Kinetic IT’s adaptive service delivery has allowed it to quickly transform the way it delivers professional training services. This is providing a scalable response to the surge in remote working resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Problem
The COVID-19 pandemic put a hold on in-person training at a point when demand was soaring from different geographic locations for ITIL® and SIAM™ courses.
Solution
Leveraging global specialist expertise and modern technology solutions, Kinetic IT adapted its remote training delivery model into a virtual format, encouraging greater participation and engagement.
Outcome
The remote training delivery model means Kinetic IT can continue delivering critical training despite COVID-19 restrictions. Positioning a more agile and adaptable training service to meet the customer demand for more flexibility around location and timings.
INCREASE IN PARTICIPANTS IN 2021, COMPARED TO 2019
SAVED PER YEAR ON REDUCED TRAVEL AND MATERIAL COSTS
EQUIPMENT INVESTMENT WITH DUAL TV AND CAMERA VIEWING AVAILABLE
“I would like to thank you for the great virtual classroom ITIL 4 Foundation sessions. It is a new experience and almost felt like I was there.”
— Remote Participant
Customer Background
Kinetic IT is an accredited training provider and examination centre, providing courses in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) service management framework and Service Integration and Management (SIAM™) methodology.
Delivered by accredited and award-winning industry professionals, these courses are designed to encourage participation and collaboration. The training approach combines theory with practical exercises to ensure principles, concepts and terminology learned can be practically applied in the workplace. These courses are contemporary, market leading and tailored to the services that customers require. Practicing what they preach, Kinetic IT delivers the same training to its own staff to support their capability development.
Training has traditionally been delivered in small-scale, interactive classroom settings. This has involved trainers traveling interstate to teach participants in different cities across Australia. With demand for training on the rise across Australia, and COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and subsequent restrictions throughout 2020 -21 preventing classroom-based training, Kinetic IT needed an innovative approach to continue delivering critical training to meet demand.
- Participation: The solution needed to overcome the challenges associated with virtual delivery such as participant concentration and content retention.
- Flexibility: Kinetic IT’s classroom delivery incorporated various exercises that included physical ‘action-based’ artifacts, such as role-playing and gameboards, to provide an almost ‘hands-on’ experience. These needed to be redesigned for a virtual format.
- Agility: The solution needed to be implemented quickly and have the flexibility to respond to rapidly changing circumstances, such as accommodating trainers needing to work remotely due to snap lockdowns.
- Accessible: With trainers unable to travel, training is needed to accommodate various locations and time zones simultaneously.
“It was great and it ran quite smoothly as though I was there in person.”
— Remote Participant
The Solution
Kinetic IT recognised that a virtual ITIL® and SIAM™ training delivery format would introduce challenges that would impact participant focus and, therefore, their comprehension and retention of the training material. Learning online created new challenges including accommodating students’ ‘new normal’ of working from home. These challenges ranged from partner responsibilities, (including children and pets), distractions from devices (checking emails during training), participant fatigue associated with working on screens for extended periods, and fewer opportunities for networking between participants. This new format required a solution that preserved the best of the old classroom training but was redesigned for the new virtual environment.
To create an engaging learning environment that encourages active participation, Kinetic IT worked to retain some key features of in-person delivery while also adapting the course format to be more accommodating to remote participants.
To emulate a classroom environment, Kinetic IT trainers present live-in front of a physical screen to a virtual audience from its learning centre. This is in preference to screen-sharing the training material from a computer. This provides a face-to-face experience of seeing a trainer in full, adding motion and energy to the presentation, rather than a ‘talking head’. Participants connect to the course via Microsoft Teams where trainers use the virtual meeting technology to create meaningful interactions and opportunities for participants to engage with the trainer and each other. This includes the use of polls to check to understand, chat and ‘raise your hand’ to ask and answer questions, and virtual breakout rooms to run activities and in-course exercises.
Kinetic IT’s conventional classroom delivery provided opportunities for practical application of the learning material through exercises, which were often accompanied by physical artifacts such as game boards, templates and puzzles. As a crucial part of training, most of these exercises and artifacts were redesigned for use in the virtual classroom, using breakout sessions to host exercises and PowerPoint templates to perform them.
Traditionally, Kinetic IT trainers would travel to deliver training across Australia in full-day sessions. However, with pandemic-related travel restrictions, all training needed to be delivered from Perth, Western Australia. To accommodate for different time zones, training session durations are reduced and spread over more days so that the start and end times suited participants from all Australian time zones. Additionally, break times are restructured to accommodate student needs, including more frequent breaks (to avoid ‘screen fatigue’) as well as aligning to lunch times on both the east and west coasts.
