Maturity Evaluation Benchmark Davis Corporation Mark Bishop Davis Corporation is a top 15 global company in terms of employees and

revenue. There are over 200,000 employees. I am 10 management layers from our CEO. Our industry is very fast paced, so if employees do not continually update their skills they will become outdated within three to five years. This makes training very important.

ADMINISTRATIVE Corporate management is responsible for our training policies. Overall corporate policies do not make it to the individual workgroups, so administrative policy on training and educational technology is typically uncoordinated and unproductive. Policy Behavioral: Island The issue with training at my company isn't one of capability; it has amazing educational technology resources. It is one of willpower. The company allots the average worker in my department minimal time for training on improvement for their job, or for any other work they might need to do. I work for a very large company, so it is likely that this is an issue only with selected groups. The company leaves training in the hands of group and department heads, so the overall effect is uneven. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated One big issue here is that there is no structure for company training policy to be integrated between the many, many different business groups. Planning Behavioral: Island The planning on the resources available is integrated, but the planning on the use of the resources is broken up. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated The resources available show a high level of planning on the part of the corporate learning department. Budget Behavioral: Island The budget for the resources is integrated, but the budget for employee time is broken up. This, of course, is the biggest issue. Another large issue is that they do not refresh the courses often enough, which is essential in a technical environment.

Resource/Infrastructure: Island The budget for the resources is integrated, but the budget for employee time is broken up. This, of course, is the biggest issue. Administrative Information Behavioral: Integrated Information about technology based education resources and how to use them is centralized and easily available to all employees and they are consistently taught how to use them. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Sufficient resources have been applied to build a fairly robust infrastructure to deliver administrative information. The company uses email and websites to deliver information about mandatory and optional training resources. CURRICULAR There is a large amount of curriculum available to the employees. Some forms of it are current, and other forms are outdated and no longer useful. Electronic Information Behavioral: Integrated The information is abundant and varied and is expanding by the day. Unfortunately, the courses are becoming outdated. Books 24x7 does a better job of maintaining more current books. However, in my experience, multimedia courses are much better at teaching technical skills than books are. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated The information is abundant and varied and is expanding by the day. Unfortunately, the courses are becoming outdated. Books 24x7 does a better job of maintaining more current books. However, in my experience, multimedia courses are much better at teaching technical skills than books are. Assessment Behavioral: Island Many of the mandatory courses require that the student complete an assessment, both of their skill level and of the information. However, it is relatively simple to game this, and the feedback given on the course is usually pro forma. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated There is a mechanism for both assessing the students learning, and the course ratings, and for preserving those assessments. Curricular Integration Behavioral: Island There has been substantial work done on the curriculum by analysts in my area. Progression plans are in place for analysts to

achieve a basic level of competence. There is a weekly meeting in which additions or changes to this curriculum are discussed. Unfortunately, this is not linked into development of the individual for long-term learning or career planning. So curriculum is integrated at the group or department level, but does not link into the much larger overall corporate picture. Resource/Infrastructure: Island There is no apparent mechanism for our group's curriculum to integrate into something that would prepare our group for larger contributions to the company. Teacher Use Behavioral: Integrated Trainers in my company are obligated to use technology to train. There are too many people to efficiently reach without technology. Also, we are a technical company and this obliges us to use technology in our training. Resource/Infrastructure: Island/Integrated There is substantial investment in infrastructure. However, much of the infrastructure is old. Many of the latest techniques in using technology in training are becoming dated. For example, flipping the classroom has not been used by the company in training even though it would be ideally suited for our need.

Student Use Behavioral: Island Students are obligated to complete mandatory training (there is always a government requirement behind this training) and these trainings are always delivered through technology. Beyond mandatory training there is an extremely low use of training materials. For example, I have never seen or heard of any other employee who has used an elective technology resource, of which there are many. Resource/Infrastructure: Island This breaks down along the same lines of mandatory versus elective. The mandatory training is usually urgent, in that failing to complete it can have an immediate negative impact, if the government audits us. The elective can have a much larger effect on growing the business because our employees would be more capable.

