CERTPOINT - VuePoint Partners with Carlson Marketing Group for 2000 Olympic Games

... VuePoint Partners with Carlson Marketing Group for 2000 Olympic Games...

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. – Sept. 25, 2000 – VuePoint, a comprehensive e-learning company with a business savvy approach, partners with Carlson Marketing Group, the world leader in Relationship Marketing, to train 500 employees to prepare travel and hospitality arrangements for VIP clientele at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Twenty-one companies, including IBM and Kodak, hired Carlson Marketing Group to provide corporate sponsor hospitality programs, event ticket and travel management services, and other strategic support during the Olympic Games.  Carlson Marketing Group utilized the recently released VuePoint Learning System (VLS) 2.0 software for quality, self-paced employee training for those in the United States and abroad.

“With half of our employees in Australia and the other half throughout the United States, VuePoint allowed us to train all of our employees without flying them around the world,” said Alain Thiry, vice president of Event and Sports Marketing at Carlson Marketing Group.  “Using VuePoint’s system, we were able to give our employees a superior training program and saved both time and money in the process.”

At the 1996 Olympics, as well as other major events, Carlson Marketing Group paid thousands of dollars in traveling expenses so that employees could learn together in a classroom setting – a training process that often took weeks.  This year, using VuePoint’s VLS 2.0, employees could learn all of the subject matter – which included how to manage 30,000 Olympic guests and process 300,000 tickets – in hours rather than days.

Carlson Marketing Group also had the opportunity to benefit from the recently developed Offline Viewer feature that allows users to learn anytime or anywhere. Developed in response to customer feedback as a way to deliver knowledge to mobile workers, Offline Viewer gives a learner the option of taking a course while traveling on a plane or even hiking in the Australian Outback.

The new VLS 2.0 version adapts to each learner to create a unique experience and thereby increase knowledge transfer and retention. The system personalizes learning by giving users the option to test out of familiar subject matter and focus on areas of need.

Not only does the VuePoint system provide a personal experience and allow employees to learn at their own pace, Carlson Marketing Group and VuePoint worked together to design a system that automatically rewards high-scoring employees with gifts such as sweatshirts, hats, and debit cards.

“The Olympics are the stage on which the best in the world can shine,” said VuePoint CEO and founder Ara Ohanian.  “Through our premium software and services, VuePoint and Carlson have worked to ensure that this is true not only on the field but also behind the scenes.”

Beginning in January, three separate VuePoint courses were rolled out one by one to allow time for employees to fully learn the content, rather than just memorize the answers. The first, entitled “Challenge of the Pentathlon,” taught Carlson Marketing Group employees the history of the Olympic Games. The second course, released in June, familiarized Carlson Marketing Group employees with client-specific

information – such as culture, corporate history and expectations of Carlson Marketing Group.  The third course, released in late July and entitled “Countdown to Victory,” gave employees final logistical information about the city of Sydney and travel arrangements.

Many employees using VLS 2.0 have provided positive feedback through the system.  “I was on it for an hour and a half yesterday and will go back on later tonight,” said one event consultant from Australia. “What a marvelous tool. We will all definitely benefit from this,” she said.

With the online training complete, Carlson Marketing Group employees tested their newly gained knowledge with a live classroom-style session in Australia. Instructors used the VuePoint monitoring feature to pinpoint what employees have mastered and which areas needed extra attention.

 

About Vuepoint

VuePoint is a software and professional services company focused on creating competitive organizations through a business-savvy approach to e-learning. VuePoint Learning System (VLS) incorporates dynamic knowledge management into an e-learning environment and has helped leading organizations such as Deloitte Consulting, 3Com, Carlson Marketing Group, A.T. Kearney and Toyota to achieve speed-to-market advantages, improved productivity, employee retention and streamlined costs.  Incorporated in 1996, VuePoint’s management team is comprised of experienced professionals who come from the ranks of global leaders such as Procter & Gamble, KPMG Peat Marwick and Telerate, Inc. (formerly Dow Jones Markets) as well as experts and scholars from the e-learning industry.Please visit www.certpointsystems.com.

About Carlson Marketing Group

Carlson Marketing Group (CMG), one of the world’s largest relationship marketing companies, serves clients through more than 50 offices in 22 countries. Ranked the 15th largest agency brand in the world and the largest marketing services agency in the United States by Advertising Age magazine, CMG helps global Fortune 1000 clients improve their sales and profits by designing marketing strategies that create and strengthen relationships with the audiences CMG clients depend on for their success: employees, channel partners and customers.