While this does result in virtual training being delivered over more days than classroom training, shortening the length of training blocks gives students additional time each day to take care of other businesses and assists with maintaining student engagement throughout the day.
“The presenters kept me interested even though this was a virtual course.”
— Remote Participant
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The Outcome
Lockdowns associated with COVID-19 initially put training on hold for a six-week period in 2020. Thinking outside the box, and using this time constructively, specialist staff developed the remote training delivery solution and were able to roll out a pilot remote course within weeks. Kinetic IT completed the year with almost 500 participants receiving training through the virtual solution – a 14% increase on the previous year. In 2021, the new delivery format was extended to all courses and in a full year Kinetic IT saw an increase of more than 30% of participants, compared to 2019 data.
The solution is scalable, enabling Kinetic IT to extend its training to new locations within Australia and abroad, without the need for additional resources. Remote training has been delivered at various virtual conferences, both within and outside Australia, including the world’s largest dedicated SIAM conference, Service North.
The virtual training solution has enabled trainers to reach more students in more locations and increase participation, resulting in more IT professionals being trained in ITIL and SIAM than the traditional approach would have allowed. Participants no longer need to wait for a course to be delivered in their city; with the accessibility of the remote training solution, IT professionals can receive their training much sooner.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with participants praising the flexibility of the virtual format and finding it equally engaging as classroom delivery.
The remote training delivery model has also enabled cost savings for Kinetic IT, with trainers no longer needing to travel to deliver training or to provide physical copies of course material. These cost savings will benefit customers in the form of greater access to training (virtual or classroom) and flexibility in delivery. Travel restrictions and cost barriers associated with in-person training can be negated, and greater flexibility to schedule sessions in Australian and international time zones is achievable.
Kinetic IT’s approach to remote training was recognised in 2022, being shortlisted for the itSMF Innovation of the Year – Business Impact award. The itSMF Australia Service Industry Awards recognise individuals and organisations for their achievements in upholding service management best practices and standards. Kinetic IT’s Chief Marketing Officer Brett Roberts welcomed the recognition of Kinetic IT’s ability to adapt in order to continue delivering critical training to industry professionals.
“Ensuring that those working in the Australian IT sector can keep pace with a rapidly changing global industry, while also maintaining best practice qualifications and knowledge, is a key focus for us,” Brett says. “A strong local technology sector supports a pipeline of talent in the Australian market for years to come; congratulations to our SIAM specialists for your extraordinary work to adapt ITIL and SIAM training recognised by itSMF.”
ITIL® is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited, used under the permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
SIAM™ is a registered trademark of EXIN.
- Growth: Kinetic IT can now accommodate significantly more ITIL® and SIAM™ training participants in more locations.
- Quality: Trainers have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants, who find the virtual format just as engaging as a classroom setting.
- Flexibility: The solution can be rapidly adapted to changing circumstances, with the flexibility of delivery praised by participants.
- Recognition: Shortlisted in the itSMF awards Innovation of the Year – Business Impact category.
The Service
ACCREDITED ITIL AND SIAM TRAINING
Our accredited trainers are proficient in delivering real-world insights and contextual learning experiences. Courses are designed to encourage participation and collaboration. We combine theory with practical exercises to ensure principles, concepts and terminology is easily understood and can be readily applied in the workplace.
- Accredited training delivered by industry professionals
- Virtual training delivery – connect from anywhere
- Combine theory with practical exercises to readily apply learning to the workplace
- Engage and network with Microsoft Teams
“Ensuring that those working in the Australian IT sector can keep pace with a rapidly changing global industry, while also maintaining best practice qualifications and knowledge, is a key focus for us. A strong local technology sector supports a strong pipeline of talent in the Australian market for years to come; congratulations to our SIAM specialists for having your extraordinary work to adapt ITIL and SIAM training recognised by itSMF.”
— Brett Roberts, Chief Marketing Officer
Supplementary Information
ITIL®
ITIL® is universally recognised as the most practical and widely applicable framework for Service Management.
ITIL® is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited, used under the permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
SIAM™
SIAM™ is a management methodology that can be applied in a multi-supplier environment.
SIAM™ is a registered trademark of EXIN.
MICROSOFT TEAMS
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration software, allowing teams to chat, meet, call, and collaborate all in one place.
