A newly acquired division of Toshiba streamlined their employee training with the OpenSesame content marketplace.
A blend of cultures
Joyce Holmes, Global Manager for Learning and Development for Toshiba Global Commerce (TGCS), started the process of selecting a Learning Management System (LMS) and curating new elearning content she faced a steep challenge. Toshiba had just purchased the new division and was experiencing a typical, but massive obstacle of such a large acquisition: providing learning content that met the needs of a workforce spread across 40 different countries.
Finding one LMS vendor with global reach
In building out their L&D program, Holmes faced the typical difficulties in selecting, organizing, and implementing digital training materials, but with the added complexity of curating and managing content in different languages. In addition, she wanted to select an LMS that would make it easy to navigate between courses and manage any updates from one place. According to Holmes, the new division had different technologies in place for performance, specific learning courses, and HR compliant courses.
“We needed to give raw, brand new content at an economical base out to our employees.”
Joyce Holmes, Global Manager for Learning and Development for Toshiba Global Commerce
Broad, high-quality content in one place
Holmes was determined to streamline operations by working with just one company––rather than engaging with a multitude of LMS vendors and content providers. “I was the only HR learning and development person in the Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions (TGCS) division,” she says. “When I joined the company the learning state, put bluntly, was nonexistent.”
A comprehensive course library to meet the needs of a global company
OpenSesame’s catalog contains more than 35,000 off-the-shelf elearning courses from industry-leading content publishers, covering the categories that organizations need. Toshiba was able to take advantage of certification courses–on the right topics and with enough depth to assist employee development initiatives. OpenSesame was also able to support Toshiba’s more specialized needs that extended beyond currently available courses. “They have actually sourced content for us when we needed customized content,” says Holmes.
Solving global integration issues
With OpenSesame, Toshiba has also been able to integrate training and development of existing talent of new team members. When the Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) division added 3000 employees, Holmes needed to economically serve new content to those employees. This division was using a different LMS, but OpenSesame content was able to integrate across the different platforms until they were able to consolidate. “We are using OpenSesame to build synergies within the two corporations,” says Holmes.
“The results, so far, have included more courses, expanded relationships, depth of information, and language.” Between the diversity of content available to global employees, including job-specific certifications and language training, and the ongoing technical support, OpenSesame streamlined content curation processes and course management at Toshiba. “OpenSesame has been one of the most successful and easiest teams I’ve ever worked with in my life,” says Holmes. “And I spent almost seven years in procurement, so that’s saying a lot.”
“When I came across OpenSesame, they gave me easy opportunities to work with one company and find content throughout the world”
Joyce Holmes, Global Manager for Learning and Development for Toshiba Global Commerce
Speeding publication of high-quality content
Since the implementation of the OpenSesame solution, the new Global Commerce Solutions division at Toshiba has seen impressive results. “I’ve been able to release a tremendous amount of content to my team and they’ve been able to access it very quickly,” says Holmes. “The OpenSesame team has also helped us build our first leadership program, transitioning people from the old company into the new Toshiba program.” She states they were able to launch, measure and iterate their new program quickly, while continuing to develop their L&D strategy for the broader organization.