Sony deploys Extended Enterprise Knowledge Portal for dealers, resellers and customers

Sony are leaders and innovators in developing market-leading broadcast, professional and business solutions.

The Challenge

To deliver high-quality product training across the Sony Professional market

Sony wanted to develop a high-quality training solution to deliver product knowledge to their dealers, resellers and customers. Sony’s key objectives were to:

• Increase access to training through a cutting-edge learning portal that entices users to get involved and find out more about Sony products
• Create a highly interactive learning experience to encourage take-up and knowledge retention
• Improve the proficiency of using or installing Sony Professional products through a range of engaging ‘how-to’ training
• Measure success and improve dealer account management through automated tracking and reporting.

Solution: High-quality, Totara-based Knowledge Portal

Sony needed more than a website with some product information pages. A training solution was required, with the ability for users to track their learning and for Sony to review the progress of their learners while tracking the popularity of courses published to the site. The ability to quickly and easily access e-learning, record face-to-face training records and gain Sony certification for completed modules was key.

All this had to be delivered in multiple languages for a cross-European roll-out. Totara Learn was identified as the perfect fit for this range of functionality, cost-effectiveness, great usability and ability to present a high-quality, Sony-branded experience. Sony was the 100th company to use Totara as a LMS solution.

Secure systems integration

Another important requirement was to interface with other Sony customer relationship management systems, including the pro.sony website, Eloqua and Salesforce. This enables Sony to build a profile on its customers, measure how engaged they are and deliver targeted training they want to complete. Kineo worked with Sony to create a robust and highly secure sign on environment enabling users to log into the Knowledge Portal with the same credentials as the pro.sony website.

Being able to easily identify learners activity on the site has given Sony valuable insight into the content people are interested in and has enabled them to work harder in delivering targeted training.

High-quality rapid e-learning with Articulate

Due to the need to regularly release training related to product updates and new products, Sony identified e-learning as an essential part of the Knowledge Portal. Sony needed to be able to produce and roll out high-quality e-learning rapidly.

Together Sony and Kineo identified Articulate Studio as the ideal authoring tool to use. Kineo provided the tool, Sony-branded templates and training and Sony are now proficient at producing e-learning content in-house, all accessed through their Totara portal.

The Results: Great partnership, great platform

This was project with many parts: an LMS implementation, complex systems integration, rapid e-learning content authoring, capability training, European rollout, campaign materials and ongoing support.

The project has been a resounding success. Sony have a feature-rich learning portal, with the ability to maintain this in house and develop their own e-learning content going forward.

The Knowledge Portal has a large and growing base of repeat users who enjoy using the site. Sony have monitored the usage of the site and user feedback to observe what has worked well and less well, and worked with Kineo to continually improve the service.

“Sony decided e-learning was the only way we could keep up with the training demands of our customers. Kineo were instrumental in advising on the range of learning management systems on offer and provided the technical expertise to customise this to our requirements.”

“Identifying that we would need upskilling to produce interesting and engaging e-learning content, Kineo also provided a training service to our in-house team of trainers. We are still working closely with Kineo to enhance the site, bringing new features and fresh designs to the Knowledge Portal.”

Try it yourself

The Knowledge Portal is a publicly available service. Create an account and try it yourself at pro.sony.eu/training.