It’s a small world

The evolution of distance learning at Buckman Labs

As Buckman Laboratories has expanded both in size and geographical dispersion the company’s training strategy has developed simultaneously. Stephen Bennett describes the evolutionary process and reveals how the organisation is reaping the benefits from the investment it has made in e-learning facilitation.

Most people would regard e-learning as a relatively new technology that has been developed to offer an alternative to classroom-based training. However there are some companies that have been using forms of e-learning for over a decade now. One of these companies Buckman Laboratories provides an example of a training strategy that spans half a century.

Buckman a provider of chemical treatment technologies has used a variety of training solutions since 1945 and as the company has grown globally its training strategy has developed with it. Buckman has partnered with Click2learn which has worked with Buckman to design shape and facilitate a successful learning solution. From on-the-road training to a sophisticated global online communications network the Buckman story provides an insight into a truly evolutionary learning strategy.

Training needs

Buckman Laboratories is a provider of chemical treatment technologies and services to companies in more than 100 countries worldwide. Headquartered in Memphis Tennessee Buckman employs 1 350 people and has 22 offices in 19 countries. Buckman’s raw materials and finished products are used in a number of industries including pulp and paper water treatment agriculture wood leather and coatings. The company’s expertise spans a broad range of speciality chemicals including microbiocides scale inhibitors corrosion inhibitors polymers dispersants and defoamers.

This is a highly-technical industry with many new treatments and technologies developed each year. The research staff of scientists engineers and technicians utilises the most advanced instrumentation and analytical techniques. Not limited to the laboratories application research is continuously conducted in the field through the efforts of technical specialists. The chemicals sector is fast-moving and highly-competitive placing pressure on those working within the industry to be prepared for change and keep constantly up-to-date with the latest developments standards and technology.

This presents a significant communication and training challenge which in itself was exacerbated by Buckman’s growth globally. Buckman found that as it expanded its global presence and started opening local offices around the world and employing more field workers it needed to find a way to keep these local units up-to-speed and provide them with mission-critical company and sector information.

“As globalisation hit and we began to expand it became obvious that we needed to address the issue of our global communication and training strategy ” says Sheldon Ellis vice president of the Bulab Learning Centre. “With our industry being so technical it was essential that we adopted some means to provide regular training and industry updates to each of our employees across the globe.”

Learning solutions through the decades

Like most companies Buckman started out with a very basic approach to training and communication handling the flow of information with meetings. In the 1950s Buckman implemented a technical managers’ meeting once a year as well as a biannual strategy planning meeting. These company meetings covered the latest news in research and development subjects as well as providing an update on where the market was going. The overall nature of these meetings was to give Buckman employees a crucial update on the company but as it began to grow and the market became more competitive it was obvious that a more regular and focused learning strategy was required.

By the 1960s Buckman set about implementing a foundation to knowledge sharing across the organisation. The ‘idea trap’ introduced a new method for Buckman employees who when on location would note any ideas concepts or essential information into official idea trap notebooks which they would then share with their team. The meetings and the idea trap continue today but in the 1980s Buckman felt the necessity to once again overhaul its approach to regularly updating employees.

Historically Buckman had used globe trotting mobile industry experts/trainers who were employed to solve customer problems and train local associates. They were often on the road for three to four weeks at a time. This strategy sufficed until the company outgrew it as more workers were dispersed around the world and it became more difficult to deliver up-to-the-minute training. It was taking far too long to get the trainers out on the road to visit individual fieldworkers. It was a waste of time and money and was proving ineffective; often by the time the trainer reached the employees and delivered the training materials they were virtually obsolete.

The next decade saw the competitive market hotting up. In the early 1990s many of Buckman’s competitors were beginning to aggressively expand on a global level. They began to set up offices in new territories where Buckman perhaps only had one or two fieldworkers. With an established office they could provide their entire workforce with the resources and infrastructure that comes with it including training. Buckman felt that the only way to gain a competitive advantage was to provide a better speedier training service and to achieve this the company needed to implement an improved knowledge transfer and training solution.

