Case Studies
Align Media solutions have been adopted by large organizations in countries from four continents. These solutions encompass a wide range of market sectors, including information technology, finance, energy, government, education, communications, retail and others.
Whether your organization needs to train hundreds or tens of thousands of end users, we have a solution to fit different contingencies, timeframes and budgets. Our solutions include standard and custom Web–based eLearning Nuggets™, design and delivery of synchronous virtual classroom and traditional classroom courses, electronic and print workbooks, learning aids, onsite presentations, learning management system development and implementation services, needs analysis, and learning strategy consulting.
In all cases, our team of experienced instructional designers will work with your group to come up with the solution that best suits your needs.
HEWLETT–PACKARD—Corporate employee training

Customer	Hewlett–Packard is the worldwide leading manufacturer of PCs, servers and print technologies with operations in every continent
Opportunity	The internal training department needed to offer training to corporate employees using the company’s newly deployed HP Virtual Classroom
Location	California (delivered remotely from Toronto)
Target audience	Hewlett–Packard employees
Solution	Customization of nine of Align Media’s HP Virtual Classroom courses on Windows, Internet and Office applications at the introductory and advanced levels. The solution also entails ongoing delivery of the courses at regular intervals and remote post–training support

MICROSOFT CANADA—SQL Server training campaign

Customer	Microsoft Canada operates as an independent profit centre actively involved in the development, sales and marketing of products in English and French for all major software categories.
Opportunity	In order to ensure proper support for SQL Server, Microsoft Canada initiated a national campaign to train channel partners, support staff from IT departments in large corporations, and independent consultants
Location	Canada (multiple locations)
Target audience	Channel partner employees, data base administrators in enterprise accounts, and independent IT consultants
Solution	Rapid development of a HP Virtual Classroom course on SQL Server to be delivered over the Web to campaign participants in remote locations where face–to–face training was not available, as well as design, development and distribution of course materials to all participants across Canada

COREL CORPORATION—WordPerfect Office courseware

Customer	Corel Corporation is the publisher of WordPerfect Office and CorelDRAW, as well as of a number of other award–winning graphics and publishing–related software products.
Opportunity	In order to support its channel partners and user installed base, the company required high–quality training materials in WordPerfect Office
Location	Multiple locations worldwide
Target audience	Corel employees, training partners, and employees of corporate customers
Solution	Development and licensing of a series of training eBooks and workbooks on WordPerfect Office applications, including WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Corel Presentations. This courseware was designed at the introductory, intermediate and advanced levels, and it covered the topics required to pass Corel certification exams

ACTIVE INTELLIGENCE—Consultants professional development

Customer	Active Intelligence is the leading systems integrator of Retek's retail enterprise software solutions portfolio. With clients in North America, Europe, Latin America, Japan and the Asia Pacific region, Active Intelligence provides large retailers with effective and efficient implementation services of Retek's retail systems
Opportunity	The company needs to train existing and new consultants on an ongoing basis to keep them up to date on new technologies from or new releases of Retek’s software product suite. It also needed to train instructors to provide training services to its customers
Location	Mississauga, ON
Target audience	Existing and new Retek business analysts, systems architects, technical consultants and instructors
Solution	Design and development of an internal Retek Academy consisting of two curriculum tracks, one for business analysts and one for technical analysts. The solution included design and development of standard classroom courses on retail concepts, Retek product suite functionality, data and business modeling, Retek product functionality, product architecture, and Retek software development, integration and customization. To each course there corresponded a set of instructor materials and student workbooks. The solution also called for searching, interviewing, hiring and training of instructors to deliver the courses internally and to customers

AMERICAN EXPRESS—End–user courseware

Customer	American Express (Canada) offers a wide range of services to consumers, small businesses, corporate clients, and merchants, including charge card, financial and insurance, travel, and shopping and entertainment–related services
Opportunity	As the company upgrades operating systems and productivity applications in its offices across Canada, it needs to deliver internal training to corporate employees
Location	Canada (multiple locations)
Target audience	Internal trainers and corporate employees
Solution	Publishing and distribution of standard classroom workbooks at the introductory, intermediate and advance levels on Windows and Office applications

