to update their accounts remotely and then re-synchronize their data when they connect to the network. Addressing the readiness requirements of several interrelated tools, sometimes down to the task level, let alone those associated with the processes, requires a solution that is flexible, adaptable, and scalable.

The solution

As an industry leader, Microsoft recognizes that learning is a crucial success enabler, and that readiness solutions must better enable users to learn what they need when they need it. Above all, the sales force needs a solution that adapts to their learning needs, and is delivered to where they spend a large part of their day.

This need drove the EPG Worldwide Readiness vision for real-time readiness as part of an integrated strategy with five components:

• Performance Analysis — defining competencies, identifying skills and knowledge gaps
• Real Time — providing immediately accessible readiness and support
• Structured Learning — instructor-led, e-Learning, blended learning
• Events/Resources — deployment workshops, different conferences, white papers, communities of practice, peer-to-peer, mentoring
• Evaluation — learning effectiveness framework to measure business impact

Distributed content model

Most of these components were established approaches, and already played a key role in delivering readiness to the field. However, we still needed to create and launch the Real Time component — referred to in this article as Distributed Content. This component specifically called for the design of information in discrete chunks, written in “natural language” (simple and clear terminologies familiar to everyday users) to enable rapid online consumption. It also specified the empowerment of users to manage their            own learning, as they need it in their natural environment and within their daily workflow.

The initial expression of Distributed Content was the implementation of embedded content within the CRM tool, as in a Help Files system (see Figure 1). This was in itself a breakthrough extending beyond typical industry readiness initiatives.

 

Figure 1 Siebel Help Screen with embedded content

 

But this approach by and in itself could not meet the readiness needs. The requirement was to provide the worldwide Enterprise sales force with readiness that:

• Leverages current technologies
• Is accessible online and offline
• Is found in the application where users spend most of their time, namely Outlook
• Is designed for effective, rapid online consumption
• Addresses the readiness needs from a global and regional perspective
• Is efficient and cost effective

No problem!

With little more than two months before deploying the upgraded CRM, EPG Worldwide Readiness continued its partnership with Mosaic to develop the application and associated content that is now named COMET (Content Object Manager Enterprise Terminal). COMET leverages the capabilities of SharePoint Portal Server, and is delivered either as an Outlook folder integral to Customer Explorer installation or independently configured as a folder within Outlook.

COMET within Outlook

In order for COMET to be successful, it had to meet certain requirements. First, it could not utilize custom programming. This may seem odd, given that its use and support would be by one of the leading software manufacturers in the world. But it was important to one of the authors of this article, Mahnaz Javid, that, while COMET would push the envelope as a learning solution, it needed to do so in a way that would not require special computing support. In fact, the requirements specified that COMET should use “off the shelf” technology so that Microsoft’s internal IT department (OTG) could support it. OTG supports the COMET server and database. This approach maximizes reliability and data integrity — critical factors for an application crucial to the EPG worldwide sales force.

It was also important that, though COMET might be accessible via internal portals or Web sites, it not be viewed as “just another portal or Web site or etc.” This was actually quite easy to accomplish. By tapping into functionality available through Share-Point Portal Server and Outlook, COMET’s folder-based navigational method is familiar to all Windows users. Moreover, the COMET search method is designed so that a search result is persistent — a user returns to the content page automatically rather than having to navigate back to the page.

It was also essential that COMET be available offline. Although Microsoft’s sales force is as connected as any sales force can be, they also need to have access to readiness material when not connected. This may be due to physically being unable to connect, for example in a cab traveling to a client meeting, or due to low-speed bandwidth connections that exist in remote areas of the world. COMET even has the capability of writing a compact disc for further offline use.

Figure 2 is a screenshot of COMET, wrapped within Outlook (see Figure 2).

 

Figure 2 COMET Welcome Screen

 

Delivering “natural” content

Delivering content in natural language is only part of the solution. People do not learn in a vacuum, but in the context of what they need to do to get their job done. The content therefore must communicate naturally and contextually — in other words, the content consists of concise, effective information that reflects where the user is in regard to the process and task at hand.

To do this, content display and meta-tagging indicate the relevant role, specific stage in the sales process, and tool used to execute the task. This results in clear reinforcement for users, and supports efficient searching by presenting content in work contexts. Figure 3 highlights the visual treatment of COMET content.

 

Figure 3 COMET display of Role, Microsoft Sales Process (MSSP) stage, and tool information

 

COMET views

One can also access COMET content through different views to meet a variety of learning and search preferences including Course, Task, Process and Tools. This makes content accessible in the way that is most intuitive to the user. The screen shot in Figure 4 shows the different views available to the learner.

