Aggreko brings power where there is none…
Walter Davis - Group Senior Training Manager, Aggreko
Customer case study: Aggreko
Aggreko brings power where there is none. It provides temporary or long-term power generation and temperature control solutions to customers throughout the world, either very quickly or perhaps for a short period, or, in some cases just for as long as they are needed. Aggreko powers anything from one-off events such as football tournaments to entire countries. Its temperature control solutions cool ice rinks, refineries, and everything in-between. Aggreko’s global business operation serves 100 countries, from 165 service centres and offices, and it has over 6,000 employees. Walter Davis, Group Senior Training Manager at Aggreko, explains the benefits that the Cegos catalogue has provided.
What are the typical learner profiles that you are targeting in your organisation?
Walter Davis: Many of our employees are highly technical, with in-depth knowledge of power and cooling technology. Some are less technical, but all our staff are vital to day-to-day operations. We identified a gap in learning delivery at supervisor level management and below. Many of our people have a high level of technical expertise, but needed development in their soft skills.
What are the challenges that Aggreko was facing in terms of learning requirements?
Walter Davis: We needed a solution that addressed a large audience of learners that included both technical staff and non-technical staff. We have people all across the globe, including some quite remote locations. It was simply not cost-effective to fly people to training locations to undertake traditional classroom training in person. We wanted to tackle the high cost of travel and accommodation associated with traditional classroom training.
It was imperative that we were able to roll out a global learning solution that everyone could access. For maximum learning impact, it was important that content was translated and localised to suit learners in different regions throughout the world. As a global organisation we have a minimum requirement when it comes to English language skills. However, in some roles a high level of competence in English is not as necessary so we wanted to provide e-learning in the language spoken by learners in those roles. We now provide e-learning in English, French, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Russian, to name a few.
Why did you select the Cegos Catalogue?
Walter Davis: We did not want to settle for a solution that just ticked the boxes – it had to be effective and make a real difference to the business. We looked at other solutions, but Cegos was so much more experiential, impactful and interactive.
One of the main reasons we chose the Cegos Catalogue was the interactivity of the content. In the past, we had had experienced pushback from learners who initially preferred in-person instructor-led training to e-learning. However, the Cegos solution allowed us to provide interactive learning that engages those people and is as close to in-person training as you can get. We have been able to embed it effectively into our learners’ day-to-day workflow.
Aggreko is a truly global business and operates globally rather than as a series of individual regional operations. We were looking for a learning solutions provider that was equally global in scope and did not focus on one region or another. We very much dominate the market for temporary power supply, with the scale and flexibility to pull in resources from around the world, and Cegos’ innovative learning solution will help us to continue to drive growth.
We wanted to offer more training to more people at a lower cost. Cegos provided all this and more. We are now providing training in a larger language set than we would have been able to offer previously. It would not have been possible to get specialist instructors with all the languages we need. We have rolled out the first three modules in the finance team, and plan to roll out 17 more to the rest of the world. Cegos is helping us to address the issue of soft skills development globally.
What benefits does the Cegos Catalogue offer?
Walter Davis: In the process of selecting a supplier, we did an analysis of customised solutions compared with off-the-shelf products. While off-the-shelf products were often more cost-effective, we found that custom solutions were more interactive and could be designed to suit us, delivering the type of interaction and engagement we wanted to see. The Cegos Catalogue met both these requirements – offering interactivity and tailoring on an off-the-shelf solution.
The language set was the icing on the cake. We would have been happy with the solution even if it had been based on English, so the fact that it offered so many languages exceeded our expectations. We did not think that we would find a supplier who met all our needs and that they would have such a comprehensive language set in place. This was a huge added value.
We have had a positive experience with the Cegos team. They have worked with us to brand the content with our brand colours and logos so that our staff perceive it as an Aggreko solution and are highly receptive to it as a result. Cegos has delivered the solution quickly and efficiently and we are looking forward to working with them to roll out the remaining 17 modules.
What top tip can you offer other companies reviewing the Cegos Catalogue in a selection process?
Walter Davis: I would strongly recommend that they launch a Cegos course and work through a couple of modules in order to really see the difference compared with competitor products. It is one thing to do the number crunching and compare the features and competencies of rival products, but quite another to experience the real difference in the level of interactivity that the Cegos Catalogue offers.