Written by: David Allara

I cannot tell you how many times I have witnessed a training session on how to use newly installed AV or ICT systems be little more than a quick run through of pressing a few buttons and referencing a user manual. What a waste of time! The audience is completely disengaged and there is no sense of purpose.

In order to get the most out of the new technology investment you want to train the users based on “real life scenarios” that they can relate to. Let me provide some examples of how the konnectus trainers have delivered training to our customers.

“User Training must be customised and highly relevant to the people that will use the new technology”

We designed and managed the installation of two operation control centres for a large mining company. One was is Brisbane Australia and the other in Pune India. During the project delivery we learned all about the specific workflows in each centre, which meant we could customise the training sessions around simulating those exact scenarios. The operations team were thus able to embrace the new AV and ICT solutions and use them immediately in their day to day duties.

One of the four major accounting firms did their homework and made the decision to build a customer experience centre in Sydney Australia. It is used by the staff from different divisions of the business to work closely with key clients in a dynamic, hands on and collaborative way. We built technology solutions to realise their vision and then provided very specific training over a period of months to groups of staff and some of their customers. We showed them how to use the new hardware and software systems to get the most out of their sessions and this translated into stronger customer partnerships and significant increases in revenue.

A final example is a leading insurance company that underwent a transformation of its workspaces around Australia. The company had a goal of encouraging its staff to communicate more using video conferencing technology. However, previous experiences using video conferencing had not been positive. Staff found it to be unreliable and hard to operate. The konnectus team delivered systems that were extremely reliable and simple to use – literally one button press to get started! In this case the training was quite simple once the staff could see and experience how easy the new technology was to use. The hard part was convincing them to be open minded in the multiple training sessions we conducted!

Key Takeaways

1. Consider using a professional expert for the User Training that knows how to teach people. A “technical” person is not always best for training as they are not always the best communicators.

2. The User Training is much more effective when it applies “real world scenarios” to using the new technology systems and solutions. This is much more effective and ensures a high uptake in use of the new technology.

3. Always ask your vendor to provide “advanced technical” training for a small group of support staff. This enables the organisation to handle first level support internally, which can save significant time and money.