A vendor-provided case study; benefits of Centra add up at global accounting firm Grant Thornton

T+D, May, 2004

It's Monday at 10 a.m. in Chicago, and David Holyoak, chief information officer and partner at Grant Thornton, is reviewing his notes for a four-hour meeting scheduled to start in about an hour with partners at the company's New York office. Normally in this situation, he'd be on a plane making its final approach to LaGuardia airport. But instead of making a business trip that could devour several days of Holyoak's time and drain thousands of dollars from the firm's business travel budget, Holyoak can now attend the meeting virtually without ever leaving his Chicago office. It is made possible by Centra Software's real-time online collaboration software, which was deployed throughout Grant Thornton in the fall of 2000.

Grant Thornton is a leading global accounting, tax, and business advisory organization that serves public and private middle-market clients through 50 offices in the United States. Grant Thornton International serves clients through more than 585 offices located in 110 countries. Volatile business travel costs and increasing demands on employees' time were two key factors that compelled Grant Thornton to pursue a solution to create a virtual learning and real-time collaboration environment throughout the organization.

Holyoak first became aware of Centra's solution in 1999, when he launched a search for a Web-based communications technology that was Y2K compliant and could integrate seamlessly with Grant Thornton's existing network infrastructure. As soon as Holyoak saw a demonstration of Centra, he recognized that the technology would be a valuable application within the organization. "Grant Thornton is an organization that sells knowledge, and we have ongoing regulatory requirements to provide a certain number of continuing education hours annually to employees," Holyoak says.

"We needed to improve the continuing education process, and looked to augment our traditional classroom approach of regularly scheduled courses with a more flexible Web-based program that could deliver on-demand training and communications. We also felt that the rising cost of business travel for meetings and training, in terms of employee time away from work and corporate expenses, could be offset by the Centra solution."

After a stringent evaluation of 12 vendors, Grant Thornton was most impressed with Centra's support for voice-over-IP, optimization for remote users, the ability to record and archive training sessions and meetings, and cost-effective licensing and maintenance options.

"The voice-over-IP functionality was very appealing because we would not be limited to conference call technology or the conference room environment," Holyoak says. "Instead, our people can remain at their desks and communicate with other groups or one-on-one. Instead of 'everybody go to the conference room,' it's 'let's get everyone connected online with Centra.'"

Holyoak also notes that the recording feature within Centra gives Grant Thornton employees the flexibility to fit training and continuing education into their work schedules. "The ability to record a session was very attractive because of its flexibility and convenience," Holyoak says. "Not only can we use it to make people more effective, but we can leverage the recorded content to allow employees who missed an online session to play it back later. Also, by using archived Centra Webcasts in new-employee orientation programs, we can ensure that everyone has a similar experience."

More efficient and cost-effective communications

The implementation of the Centra solution was an integral part of Grant Thornton's corporate initiative to create an innovative and effective continuous learning environment. "We felt that this strategic initiative was a wise technology investment in the face of shrinking budgets for business travel and increased demands on our professionals' time," Holyoak says. "Now, the use of Centra is helping us reach our business goal of creating a continuous learning environment for all of our employees."

Bob Dean, chief learning officer and partner at Grant Thornton, adds that Centra has been valuable because it empowers Grant Thornton to deliver multiple channels of learning through the organization's Grant Thornton University. GTU is a one-stop, comprehensive source for learning resources that integrates a learning management system with content and delivery channels.

"The ability to connect online and interact with practice and technical leaders from across the firm's 50 U.S. locations was a key driver in our decision to implement Centra," Dean says. "Shortly after implementation, we were able to deliver critical knowledge to our tax and assurance practices in a matter of days, not months. The Centra-powered solution is changing the culture at Grant Thornton, giving us new ways to deliver knowledge and business communications that are more efficient and cost-effective than ever before."

Making life easier for Grant Thornton employees

Almost a year into the Centra rollout, Grant Thornton recognized the value of its investment when the tragic events of September 11 raised fears about flying on commercial airlines. "After September 11, many Grant Thornton Partners did not want to get on an airplane to travel to our annual partners' meeting in November," Holyoak says. "The fact that we had Centra in place was very timely and allowed us to hold a virtual partners' meeting instead of canceling or conducting it in a less effective manner. Centra allows us to be flexible and conduct business more effectively. It also makes life easier for our employees."