CIOIN

Jagdish Belwal

CIO, Tata Motors

"With remote training, Tata Motors reached across to hundreds of field-level dealership executives simultaneously."

Executive summary

CIO 100 Winner: This CIO used existing bandwidth and multicasting technology to efficiently enable remote training to Tata Motors' dealerships across the country.

The Nano tends to outshine all the other vehicles in the Tata Motors stable. The fact is, India's largest automobile company, the Rs 25,354-crore Tata Motors, offers plenty of other cars including a series of Jaguars and Land and Range Rovers.

"Competition has been increasing in the sector, so it is imperative to keep rolling out new models with advanced features and functions. But it is equally important for us share this knowledge with our sales, marketing and servicing channels," says Jagdish Belwal, CIO, Tata Motors.

Traditionally, training over 50,000 channel partners was handled by area managers and dealer account managers. But with increased pressure on their time and the costs making physical visits, the model became unfeasible "The company spent an enormous amount of money and time to train people at over 1,800 locations," says Belwal.

The answer?  A remote training facility. Tata Motors already had a CRM-based solution that connected over 1,800 locations. The remote training solution included providing Web-based software and dedicated connectivity through a closed, user-based VSAT/VPN network. This network was utilized to deliver audio-video feeds for training, thus saving costs on network and bandwidth. Multicasting further optimized bandwidth usage.

As ingenious as the idea was, it did not come without challenges. Since the CRM and the remote training application used the same network and bandwidth, the CRM application slowed down when training was in progress. This was addressed in two ways. The first was buying additional bandwidth for short durations and the second was scheduling trainings during off-peak hours. Another challenge faced was change management: trainers who were used to a classroom environment were now facing cameras.

Despite these challenges, the results of the remote training facility were real and immediate. When it was first used to conduct field training for the Nano, Tata Motors went through the training of 2,000 people in just a month, mainly because it could reach 200 to 500 people in single session. The project, which until then cost the company Rs 50 lakh (in capex and training), saved it about Rs 30 lakh. And today, neither its trainers nor partners need to travel.