Microsoft



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| |Microsoft Academy |

| |Microsoft Sales Force Uses Social Computing to Share Expertise, Drive Sales |

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|Microsoft sales professionals couldn’t find the time to attend the online sales and technology courses offered by |

|Microsoft Academy because they are on the road all day, visiting customers. They needed a convenient way to consume|

|information that they could integrate into their daily lives. The Academy used Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server|

|2007 to create a social computing environment called Academy Mobile, where sales representatives create and share |

|podcasts. Academy Mobile helps drive sales excellence by facilitating the exchange of shared ideas, innovations, |

|and best practices. |

|overview |

Country or Region

United States

Industry

Manufacturing—High tech and electronics

Customer Profile

Microsoft Academy is an Enterprise Knowledge Management business that offers online, community-based learning to Microsoft field representatives. Thirty-four people work on this team.

Business Situation

Many sales professionals in the field did not have time to listen to the Academy’s online courses and webcasts. They needed snippets of information that they could download on the go.

Solution

The Academy created Academy Mobile, a podcasting solution built on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 that sales reps use to create, share, and consume peer-generated content.

Benefits

▪ Increases knowledge shared within Microsoft

▪ Fosters innovation

▪ Harnesses people’s potential

▪ Builds a supportive sales community

▪ Improves customer service

Situation

Keeping 30,000 Microsoft sales professionals around the globe connected to the latest technical and sales information is a daunting task. It is even more difficult to foster peer-to-peer communication. Microsoft Academy already used collaborative, Web-based technology to create and deliver online courses and facilitated webcasts, but for many sales representatives in the field these were still not quite adapted to their work style.

Ludovic Fourrage, Group Program Manager at Microsoft Academy, heard that sales professionals like Mike Gannotti, a Senior Technology Specialist in Durham, North Carolina, were looking for new ways to integrate Microsoft training into their busy lives. “I’m never in one place long enough to finish an Academy Focus course,” Gannotti says. “I don’t need a week-long course on Microsoft SharePoint technologies. I need quick, snappy tips and tricks to assist me with my job.”

Other sales professionals were frustrated by their inability to share ideas or to search for peer expertise within the company. Microsoft Service Line Architect Dave Coplin needed a better way to help 60 strategy consultants across the United Kingdom share best-practice information. “Beyond conversations in the hall, or phone calls, or e-mail strings, the only venue we had for sharing knowledge was a team site,” says Coplin. “The site only had a few Word documents and the content didn’t really reflect the consultants’ experience in the field. The strategy consultants spent so much time at their customers’ locations that they never had time to read them.”

It was clear to Fourrage that the Academy’s offerings were not meeting the needs of many individuals in the field. The content was too far removed from their daily experience, and there was no way to share peer-generated knowledge across the global expanse of the company. He decided to innovate a new learning environment for the field based on his experience with popular social networking sites like Soapbox on MSN® Video and YouTube.

Applying consumer technology to the corporate sector is a growing phenomenon. According to an Information Week study conducted in March 2006, 76 percent of IT managers reported that they watched the consumer space to better understand what technology to implement in their businesses. For Fourrage, social computing technology seemed to offer what the field was looking for—quick, easy, and interactive ways to communicate self-generated information in a way that didn’t impinge on their busy lives.

“I felt sure that I could repurpose social computing technology to better meet the needs of the sales field because I had seen the growth of blogs, wikis, and podcasting within Microsoft,” he says. “The Academy’s existing technology solution wasn’t working for all our field sales professionals. We were spending money developing online courses that they couldn’t fit into their lives. However, they do have short periods of time to consume knowledge in between meetings and while driving to customers. Social computing technologies offered a much more appropriate environment for us to provide education and knowledge sharing services for the field.”

Solution

So Fourrage used Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 collaboration and communication technologies to create a social computing environment for knowledge sharing in the field. The new Academy offering, called Academy Mobile, empowers sales representatives to share and consume their sales and technology expertise using multimedia podcasts. The podcasts, stored on the Academy Mobile Web site, are downloadable to any mobile device, anywhere.