The Course View makes the content available in a way that is familiar to many users. If a user wants to learn about a tool (CRM, for example), and how Microsoft wants the tool to be used, this view presents the content in logical assemblies of topics that build upon one another, organized and supported by curricula and course maps so the user can navigate easily through the content. COMET also provides a link to the learning management system (LMS) for those users who want to get credit for taking the course or courses. It is important to note, however, that feeding the LMS database is secondary to fulfilling the user’s skill and knowledge needs.

But what if the user just wants to know how to complete a task? Or maybe she’s developing a proposal in the Proof part of the sales process, but is unclear regarding what she should do to complete that part of the process — that’s where the multiple views of COMET provide the support necessary.

Task, Process, and Tool Views are made up in large part with Quick Guides — succinct instructions and templates that will guide a user very specifically through what’s necessary to do her job. Content organization provides just what is needed to minimize the time it takes to learn about the task, so the user can concentrate on doing the task.

But there are additional features such as direct search capability using key words which enable the user to search for content within COMET, content indexing to allow search alphabetically, and tips and simulations so the users can get help with those tasks — if they want it. The concept of giving the users a choice about the level of involvement, or even how much time they have to learn, is fundamental to the power and effectiveness of COMET.

The regional solution

COMET’s requirement of supporting the regional readiness needs of a global audience is met by providing a unique view — not surprisingly found under Regional Views. There, content prepared by the local regions, in local languages, provides the type of region-specific support that results in augmenting the consistency of a corporate solution with the specific implementation that reflects the needs of responding to the unique customer requirements.

For example, COMET provides guidance on how to create and profile a contact in France. Key fields to complete in Siebel, assigning the contact for marketing and security purposes, and managing communities through local forum attributes are all covered in COMET. This provides efficient job aids and support so it’s not necessary for employees to rely on memory or possibly get erroneous information from co-workers. (See Figure 5.)

 

Figure 5 Sample screen from French Regional View

 

Ensuring content quality and usability

In addition to organizing content in various work contexts, the design team paid careful attention to content quality, design, and usability. COMET content typically takes the form of Quick Guides, which consist of succinct, targeted, and formatted content for easy visual review and application by users. EPG Worldwide Readiness manages content collection, publication, and maintenance, and ensures design consistency, and instructional effectiveness.

Content development process

In practice, the COMET content development process is organic in that it is ever-evolving. The primary goal, however, is timely publication of readiness support for the tools and processes that drive sales worldwide. We cannot overemphasize the importance of this — if a user turns for readiness support to COMET and does not find what he needs, he will question the overall credibility of COMET. Good news travels fast, bad news travels faster.

To maintain content integrity and quality, subject matter experts in each of the specific readiness domains, in close collaboration with a readiness partner, generate the COMET content in the form of Quick Guides using simple templates. An information design expert reviews the guides to assure consistency of styles and design, and they are then published on a daily basis. The Home Page calls out new content on the left navigation bar to facilitate access to new information. A six-month review cycle, in which the content owners are notified to update content, maintains the quality over time.

The (evolving) template

A template is the primary tool used to accelerate the initial content development process. At first, a Microsoft Word template was used, but this has evolved into a Front Page template (see Figure 6), and InfoPath is currently being considered for use. The template is in three high-level sections.

 

• Metatag info (data that supports the content management process, such as indexing, creation date, content owner, etc.)
• Body (includes simple information architecture, like an overview, process steps, other resources, etc.)
• Common objects (these are common to all COMET pages. For example, buttons that support user feedback, printing, or the option for users to add a page to their favorites)

 

Figure 6 Sample content template

 

The subject matter experts focus their attention on completing the first two portions of the template (Metatag Info and Body). To expedite the content generation, content managers and designers organize content into identifiable types and consumable learning objects.

Once COMET resources receive the template, they ensure that the content is understandable at the new user level, that graphic formats are followed, and that advanced applications of information principles are applied. They also complete the metatag information; for example, notes that indicate the content should be reviewed after a specific time period.

This is one area where the ability to manage document creation and editing within a group via Share-Point Portal Server proved handy. The ability to set notification alerts, and have that entire process automated, fed the efficiency of managing thousands of pages of COMET content.

COMET — Driven by the need for speed and effectiveness

In practice, the COMET content development process adheres to a weekly schedule, where draft pages, submitted by Tuesday noon, go to publication by Friday. This means that the entire COMET content development process, including content reorganization, application of formatting and styles, and content management data, takes place between Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning. As was mentioned earlier, speed is the key to publication.