UNION ENERGY—Remote location training

Customer	Union Energy is owned by EPCOR, an energy concern with operations in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. As part of EPCOR, Union Energy provides customers with furnaces, air conditioners, fireplaces and air quality products, as well as installation and maintenance services to home owners
Opportunity	The training department at Union Energy was faced with having to train employees in remote locations with a limited number of resources
Location	Ontario (multiple sites)
Target audience	Corporate end–users
Solution	Deployment of an HP Virtual Classroom facility to provide synchronous training sessions over the Web, thereby eliminating travel expenses for trainers and students while allowing sites with few employees to participate in the benefits of instructor–led training. The solution included training in the mechanics of delivering Web–based training, virtual classroom functionality and administration of the virtual environment

Ontario MMAH-Housing IMS training library

Customer	As part of its mandate, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) of Ontario oversees the implementation of housing projects across the province of Ontario, Canada, under different capital programs
Opportunity	As a result of a major upgrade to its business processes and the information management system MMAH uses to administer housing projects, the Ministry needed to make sure that users of and managers responsible for the information management system used to administer such projects were properly trained upon implementation of the updates
Location	Toronto, ON
Target audience	Over 500 public sector employees from the MMAH's head office and 47 sites in Ontario
Solution	Design of a change management strategy and training plan to communicate with stakeholders and train users of the information management system being updated. The strategy included development of a Web-based solution consisting of eLearning tutorials, user guides , quick reference cards and process documentation

Canada Post-Document management system training

Customer	Canada Post is Canada's national postal service
Opportunity	Among others, Canada Post provides a service that delivers bills from large merchant organizations and municipalities to households, and allows them to process secure payments electronically. When organizations and municipalities subscribe to the billing and payment processing service, they need to be trained in the backoffice processes required to provide Canada Post with up-to-date household data on a weekly basis
Location	Toronto, ON
Target audience	National merchant organizations, municipalities
Solution	Design, development and online publication of training materials to onboard new subscribing organizations and municipalities

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF SAUDI ARABIA—eLearning Nuggets

Customer	The Ministry of Education is responsible for boys education in Saudi Arabia at the elementary, intermediate and high school levels, as well as for teacher professional development
Opportunity	The Ministry’s strategy to integrate ICT in the classroom called for a deployment phase of approximately 1,200 labs of 12 PCs each, wired as LANs, in just as many schools. It became clear to Ministry representatives that in order to integrate ICT in the classroom efficiently, teachers and students need first to master the fundamentals of PCs
Location	Saudi Arabia (multiple locations)
Target audience	Teachers and students in 1,200 schools across the country with access to the newly deployed LANs of PCs
Solution	Effect a complete localization of Align Media eLearning Nuggets solution into Arabic, including user interface, screen animations, voice over, textual content, sample documents and files, search engine and installation utility. Over four hundred different learning objects were fully translated, localized and assembled into a coherent and effective e–learning solution The result is an e–learning product on Windows, Internet and Office applications in Arabic from the ground up—the first of its kind at such standards of quality and performance The Arabic version of the eLearning Nuggets software is pre–loaded on each PC by the OEM prior to shipping

TRILLIUM COLLEGE—Information Technology curriculum materials

Customer	With two campuses in Ontario, Trillium College offers diploma programs in business, medical, information technology and office administration studies to Canadian and foreign students
Opportunity	The revamping of the College’s curriculum on information technology required instructor and student materials to match the high standards set by the new study programs
Location	Oshawa and Peterborough, ON
Target audience	Instructors of and students enrolled in any of Trillium College’s Information Technology study programs
Solution	Publishing, fulfillment and distribution of instructor and student workbooks on different computer technologies. Design and licensing of a library of student exams and assignments matching curriculum content and delivery milestones. Deployment of a LAN–based self–paced eLearning Nugget solution for students to supplement and reinforce classroom instruction

NOKIA—Learning management system implementation

Customer	Nokia is the largest manufacturer of mobile telephones in the world
Opportunity	The company decided to implement a learning management system to manage the different types of training available to corporate employees worldwide
Location	Helsinki, Finland
Target audience	Over 65,000 Nokia employees
Solution	Align Media became an integral part of the learning management system implementation team responsible for customization of the LMS to meet customer requirements, including integration of e–learning content, virtual training sessions, standard courses and training resources, user interface development, testing, and design of migration paths

