Developing enterprise e-learning at Kodak: Kodak started small and learned from early mistakes

T+D, June, 2003 by Martha Gold

In early 2000, Kodak was in hot pursuit of a top-of-the-line LMS (learning management system)-one with all of the bells and whistles to meet the requirements on the imaging company's long wish list. The LMS would be the centerpiece of Kodak's enterprise-wide e-learning system that would centralize numerous training and development divisions and deliver digital learning to 50,000 employees in 57 countries. The new system would integrate smoothly with the current HR system and, ideally, be up and running within two years.

Two-plus years later, Kodak has a different perspective on what it wants to do, born of its experience in trying to meet that ambitious goal. Kodak's experience is like that of other global companies trying to achieve the promised benefits of enterprise e-learning.

"We learned the hard way that it's critical to do things globally up front rather than develop them in the United States and expect everywhere else to adapt," says Catherine Nowaski, Kodak's director of e-learning. "You don't really need all of the features, all of the functionality. Everything doesn't need to be there on day 1. Find what is the most valuable [to you], and get it out there."

In the three years since Kodak started its enterprise-wide e-learning initiative, it has been through one LMS, numerous content providers, and a few false starts--and learned a few lessons along the way. For example, integration has, predictably, emerged as a big challenge, pointing up the need to select technologies that work well with existing IT infrastructure. And it's good to start small.

The short list

Kodak began its search in 2000 for an LMS by drafting a 35-page RFP (request for proposal) that included 25G requirements. "We were sure we needed a huge LMS that would take care of all of our training needs," says Nowaski. "Online, classroom, blended...we were trying to buy and implement something that would take care of everything in two years and on a global basis." In retrospect, she says, "That wasn't realistic." The first LMS selected posed integration difficulties and had too-high a price tag.

"We came to the realization that the system we were trying to implement was more sophisticated than the environment would stand and that most employees didn't have the ability to download plugins," says Nowaski. "Then we looked at what our employees were asking us to deliver; it was selfpaced, Web-based classes on such skills as communications, teamwork, Word, and Excel. So, we switched tactics and began looking at the critical things we needed. We've since learned what will and won't play in our environment, and what will get blocked at the firewall."

In a revised approach, Kodak began seeking a simpler, more modest LMS and the support needed to make it work. Nowaski and her team pared down its original, multipage RFP to a short list of requirements. Nonessential "wish list" items were set aside. "In the first search, we identified the best in the industry, sent out RFPs, and got a whole load of paperwork back that we had to sift through," she says. "The second time around, we just wrote a checklist of what we knew we wanted, met with vendors, asked questions, and had the vendors send us proposals. It was much easier to make a decision this time around."

Kodak ultimately chose a provider close to home and familiar--Rochester, New York-based Element K for its LMS, KnowledgeHub. Kodak's IT department had already piloted an earlier version of KnowledgeHub and found that it integrated better with Kodak's infrastructure than other applications. "It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of a multimodal LMS, but it has the functionalities that we needed," says Nowaski. "It's a relatively new product for Element K, and we're sort of growing with them."

In addition to choosing simpler applications, Kodak is also maintaining a more realistic timeline. Instead of rushing to discard its old system and get one up and running in two years, the company is proceeding at a more reasonable pace and implementing improvements in stages. "We're kind of running in a hybrid mode right now," explains Nowaski. "We have an old legacy system running in the background that our administrators are using in Rochester, but all of our online courses are available through Kodak's e-campus."

A few goad vendors

Kodak is integrating 80 discrete HR systems into one worldwide system using SAP software, a process that Nowaski says will take at least two years. Even when it's completed, Kodak must figure out how to link its HR system with Element K's ASP (application service provider)-based LMS while minimizing security risks.

Currently, Kodak employees have access to the LMS through the Internet and intranet, says R. Scott Hildebrandr, a systems analyst who was involved in the LMS implementation. Employees access the LMS via an existing system, NetPass--a password-enabled application that provides Kodak employees access via a sign-in number (their employee number) and a password. By raking over the authentication process, Kodak was able to make the 1750 classes on Element K's LMS accessible to employees with the same sign-in number and password they use for NetPass, eliminating the need to memorize another password. The process also cut down on the influx of new accounts and passwords that employees created when they forgot their passwords, saving the company from exceeding the number of users for which it's licensed. Prior to that integration of passwords, says Hildebrandt, "We found that when people forgot their passwords, they wouldn't call up Element K to reset them; they'd just generate another account. So we risked using up a lot of licenses."