Cytec Industries Employs an Application Service Provider (ASP) for Their Global LMS Strategy

Overview

Cytec Industries, Inc., a global manufacturer of specialty chemical and materials products, needed to replace 25 disparate learning management systems (LMSs) located at company facilities across the globe. These “islands of information” prohibited a global view of all training investments taking place throughout the company, and slowed the pace of rolling out new learning initiatives. Cytec Industries needed a new approach to their learning management process.

This case study describes how Cytec Industries defined their requirements, planned the implementation, and completed the migration of their system and also demonstrates that organizations can replace an existing LMS with little or no downtime, and, that changing LMS vendors does not need to be an overwhelming, time-consuming project. The LMS implementation practices followed by Cytec Industries should be considered by any organization investigating a centralized approach to their LMS strategy.

About Cytec Industries, Inc.

Cytec Industries (Cytec) is a leading specialty chemicals and materials company. With over 4,500 employees worldwide, Cytec serves a variety of markets including aerospace, plastics, industrial coatings, mining, and water treatment. The company provides training on a variety of technology and business skills to its hourly and salaried employees.

The Business Challenge

Cytec Industries provided e-learning to their salaried employees through another LMS for several years before moving to Learn.com. As long as their e-learning offerings were elective, their legacy systems met their needs. However, this solution was only appropriate for salaried employees—about 45% of the employee base. For the other 55% of the employees, the functionality of the existing LMS was insufficient.

The decision to begin offering e-learning to hourly employees necessitated a move to a new LMS, which needed to be more flexible in the way it provided learning to its global employee population. Multilanguage interfaces and the ability to customize the system by site and region are two examples of the expanded capabilities needed in the new solution. Driven by the need to serve 100% of its global workforce, Cytec conducted an extensive search for a state-of-the-art learning management system.

In addition to the LMS operated by Cytec U (the company’s moniker for their corporate university), the regional offices in 27 countries around the globe had more than 25 separate learning tracking and cataloging systems in place. These systems ranged from paper-based systems, spreadsheets, and homegrown databases to a hosted, web-based LMS. This decentralized learning management model cost Cytec not only time and money, but resulted in a great deal of inconsistency in the reporting of training.

The majority of training operations at Cytec are conducted and managed by local manufacturing sites, where the majority of employees are located. Each individual site was able to track and report information, but, without a centralized LMS, Cytec was unable to provide senior management with a global view of training effectiveness.

A lack of global oversight also led to a redundant, inefficient use of resources. The company discovered that they were using multiple vendors for the same training programs and recreating the same material across locations.

Defining Short-term and Long-term Project Goals

To address their challenges, the Cytec project team defined the following short-term objectives that guided the project:

• Ensure that training was completed and documented.
• Eliminate gaps in training.
• Reduce duplicate creation of training programs, thus, increasing program consistency.
• Migrate the site-specific, global, and corporate information into Cytec U.

In order to accomplish these goals, Cytec needed a global, Web-based training delivery and documentation system that could

• Interfaces in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, and Norwegian)
• Multiple delivery formats (instructor-led, online, procedural documentation)
• Ability to delivery, manage, and track the effectiveness of compliance programs across all locations

With input and guidance from senior management, the team developed a long-term implementation vision based on the following objectives:

• Increase user adoption.
• Merge organizations and cultures.
• Track and audit training compliance.
• Introduce new training methods to Cytec employees.

Vendor Selection

After narrowing an initial pool of 30–40 vendors down to 13, they were ready to send out the Request for Proposal (RFP).

The key needs for the LMS system were described in the RFP as follows:

• To provide a reliable, hosted, web-based training delivery and documentation system for Cytec employees globally.
• To provide a system that establishes multiple employee designations for easy creation of employee profiles, needs assessments, and training schedules.
• To provide a training system that meets applicable Cytec and regulatory requirements for content and application.
• To provide a platform that can incorporate both company-wide and site-specific Web-based courses and instructor-led training courses.
• To create multiple standardized reports for both external and internal audits, course completion, and test scoring.
• To provide a user-friendly, “one-stop” interface for employees, managers, and administrators.

