With dedicated data to long-term growth and better forecasting
Quality “made by STIHL” is a core brand promise that dates all the way back to 1926. Since then, the one-man operation founded by Andreas Stihl in southern Germany has blossomed into an international mechatronics company.
Today, STIHL is the world’s top-selling chainsaw brand. The company employs over 20,000 people and has a presence in 160 countries across five continents.
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How to share decades of knowledge
All STIHL tools, whether chainsaws, lawnmowers or hedge clippers, are high quality, safe and easy to use, and built to last. Therefore, many people keep their STIHL tools their whole life and have them serviced and repaired at their local specialised dealerships.
Consequently, employees at the 50,000 dealerships worldwide must be able to repair any older model at any time. And to enable that, employees and sales partners need access to detailed information on all STIHL products. This information needs to be in digital form, quick to access, and available worldwide.
One learning platform for all
STIHL needed to ensure staff could access its product and service training courses at any time, from anywhere worldwide. So, in 2020, the company decided to implement the learning management system (LMS) developed by imc AG.
imc business consultant David Jost advised STIHL on the implementation of the imc Learning Suite. “The fact that STIHL is structured into several national operating companies posed a particular challenge,” he says. “Between them, they had six different systems that now had to be migrated in standardized form to our LMS. Hence, we had to discuss the requirements in great detail and run through a range of scenarios.”
STIHL e-learning and training manager Leandra Deininger was the customer contact for this project.
“We also attached huge importance to delivering a quality learning experience,” she says. “We wanted all users – from internal STIHL staff to dealers – to be able to find exactly the learning content they need, quickly and easily. And for that, the system had to be simple and intuitive to get to grips with.”
Better forecasting thanks to learning analytics
After the global rollout of the system and the progressive retirement of the legacy systems, STIHL intends to go a step further. It wants to put its data to work. This is where the imc Learning Platform’s learning analytics dashboard functionality comes in. It can be used to visualize learning success.
As David Jost explains, this is about more than tallying up the number of courses completed. Or even calculating average training hours. It’s about providing answers to questions like the following:
- How can we enable our course managers to make sound decisions based on solid data?
- How can we enable learners to achieve optimal learning?
- How and in what way do professional development courses contribute to corporate objectives?
Once you have answers to these questions, learning programmes can be aligned with long-term corporate strategy. The impact of this corporate learning on achievement of the corporate strategy can then be visualised using learning data.
Not just good – a Meisterpiece: How Jägermeister combines LMS and Blended Learning
Established as a vinegar factory and wine trader in the Lower Saxony town of Wolfenbüttel in 1878, the company launched its first herb liqueur under the name of Jägermeister in 1935. The secret recipe comprising 56 herbs remains unchanged from those early days.
Mast-Jägermeister SE grew from a small family business to an international organisation, and is now in the fifth generation of family ownership. In 2020, the company recorded global sales of 89.6 million 0.7 litre bottles, now selling the main product Jägermeister in more than 150 countries.
Jägermeister has around 1000 direct employees. Resellers and external distribution partners around the world add to the large number of people requiring training.
Top-quality training in line with the brand
Before corona, Jägermeister took a rather traditional approach to learning and knowledge-sharing. In most cases, new employees, distribution partners and resellers were invited directly to the headquarters in Wolfenbüttel to help them learn about the brand and understand it better. There, they would receive all the necessary training on the products and get a feel for the brand.
Yet, even before the pandemic, it was clear that this system needed to be optimised, and Jägermeister started to look into procuring a learning management system (LMS). Professional training courses in e-learning format were also on the wish list back then.
The range of training to be covered by the LMS, individual learning nuggets and web-based training (WBT) went beyond the offering for external distribution and trading partners. For instance, different target groups from apprentices and trainees to the CEO needed to gain an in-depth understanding of e-commerce.
At the same time, a coherent and strong brand image that all employees identify with is a top priority for Jägermeister. Therefore, the learner experience was considered crucial.
A blended learning journey masterpiece
Jägermeister decided to use the imc Learning Suite as its learning platform. The well thought out extended enterprise scenario in combination with the clear module structure was a major deciding factor in favour of imc. The Learning Suite also scored with its customisable configurability and great system reliability.