SUPPORT

Support for internal technology, in general, is spotty. This is because of cuts to the support budget. One way that I have seen this impact us is in reporting. When tracking mandatory training, management almost always has numbers that are out of date because the database tracking technology is many years old, and does not work in real time. Stakeholder Involvement Behavioral: Island We do not have traditional stakeholders such as student's parents, or voters. We do have shareholders, but they are not involved in this in any meaningful way. We are not unionized, so it is difficult for the employees to make their voices understood. For example, on the latest survey the employees indicated that they would value additional training so that they could improve their technical skills. Management responded by stating that from now on, all employees would receive 40 hours of training a year. Unfortunately, that includes mandatory training, of which there is likely 40 hours per year, and which we were already completing. Therefore, training which would enhance skills and productivity is still not utilized. Resource/Infrastructure: Island There is no mechanism for stakeholders to have a place at the decision table. Administrative Support Behavioral: Island Administration tracks closely who has completed mandatory training, but does not support skills enhancement training at all. Resource/Infrastructure: Island The capacity for support exists, but is not utilized. Training Behavioral: Island Trainers are not given training in using technology. But they do not need much training in the use of technology, given that they are subject matter experts in technology. However, they could use training in effectively using technology in their teaching. Resource/Infrastructure: Island/Integrated The trainers have access to the same resources as everyone else, some of which includes training in providing training. Technical/Infrastructure Support Behavioral: Island Our support staff has been cut drastically in the last 6 years. In speaking recently to someone who provides internal IT support, internal IT feels that they do not have the staffing to successfully maintain our systems, let alone expand our technical abilities. Resource/Infrastructure: Island

Again, there are not enough people to support as large an infrastructure as is found at my company. CONNECTIVITY Connectivity is not an issue at all, currently. However, in the future, as data usage goes up in every aspect of life we will find our network out of date. Local Area Networking (LAN) Behavioral: Integrated There is more than enough in terms of networking and access to computers. Hardware and networks are at a level that most educational units, outside of the Ivy League, could not currently match. However, in terms of how we relate to other businesses in our industry, we are falling years behind in our technical abilities. Currently, this doesn't have too much impact. Long term, it will have a much stronger negative effect. Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated District Area Networking (WAN) Behavioral: Integrated Same as statement for LAN behavioral Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Same as statement for LAN behavioral Internet Access Behavioral: Integrated Same as statement for LAN behavioral Resource/Infrastructure: Integrated Same as statement for LAN behavioral

Communication Systems Behavioral: Island Communications systems include email, and messaging. Both are substandard and need substantial investment to be brought up to business needs. Resource/Infrastructure: Island Communications systems include email, and messaging. Both are substandard and need substantial investment to be brought up to business needs. INNOVATION We do not innovate in terms of educational technology. This is due to budgetary decisions, not lack of capacity.

New Technologies Behavioral: Island We are consistently 5 to7 years behind in our internal application of technology. This has to do with budgeting for today instead of tomorrow. Resource/Infrastructure: Island We are consistently 5 to7 years behind in our internal application of technology. Comprehensive Technologies Behavioral: Island We have currently sufficient hardware and network resources, aging (but copious) curriculum and software, disjointed and contradictory management. Largely because of our management issues we are not comprehensive in our use of training technology. Resource/Infrastructure: Island The infrastructure to have an excellent training and development program exists, but is not effectively utilized.

Overall Summary:
I would rate my companys use of educational technology at the Islands level. There are pockets of success, but in general we live far below our privileges. Administration Corporate management is completely responsible for our training policies, but the overall corporate policies do not make it to the individual work groups. The work group executives are left to come up with their own policies, so corporate policy on training and educational technology is typically uncoordinated and sometimes unproductive. Curriculum There is a large amount of curriculum available to the employees. Some forms of it are current, and other forms are outdated and no longer useful. In general, it is the curriculum that we outsource which is most current. This is a serious problem, because our industry changes rapidly and requires constant learning. I have conducted a wide survey of our curriculum and it is easy, because of the subject matter and publishing dates to determine how current our curriculum is. Support Support for internal technology, not just educational technology, is spotty. This is because of huge cuts made some years back to the support budget. One way that I have seen this impact us is in reporting. When tracking mandatory training, management almost always has numbers that are out of date because the database tracking technology is many years old, and does not work in real time. We have difficulty implementing newer technology because of our internal IT constraints.

Connectivity Connectivity is not an issue at all, currently. However, in the future, as data usage goes up in every aspect of life we will find our network out of date. Video will likely be the main driver of increased data usage. Without necessary investment this could inhibit our use of video for training purposes, and could become a competitive disadvantage. Innovation We do not consistently innovate in terms of educational technology. This is due to budgetary decisions, not lack of capacity. Many of these issues may seem to be more related to training in general, and less about the educational technology used in delivering the training. However, in business training use has a large effect on further training development. If we cannot show a high level of use of the training technology the company already provides, management will likely not continue to fund improvements and development to training technology. As in so many things, it becomes a case of use it, or lose it. However, this is s perhaps a catch-22. This is because management does not put in place policies that permit the use of our training resources. This is because management is in a difficult spot because of the intense pressure they are under to consistently hit their numbers for Wall Street so training gets cut from the budget. Unfortunately, this weakens the companys workforce and impacts in the future our ability to compete. I see deterioration in our educational technology abilities. Whereas a great deal of effort was put into developing training 8 years ago, relatively little has been done since then. This is a serious issue for two reasons. First, it makes it hard to retain productive employees who are hoping to further their careers. Second, it makes it hard to produce the products that succeed in the marketplace. Ignoring training and the technology that can enable it is ignoring a source of competitive advantage.