Outsourcing Training to Increase Quality and Consolidate Suppliers: HighTech

Improving Performance and Saving Money through Training Outsourcing at a Growing Technology Company

Client Case Study

Situation

Intuit, a $3.5b company with approximately 7,700 employees, is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals.

Intuit wanted to:

  • Transition from contracting with multiple learning and development vendors to establishing a relationship with a preferred “partner”
  • Shift the current learning and development culture from an “entitlement service-only” and transactional focus to a performance and strategy-driven focus
  • Accelerate business results across all North American locations by providing all Intuit employees with consistent, integrated, and aligned quality offerings to meet their needs
  • Strengthen their Global Learning and Development team to enable more effective contributions to development goals across all Intuit locations

Complications

  • Silos: Many departments and divisions acting independently in the area of learning and development
  • Varied: Inconsistent learning and development solutions, approaches, and resources across offices
  • Complicated: Multiple “training vendor” relationships with multiple contracts and varied quality and pricing
  • Duplication: Redundancy in the “training solutions” offered and/or contradictory and often competing training models, practices, and language
  • Invisible: No tracking and reporting system; no employee “charge back” or billing system
  • Speed: Intuit’s desire, as a follow-up to a recent company-wide needs assessment, to quickly establish a common baseline of 13 foundational skills for management and individual contributors across all of Intuit’s North American locations

Approach

  1. Assess & Design
    • Identified solution/needs for each site in North America
    • Identified best-in-breed solutions across the 13 Foundation Skills to meet Intuit’s business needs, culture, and budget
    • Determined how each solution would complement and align with the other Foundation Skills
    • Aligned solutions to Intuit’s core values and success profile
    • Designed company-specific role-plays and case studies
    • “Intuitized” each program by incorporating Intuit’s language, models, and practices into each solution
    • Created a simple and clear marketing and registration system that automated training setup, delivery, tracking, reporting, billing, measurement, and follow-up
  2. Pilot 

    • Successfully

      implemented a core group of 13 customized skill-based pilot programs focused on Communication, Business Writing, Presentation Skills, Facilitation Skills, Conflict Management, Managing Meetings, Time Management, Change Management, Finance 101, Negotiation Skills, Project Management, Team Building, and Coaching

    • Provided clear reporting on Learning and Development expenditures, activity, and results across the company
  3. Implementation

    • Incorporated lessons learned from pilot

    • Rolled-out over 195 customized programs

Compelling / Interesting Design Features

  • Simple: 100% turn-key learning and development outsource partner
  • Dedicated: External account team with a combined 40+ years of experience to handle strategy, planning, and day-to-day operations
  • Speed: Only weeks to design and implement proven curriculum/solutions
  • Scenario-Based: Designed client-specific role plays and case studies with tailored approach to fit seamlessly with the company’s leadership practices and values
  • Automated: Created a simple and clear marketing, registration, setup, delivery, tracking, reporting, billing, measurement, and follow-up system for both participants and the HR department that “ran by itself”

 

Results

  • Money: $750,000 cost savings of  over 5 years
  • Scale: 

    Delivered over 195 customized programs across North America to over 4,000 employees

  • Client Satisfaction: Overall satisfaction score 93.7%
  • Consistency: Created consistency of language, competency, process, values, and approach across all locations

Related Information

We partnered with LSA to help custom design, deliver, and measure an advanced new employee on-boarding process. It was well thought out and bought into by sales leadership.  The combination of targeted sales tools, technology, coaching, performance plans, training, and reinforcement made all the difference.  The solution quantifiably improved new employee and hiring manager satisfaction and increased the speed to sales quota for new hires.

I would highly recommend LSA Global for any sales enablement team looking to increase the engagement and speed to productivity of their sales force. We are excited to implement the program globally as we continue to scale.

Rochana Golani
Director, Global Sales & Technical Field Enablement

We selected LSA Global over 5 other companies to help our key executives improve their overall communication and executive presentation capabilities. LSA exceeded our expectations.

I highly recommend LSA to any executive team looking to better organize and more effectively deliver key executive-level messages — especially when the stakes are high.

Todd Power
Office of the CEO

The LSA customized Organizational Alignment Survey gave us a comprehensive view of how our employees experience our culture, talent, and strategy.

The systemic approach provided us with a great forum to discuss the strengths and opportunities in our organization, and then to quickly get focused on the key actions critical to executing our business and people strategies.

