Best Practices in Implementing a Responsive Training Program

1. April, 7 2004 Best Practices in Implementing a Responsive Training Program

2. Speakers Bill Vaughan Customer Support Supervisor Laura Anne Plummer Course Developer

3. Agenda

4. Objectives • Understand Training ‘Return on Investment’: Vertex vs. Industry Standards • Review the Vertex Career Path model • Realize how Vertex responds to Individual Staff Development plans in real time • Appreciate how the Training Department responds to Product Support Training needs • Comprehend the methodology involved in creating responsive training • Understand the application of development and delivery methods in the real world

5. Return On Investment

6. What is the investment? Benchmarking standards

7. What is the investment? Vertex vs. Industry *Total does not include tuition costs

8. Call metrics are equal to or greater than the call center average PSA is comprehensively trained in tax, product, and support tool knowledge Customer satisfaction rating is increasingly higher What is the return?Vertex

9. Decreasing the costs of training • Implementation of new training methods including: • On your own exercises • Coaching program* • WebCasts/CBT’s • Attending external customer classes* • * 61% reduction in instructor-led training time

10. Increasing the value of training • At the company level, the implementation of new training methods results in the following: • Reduction of training time for PSA • Reduction of need for training resources At the product support level, streamlined training courses decrease… …ramp-up time to phone (Vertex 6-10 days) …facilitation time (Vertex 1-2 days) while increasing internal customer satisfaction.

11. The Vertex Career Path model Skills Assessment And Career Path

12. Career Path perspectives Corporate Support Department Employee

13. General Characteristics Career Paths Competencies Learning Maps Assessment Tool Career Path model

14. General Characteristics General characteristics Individuals serving in the Customer Support job family … Individuals in this job family must have a solid understanding of …

15. Career Path

16. Competencies Competencies

17. Thoroughness: Reflects an underlying drive to reduce uncertainty in the surrounding environment. It suggests a detail orientation directed at minimizing efforts and keeping tasks and responsibilities clear and on schedule. Example(s) Of How You Have Demonstrated This Behavior Manager's Comments Development / Action Plan Expected Proficiency Rating Employee View Manager View Client View Consensus View Assessment Tool Assessment tool

18. COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITIES OTHER SOURCES OF DEVELOPMENT RECOMMENDED TRAINING IT Tools/Utilities: Knowledge of IT technology tools and utilities. Able to research new products, determine which tools and utilities are most applicable to the design, administration and management of applications. Meet with a Web operations support manager. Ask what tools and utilities they use to support, monitor and tune their web applications. At a detailed level, find out what problems they have had and what were the causes. Books: Web Performance Tuning by Killelea, Patrick (1998) Web Performance Tuning hits the ground running and gives concrete advice for improving crippled Web performance right away. For anyone who has waited too long for a Web page to display or watched servers slow to a crawl, this book includes tips on tuning the server software, operating system, network, and the Web browser itself. Courses: A course for those who want to learn more about space management, user management, data security, and backup and recovery. The course should include understanding the potential for failures and how to recover and restore databases for maximum performance; archiving; managing users, assignment of privileges and database security. These courses will be, for the most part, mainframe vendor specific. Check their websites for classes. Learning Maps Learning maps

19. Career Path process • Identify Requirements of Existing Role • Identify Short and Long-Term Goals • Create a Certification Task List • Determine Review Criteria • Progress Checkpoints

20. How do we practice the Career Path? • Monthly One-on-One Meetings • Items Discussed • Path Forward • Achievements • Future Objectives • Performance Reviews • Promotions

21. “Real World” example Response To Staff Development Plans

22. Product Support analyst to Product Support specialist Product Team Membership Escalation Resource Provide Workgroup Leadership Transition from Operational to Strategic Advanced Product Knowledge Level 1 Level 2

23. Negotiation Skills Team Training Effective Business Writing Additional Technical Skills Product Team membership skills