Simply sharing knowledge is not enough – it also has to be packaged right to reach all target groups and meet their needs. To this end, imc created a sophisticated blended learning scenario for Jägermeister.
Kathrin Heidler, Instructional Designer at imc, analyses the collaboration with Jägermeister: “What set the project apart is how complex it was. A blended learning journey embedded in classroom training, web-based training, performance cards and our BizQuiz is far from routine – even for us!
We were really able to go all out with this project. It was great fun helping to design such a complex project using a large variety of techniques.”
Learning that doesn’t feel like learning
The feedback for the initial platform tests was all positive. Users were especially taken with how the e-learning content triggered an emotional response. The consensus among the employees: Once you log in to MeisterAcademy, the training courses don’t feel like learning. The direct integration of LinkedIn learning courses was also received very favourably, as it gives employees an even greater choice of courses.
Philipp Terstesse, Manager Global Trade Marketing at Jägermeister, summarises: “Our goal was to create a learning experience that takes a new approach and motivates learners. The learner and employee experience were extremely important to us.
We firmly believe that our digital ambitions go a long way towards shaping the future of our brand. We are thrilled to have a strong partner in imc who will stay by our side as we embark on this journey into the future together.”
Hunger for Knowledge: Ensuring a Successful LMS Rollout
DoN: a best practice case study
DoN is Austria’s leading privately owned catering company. The name DoN comes from food entrepreneur Josef Donhauser, who founded his first catering business back in 1992.
His motto was “Tailored taste” – a principle that inspires the companies in the DoN group and their 2,000-strong workforce to this day.
The DoN group has garnered success in many areas, including contract catering, travel and lounge catering, and event catering. Its successes also include several restaurants and the well-known “fresh casual” brands VAPIANO and Fat Monk.
Implementing a new learning platform: First impressions count!
During the pandemic, DoN, like many companies, realised that the days of exclusively in-person learning and professional development were over. But the existing open-source solutions were no longer sufficient for the increased demand. The situation called for a learning management system (LMS).
At the same time, DoN was looking for a solution for quickly generating high-quality learning content. A technology that was easy and intuitive to use. A product that allowed all employees – whether kitchen hands, restaurant chefs, on-board service personnel, or logistics staff – to access exciting learning content from any device, anytime.
Cross-organisational collaboration and motivation, with quizzes, chocolate, and imc Express
DoN quickly found the right learning management system: the imc Learning Suite, courtesy of imc Austria.
But the project managers at DoN, Petra Kügele and Martina Riepl, soon realised that a learning platform on its own was not enough. After all, what’s an LMS without content?
Petra Kügele explains: “The LMS was ordered in October 2022 and was rolled out six months after that. But we knew, even before the rollout, that we needed to actively get our people on board. We didn’t want to simply implement a system and then leave the employees to deal with it on their own. We need to keep the workforce highly motivated about learning and professional development, so we wanted an overall communication package.”
DoN was also looking for an easy-to-use authoring tool that supported the independent and rapid creation of learning content. The idea was to be able to integrate new content into the system on a regular basis. And the new imc Express authoring tool fitted the bill perfectly.
A textbook LMS rollout and sustained employee motivation
DoN was very clear about its goals. It needed to have specially created content ready and available in the LMS the minute the latter was rolled out. It wanted to build up curiosity among its employees so that they were hungry for the learning content and would remain positive about the rollout.
To achieve these goals, the project team put together a coherent overall communication package. It also worked closely with other departments, such as HR and marketing.
The project team actively engaged with the employees at their places of work. They showed them the initial results. They explained the idea behind the platform and what blended learning and the pre-existing features were all about. And they handed out branded “stress heart” key rings featuring QR codes, leading to a quiz created using imc Express. As well as humorous anecdotes, this quiz served up an array of fun facts about the DoN group. For example, do you know how many metres of pasta VAPIANO produces? (Answer: 40.5 km of spaghetti and linguine daily.)
This combination of personal workplace outreach, branded give-aways, and networking across various departments meant that the employees were extremely favourably disposed towards the LMS even before its rollout.
All the hard work paid off. DoN’s employees could have been annoyed about the new system – a common response to change in the business world. But they weren’t. Instead, they were excited about it, and they are highly receptive to new learning content. The project team also produced explanatory videos on the LMS – using imc Express – and made them available in the system.
