Eltel boosts its competence with Omnia-based e-learning

Infranet solutions provider Eltel has created a new e-learning center on the Omnia platform for all its internal training, instructions and other knowledge. The solution simplifies and streamlines the production, management and updating of courses and educational materials. It has also become easier for employees to find the right education and information as well as book teacher-led courses. The new e-learning center leads to increased interest in knowledge and skills development throughout the organization.

“Our new e-learning center helps us produce and manage educational materials and courses in a structured and efficient manner. Previously, we didn’t have a dedicated platform for our knowledge and skills development, which made it hard to keep everything up-to-date. It was also difficult for the employees to find information about and take part in some training programs. Now everything is gathered and searchable in one place. It improves accessibility while also making it easier to keep order and reach out with new courses and other information. In the long term, we believe that the solution will increase the employees’ demand for new knowledge and boost Eltel's competence”, says Christina Hansen, Head of Training and Development, Eltel Academy Norway.

Easy to build an e-learning center on Omnia

Eltel was formed in 2005 through the merger of Swedish Swedia Networks and Finnish Eltel Networks, which also laid the foundation for the Infranet industry where electricity and communication networks are offered together. With around 5,000 employees, Eltel is today a leading provider of services for critical infrastructure that enables renewable energy and efficient communication networks. Eltel is represented in the Nordic countries, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.

Most of the employees are electrical and network engineers whose work areas are in rapid technological development, which requires continuous knowledge acquisition and training. Eltel has always provided a large part of the training and education materials in-house but without a dedicated e-learning platform.

“The lack of a unified and central platform created a bit of a mess among our education materials, and we didn't have a good overview of the whole range and which were the latest versions. Employees also needed to know who to contact to get certain material emailed to them. It was clear that we needed to take a new approach to education and consolidate everything in one place”, Christina explains.

When Christina Hansen and her colleagues at Eltel Academy in Norway decided to create an e-learning center, they first looked for a prepackaged solution. They then discovered that these platforms include many ready-made trainings that Eltel has no need for, which would create unnecessary extra costs. They also concluded that it would be good if the employees did not have to learn yet another system. As Eltel has had an Omnia-based intranet for many years, they asked if Omnia could also be used to create an educational platform.

“The Omnia team showed us that the product has all the functionality required to create a modern e-learning center that meets all our requirements. They also explained that with a little help from them, we would be able to build the solution ourselves. It suited us perfectly and we also saw great advantages in having the e-learning center seamlessly integrated with the intranet as it makes the educational resources more easily accessible”, Christina points out.

Service-oriented structure makes it easy to find the right knowledge

The construction of the e-learning center started in June 2022 and the solution went live on February 8, 2023. Throughout the project, Omnia's e-learning expert Barjas Alouch has had weekly Teams meetings with Christina and her colleagues to provide support and advice for the development work.

“It has worked very well! Instead of getting a full training course in Omnia's document management and e-learning functionality, we gathered questions and things we wanted to solve before each workshop. That way, we learned everything we needed at the time and could start building from day one, shortening the time for learning and development. In addition, we were able to try things on our own and then have them reviewed and tested by Barjas, which proved to be a very efficient development methodology”, Christina emphasizes.

Eltel's e-learning center is structured based on the company's various service areas. All materials, courses, instructions, and contact details for training managers and more are collected on one page per service area. For example, all educational resources for Mobile telecommunications are on one common page. In this way, the site forms a hub for all knowledge in the service area, making it very easy for users to find and download what they are looking for or to register for a course.

“It will also be easier for those in charge of training and our service offerings to reach out with new knowledge, courses, instructions, and other education materials. Having everything in one place makes it significantly easier for us to ensure that all information is up-to-date and that there is only one version of a certain document, a micro-course, etc.”, Christina concludes.

Good training strengthens the brand and employee satisfaction

Christina says that the e-learning center has been well received by the employees, who above all appreciate that it has become much easier to find and get information about courses and training materials. The fact that the e-learning center is integrated and available in Omnia, which is a familiar environment for the entire organization, is also very welcome. The next step in the development of the platform is a preboarding portal for new employees.

“The preboarding portal will give new employees, who have not yet started their position, access to information and other things that will prepare them for working with us. We are convinced that education and knowledge sharing play a key role in Eltel's competitiveness and employee satisfaction. With a structured, centralized, user-friendly, and efficient platform, such as Omnia, we believe that the quality of our courses and educational materials will improve. It also leads to an increase in employees' interest in new knowledge and skills development, which in the long run strengthens our competence and Eltel's brand”, Christina highlights.