Case Study: TorranceLearning's product technology training series helps Kerry serve their customers with complete solutions
Kerry's Technology Education Series: Product Knowledge On DemandKerry Ingredients & Flavours, part of the Kerry Group PLC, is an international food ingredient maker that serves the worldwide food and beverage industry.
The Business Need
Kerry Ingredients & Flavours has manufacturing facilities around the world that develop a wide variety of ingredients and flavors that are tailored to the unique needs of each customer. The company has expertise in sensory, culinary, applications, markets and technologies and is focused on offering complete, integrated solutions. Each Kerry facility specializes in different ingredients, applications, and technologies. Employees have historically been focused on these specialty areas. To enable a more customer-centric integrated solutions approach to sales, Kerry recognized that it would need to increase employee awareness and understanding of what the company has to offer its customers.
The Solution
Kerry worked with TorranceLearning to develop an elearning-based Technology Education training series, beginning in 2007. This series includes both online courses and live training sessions in the company’s core technologies and end-use applications.
TorranceLearning works directly with Kerry’s R&D and sales team subject matter experts from around the world to develop each of the Technology Education modules. Each course is based on a different proprietary Kerry technology and is intended to increase awareness and knowledge of the diversity of Kerry’s technologies and systems. The modules also serve as prerequisites to market-focused workshops that are delivered face-to-face. Modules include:
- Direct instruction on product attributes, applications and manufacturing techniques.
- Interactive maps with highlights of Kerry manufacturing facilities around the globe and their specialties.
- Competitor analyses of related products, technologies and services, organized by global region.
- Short quizzes to self-check learner comprehension of materials.
- High-quality product, facility, and technology-specific photos and graphics that demonstrate processes and show real-life implementation of Kerry solutions.
- Professional voice over for audio components.
Implementation
The Technology Education series modules are available to all employees via the company’s internal learning management system. These courses are being integrated into employees’ personal development plans. As Kerry technologies continue to evolve, courses are continually updated and expanded.
TorranceLearning also created and conducted several live class sessions to further leverage the Technology Education series. In each session, covering 4 to 6 technologies, learners used a structured note-taking technique and sampled a variety of foods made with Kerry ingredients.
The Result
Kerry employees who have taken Technology Education modules agree that the series has taught them more about the company’s wide range of capabilities. The information in each module assists employees to not only collaborate on new product combination possibilities, but also to identify cross-selling opportunities for customers.
Project work continues in 2010 and plans are underway for TorranceLearning to develop additional modules for the Technology Education series.
TorranceLearning has also developed online courses for Kerry on a variety of sales, information technology, and HR/management topics ranging from behavioral interviewing to setting performance objectives.