It’s a true success story, as Martina Riepl explains: “People are even asking when we’ll be uploading the next content into the system. That shows our strategy has paid off and that we’ve established positive framing around professional development here at DoN. And we’ll be working to make sure it stays that way!”
With chatbot and WBT to the
trade fair
Villeroy & Boch is one of the leading premium brands for ceramic products worldwide. Founded in 1748, the family business based in Mettlach, Germany stands for innovation, tradition and abundance of style.
As a renowned lifestyle brand, Villeroy & Boch has a presence in 125 countries with its bathroom, wellness and fine tableware products.
Fit for the leading trade fair
The ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch needed to train around 400 sales representatives worldwide for a trade fair. Each employee attending the fair had to complete mandatory virtual product training so they would be able to present the new products.
The greatest challenges were:
- Time pressure: training had to be complete by a certain date
- Ensuring mandatory participation
- Subsequent testing of learning success
- Catering to different ages with different e-learning skills
Virtual product training
Two different web-based training courses (WBT) were created for the predominantly technical products. For all other new developments a chatbot was developed.
The chatbot was filled with short learning units aka learning nuggets, each taking 3 minutes to complete. Each participant moved through different topic areas and product training units.
Each employee arriving for the trade fair was required to complete these training courses in advance and demonstrate in a test that they had understood the learned content.
Delighted customers
The training received a strong response and achieved high levels of acceptance. Employees provided extremely positive feedback.
Villeroy & Boch therefore plan to work with equally innovative, digital training concepts for future trade fairs.
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Advanced training for service technicians
around the world
BSH Hausgeräte AG is the biggest domestic appliance manufacturer in Europe and one of the leading companies in the sector worldwide. The group’s main brands are Bosch and Siemens.
In addition to its eight special brands catering to individual consumers, BSH also serves selected home markets with the regional brands Balay, PITSOS, PROFILO and Coldex.
The product portfolio covers the full spectrum of modern household appliances
Adapting training content to
local standards
Global growth of the product portfolio, employee numbers and geographical coverage made it necessary to rethink the professional development concepts used by BSH.
The goal was to adapt the training content to local learning habits in the different countries to fill any gaps in the knowledge of the service technicians in each location. BSH’s intent was to achieve uniform training standards so that customers around the world would enjoy the same high-quality service.
It is of great importance to BSH that service technicians anywhere in the world are able to service appliances, repair them if necessary, and offer competent and professional advice to customers within a short period after the launch of a new product. Moreover, practical training on appliances was to be introduced locally.
What was missing was a modern, multinational professional development concept with a homogeneous database that allowed easy administration of face-to-face training and flexible implementation of tailored online training in real time.
Global professional development platform
for 10,000 technicians
Following an in-depth market analysis, the professional development administrators at BSH decided to implement a learning management system by (LMS) by imc, the “Learning Suite”. They called it the “BSH Learning Universe”.
With this global professional development platform, more than 10,000 BSH service technicians in 50 countries can quickly and easily access the training material tailored to the specific country and use it to support their daily tasks. Easy administration of face-to-face training, reliable assessment functions and reporting round off the solution.
What’s more, the blended learning approach facilitates lasting efficiency gains for the face-to-face training. This saves the technicians up to 20% in training time, while significantly reducing administration costs.
EUR 10 million in savings
The results speak for themselves: Since the LMS was introduced, service technicians have been saving around 20% in training time, which is equivalent to EUR 10 million in total.
Moreover, learners loved how flexible the platform is. The LMS by imc is capable of implementing tailored requirements for each country. This involves more than just using the right language: Basic knowledge relating to fundamental topics like maintenance and repair and customised training on new regional products also differ by country. The “BSH Learning Universe” precisely addresses the requirements and needs of the service technicians at the different locations.
“The imc Learning Suite is highly flexible and adapts to our requirements. The LMS not only covers our need for product training: We also use the system for our health training. Above all, the intelligent training booking processes make our work a lot easier. Since we implemented the LMS, Excel list administration is a thing of the past!”, Peter Tolaini, BSH Learning Universe Administrator, UK sums up.
