Raytheon Professional Services Expands Into New Markets

Raytheon Professional Services Expands Into New Markets

A veteran provider of training outsourcing services continues to grow aggressively, serving clients in new industries and countries with a broader, deeper range of capabilities

The efforts of nearly 800 employees of Dallas-based Raytheon Professional Services LLC (RPS) have made it a highly regarded and well-positioned international competitor. From the roots of its parent company as an early developer of technologies for the military and the training to use them, RPS has established itself as a premier provider of training related services for commercial, government and military organizations worldwide.

Today the company manages several of the largest training outsourcing programs ever awarded. Building on that base, RPS has undergone significant changes in recent years, diversifying its client base beyond an automotive core into new industries like financial services, pharmaceutical and energy, and expanding into new countries like the Nordics, Russia, Central Europe, India and Mexico. Last year RPS designed more than 2,000 hours of training and delivered more than eight million hours of training in 28 languages to learners in 70 countries. More than half of RPS' services is directed to learners in Asia, Australia and Europe.

Redesigning and managing clients’ training processes

RPS helps clients redesign how they train employees, customers and partners. It then implements the new training design and manages their training in multi-year outsourcing engagements. The aim is to help clients reduce training expenditures and enhance individual and organizational performance. Clients include DTE Energy, Pfizer, Caterpillar, GE Money, L-3 Communications, John Deere, BMW, Nissan, Shanghai VW, ABN AMRO, AGCO, Nokia, General Motors, Dell, Dick's Sporting Goods and ChangAn Ford Motor Co. RPS also serves its parent company by designing, delivering and administering training for 73,000 Raytheon employees worldwide.

For six consecutive years, RPS has been recognized by TrainingOutsourcing.com as one of the Top 20 global training outsourcing providers. HRO Today magazine named it one of the top 10 providers, while SRI Consulting positions it among the top three.

RPS employees recently took a collective bow when the American Society for Training and Development recognized their client, General Motors Service Operations, with an ASTD Excellence in Practice Award. ASTD honored GM's Service Technical College, a comprehensive learning initiative that delivers training to more than 70,000 service technicians working at GM dealerships throughout the U.S. RPS has worked with GM since 1999 to design, implement and manage the college.

The award recognized GM's application of integrated learning technologies -- including Web-based training, satellite-delivered seminars, highly interactive simulations, and searchable illustrations and videos -- that enable service technicians to understand the complexities of new automotive model features and the processes for diagnosing and repairing vehicles.

Learning analyst Josh Bersin wrote the following about RPS' work with GM: "This program should be studied by every learning executive. The program is incredibly ambitious and touches one of the most business-critical elements in the GM business model. Its success is a testimony to the value of carefully honed best practices for program analysis, design, implementation and management."

The ASTD award, as well as others from Frost & Sullivan, Brandon Hall, Bersin & Associates, Workforce Management and HRO Today, recognizes the capabilities of RPS to provide the full breadth of comprehensive training outsourcing services. They include working with the client to develop a business model supporting the outsourcing proposition; learning strategy and curriculum architecture services; course design and development; training administration; and learning technology. "One of RPS' key differentiators is our experience in designing and implementing training for clients with widely dispersed populations of employees, customers, suppliers and distributors," said Dave Letts, RPS general manager and a recipient of Training Industry, Inc.'s 2007 Most Influential Training Professionals recognition. "Another key differentiator is our ability to quantify the business impact the training delivers for our clients."

BPO analyst firm Nelson-Hall recently published a report characterizing RPS as the leading training outsourcing provider. The report underscored RPS’ ability to manage full-service learning, provide learning analytics, reduce clients’ operating costs and optimize their learning spend.

Performance Consulting Services

RPS has recently expanded its menu of offerings to include consulting services aimed at clients who seek additional insight into what needs to be done to improve business performance. RPS consultants, most of whom are Six Sigma Master Blackbelts, employ culture change, lean manufacturing and other statistical tools, as well as social network analysis and decision-making processes, to help clients develop an understanding of how their organization functions and how best to enhance efficiency and innovation.

Tracy Cox

Performance Consulting engagements often focus on social networks within clients' organizations. "In times of talent shortages, it's more important than ever to identify employees who may be among the most valuable to the organization but are hiding in plain sight," says Tracy Cox, director of Performance Consulting at RPS. "They're the employees others go to for the next big materials processing idea, the next cost cutting opportunity, the next new product. These 'innovation catalysts' can't be found on the organization chart. They're usually unrecognized, unrewarded -- and often unlikely to stay."

To identify these individuals, RPS performs social network analysis (SNA) for clients, a process it calls Catalyst Engagement. It then diagrams their collaborative relationships and describes each player in the network, supported with key metrics. The diagram also indicates areas where collaboration is needed within the organization, called "white spaces."

RPS then helps clients determine how managers and internal organizations can increase their effectiveness, says Cox. The method includes training identified catalysts and empowering them to secure needed resources.

Another Performance Consulting offering is Data Driven Decision Making (D3M), a methodology that allows an organization to better understand the data at its disposal and effectively use data to drive smart decisions. D3M provides a powerful approach for executives to build an organization that can make informed decisions at the speed of business.

U.K. Defense Training Rationalisation

In recent months, RPS has been awarded several training outsourcing contracts that demonstrate its ability to leverage diverse capabilities. For example, RPS has been selected to share in a major contract recently awarded by the U.K. Ministry of Defence as part of its 25-year Defence Training Rationalisation program. RPS will design, develop and maintain more than 2,500 courses for U.K. military personnel across a variety of curricula, including engineering, communications, logistics, personnel, police, security, intelligence, language and photography. RPS will also evaluate personnel who have completed their training.

In addition, RPS and Isuzu Motors America, Inc. recently extended a previous five-year contract between the two companies for outsourced learning services. Under the contract, RPS will design, develop and deliver technical and fixed-operations training to Isuzu's service personnel at SUV dealerships throughout the U.S. The training will be made available through Web- based simulation courses and highly interactive, hands-on workshops. RPS will also implement a certification program with Web-based assessments for fixed operations personnel. "This contract extension highlights RPS's ability to perform over the long haul for clients like Isuzu with widely dispersed learner populations working in technically complex environments," says Letts.

Midas International Corp. selected RPS to provide training services and technology for Midas' shop network throughout the U.S. and Canada. RPS will design and develop 99 hours of courseware targeted at Midas' 10,000 technicians working at nearly 1,800 locations. RPS will also design, develop, implement and host the Midas Learning System, a flexible, Web-based learning management system that will serve as the single point for Midas franchise training.

Pfizer Inc. has engaged RPS to provide logistics administration for learning events in the U.S. and U.K. for Pfizer Global Research and Development and Worldwide Development.

"There're significant opportunities for organizations to leverage the capabilities and economies that training outsourcing providers can offer through comprehensive, multi-year engagements," says Letts. "In the end, large-scale engagements require a tremendous amount of trust - accompanied, of course, by the written agreements negotiated by attorneys - so selecting a provider with extensive experience -- with several cycles of learning -- is paramount."