The other source of content is field employees, either suggesting content that reflects region-specific needs, or feedback supported by COMET’s automated feedback process. This ensures that COMET content reflects both the corporate information needs and those of the regions and users.

COMET also provides opportunities for learners to access other in-depth material (such as white papers) and Web-based training objects (such as simulations and animations). Providing a range of relevant resources keeps learning focused on driving outcomes that meet individual and organizational goals.

Evaluating the results

To ensure continual COMET content accuracy, relevancy, and currency, each COMET page provides users with the opportunity to rate its effectiveness. COMET ratings use a single rating scale and the following questions and responses:

“I expect to improve my job performance by applying what I learned on this page.”

1. Strongly Disagree
2. Disagree
3. Somewhat Agree
4. Agree
5. Strongly Agree

Benefits

Feedback from the field has been positive. In worldwide Train-the-Trainer sessions, COMET received a rating of 4.2 out of a possible 5. Here are some sample comments regarding COMET.

“EPG is deploying a new readiness tool called COMET — it is really excellent and will revolutionize how people get their content.” — EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Business Development Manager

“COMET content is solid ... it has what I need to deploy.” — EPG Business Manager

Preliminary field findings on COMET usability and adoption are also positive, and indicate that COMET is considered four to five times more effective in retention and transference to the job than just employing traditional readiness methods. The findings also indicate a significant reduction in training time. For example, COMET cut to four hours what an instructor-led course typically took eight hours to accomplish.

Feedback from train-the-trainer sessions

Table 1, below, summarizes feedback from Train-the-Trainer sessions conducted worldwide. In preparation for the rollout of the CRM software and related applications, trainers around the world had exposure to the various readiness tools they would have at their disposal — instructor-led training materials (Content/Materials), Web courses, and COMET resources — and they evaluated the overall learning effectiveness of this blended approach. This feedback shows the value of COMET from the perspective of field staff with firsthand familiarity with providing effective readiness training.

 

 

It’s important to remember that COMET, while an important and innovative part of the readiness solution, is not positioned as a solution unto itself. It offers the advantage of 24/7 availability, is part of the learner’s natural work environment, and is easily maintained to remain current and relevant, but it is only part of a comprehensive readiness strategy.

Access methods

In addition to accessing COMET through Outlook, users can also access COMET through several other methods. These include going directly to the COMET URL from tools such as CRM (typically through Help Files), and other support tools.

Next steps

EPG Worldwide Readiness and Mosaic are gathering feedback, investigating other content management efforts within Microsoft, and exploring additional ways to improve efficiency, consistency, and usability. For example, user feedback has prompted the development of an expanded set of visual icons that will allow users to identify quickly the type of content (Job Aid, Quick Guide, or Simulation) that is available through COMET.

Another specific area of focus is the automation of content collection and management. Current plans are to leverage InfoPath as a means to deploy templates that will provide a fundamentally sound information structure. These templates will support the collection of Quick Guides by enabling subject matter experts to regionalize content more efficiently. This will also automate content management processes, providing additional efficiency and improved management.

Our next steps include identifying ways to gather additional data regarding the usefulness of COMET content through the page evaluation method described earlier in Evaluation Methods, as well as getting feedback from field sales management, and investigating a “COMET Mobile” version that will enable sales staff to access COMET content using devices like phones and PDAs. The augmentation of COMET’s tracking and reporting capabilities is also of great interest to the EPG Worldwide Readiness team. The objective of this focus area is to ensure that COMET is able to provide region-specific, contextually rich reports on the users, the usage, and the quality of content.

Summary

Today’s work environment demands that workers adapt to change rapidly and are committed to continuous learning. Business leaders and leaders in the human performance field have been calling for new ways to meet the needs of learners. COMET is a compelling example of how technology supports real-time solutions that allow learners to stay productive while developing new skills and knowledge. COMET is a key component of a comprehensive approach that gives Microsoft’s Worldwide Enterprise sales force a “natural” readiness solution. Wrapped in Outlook and available offline, COMET is a solution that means improved productivity, increased customer face time, and, ultimately, increased revenues for Microsoft.

For all of its potential success as an application, it is important to recognize COMET as part of a coordinated solution that includes all components of EPG’s Worldwide Readiness Strategy. Based on a solid audience analysis and developed within an aggressive schedule, COMET blends technology with leading-edge instructional design and human performance improvement practices to provide effective just-in-time readiness support.

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