Case study

The business need

Volvo’s primary business objective was to implement a Learning Management System (LMS) that would support the brands positioning - a leading premium brand where safety, quality and care for the environment represent their core values.

Needing to enhance overall dealership capability, the business also had several new product lines in development to support this mission and needed an LMS that would allow them to distribute training on new products on a global scale. For Volvo, it was more important than ever that all dealers, regardless of their country or dealer group, received and completed this training and gained consistent quality certification as they began their journey to transform market perceptions.

The previous system’s limitations had led to fragmentation within the business, L&D teams in different countries were procuring their own systems to distribute their training, leading to a lack of centralised reporting and a siloed attitude. Volvo Cars therefore needed a system that was powerful but simple to use, capable of operating across territories in multiple languages and that allowed regional L&D teams to create specific training within the one multinational LMS.

Key requirements

Ease of use was a crucial priority. Volvo needed a 3-click solution from login to learning that would allow users and administrators to find whatever they needed quickly and simply.

Countries and dealer groups needed the ability to create and distribute their own training, locally and securely within the LMS.

Reporting was another essential key feature, for compliance at a country level, and so that Volvo Cars could ensure their dealer standards and competences were being met globally.

It was important for Volvo Cars to partner with an organisation who understood their brand aspirations, an organisation who were not just supplying learning technology, but who understood the project’s wider significance in repositioning Volvo Cars as a premium, quality brand.

Redware work with all their customers to develop learning technology that works for them. For Volvo Cars, the partnership began with Redware undertaking a sustained deep-dive analysis.

Everybody at Redware was involved in becoming an extension of Volvo Cars’ L&D team and didn’t limit their involvement to pure technological solutions. Redware’s CEO spent 2 weeks in North America, embedding and promoting the solution to bring dealers back in using one centralised LMS and realising its benefits.

The team also completed a large-scale data migration project as part of the LMS integration to ensure Volvo got the most benefit from their new technology. They restructured outdated data and brought it into line with the new business model, trimmed unneeded data and consolidated courses with multiple languages into one single course to radically reduce management overhead and provide continuity of reporting across the whole business.

Volvo Cars also found that the multi-faceted view of the same system was exactly what they needed to solve the problems they were facing in tying together the needs of L&D teams in the Head Office, different countries, and different dealer groups. They were able to solve all these diverse needs within one user-friendly system.

“We were looking for a learning management system and learning competence management system and we were looking at seven different suppliers. As a result of the answers to our questions, we had two suppliers left. We went to a meeting to see their solutions and with the other company it was a standard solution. We were going to be one company out of banks, pharmacies or whatever. In this case, if we went for Redware we would be able to modify the system for our needs.”

Volvo Cars needed an LMS partner organisation of the same calibre as the organisation they were becoming, to repair relationships with dealers and to generate buy-in to the aspirational brand positioning that would be supported and distributed via the new LMS.

The Redware approach

After evaluating several LMS providers, Volvo selected Redware’s empowered LMS.

They were impressed both with the additional functionality and service available for the same investment as their previous system, and with Redware’s approach to the technology partnership.

The powerful functionality combined with ease of use was the main reason why Volvo Cars decided empowered LMS was right for them. The Learning Management System utilises advanced techniques such as machine learning that provides users with a personalised learning zone, showing only learning that is relevant for their next stage progression within their job role and country.

Having developed previous Learning Management Systems for the automotive industry, the Redware team understood the unique assessment needs of dealers and provided tools to assess all roles’ practical skills as well as knowledge-checking assessments.

Volvo Cars also found that the multi-faceted view of the same system was exactly what they needed to solve the problems they were facing in tying together the needs of L&D teams in the Head Office, different countries, and different dealer groups. They were able to solve all these diverse needs within one user-friendly system.

Volvo Cars needed an LMS partner organisation of the same calibre as the organisation they were becoming, to repair relationships with dealers and to generate buy-in to the aspirational brand positioning that would be supported and distributed via the new LMS.

In the words of our clients...