Canadian Tire-RMS and POS processes and documentation

Customer	Canadian Tire is the leading hardware, auto service and parts, and outdoors activities store chain in Canada, with 95% of the Canadian population living within 15 minutes of a Canadian Tire store
Opportunity	As the organization applied updates to its retail merchandise system (RMS) and point of sale (POS) system, key staff in Canadian Tire's nearly 1,700 stores across the country needed to be informed and trained on the changes being implemented
Location	Toronto, Canada
Target audience	Store managers, assistant managers, cashiers and support staff
Solution	Design and implementation of document publication processes, and development of an enterprise repository of applicable release notes, training guides and quick reference cards, in English and in French

Shoppers Drug Mart-Technical support documentation

Customer	Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) is the largest drugstore chain in Canada, with over 1,000 locations across the country
Opportunity	As a result of a major upgrade to the prescription processing system in all SDM pharmacies, new support processes and documentation needed to be created and implemented
Location	Toronto, ON
Target audience	IT Services desks, technical personnel and training specialists
Solution	Identification, design and development of processes for IT and business support teams. Aside from the resulting process documentation, the solution included the creation of a library of knowledge-based articles (KBAs) to be used by the service desks in order to accelerate the resolution of incidents received from the pharmacies

BEST BUY—Needs analysis

Customer	Best Buy is the largest retailer of consumer electronics, appliances, personal computers and entertainment software in North America
Opportunity	Because of the planned roll out of a new enterprise retail merchandise system affecting head office and all stores across the US, the IT and HR departments had the mandate to determine address the training needs of employees
Location	Minneapolis, MN
Target audience	IT department and end–user community
Solution	Creation of a report on the training needs of the IT department (600 members) and employees (43,000 end–users), including needs analysis, outline of blended learning strategy, implementation recommendations, and budget estimates

NORDSTROM—Retail merchandise system training curriculum

Customer	Nordstrom is one of the leading fashion retailers in the United States. The company offers a wide variety of quality apparel, shoes and accessories for men, women and children at stores in twenty–seven states
Opportunity	Employees at all locations needed to undergo training in a new merchandise system being rolled out by the company across the US
Location	Seattle, WA
Target audience	IT staff, merchants, buyers, warehouse managers, and additional personnel from 104 department stores
Solution	Design of eleven courses on merchandise system and accompanying materials, including instructor and student workbooks, quick reference cards, and game exercises. The courses and materials were designed by relating business processes with system functionality

THE BEER STORE—POS system training

Customer	The Beer Store (formerly known as Brewers Retail) is the primary distributor and retailer of beer in Ontario, Canada. The company operates over 430 stores in Ontario, and services 17,000 licensed bars, hotels and restaurants, as well as approximately 600 government–owned liquor retail outlets. Customers can choose from approximately 280 brands of beer in over 900 packaging combinations
Opportunity	The company implemented a new state–of–the–art touch–screen point of sale system at store locations across Ontario
Location	Ontario, Canada (multiple locations)
Target audience	Store managers and assistant managers at more than 430 store locations
Solution	Development and implementation of a plan to train store personnel how to use the new POS system, including a video–based training session for existing and new employees, print user’s guide, quick reference card, standard classroom instructor’s presentation, and train–the–trainer sessions

The Bay–RMS and POS processes and documentation

Customer	Established in 1931, Zellers is the leading chain of discount department stores in Canada, with over 350 stores from coast to coast. Zellers is part of the Hudson's Bay Company, the oldest corporation (established in 1670) and largest retailer in Canada
Opportunity	The company decided to migrate the management of its retail operations in 150 stores from a legacy retail merchandise system to an enterprise RMS. The implementation plan included a change management plan calling for the training of head office and store personnel across the country
Location	Toronto, ON
Target audience	Over 2,000 users consisting of corporate trainers, merchants, buyers, managers and selected store personnel in 150 locations
Solution	Development of a curriculum reflecting the configuration of the RMS being implemented, including workshop modules, instructor and student materials, quick reference cards, and system glossaries. In addition, train-the-trainer sessions further strengthened instructors' confidence to train business end-users