The Dow Chemical Company

 

The Dow Chemical Company is the world’s second largest science and technology company providing innovative chemical, plastic, and agricultural products and services to essential consumer markets. With annual sales of $30 billion, Dow serves customers in more than 170 countries and a range of markets. For more information see www.dow.com

 

Fast Facts

  • Dow Chemical is the world’s second largest science & technology company
  • They required training for 60,000 users across 6 continents
  • They required fast e-Learning technology implementation
  • They needed it to integrate with other ERP systems (PeopleSoft)
  • They required a scalable solution with 10,000 course completions each week
  • They achieved annual ROI of $30million

Business Challenge

Dow needed to train employees and contractors on a wide variety of topics that range from environmental safety and health issues, to policies and procedures and OSHA regulatory compliance. Dow conducts more than one million hours of regularly required training for its 60,000 users at plants around the world. Jon Walker, HR IT Director for Dow, needed to find a product that could be flexible enough to meet the global needs for Dow’s online university.

Among their requirements were:

  • Fast implementation
  • Easy course creation and language translation
  • Open and scalable architecture
  • Ability to deliver courses globally across changing regulations, local requirements, and in more than a dozen languages.

Measurable Results

WBT Systems™ TopClass product suite proved it could meet the integration and management needs for Dow’s e-Learning infrastructure. TopClass open architecture enabled administrator to easily migrate existing stored documents and presentations, and quickly convert them into a working learning object library of course materials. Using WBT Systems’ unique learning object architecture, Dow built thousands of customised courses based on individual learner and group needs.

By being able to customise and track student training, managers can measure the progress and training certifications for each user. “This is essential for a company like Dow where health and safety training is mandatory for employees. TopClass allows us to track the progress of each user as they take courses, and the powerful testing engine allows employees to receive certification for courses taken online,” said Dow’s Jon Walker.

The open architecture of TopClass has allowed Dow to link employee training records with their PeopleSoft HR systems, as well as give their employees and contractors unified NT logins, eliminating the management of 60,000 additional passwords.

As a result, Dow has seen significant cost savings associated with the integration. When combined with the proven scalability to deliver over 300,000 online course completions at 5,000-10,000 per week, TopClass provided Dow with the necessary infrastructure to meet its global needs.

Significant Return on Investment

  • Dow has achieved savings of $116 million in 3 years using TopClass
  • Dow has reduced training costs from an average of $95 per user on traditional classroom
    training, to only $11 per user with TopClass.
  • In the first full year of the solution, Dow recorded savings of $21 million on salaries due to
    50-60% less time spent in classroom
  • Using TopClass Publisher, Dow converted over one million hours of classroom training to
    web-based training

Quote

“TopClass is a great product. The value stream we get from transitioning our training to the web using WBT Systems’ TopClass is the highest value stream of any project we have ever done in the HR/IT area at Dow. TopClass enabled us to deliver personalised training to 60,000 users on demand, globally.”

Jon Walker HR IT Director, Dow Chemical