24. Conflict Resolution Social Styles Listening Skills Communication Skills Escalation resource

25. Mentoring Skills Leadership Training Presentation Skills Provide workgroup leadership

26. Effective Business Writing Strategic Orientation Project Management Strategic Operational Transition – operational to strategic

27. Development and delivery from the Training group Responsive Product Training Program

28. Vertex’s education program Vertex’s education program includes: • Dedicated product course development and delivery • HR employee development training • Additional course training • Tuition reimbursement

29. Vertex product release cycle Beta Release Product Specifications General Release (Major) Product Data Collection Minor Releases

30. Product Team Membership Material Development Self-Directed Instruction Dedicated Product Training group Product Training Components Training Training Delivery

31. Product team involvement Training Developers are members of software product teams from the time of initiation. Responsibilities Meeting Attendance Training Design Specification Project Plan Support Training Liaison Training Group SME Team Member

32. Self-directed instruction The course designer’s primary responsibility is to know the product’s functionality. Product Design Specs Meet with BSA Practice Application Documentation Designer

33. Training material development During the development process, design specifications are converted into training deliverables. Create Case Studies Review Templates Create Training Guides Create Job Aides Create Self Study Guide Create Presentation Instructor Notes Required Optional

34. Training delivery for product support • Beta Release (X.X) • Product Support Training • General Release (1.X) • Forum • Product support training • Train the trainer sessions • Minor Release (1.1.X) • Web Cast • Major Release: (2.X) • Same as above • Web Cast

35. Does training work? Course Assessment

36. Training Filter Course Assessment process Training Course Assessment Exercises Call Quality Assessment Pre/Post Tests Course Effectiveness Knowledge Transfer Peer to Peer Monitoring 30/90 Day Review Final Course Exam Student Survey Ride Along Sessions Event Driven Survey Non-training Related Barriers

37. Course effectiveness • Exercises • Guided practice • On-Your-Own practice • Case Studies • Pre/Post Tests • Pre-test results • Post-test results • Final Exam • Must obtain at least 93% • Student Survey • Instructor assessment • Material assessment • Topic assessment

38. Survey Ride Along Sessions Event Driven Survey Peer-to-Peer Call Quality Knowledge Transfer assessment

39. Training filter A 30 and 90 day Product Support Analyst review is used to evaluate the analyst’s ability to perform specific job tasks and filter out non-related training barriers including: • Ineffective work tools • Poor management • Time constraints • Personal motivation

40. Troubleshooting training Case Study: New Product Release

41. Advances in the fields of tax and technology created a demand for Web services products, which can be integrated with existing financial systems and properly calculate a variety of business taxes. The product release is scheduled for the end of the 4th quarter. Product support must be trained on troubleshooting techniques before the beta release. Case study scenario New Tax Product O Series

42. Training needs analysis • Training must include the addition or improvement of the following troubleshooting skills: • Programming Languages – XML, JAVA • Platform Requirements – Web Services • Database Requirements – Relational DB • Product Functionality – O Series • Tax Specifics – Value Added Tax, Consumer Use Tax

43. Training response New O Series Skills Product Training Department Human Resources Department Product Functionality Tax Field Specifics External Courses In-house courses O Series VAT CUT WS DBA XML JAVA

44. Product training deliverables Courses for O Series Human Resources – Pre-product offerings • In-house programming language courses • Advanced programming courses • External Oracle DBA certification • External course – Web Services Training Department – Modularized Product Offerings • Overview • System Administration • Sales Tax • Consumer Use • Value Added Tax • Integration Specifics

45. Streamlined Training - reduction of cost Courses for O Series Human Resources – Pre-product offerings • In-house programming language courses – 2 day company-wide offering • Advanced product training – product development supplement • External Oracle DBA certification – 2 individuals/group • External course – Web Services – 2 individuals/group Training Department – Modularized Product Offerings - • Overview – ½ day instructor-led • System Administration - ½ day Instructor-led • Sales Tax – 1 day instructor-led • Consumer Use – 1 day instructor-led • Value Added Tax – 1 day instructor-led • Integration/Platform/Architecture Specifics – 4 day instructor-led/SME adjuncts