To support Avaya's business priorities from a learning perspective, Accenture planned to deploy its integrated design, development and delivery processes, and roll out its patent-pending business interlock methods for aligning learning activities with Avaya's business strategy.
The first task at hand was how to transition an entire organization from one operating model to another. As part of the outsourcing agreement, more than 200 people from Avaya's original training organization became Accenture employees. Because of their subject-matter expertise—their knowledge of Avaya policies, products, services, delivery channels and sales approaches—these employees were critical to maintaining continuity of service. But this kind of organizational change is always challenging to the employee population to be transitioned. One employee recalls, "A change like this involves much more than just the 'working' side of a person. The work itself, in fact, may be the thing that changes the least. What you think about is the change in colleagues, in culture and in all the day-to-day presumptions by which you may have interacted with people for years."
Accenture's deep experience in change management helped the transitioned Avaya workforce and their Accenture colleagues to "hit the ground running." An Accenture methodology, called Transition Services, helped move people into new roles with a deeper understanding of the new operating model, including tools, processes, role definitions and performance measures. The methodology focuses in particular on ensuring that all understand their new roles, and it demonstrates a commitment to the workforce and attention to their concerns. Covering areas such as communications planning, leadership and career management, Accenture Transition Services is a key to achieving high performance through an outsourcing transition.
In less than four months, Accenture put in place both content and structure to enable learning solutions to Avaya employees; in six months, end-to-end learning services were available to more than 50,000 learners across the globe, including employees, business partners and customers. Over the course of the first twelve months, as Avaya deployed the most new products in its history, the sales, service and channel workforces were prepared to help the company drive toward high performance.
A proven learning operating model deployed by Accenture—covering content development, delivery, infrastructure and alignment of learning with the business—was one of the keys to build a successful outsourcing relationship. This model included:
Content Development
A Course Development Center of Excellence, created by Accenture, has enabled a structured design and development process for solutions ranging from instructor-led training to high-end, Web-based solutions. Accenture and Avaya conducted a thorough evaluation of existing curricula for the company, analyzing the relevance of content to business requirements, the degree of focus on desired employee behaviors and the appropriateness of media to cognitive level. The team then established curriculum requirements, and enabled the achievement of those requirements through rapid creation and migration of content.
An innovative program developed as part of the relationship with Accenture has been the establishment of the Avaya Professional Certification program, developed and managed by Avaya University. This program has strengthened the Avaya brand globally and continues to enhance the ability of Avaya channel partners to deliver on customer expectations, from Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and messaging solutions, to integrated contact center applications that enable world-class customer support.
Content Delivery
As an acknowledged leader in technology-delivered learning, Accenture helped Avaya lead an aggressive drive toward blended learning—combining electronic courses with classroom and individualized coaching. Prior to the outsourcing relationship, 80 percent of Avaya's classes were instructor-led. Accenture put in place plans to migrate increasing portions of content to online channels, giving employees and channel partners access to learning wherever they are and at their own pace, with online support from instructors who monitor their progress and achievements. An instructor certification program was put in place by Accenture to improve the effectiveness of classroom instruction.
With nearly 50 percent of training now conducted online at Avaya, a blended approach to delivery has made learning more flexible and effective, and has cut down on time away from the office. Instructors have gained the freedom to contribute what experts uniquely do— solve problems by analysis and by applying judgment. With blended learning, students use online training to understand product features and capabilities, and they work with instructors in the classroom to develop more advanced diagnostic and troubleshooting skills.