Asia Digital Lab Boosts Skills and Knowledge Capture with Global eTraining
- Case Study -
We sat down with Asia Digital Lab’s Innovation Lead, Shusaku Kawamoto and VDC Manager, Derek Lee to learn a little more about their company’s experience using Global eTraining.
Challenges
“Team diversity is an important driving force behind ADL, but can be a double-edged sword. Each team member has different levels of professional experience and software knowledge. Some may need to quickly improve their skills before they can effectively collaborate with the rest of the team – which is challenging. It was not a practical solution for the company to manually provide customized training tailored to each individual’s needs on the spot. So we needed a new way to quickly fill the skills gap.”
“We lacked a shared learning platform or effective method of capturing and distributing each individual’s expertise and knowledge amongst the team, especially across different group companies. To promote knowledge sharing instead of hoarding, it is also important for management to create an environment where knowledge can be exchanged on a secure and managed platform to protect our own intellectual property as staff come and go.”
“We are working on digital solutions across various work areas to deliver new value on built environment projects. This requires team members to expand their skills beyond their regular responsibilities. To work more cross-functionally, they need more efficient tools to learn new and advanced knowledge. For example, BIM coordinators now need to know about Power BI, scheduling programs, and carbon neutrality. However, we lacked appropriate learning content, and creating it ourselves takes too long.”
Solutions
“We used GeT’s diverse range of courses to mitigate our issues catering to multiple skill levels within our team. We were able to open up self-learning opportunities for AEC standard software based on each team member’s skill level and needs.”
“We use ‘The Generator’ to share individual expertise and new knowledge with other team members online. We encourage our team to generate content right after acquiring new information and knowledge because these skills are very useful for practical business purposes.”
Benefits
“GeT’s learning content covers essential software skills required in the AEC industry. Its well-designed user interface and on-demand availability eased our barrier to learning new skills. In fact, most of our team members started enrolling in additional courses based on their individual interests.”
“‘The Generator’ is a great tool to share each individual’s expertise with the rest of our team efficiently. Those who spent time generating custom learning content also significantly improved their technical communication skills.”
“GeT’s Knowledge Management Platform bolsters our power to learn and innovate with affordable pricing and dedicated maintenance support.”
Who is Asia Digital Lab?
Asia Digital Lab (ADL) was launched in Singapore to serve as an Asian gateway to Obayashi’s global innovation network, which includes other Obayashi’s Technical Research Institute in Japan and Silicon Valley Ventures & Laboratory in the US. The goal of ADL is delivering new digital and sustainability solutions to the built environment starting from Asia.
Additionally, ADL acts as a virtual community of innovation and mutual learning for young digital talents working in different Asian countries – including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan.
ADL works to cultivate a culture of diversity, employing not only traditional AEC disciplines but also VDC coordinators, a 4D/5D engineer, a sustainability manager, a data engineer and a business development manager. All come from a wide variety of countries and backgrounds.
*Obayashi Corporation was founded in 1892 in Tokyo, Japan, and now spans across all of Japan, the United States, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan and 9 other countries with over 15,470 employees.
Successfully serving the construction industry for over 130 years, Obayashi has become a participant of the United Nations Global Compact, and has been selected as an ENR ‘Top Global Contractor’ in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
What specific challenges did ADL face that resulted in your interest in pursuing an online training solution?
- Team diversity is an important driving force behind ADL, but can be a double-edged sword. Each team member has different levels of professional experience and software knowledge. Some may need to quickly improve their skills before they can effectively collaborate with the rest of the team – which is challenging. It was not a practical solution for the company to manually provide customized training tailored to each individual’s needs on the spot. So we needed a new way to quickly fill the skills gap.
- We lacked a shared learning platform or effective method of capturing and distributing each individual’s expertise and knowledge amongst the team, especially across different group companies. To promote knowledge sharing instead of hoarding, it is also important for management to create an environment where knowledge can be exchanged on a secure and managed platform to protect our own intellectual property as staff come and go.
- We are working on digital solutions across various work areas to deliver new value on built environment projects. This requires team members to expand their skills beyond their regular responsibilities. To work more cross-functionally, they need more efficient tools to learn new and advanced knowledge. For example, BIM coordinators now need to know about Power BI, scheduling programs, and carbon neutrality. However, we lacked appropriate learning content, and creating it ourselves takes too long.
What topics and features were most important for you when looking for a training platform?
- We needed AEC-specific content to fit the needs of our team members and industry.
- Excellent cost-performance value was an essential factor for us to continue.
- We were looking for a sophisticated and enjoyable user interface that helps to motivate and engage our learners to train, so we know we’re getting the most out of the product.
- The ability to create content customized to ADL’s needs was an important determining factor as well.
”Knowledge sharing is key to leveraging digital transformation across the OBAYASHI group. Employees should be encouraged to share what they know with others instead of hoarding it. In summary, GeT provides what we need.
Derrick LeeVDC Manager
What specific factors made you choose Global eTraining over other AEC training solutions?
- Global eTraining is very cost-efficient, especially when you factor in the quality of the content you are receiving for such a good price.
- ‘The Generator’ supports the VARK (visual, auditory, read, and kinesthetic) strategy along with content development and its user interface is extremely flexible and easy to use.
What GeT training solutions do you use the most often? How do you employ them?
- We use GeT’s diverse range of courses to mitigate our issues catering to multiple skill levels within our team. We are able to open up self-learning opportunities for AEC standard software based on each team member’s skill level and needs.
- While ADL core members concentrate on advanced research and implementation, they occasionally need to assist other learners in comprehending more general knowledge. This is where GeT comes in, saving us a lot of time and effort.
What ‘The Generator’ features does your team utilize the most? What specific parts of the platform come in most handy for ADL?
- We love being able to manage ADL content within ‘The Generator’. This feature allows us to strike a balance between protecting information security and maximizing the opportunity for learning.
- ‘The Generator’ helps us convert ADL research outcome documents into attractive learning content by adding various media data including our own video and voice recordings, and even quizzes. Such gamification features are especially important for younger generations.
- We plan to scale up our current usage into ‘ADL University’ and set our own certificate system on GeT to promote mutual learning opportunities and increase learner’s confidence.
”As a team from an established construction company, we are experts in project management, design, and construction. Although we may have initially been less familiar with certain new software than with our core expertise, we need to be ready to quickly catch up with them to stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Shusaku KawamotoInnovation Lead
What specific results have you seen with the addition of Global eTraining?
- GeT’s learning content covers essential software skills required in the AEC industry. Its well-designed user interface and on-demand availability eased our barrier to learning new skills. In fact, most of our team members started enrolling in additional courses based on their individual interests
- ‘The Generator’ is a great tool to share each individual’s expertise with the rest of our team efficiently. Those who spent time generating custom learning content also significantly improved their technical communication skills.
- GeT’s Knowledge Management Platform bolsters our power to learn and innovate with affordable pricing and dedicated maintenance support.
In what ways have you seen a positive ROI after implementing GeT?
- Global eTraining has helped us save time on internal training and teaching.
- Project collaboration often faces uncertainties that force our team members to deal with “waiting around” time, which can decrease productivity. Instead of wasting time, Global eTraining provides an opportunity for staff to utilize idle time in a productive way.
- Team members can save time and mitigate barriers on their own by easily searching through Global eTraining learning content by themselves.
- Our learning content and training tracking are stored in an accessible, trackable and secure way on the GeT Learning Management Platform.
- Providing an efficient learning environment not only helps retain staff but attracts new talent.
Find out how Global eTraining can help your team!
Or, learn more about GeT Team Solutions here.