Case Examples

Strategy, Planning and Implementation

Reduce costs, save time, increase buy-in at all levels, and improve performance with FutureU's approach to implementation of any technology-supported communication or learning initiative.

If your organization is expanding or rethinking its internal communications, collaboration, distance learning or virtual teams activities, FutureU can help you maximize your return on investment in online infrastructure.

Effective and efficient implementation can improve communication, learning, and commerce.

Here's how FutureU sees the planning and implementation process:

1. Discover Your Needs
2. Choose Your Tools
3. Provide Access for Everyone--24/7
4. Identify Best Practices
5. Deliver Blended Training
6. Measure the Benefits
7. Remind and Reinforce
8. Evaluate the Project and Celebrate Success

The Internet and its related tools and processes will improve the bottom line, if you use them effectively to enhance performance through better communications, collaboration and learning. That's easy to say but not always easy to execute.

We provide cost-effective implementation solutions that allow you to make the most of your investment in training and technology while you also shorten development time, bypass costly learning curves, and avoid increasing the payroll head count. Free your own people to do what they do best. Let FutureU provide strategy and planning help and outsourced implementation support for any or all of the eight steps to this planning and implementation process.

Join the company of happy FutureU clients such as the American Hospital Association, California Virtual Campus, NASA Astrobiology Institute, Pacific Bell (now SBC) and others.

Relax, knowing that knowledgeable, experienced professionals are working for you. Your team leaders still call the shots and provide major input to specific questions and content. If you want your staff to master any of the skills involved, we can train them to take over from FutureU after initial implementation.

If you want to see what improved communications, collaboration and e-learning can do for your organization, or as a value added to what you already offer your customers, FutureU is at your service with 30+ years of experience.

Contact us for more information on any of these services or our overall approach to project or initiative implementation.

FutureU has conducted strategy, planning and implementation initiatives for a variety of clients, such as the NASA Astrobiology Institute, American Hospital Association, California Pacific Medical Center, University of Phoenix, and Pacific Bell. Examples of this work include the following.

California Virtual Campus

Audience: Decision makers and influencers

Goal: To provide an orientation to a variety of course management software packages and how to choose between them.

Description: We delivered a series of workshops to attendees from nearly 50 of the 107 community colleges that make up the California Virtual Campus.

NASA Astrobiology Institute, Moffett Field, California

Audience: Management staff and scientific investigators and IT support staff from more than 500 higher-ed institutions and research centers.

Goal:

• To create virtual institute of several hundred scientists doing research within the newly evolving discipline of "astrobiology."
• To share scientific data and ideas.
• To provide high quality, easy to learn, and easy to use tools that support virtual collaboration.
• To facilitate the evolution of a loose affiliation of researchers into a virtual "community of practice."

Process:

• Assisted team leader (a cultural anthropologist) with project management. Used ethnographic and other qualitative methods to assess the needs and readiness to use virtual collaboration tools of the institute's 500 plus scientist members.
• Interviewed representatives of all key stakeholder groups to assess current state of the institute.
• Surveyed entire population to identify a list of tools and features they wanted to support their work and communication.
• Researched virtual and collaborative software marketplace.
• Identified industry leading virtual and collaborative products.
• Winnowed those down to top half dozen products in each category.
• Held open demos and surveyed attendees after each demo.
• Designed and conducted pilot projects for the prime software candidates.
• Launched and ran pilots
• Conducted evaluations
• Created roll out plan
• Designed and delivered training and coaching in best practices for virtual collaboration and in use of specific collaboration software.

Outcomes:

• 100% participation from most key stakeholder groups.
• Collected responses from all 15 primary investigators and most of the co-investigators and assistant investigators.
• Completed pilot projects for the prime software candidates.
• Trained more than 2/3rds of target population in best practices for virtual collaboration and in use of specific collaboration software.

After three years the institute had 17 sites with video conferencing rooms, dozens of desktop video participants, wide-spread adoption of Web-based real-time meetings, early adoption of knowledge management/document management tools.

Total cost of project: $350,000.
Total elapsed time of project: 18 months.

University of Phoenix Online Campus

Audience: Working Professional

Goal: To create a Continuing Professional Education program based on proven academic courses, but targeted to working professionals who are looking for academic certification rather than a degree.

Results: We designed a market research project to determine if there was a perceived need for this kind of professional education program.

Researched specific human resource (HR) trade publications conducted in-person interviews at major HR professional meetings and engaged in telephone interviewing of thought leaders to determine what kinds of topics were perceived as most needed for leadership and employee development.

Participated in design o fprimary market research consisting of interviewing HR and training department directors within 60 corporations. Helped choose and orient the market research firm who conducted the research. Participated in creation and delivery of report and used report to design program and develop modules and certificate programs which were then taken to market.

Outcomes: 16 modules, 3 certificate programs for the Continuing Education Division. All but three of the modules were market tested with fully-paid and filled enrollments.

Total cost of project: $350,000.
Total elapsed time: 18 months.

American Hospital Association's Health Forum

Results: As part of the continuing professional education efforts of the American Hospital Association, the Health Forum's charter is to provide learning opportunities for senior health executives around leadership and community organizing for health initiatives.

Audience: Senior Healthcare Managers, Cardiac Physicians, Safety Patient Specialists, Community Organizers

Goal: To improve community health, cardiac health, and patient safety.

Consulted about development of a leadership institute to be delivered in a blended fashion. Helped identify products, attended demonstrations in order to provide feedback. Made recommendations as to how to proceed. Developed initial drafts of leadership modules.

In addition served as faculty advisor to the Health Forum from 1994 through 2008. Developed and annually delivered several modules in their various programs.

Outcomes:

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