Academy Mobile is a one-stop shop for relevant, real-time knowledge generated by the field, for the field. Academy Mobile matches a sales professional’s lifestyle because it offers short bits of information generated and consumed on the road using mobile devices. The online podcast repository is searchable by content or by contributor.

“The Microsoft set of server technologies already has 80 percent of the capabilities you need for an enterprise social computing platform, right out of the box,” says Fourrage. “Why reinvent the wheel? It only took us six weeks to tweak the solution to meet all our needs.”

To ensure that good content rises to the top, the five-person development team added rating and commenting features so that the sales community can identify the most relevant content. “We incorporated a rewards program to incent people to create podcasts as well as rate and comment on other podcasts,” adds Simone Tunc, Marketing Manager at Academy Mobile. “The commenting feature helps to foster collaboration and peer-to-peer communication through the site’s engaging interface.”

The development team also added a multiple download feature and created automatic Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds to alert people when a podcast on a favorite topic becomes available.

Sales professionals can use mobile phones, PDAs, the Zune® digital media player or other media players, and a laptop or a PC to produce and/or consume audio and video podcasts in between sales calls, or while waiting for a flight. Video podcasts can incorporate images of people talking, screen captures, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® presentations, and demos, so people can choose the format they like.

“We needed to educate the sales force about podcasting to make this work across the enterprise,” says Paolo Tosolini, New Media Business Manager at Academy Mobile. “We have an online learning center with links to podcasts on how to podcast. We created downloadable PowerPoint templates for mobile devices. We are even coaching our content providers on how to compartmentalize their online courses so we can recycle the material to the field as 10-minute podcasts on Academy Mobile.

“Every chance we got, we took the social computing concept and tailored it for the enterprise to drive adoption,” Tosolini continues. “We made it easy to use. Right now, all you have to do is call a number, leave a voicemail of your podcast, and the team will upload it to the platform. We made it flexible, and we gave it a cool interface that provides a fun experience for producers, contributors, and consumers.”

Benefits

Microsoft sales professionals have enthusiastically integrated Academy Mobile into their work lives. They are using the social computing environment to share their knowledge and to search for peer-generated expertise on meaningful topics in the format that suits them best—without disrupting their lives. “With a social computing environment, we achieved our goal to increase the amount of knowledge that is shared within Microsoft,” says Fourrage. “And we are spending less money to deliver a better service.”

Before its official launch in December 2007, more than 750 podcasts were created and more than 5,000 people visited the Web site, of which 2,000 created a podcaster account. Academy Mobile is publishing podcasts at the rate of 100 a month, and expects that number to double after launch. “I’m excited by how people have already embraced the concept to improve learning among sales professionals,” says Fourrage. “Today, Microsoft employees use Academy Mobile to foster innovation, share best practices, build supportive communities, and make more sales.”

Foster Innovation by Making it Easy to Contribute

“The easier you make it for busy sales professionals to contribute, the more they will contribute,” says Coplin. “Academy Mobile is that easy. It’s almost like a byproduct of your life. Say you’ve just had a brilliant meeting with a customer and made a sale using an innovative approach. You can be recording your thoughts and uploading your experience as you drive out of their parking lot.”

Other employees in Microsoft are already using Academy Mobile to showcase their expertise and broadcast innovative ideas. “Our target audience is the entire 70,000 employees at Microsoft,” Tosolini says. “I’ve had people come to me with many different uses of this platform. Recently, an inventor used Academy Mobile to post a five-minute podcast about the business value of his idea and to collect ratings and feedback. Ultimately, this platform will foster innovation throughout Microsoft.”

Share Best Practices by Recognizing Experts

Academy Mobile recognizes Microsoft subject matter experts. “We show contributors’ bios and pictures, and we make them easily searchable,” says Fourrage. “Now even those people who don’t realize they are experts will quickly discover how relevant their contributions are through ratings and comments. It’s a fun way to ensure that good content gets to the top.”

“We believe that 90 percent of what the field needs to know is already out there in the field,” says Phil Morel, Director at Microsoft Academy and Events. “Anywhere you have large numbers of mobile or distributed employees, it’s in a company’s best interest to facilitate knowledge sharing among peers. There’s no better way to recognize the value people bring to an organization.”

