InformationWeek

April 2, 2001

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Kodak Wants Out Of The Classroom

Company taps Thinq to deploy E-learning to 80,000 employees worldwide

By Elisabeth Goodridge (egoodrid@cmp.com)

More on E-learning:

A School Transformed (3/26/01)

E-Learning Branches Out (2/26/01)

E-Learning Crossfire (2/26/01)

astman Kodak Co. hopes that shifting its business focus to digital imaging products and services will give it a competitive edge in the photographic products industry. By moving much of its global business training online, Kodak will try to make that a reality by boosting employees' technology savvy.

To deploy E-learning to 80,000 employees in 150 countries by next year, the $14 billion manufacturer tapped E-learning provider Thinq Learning Solutions Inc. Providing the initiative's infrastructure will be Thinq's TrainingServer Learning Management System, a hosted online platform that delivers E-learning courses from more than 1,600 content providers.

Kodak plans to use courses from TrainingServer, such as computer technology training, then refine and develop courses for specific employee needs, such as training on Kodak's ERP and imaging software. By devoting more than 40% of the training budget to E-learning, the company expects half of U.S. training and 35% of international training to shift online within three years, says Catherine Nowaski, Kodak's senior educational consultant for worldwide learning and development.

"Classroom training isn't always enough, especially in the changing knowledge environment that the digital age has created with the Internet," Nowaski says. Kodak's first E-learning initiative is expected to increase employee productivity and benefit the bottom line, she says. "By moving online, we'll improve information accessibility for our employees. Long term, we'll decrease costs by reducing instructor, material, and travel expenses." Those costs add up, because Kodak's training is almost totally classroom-based.

The project launch is scheduled for this month, starting with U.S. facilities and moving to European offices next year. Kodak choose Thinq over 15 other contenders because it had previous experience with global rollouts, says Nowaski. Thinq's customer base includes global companies such as American Express, Boeing, and Lucent. That international expertise will help Kodak meet deployment challenges such as competing operating systems and bandwidth obstacles, she says.

In addition, International Data Corp. analyst Cushing Anderson says Thinq's wide range of content can be implemented quickly, making it available for use by Kodak's employees almost immediately.