BT: Social Learning Solution

Together with reduced costs, greater impact on customers and employees, and an enhanced corporate culture, BT is well on the way to high performance.

BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services, operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services; local, national and international telecommunications services; and broadband and Internet products and services. In the United Kingdom, BT serves more than 20 million business and residential customers, and provides network services to other telecommunications operators. BT employs approximately 100,000 people and is a Fortune 500 company.

BT wanted to move from a traditional telecommunications company to one focused on software and services, with customer service acting as the prime marketplace differentiator. This required BT to invest in significant and targeted learning programs, thereby enabling it to retrain and enhance the skills of its workforce. BT was also determined to unlock the potential of the learning and development that takes place in the everyday work environment, outside of a traditional classroom setting.

The knowledge its people required to do their jobs resided in multiple locations and needed to be accessible through structured learning events as well as informal collaborative interactions. By creating an environment for continuous, networked learning, BT sought to achieve its workforce transformation goals.

Accenture hosted an innovation forum with BT to explore options for optimizing the connection between knowledge management, collaboration and learning. Of the technologies discussed, BT found Microsoft's Podcasting Kit for SharePoint solution most intriguing. This solution would use existing technologies and investments and align with BT’s knowledge management and collaboration strategies.

This podcasting technology would allow BT employees to learn from each other through podcasts, discussion threads, blogs and RSS feeds, as well as traditional knowledge assets such as documents, courses and portals. By quickly identifying and using high-quality content, the discovery of experts becomes easier and the learning experience becomes more personalized and social.

Accenture worked with BT to complete a proof-of-concept project named “Dare2Share.” Accenture focused on understanding how the BT culture, organizational structure, work practices and policies might help or hinder the success of this new technology. Avanade, a majority-owned company of Accenture dedicated to Microsoft technology, was engaged to provide the technical skills to deliver the proof of concept.

Participants in the proof­-of-concept project were supportive of the solution. BT built on this success with a larger pilot program, followed by full deployment to all employees. The original business case estimate predicted total efficiency savings of more than £8 million ($12.8 million) and by the end of the pilot period the project was on track to beat this estimate by 53 percent.

In addition, BT expects Dare2Share to contribute the following benefits to its workforce:

Reduced costs

• Reduced training cost (less travel and less formal classroom training).

• Less coaching time required and accelerated access to answers and experts.

• Less time in re-inventing or re­developing the same ideas and best practices.

Greater impact on customers and employees

• Improved customer service levels.
• Accelerated innovation and improvements.
• Rapid take-up of new software, methods, products and policies.

Enhanced corporate culture

• Higher employee engagement.
• Increased desire to develop the talent of others.
• More productive and frequent sharing, collaboration and networking.

Dare2Share’s contribution to learning at BT is evidenced by receipt of the prestigious 2008 eLearning Solution of the Year award at the World of Learning Conference and Exhibition. Sponsored by Learning magazine, the judges sought a solution where learning is delivered via any e-media that can be accessed by a computer and which achieved real results.

With the help of Accenture, BT is proving that learning is a key driver of high performance and an enabler of business transformation.