Pioneering knowledge sharing

Buckman’s most significant aim was to create a climate of on-going learning providing the ability for staff to proactively pursue knowledge and access training and information anytime anywhere. Buckman’s use of global email and laptop computers began in 1988 but this one-to-one form of communication could not effectively leverage the knowledge of the entire company. Buckman believed that a culture change was needed to share best practises and knowledge develop an effective learning organisation and create unlimited opportunities to allow employees to realise their full potential.

The solution was a global electronic communications network called K’Netix which was designed to be used as a worldwide resource by Buckman Laboratories’ employees. Developed in 1993 K’Netix was one of the first internet-based learning systems. It enabled Buckman to provide worldwide access and allowed users to download information and work offline. Employees were able to share knowledge electronically and better serve their customers’ needs. Initially combining Buckman knowledge with electronic forums bulletin boards virtual conference rooms libraries and e-mail K’Netix enabled Buckman personnel to collaborate closely with one another without having the traditional barriers of time zones or geographical location.

K’Netix gave Buckman unlimited access to expertise experience and resources in more than 80 countries. The learning network put the knowledgeable experts at all levels of Buckman’s organisation in touch with each other encouraging group problem solving and the sharing of new ideas and knowledge. The network provided open unrestricted communication among Buckman experts and the free exchange of ideas. This culture was critical in helping Buckman to find innovative solutions to meet customer challenges as well as develop products in anticipation of future needs. It made the application of innovation easier.

Partnering for success

As well as providing an effective knowledge hub Buckman’s goal with K’Netix was also to provide industry-specific training. In the same year as developing K’Netix Buckman started working with Click2learn to build diskette training which created a consistent level of training that could be regularly deployed to all employees. The diskette courses contained generic company material as well as learning materials on specific technical matters including the microbiology of customers’ systems and training on how Buckman products worked.

Buckman initially provided two-week training boot camps; the first week to bring all employees to a common level of understanding on complex technical solutions and the second week to provide more specific training. It was soon realised that this would prove more successful if a 13-week diskette training module replaced the first boot camp week so that all employees would be equally up-to-speed before attending the camp. This system of diskette training enabled the latest courses to be accessed by all employees however widely located. The only limitation of using diskette-based training was that employees in particular the salesforce needed access to real-time information. Once the diskettes were created and sent out they quickly became out of date. In a highly-technical sector where the turnover of products and technology is subject to constant change it was essential that Buckman found a system that would enable the provision of real-time information and courses on technical terms new products and critical industry data. Buckman soon realised that a revolutionary system was needed to enable employees no matter what their geographical location to tap into and access mission-critical knowledge.

A virtual learning centre

Buckman’s clients started looking to them for a new level of service. Previously they had only required Buckman’s expertise when a problem occurred but now as the industry developed they required on-going support and systems management. This had a knock-on effect on Buckman’s training requirements as more staff now needed access to training on all Buckman solutions so they could properly manage clients’ needs. So in 1997 Buckman incorporated a product-based e-learning programme into K’Netix – the Bulab Learning Centre. Buckman felt that by creating an online learning centre staff could access anytime anywhere real-time information that was consistently available.

Using Click2learn’s authoring tool ToolBook II Instructor tailored company courses were developed using knowledge from the online forums hosted on K’Netix. The authoring tool enabled Buckman to easily convert its in-house experts’ knowledge into content-rich courseware that sat alongside product and systems courses.

Buckman also wanted to introduce another level of training to provide detailed orientation for new and existing employees. It felt the best way was to make experts available by e-mail to all staff thus pioneering an online mentoring service. This was designed to provide employees with rapid access to subject experts that would be available to help quickly turn around problems. To accompany this Buckman also arranged recreational time for employees to meet the online experts so that a better working relationship could be established to further improve results.

The Bulab Learning Centre went operational on 1 June 1997 with the aim of delivering these internal courses. The centre included career-planning tools and training management courses allowing employees around the world to easily access the learning centre from their own desktop. Whether taking an online course browsing through books and documents or reserving a seat in a lecture Buckman employees could tap into a vast range of learning resources. The Bulab Learning Centre deployed 9 000 hours of multilingual learning to 1 350 associates in over 100 countries in its first full year of operation. The centre promoted a culture of knowledge sharing and provided each associate with the resources needed to be successful. Critical information was able to reach the sales office as and when needed providing better customer service as it freed up the sales force enabling more time to be spent with clients.

