Centra announced that Sony Electronics, a division of Sony Corporation, has standardized on Centra's eLearning platform to provide the foundation for its global Sony TrainNet(TM) programme. Using the Internet to augment traditional classroom learning with real-time online collaboration, Sony TrainNet significantly streamlines Sony's processes for training thousands of customer service technicians across Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. It provides a direct connection between those who design and build Sony's products and the technicians who service them, ensuring faster time-to-market and a consistently high quality of service across geographies.
To remain competitive in the consumer electronics industry, Sony brings hundreds of new products to market each month, including product model variations designed to address the needs of specific geographic markets. The ability to get the products to market quickly and address the training needs of local service representatives - who are required to be knowledgeable on a wide range of product models - presented an enormous business challenge. Based on Centra's live eLearning platform, the TrainNet initiative enables Sony to offer technicians convenient, online access to product information and experts, while virtually eliminating costly, complicated, and time consuming Train-the-Trainer programs. Now Sony Authorised Dealers can talk to Sony representatives directly and participate in hands-on training from the office, on the road, or at home over network connections with bandwidth as low as 28.8 Kbps. Live sessions and session recordings, which are archived for self-paced playback, address important service and repair issues, new technologies and products, and overall knowledge of the Sony product line.
According to Werner Zieman, General Manager of Customer Relations and Service for Sony Europe, "The technological advancements offered by Centra have not only benefited our training program, but our ability to impact revenue worldwide. Through capabilities that enable us to deliver more frequent and dynamic communication and training to our field representatives - at a fraction of the cost - Sony TrainNet really translates into a program that ensures that every custo mer across the globe receives the highest possible level of customer service."
