Agile online learning (not a single F2F meeting) in 'impossible timescales' saves £450k with 36% increase in sales

This Award winning, agile, learning project was groundbreaking (I know - bit of a cliche). We used an AI tool, WildFire, to deliver a project to a large multinational (TUI).  The project delivered 138 modules on the locations for its holidays, flights, airport codes and so on. Recognising that they could never produce content on this scale, as the estimated costs for external development were just under £500,000, and it had to be delivered in weeks not the estimated 8 months, they opted for WildFire. This uses AI to create content in minutes not months, along with supplementary curated content, also selected by AI.

Agile production

As WildFire does most of the design and build, an agile approach to production and project management was intrinsic. No scripts were necessary, as the software built the content so quickly that quality assurance could be done on the actual modules.

As it was ‘agile’, let’s cut to the quick...

• 95% rated the design and approach as good or very good
• 62% confirmed they could identify a specific sale based on knowledge gained

Their knowledge of the countries, locations, attractions, currencies, airport codes and so on was reported, time and time again, by front-line staff as having helped them sell holidays and flights. Remember - this is a location-driven business. If you want to sell holidays and cruises, you have to know the destinations and attractions.

ROI

Total savings, compared to traditional online learning production, were calculated as: 

• “£438,000 with extra savings of £15,000 in salary costs”
• “Freed up 15% of manager time” to do other things"
• “With a bit of lateral thinking and a lot of tenacity – seemingly impossible timescales were met”

Further benefits

When the modules were released to the wider business, sales benefits started to emerge:

• “36% increase in sales has already been recognised in the first few months the training has been available”

Within the company the “wider business now recognises the benefits of being bold with new learning technologies” and sees the project as an “outstanding example of achieving our strategy to invest in and develop our people”.

Agile mindset

This was a ground-breaking project, delivered without a single face-to-face meeting. It shows what can be achieved when a training department is innovative and brave. We must get past the model that says it takes months to produce content at prohibitive costs. Agile production needs agile tools, agile production methods and agility of thought and mindset. Organisations have traditionally moved faster than training delivery. That means we’re often out of phase with the business. An agile mindset and production attitude allows us to transcend that historical gap. Once we become responsive to the business they will respect us more and we are more aligned with their natural speed.

Conclusion
At the learning Technologies awards, the judges said the following....
"To speed up production TUI took the brave step of selecting.... an Artificial Intelligence tool, WildFire. The result saw triple savings; six months knocked off the expected timescales, £15,000 in salaries and £438,000 of the development budget."

If you want to know more about WildFire, agile production and high-retention, online learning, contact us here...