As part of its effort to stay competitive, Office Furniture executives were shopping for a way to keep dealers in touch with the latest industry trends and developments in a less expensive and time-consuming forum than having them travel to the Pelham, Ala., headquarters for periodic training. Also, employees had to devote considerable time away from their jobs to participate. At first, Office Furniture tried to develop its own Web-based training program as it built other pieces of its intranet and extranet. During development, however, the company came upon products from Centra Software Inc., a Lexington, Mass., company that specializes in Web-based training and collaboration products. In addition to providing basic text and graphics on dealer operations or new promotions, the software allows the import of PowerPoint presentations and other documents as well as real-time correspondence via audio or instant messaging.
Participants can interact with the instructor hundreds of miles away.
We will be far less hesitant to schedule a meeting or a training session at virtually no cost to the dealer. After a beta test encompassing about 10 Texas dealerships, the product now has about 60 concurrent users. By the first quarter of next year, Sweetapple expects to have the software available for 300 concurrent users. The potential applications are limitless, from Web-based training to online sales meetings, and Centra and some other vendors are starting to tap the market. There's nothing more boring than sitting at the end of a conference call.