Banking on the future - Crestar Bank - Company Operations

Communications News, August, 1999

Training intranet blends the best qualities of multimedia CBT technology and mainframe stability.

For the past decade, Crestar Bank, based in Richmond, Va., cultivated a well-trained workforce with the help of computer-based training (CBT). Crestar's mainframe-based CBT system is one of many live, technology-based learning options Crestar offered its 9,200 associates. CBT has been especially important for helping employees hone and expand their skills without driving to a classroom training program that could be as far as 200 miles from their offices. The mainframe system made training easily accessible to employees, and it tracked student-performance data in a central repository for reporting and auditing.

Crestar's mainframe CBT courseware, however, was a character-based system of static screens. Like a growing number of companies, Crestar is now taking advantage of multimedia courseware via PC-based training. "Our goal with our intranet-based system is to make the courseware much more interesting to look at and use while getting it out to our associates quickly and efficiently," says Martha Stewart, Crestar's senior instructional design consultant.

ACD-ROM authoring system would have made the courseware more interesting but would have been a logistical nightmare. Updating content would have meant recalling, recreating, then redistributing thousands of discs. Crestar, moreover, depended on the management functions the mainframe offered.

Crestar, now a subsidiary of Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks, Inc., turned to Pathlore Software's PHOENIX for the Enterprise to enable its migration to a mixed mainframe/PC-intranet environment without losing centralized management. Most of the mainframe's 60 courses will be redeployed onto a Windows-based network. The resulting system will link its 477 offices in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia as the mainframe currently does.

Crestar launched its Web-based training in August 1998 with a 10-course program on checking products, customer service, and using the new intranet training system. With PHOENIX, Crestar preserves the best qualities of mainframe-based CBT while taking advantage of PCs' multimedia and feature-rich courseware.

Crestar's new multimedia courseware includes full-color illustrations and graphics. Better presentation makes the courses more entertaining for the associates, holding their attention and helping them learn. Crestar's intranet-based training system also enables training managers and executives to run more varied reports from their desktops, rather than asking the training staff to extract them from the mainframe. That helps free the training staff from performing administrative tasks that sidetrack them from more important work.

The Crestar intranet does all the administration and reporting the mainframe system does--while introducing flexibility and versatility the mainframe can't provide. Crestar uses the intranet to simplify registration, administration, and management and to make training more accessible and dynamic. The intranet system also frees students from having to make phone calls to register for courses.

STREAMING SAVES BANDWIDTH, CREATES INTERACTIVITY

PHOENIX stores content in a standard database as a series of learning objects, then streams them to the associate's desktop. This streaming replaces long downloads that can hinder network performance and require extra steps by employees. Once an object resides on a desktop, PHOENIX re-uses it. No further streaming of the same object is required. The streaming is two-way. As the associate answers questions, the desktop streams the information back to the server, creating a central repository of management information.

To make that repository more accessible, Crestar is working with Pathlore to integrate PHOENIX with its human-resources (HR) system. This enables managers to run more detailed reports right from their desktops which, in turn, gives them a better handle on how well their associates are learning and where weak spots might exist in the courseware. Integration with the HR system also enables managers to satisfy federal regulators. Many Crestar associates are required to take courses in federal Regulation CC, the Funds Availability Act, and Regulation B, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. With the Windows-based reporting system, managers can run reports on those courses themselves, without help from corporate training.

"For the most part, we plan to preserve the mainframe courseware and improve it with better visual elements. The overall goal is to get the courseware out to our associates as efficiently as possible, because they have a lot to learn in a short amount of time," says Stewart.

Ultimately, the Crestar intranet will reach every associate through a single intranet-based delivery channel, marrying the graphical versatility of PC-based courseware with the easy availability and orderly management of mainframe-based content. "We feel that by accomplishing those two goals we've reached our higher, more important goal of keeping training a flexible, cost-effective process that serves our business goals," Stewart says.