Working with Click2learn

Although Buckman immediately saw the success of the Bulab Learning Centre and staff found the training very useful it was proving to be an administrative and management challenge. Buckman wanted to keep track of who was using which courses so that the company could develop personal training plans and also reduce the time spent on the administrative task of updating the system with new courses. Click2learn was able to develop a management product fitted around Buckman’s management requirements. Buckman began looking for a solution that would handle the management and distribution of all knowledge and training dramatically reducing administration efforts. The company needed a solution that enabled it to manage both the online and offline materials that now resided in the Bulab Learning Centre. At the time most of the workforce did not have powerful internet connections and were limited in what they could download. It was therefore vital that offline capabilities were present within the learning management system. Ingenium 3.0 was created and soon updated to 5.0 incorporating more sophisticated online management capabilities. This offered Buckman an integrated system for offering and managing e-learning content as well as instructor-led classes.

“We needed to simultaneously deliver the same high quality product training to all of our employees anywhere in the world whether in Indonesia or here locally in Memphis ” says Ellis. “Because Ingenium is skills-based supervisors can sit down with their staff one-on-one and map out a career path based on the specific skills that will make each employee successful. This career mapping approach motivates the individual to take responsibility for their own career development.”

Ingenium 5.0’s ability to offer learners a catalogue of every type of training and to maintain a complete record of training outcomes was critical to Buckman’s strategy. “We find that e-learning is a great way to get learners to a common knowledge level making time in the classroom more effective ” adds Ellis. “Having recently updated to version 6.1 we can now take advantage of a collaborative environment that enhances the user’s learning experience through the support of colleagues and mentors.”

Training success

Having truly evolved from annual update meetings to a global network of immediate training and knowledge transfer Buckman is a great example of an e-learning organisation. More than simply transferring knowledge around the company more quickly the knowledge hub has improved the speed of response and ultimately helped win more customers. Concepts can be easily shared and innovative ideas brought to fruition. Employees working in the field have really felt the impact that Buckman’s knowledge and learning centre has brought as is evident from Ellis’ words: “One of our representatives in Malaysia was working on a competitive pitch against one of Buckman’s main rivals. The competing company had a local office and had all of the necessary resources to develop a complex proposal at their fingertips. Our representative had little time and had to think on his feet to turn around a proposal. He entered a ‘plea for information’ into one of the online forums stored on K’Netix and within 24 hours had reports references and trials from around the world and was able to develop the proposal in record time and successfully win the business.”

With cases such as this Buckman believes that true distance learning is the delivery of the classroom to the student without the restrictions to time and locality. By providing the resources for individuals to take on responsibility for their own development Buckman is reinforcing its beliefs that knowledge sharing and training should not be the responsibility of one person; it should be permeated throughout the organisation. It is thus part of the planning team’s mission and is among the day-to-day activities of many employees throughout the company.

As Steve Buckman CEO of Buckman Laboratories puts it: “Companies who create the position of CKO or CLO are probably kidding themselves that one individual can be responsible for this function when it really has to be the focus of the top management.”

Buckman has also benefited from the increase in revenue streams that has occurred since implementing K’Netix. The company’s global knowledge sharing has allowed Buckman to increase the percentage of sales from newer more profitable products. Even recently when the profit rates of these products had slowed down Buckman found that it was not the actual products that were generating revenues but rather the skills in managing entire projects. The culture of knowledge sharing has not only affected product innovation but also the value of skills. The company’s staff has become so knowledgeable employees are almost acting as consultants and this is all down to business strategy a knowledge sharing culture and aggressive training programmes.

“We did not implement e-learning to cut costs but to efficiently deliver. In fact the more training involved the greater the costs ” says Ellis. “The greatest cost savings of online learning are in reducing the necessity of having Buckman sales staff in a classroom instead of in front of the customer where they add the most value. We would not have been able to educate as many employees as we have and therefore be able to offer the service to our customers that has helped us become one of the global leaders in this sector.”

Stephen Bennett is vice president (Europe) at Click2learn. He can be contacted at: stephen.Bennett@click2learn.com