Mark Forrest
General Manager, FSM Division

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We hired LSA to design and deliver a Project Post Mortem for sixty five key people on a mission critical project with a very tight turnaround. LSA’s ability to identify the key trends, leverage points, and next steps was remarkable.

They really got to the heart of the issues in a constructive and unbiased manner that exceeded our expectations.

It was not an easy task with so many skeptical people with different agendas, styles, experience, and perspectives.  But they nailed it.  Thank you!

Darrell Gallagher
Head of Studio

Crystal Dynamics

We selected LSA over a handful of other experts to assist with a key sales leadership imperative. LSA added value every step of the way throughout the entire engagement. Their customized approach to sales presentation training exceeded expectations, and we are excited about global implementation across our offices in more than 100 countries.

LSA’s unique Strategy-to-Results approach is an added game changer.  I recommend them to anyone looking to get high quality results when it matters most.

Eric Mugele
Executive Director Global Learning

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We reviewed the top Leadership Development offerings and selected LSA’s 12-month Leadership Program based upon the value and systemic approach.

The feedback on the program, approach, and results was phenomenal. While other programs may be better known, the other options were more theoretical and did not compare in terms of LSA’s practicality, quality, and results.

We could not be happier.

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We turned to LSA Global to help take our behavioral interviewing process to the next level in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness. LSA quickly understood our unique culture and challenging requirements.

They immediately helped us to improve our ability to continue to hire top talent that fits our culture and talent management strategy as we rapidly scale.  Thank you!

Julie Pearl
Technical Program Manager

Google

We recently hired LSA to help us take our client delivery methodology to the next level as we continue to grow and help our clients succeed.

The custom strategy and design session exceeded our expectations. They really understood our business and delivered within tight time frames. They were the best I have seen for this type of complex, visible, and strategic work.

LSA’s ability to get a group of 20+ executives from around the globe on the same page, push their thinking to new heights, and ensure an executable plan was excellent.

I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to take their strategy and strategic execution to the next level.

Rob Sturgeon
EVP Client Delivery

Service Source

Having a training outsourcing partner like LSA to support our talent management needs has been a real blessing. In an emerging company where typically you can’t afford the infrastructure necessary to provide a full range of offerings, having an external partner like LSA has been a blessing.

They deeply understand our business and our culture.   They do a great job on a wide range of customized training, consulting, and coaching solutions for us.

For us, they are definitely better than having our own internal Training and Organizational Development function.  They always do what it takes to hit the mark.

Chris Wells
Vice President, HR and IT

LSA’s ability to assess needs and develop targeted  leadership training has been a critical resource for me to help our teams to perform at their peak. 

I love that LSA focuses on training that truly makes a meaningful impact on the people and the business.

Noelle VanVlierbergen
Sr. HR Business Partner

apple client logo LSA Global

This was an extremely effective executive strategy session that helped our executive leadership team efficiently navigate through our core strategic objectives. It was exactly what we needed.  The approach was practical and valuable for our specific business and market.

I recommend LSA to anyone looking to push their strategic planning, thinking, and growth to the next level.

Blake Krikorian
CEO

Thank you! Your learning strategy insights flipped our approach from a content-driven design to one where business strategy and relevancy drives the leadership programs we aimed to redesign.

This investment more than proved its worth – not only did it improve our leadership development program redesign, but it also was like a mini executive seminar that stretched our experienced L&D team’s thinking.

Richard Morse
Senior Director Talent Management

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You have become our premier change leadership strategic partner. Your expertise in the human side of change is unparalleled and enabled our company to successfully implement our ERP Solution under challenging and ever-changing circumstances.

Thank you for your practical and outcome-oriented approach.

Ted Ramlet
CIO & SVP

McKesson

LSA Global really shifted our perspective about strategic clarity and organizational culture.

The 3 C’s approach to workplace culture is very practical and really helps  executive teams – even skeptical ones – ensure that your culture is healthy, high performing, and aligned.

Amy Cappellanti-Wolf
Chief Human Resources Officer

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It was a challenge to find a consultant with an approach to performance improvement that fit our unique performance culture and style. We were pleasantly surprised to discover LSA’s depth of expertise in the fields of motivation, developmental coaching, performance management, and measurement.

LSA seamlessly integrated those components without our folks feeling like the intervention was forced. They understood what we were trying to accomplish, helped us clarify our objectives, and created a solid, refreshing approach that quickly got us moving and engaged at all levels across the organization.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier that we found a true strategy and implementation partner in LSA.

Doug Hansen
President and Director

Redwood Trust

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