The Client
Zachry Construction Company

The Challenge
Zachry's enormous workforce is dispersed throughout the country, and fluctuates significantly depending on active project statuses. The company was extremely interested in having a learning platform for its employees, giving them the freedom to take a variety of courses pertinent to their job roles. Looking for a smart way to train its geographically separated workforce of 15,000 to 46,000 employees, the Zachry Construction Company tasked Karta with creating a "virtual university" that could be accessed from anywhere, at any time. Karta developed the Zachry Learning Center, an online Learning Management System that today contains more than 600 custom-developed and off-the-shelf courses.

The Solution
Karta developed a learning portal for Zachry, allowing self-guided learner registration, training assessments, approval-based enrollment, personal learning calendars, and prescriptive learning. Today, the Zachry Learning Center offers more than 600 online training courses that are available anywhere and anytime. Karta and Zachry also identified the need to develop and deploy a virtual university that would become the standard learning portal for the entire organization. Karta Team Members worked closely with Zachry personnel to determine the requirements for a Learning Management System (LMS) that would become the central courseware launching, tracking, and personnel reporting mechanism for the virtual university.

The Results
Because of the Learning Center's availability, accessibility, and functionality, Zachry has seen a dramatic increase in employee participation in training. What's more, Karta's implementation of an enterprise-wide distance learning solution garnered Zachry the 2003 Brandon Hall "Excellence in E-Learning" Award.

The Client
AT&T

The Challenge
Karta was tasked with the development of web-based and instructor-led courses for DSL Call Center technicians at AT&T. This blended approach to training was designed to cover all aspects of customer service and technical support for incoming calls, and included such topics as "First Call Resolution", "Managing Stress", and "How to Troubleshoot DSL Installation on a Macintosh." The company needed to train new Call Center representatives on not just the technical aspects of supporting residential DSL customers, but also on the critical importance of high quality customer service that has helped make their company so successful.

The Solution
Karta developed a blended curriculum of web-based and instructor-led training modules. Leader-led courses provided information about AT&T's troubleshooting and call flow systems; web-based modules provided students with information about customer service and some technology-related courses. In all, Karta developed nearly 70 separate courses.

The Results
Karta's training for call center representatives resulted in more efficient and improved services for its customers, as well as an impressive increase in savings. Supervisors in the Call Center departments have noticed the improved service and the savings. Most remarkably, at the three main centers where training occurred, call handling times decreased by an average of seven minutes per call, a cost savings of about $5 per call. Based on the volume of calls those centers receive, that translated into direct savings for AT&T of about $1.4 million. In addition, training time was reduced by two days for individual employees, and post-test scores showed an average improvement of 60% over pre-test scores.