Building Supportive Communities by Innovating the Solution

Sales professionals can easily create new ways to share information using the social computing environment. Coplin is already using the Academy Mobile offering to upload a weekly podcast that mirrors a radio panel discussion. Called “Strat Con One,” the podcast features Coplin and invited guests conversing about weekly technical news, service delivery excellence, and other items.

“Academy Mobile is scalable and flexible. We are only seeing the beginning of its uses within Microsoft,” Coplin says. “For Strat Con One, we plan to add Microsoft unified communication technologies to the solution so people can call in over the network from around the world.”

Driving Sales by Providing Better Customer Service

Academy Mobile helps sales representatives like Gannotti to improve sales through peer-generated knowledge that’s impactful because it’s relevant. “It’s rewarding to cross-pollinate ideas among like-minded people who are doing the same job that I’m doing,” he says.

Gannotti is also driving sales by demonstrating Academy Mobile’s use of SharePoint technologies to customers that are interested in social computing solutions. “For my customers, the hottest topic has been social networking and how that relates to the enterprise space and an increasingly younger workforce,” Gannotti confirms. “Today’s employees are messaging, rating, and sharing multimedia files on all manner of mobile devices all the time. So when I tell them that Microsoft has already built a social networking platform for its sales force, they’re interested. When I pull out my computer and introduce them to Academy Mobile, they’re convinced that Microsoft has the social computing technology they need.”

Saving Money by Podcasting

For Fourrage and the Academy, choosing Microsoft communication and collaboration technologies to adapt social computing to the corporate sector was quick, easy, and affordable. “Companies that embrace social networking benefit from a low-cost information distribution system that fits employees’ lifestyles,” concludes Fourrage. “Academy Mobile’s podcasts are ‘live’ as soon as they are uploaded and they don’t cost us air time. We made podcasting as easy as picking up the phone and recording your message. At Microsoft podcasting to share expertise is the way of the future.”

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Executive Biography

Ludovic, or “Ludo” to his team at Microsoft Academy, began his career with Microsoft as a Solution Architect in France. In 2002, he moved to the United States to manage the Microsoft Enterprise Partners technology enablement programs. He has been the Group Program Manager of the Microsoft Academy programs since July 2006.

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This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2008

“Companies that embrace social networking benefit from a low cost information distribution system that fits employees’ lifestyles. At Microsoft, podcasting to share expertise is the way of the future.”

Ludovic Fourrage

Group Program Manager

Microsoft Academy | |

“I’m never in one place long enough to finish an Academy Focus course. I need quick, snappy tips and tricks to assist me with my job.”

Mike Gannotti

Senior Technology Specialist Microsoft

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Customer Details:

Microsoft Corporation

Web site:

The People-Ready Business.

A people-ready business is one where people can apply their unique skills, insights, and experience to create new products and services, work responsively with customers and partners, and drive operational excellence in every aspect of the business. People-ready businesses support people with knowledge, practices and tools so that they can add the extra value that helps differentiate successful organizations in a competitive, fast-moving global economy.

peopleready

Software & Services

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Lessons Learned from the Microsoft Academy Team:

• Even though we solved the problem with technology through online courses, that solution was not meeting the needs of many sales professionals.

• Take the time to understand how your user base will best consume information. We looked at adapting consumer oriented technology to deliver relevant information to the sales force in a way that was easily consumable on any device, at any time.

• Understand consumer-oriented technology and the capabilities of your in-house systems so you can apply emerging models of behavior to internal needs.

• To drive adoption of a social computing solution in the corporate sector, think about the following:

• Work with individual users of system to make sure that the system can be easily integrated into the way they work.

• Ensure that systems provide feedback and that project owners act on the feedback.

• Shed the corporate look and feel to create an intriguing user experience that will engage people.

• Provide support and learning for people new to an experience. In this case, help people learn how to create and deliver good podcasts.

• Encourage people to rate and comment on content and reward them for their feedback. This will generate improved content.

• Tag podcasts in order to facilitate the discovery of relevant content.

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