Two vendors were selected for the final evaluation. These chosen vendors were then asked to deliver an in-depth demonstration of their respective solutions, focusing on ease-of-use, flexibility, instructor-led training coordination tools, and more. Ultimately, the LearnCenter platform from Learn.com was selected because it best addressed Cytec’s detailed product requirements, was highly scalable, and provided Cytec with a cost-effective deployment model. © Bersin & Associates 5 February 2005 Licensed Materials, Not for Distribution

One of the key decision criteria was Learn.com’s highly configurable “drag and drop” user interface and business logic. Cytec created a completely customized learning portal without any programming. Its ease-of-use and flexibility enabled Cytec’s training administrators around the world to manage their training business according to their local needs and languages.

Solution Implementation

The implementation team, comprised of Learn.com and Cytec members, established the following implementation goals

• Provide managers, directors, and employees with compelling reasons for change: better, faster, more cost-effective learning.
• Ensure that the system is user- and administrator-friendly.
• Break the project into manageable tasks.
• Set deadlines, and track and communicate progress.

The team then identified solutions for each of the long-term goals set by senior management:

Table 1: Mapping the Project to Long-term Goals

Seamless User Adoption

Cytec realized that gaining the support of the user population would be critical to the success of the new LMS. To ensure rapid and widespread user adoption, they built a deployment excellence strategy into their long-term implementation plan.

Upon launch, Cytec provided each salaried employee with a user name and password. Each employee also received a letter with instructions on how to use the system. To facilitate the education/training process, a phased approach to curriculum availability was used by periodically providing a new series of training programs and content via the LMS. In this way, users were continuously brought back to the LMS for critical training.

Program Results

Thousands of courses are now available through Cytec U. According to the Cytec’s manager of education, trying to compare the old and new systems is like comparing apples to oranges. The old system only tracked the 2,100 salaried employees who each averaged 2 to 3 voluntary courses per year. The new system now manages the entire workforce, an additional 2,400 hourly employees. Hourly employees have an average of 20 to 30 required training events per person, per year. In contrast, these training events are assigned to the employee, and are often required by a regulatory or governmental agency. This demand alone represents an 11-fold increase in system usage over the previous learning management system.

Prior to installing the new system, the company’s process for complying with mandatory training was cumbersome because it was completely manual. Employees acknowledged that they received and understood new processes by filling out paperwork. Now, the entire process of communicating new regulations and tracking employee acknowledgment (that they read and understood the training) is automated.

Cytec can now easily produce training compliance reports. One of Cytec’s plants in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee reported that the time spent on administrative tasks related to reporting has been reduced by 50% since rolling out LearnCenter. The company has put together best practice programs and disseminated information using standard LearnCenter platform tools. According to Cytec, the LearnCenter platform standard reports allow a great deal of flexibility and are easy to use.

Cytec believes they have selected a system that will grow with their future LMS requirements. The manager of education indicated that the flexibility, ease-of-use, and high level of end-user control meant there was less risk that the system would be unable to grow with them. During the LMS selection process, the LearnCenter platform was differentiated by its ability to empower customers to do most of their own administration, course development, and reporting.

Lessons Learned

This case study illustrates how a flexible, state-of-the-art learning management system can have a significant impact on an organization’s ability to adhere to policies and procedures, and reduce traditional administrative tasks and costs.

Key lessons learned include:

• Create a strong business case. Cytec’s business case was tied directly to the company vision, mission, and key business directives. As a result, the decision to move forward with a new LMS was more about business needs and the speed of learning, and less about dollars and cents.
• Clearly defined requirements are critical. Cytec’s diligent requirements gathering process paid off in the end. Learn.com proved to be the right choice, given the extensive list of capabilities and flexibility required by Cytec. Unsuccessful system implementations can often be avoided by simply choosing the right partner.
• Get executive buy-in early and have periodic updates. The strong and constant support from senior management ensured a high level of user acceptance.
• Identify an LMS that addresses compliance requirements. Cytec employees can be notified of a new procedure, read the procedure, receive any training necessary, and confirm transfer of knowledge without ever leaving Cytec U—all with a fully automated workflow.

About the Author, Bersin & Associates

Bersin & Associates is the only research and consulting firm solely focused on What Works™ e-learning research. With more than 20 years of experience in e-learning, training, and enterprise technology, Bersin & Associates provides a wide range of services including market research, best practices, vendor and product analysis, corporate workshops, corporate implementation plans, and sales and marketing programs. Some of Bersin & Associates innovations include a complete methodology for learning management system (LMS) selection and application usage, an end-to-end architecture and solution for training analytics, and one of the industry's largest research studies on blended learning implementations. Bersin & Associates can be reached at http://www.bersin.com or at (510) 654-8500.