E-learning Trends & Techniques

Above: Our Presenters. Right: Vickie Bogue, Southern Co.

Attendance at Apogee's Annual e-Learning Users' Meeting in May was up nearly three times that of last year. The month before, nearly 6,000 e-learning professionals gathered in D.C. for the e-Learning Conference and Expo sponsored annually by e-Learning Magazine. It's clear e-learning's evolution is on a fast track. Here's a quick read on the highlights.

The progression of e-learning is not strictly linear. The conference revealed a 180-degree shift from its previous years' mantra: "If content is king, then infrastructure is god." According to Elliott Masie of the renowned Masie Center, the early focus was on the "e" in e-learning, for "lectronic infrastructure." Now, he says, it's on "learning." He says innovation, creativity and quality content are more important to an effective learning experience. He believes the "e" in e-learning will eventually disappear as online learning will become the foundation for or a substantial component of any and all training events.

Masie cited the top reasons for use of e-learning today, all echoed by the attendees at Apogee's Users' Meeting as well:

• Reusable
• Available to all
• Measurable

Other key drivers:

• Substantial cost savings
• 60 to 80% reduction in training time
• Up to 250% greater retention of information, according to Merrill Lynch study

Return on Information

"If the most important investment during the Industrial Age was in factories, the most important investment during the Information Age is in the human brain." Lawrence Summers Former Treasury Secretary

During the hundreds of e-Learning Conference sessions, terms like "human capital management" and "virtual transformation" surfaced and a new definition was offered for ROI: "Return on Information." Frank Hauck, executive vice president for EMC, introduced the "new ROI" saying, "Growth, profitability and differentiation are all determined by how well organizations use their information." E-learning is a strategic channel for capturing and directing company information to the right employees at the right time.

Study-Center Users' Experiences

Apogee's Study-Center users gathered in May to share what's unfolding in e-learning within the utility sector:

• One Southwest utility recently began offering Study-Center's technical series on Motors & Drives and Power Quality to their Distribution Operations Technicians. The evaluations are highly positive with statements such as "would recommend to all engineers and tech's" and "have found to be very useful in my job."



• A Northwest utility is transforming its traditional training center into a "learning center." Employees complete "prework" courses via the Internet before coming into the "learning center" to practice what they've learned and to interact with peers.



• A Southeast utility brings its home-based residential field reps into the corporate training center to take Study-Center's Residential Energy Systems series and Fundamentals of Electricity course. Prizes for "first to complete" and "highest score" provide a fun environment for their first venture into e-learning.



• Another Southeast utility converted its flagship off-site, 3-day new employee training class, "Student of the Business Fundamentals," into a 10-hour self-paced e-learning course. The course paid for itself in six months and received rave reviews - 4.6 on 5-pt. scale. This same utility commissioned Study-Center to design "e-simulations" for their Storm Response Center employees.

Shown above are some of our Study-Center Users' Meeting Presenters: 1) Dan Rudich, CAE, 2) Brenda Wiliams, FP&L, 3) Bill Moncrief, formerly EPRI, and 4) Charlie Barron, Duke Power.

All attendees agreed that e-learning programs require ongoing marketing to ensure optimal enrollment and usage. Apogee provided a 7-Step Process for assuring a successful e-learning launch, including a return-on-investment calculator model to help define the true cost benefits of an e-learning program. For a free copy, please email Interaction@apogee.net or call 770-270-6501.

New Developments and Offers

Based on feedback obtained at its 2002 Users' Meeting, Apogee has structured some new e-learning products and is forming an "Alpha Group" to create a new course titled "Conversational Spanish For Utility Service Providers." See Alpha Group Offer for details or call 770-270-6502.

Users' Meeting Working Sessions!

Users' Meeting Adjourns to Lake Lanier!

Joel Gilbert, Captain

Demand Exchange® Adds "Counter-Offers"

The Demand Exchange® capabilities continue to expand at the requests of our clients. The latest enhancement - the ability for customers and/or traders to "counter-offer" -- brings us significantly closer to the ultimate goals of freer and more open markets, price transparency, and price negotiation. Find out how two large utilities have added this feature to their Demand Exchanges to capture more participation.
Apogee's Eric Watson conducting Demand Exchange demo online.
	Traditionally, participants in voluntary, price-responsive online demand reduction programs either received an offer price from their energy service provider or they submitted a price of their own determination. In either case, the receiver of the price had a single option: take it or leave it. If the receiver of the price found the price too low or too high, the only choice was to not accept it, with the result being no demand response from that particular customer. While this model certainly remains adequate for the majority of demand response programs currently administered through the Exchange, several Exchange clients desired more flexibility.

