World Wide Technology, Inc (WWT) is the leading electronic procurement and logistics company in the information technology industry. WWT specializes in helping its customers to rapidly build and deploy their IT infrastructure in an on time and cost effective manner. With the use of internet technology, WWT client's customers can purchase a wide range of products from different manufacturers on-line by using their web-based applications and software.

World Wide Technology currently has 440 employees, and is consistently being rated one of the fastest growing companies in the St. Louis area. They first entered into a relationship with Business Training Library in May of 2000 as a level ten member of both the Business Skills and IT Lending Library. Within two months time, demand had grown high enough to justify an upgrade to a level 20 membership and then another upgrade in November of that same year. When they renewed their contract in May of 2002, they'd earned four (4) Free levels thanks to the Member Rewards Program and are currently a level 29 member. How have they become one of Business Training Library's largest clients? Read on!

Challenge:
Before WWT joined BTL, they provided employees with external computer classroom training that related directly to their job and CBT courses that they'd purchased on their own. Their technology vendors, Cisco and Sun Microsystems, provide them with training specific to their products. They also use AAIM The Management Association, a local employers association, for their leadership and sales training. WWT found that the expense of classroom training and maintaining a full-time training staff limited their ability to meet all of their training needs. For their situation, they felt it made more sense to invest in outside resources.

Solution:
World Wide Technology's goal was to increase their training offerings but not increase their training budget dramatically. The Lending Library seemed like a great fit. The library offered a way to extend training to all of their employees and expand the training that was already being offered. "We've really been smart about how we use our training dollars. Total training costs have gone down since the addition of the library. It's allowed us to really maximize those training dollars," states Ann Marr, Vice President of Human Resources.

Each department manager has been given the freedom to develop his or her own training program. How they use the resources available to them varies from department to department. Everyone has access to the library from the WWT intranet site. They have a training folder on the site that announces when and where internal training classes are being held and includes a link to the Business Training Library catalog.

The finance department, in particular, has been a strong library user. Sharon Robertson, Manager of Accounts Receivable, enjoys gathering her team together in the afternoon to review and discuss library videos. She'll watch the program herself first. Once she decides on the best video, she generally selects an afternoon in the middle of the week and invites her team to the session. She provides them with snacks like ice cream bars or popcorn. They start the session by watching the video and then discussing afterwards. At the end, she hands out test questions covering the material. Oftentimes she will use the test questions from the accompanying leader's guide or she will develop her own questions. For each question her students get right, they earn a "Moolah" dollar. Each quarter her team gets to cash in their "Moolah" dollars for gift certificates, lottery tickets, etc. "They absolutely love it! I try to make learning exciting for them, and it works!" says Sharon.

The finance department also uses the library as part of their performance review and career development process. Future training needs are always addressed in the review process. The department managers begin to address a problem area by suggesting courses from the library. After the completion of a course, they report back to their manager and review what has been learned and how that knowledge can be applied to their career. Ann says, "It's really helped employees move from point A to point B. Employees get excited to learn because they know it's taking them somewhere."

Benefits:
Ann Marr states "Business Training Library allowed us to take our program one step further and offer training to everyone. We now have various training options available for all levels of employees. Our departments embraced Business Training Library immediately. We couldn't keep up with the requests! We were ready to upgrade right away."

The addition of the library to their training offerings allowed them to offer training to more employees AND allowed them to cover more topics. They were able to dramatically expand their soft skill offerings. They still use a computer training center and AAIM for their classroom training but they love the idea that they can borrow additional training resources from the Lending Library. Plus, WWT has a number of employees that work offsite and they have more than one location. The library is a convenient way for them to gain access to the training they need without having to come into the office or be taken off a job to attend classroom training. "We really didn't want to limit our employees to one type of training. Regardless of how they learn, they have to be able to keep up with changing technologies to stay competitive, particularly in our business. Training gives us that edge and it keeps good people around!" reports Ann.

Conclusion:
Although one might generally think that a company like World Wide Technology would focus on technical computer skills, Ann says, "Soft Skill training is really important to us. Technical know-how can only get us so far. Our people have to be able to communicate that knowledge to both our external and internal customers." In today's economy those skills are more important than ever. "Technology companies have been hit hard over the last couple of years. We're here and winning today, thanks to the diversity of what we offer to our customers and to our employees. Our environment is conducive to success. Training is a big piece of that pie."

"The response from employees has been great," states Stacey Parmeley, Human Resources Coordinator and point person to the library. "They've really appreciated this opportunity to grow their skills and the company has reaped the rewards. We attribute this success to Business Training Library's affordability, flexibility and convenience. It's really worked well in our environment."