Apogee responded by implementing new functionality that allows the receiver of the price to counter with a price of his or her own, whether the initial receiver is the end-user or the energy trader. This ability to counter-offer the original price solves a number of potential problems and adds a great deal of flexibility on both sides of the transaction, with the primary result being an increased likelihood that critical demand response is delivered.

Northwest Utility Allows Counter-Offer From Customers

One of our large clients in the northwest wanted to give program participants the ability to counter-offer the price they received from the program administrator. The problem this client had encountered and wanted to address was a frequent lack of response to the price being offered during any given demand response event. The suspicion was that the price being offered was often simply too low to garner the expected and hoped for demand response. At the same time, the client wisely recognized the potential cost of offering a price higher than that required to harvest the desired response.

The client chose to provide the counter-offer functionality, allowing end-users to respond with the price they find acceptable along with the amount of load they are willing to commit. Once the user submits a counter-offer back to the trader, the trader decides whether to accept it, reject it, or request a re-bid. The client decided to limit the number of iterations to one to mitigate the amount of time the trader spends in program administration.

Entergy Invites Customers to "Bid In"

Another Exchange client, Entergy, took the identical approach but from the opposite direction. Entergy's program is of the "bid-in" variety where the end-user pledges both load and price into the trader. The trader can now counter-offer the price that he receives from the customer. In this case, Entergy decided to hold the load pledge constant. Once the end-user receives the counter-offer from the trader, he or she can accept it or reject it. In the case of a rejected counter-offer, the customer can submit one more bid.

Tailor Enhancements to Fit Your Needs

New modules added to The Demand Exchange this year include:

• Counter-offers
• Online Settlement
• Data Presentment
• Dynamic Group Creation

Each provides a new set of functionalities that Exchange utilities can select from to tailor their Exchange to address specific customer and program needs. Contact Eric Watson at 770-270-6517 or ewatson@apogee.net for a demo on any of these modules or to discuss how other enhancements can assist with your particular challenges.

Web Workshop & Users' Meeting October 2-3

Register now for Apogee's annual Web Services User Group Meeting and Educational Web Site Workshop in Atlanta, Oct. 2-3, and get ready for a valuable, interactive experience with leaders in Web site development and site effectiveness evaluation.

You'll not only hear from own Web masters (who created The Demand Exchange Web site that was rated 13th in the US and 18th in the world in Accenture's most recent study of utility Web sites) but also from representatives of Accenture and other utilities about what's working, what's available and what's new for leveraging the effectiveness of your Web site.

Web Services User Group Meeting and Educational Web Site Workshop
October 2-3, 2002, Atlanta, GA

Topics include:

• What's Your Web Site Doing for Your Utility?



• Presentation of Accenture's Report Rating Top Utility Web Sites
• Rating Criteria
• Who Made the List and Why?
• 5 Takeaways That Apply to Your Web Site


• Using Web Site Interrogation Software
• What Can You Learn From Your Visitor's Click Prints?
• What's the Best Software?
• What Do Reports Look Like? What Do They Cost?
• What Should You Be Tracking?


• Utility Web Site Case Studies



• The Web Site Overhaul
• Where to Begin?
• Web Audits
• Considerations


• Web Content and Interactivity by Apogee
• What's New in Energy Calculators
• What Can You Learn from Data-Based Information?
• Technology Content and Lead Generators


• Roundtable Discussion of Needs

Space is limited, so register now! Includes dinner cruise on Lake Lanier the evening of Oct. 2. If you are not an Apogee Web Services user and would like to attend, please contact Karen Morris, 770-270-6501, or Kmorris@apogee.net

26th Annual CIS Conference Conclusions

(Editor's Note: Susan Gilbert, President of Apogee Interactive, attended and presented at the 26th Annual CIS Conference in Baltimore in June. Her conference observations and reflections follow.)

It's been a long time since I've attended an energy industry meeting that attracted more than 1,000 people. But this was my first CIS Conference, and apparently it commands a thousand-plus attendees each year. I was asked to present a summary of industry trends and report on how our products are being used in customer service centers to cut costs, increase efficiency and improve performance.

Here are several consistent themes that emerged through the conference sessions and in hallway conversations:

1. Deregulation has slowed or stalled most places, which has a lot of energy companies in a "wait and see" mode. Many of these companies are returning to their core business priorities of providing reliable service to their customers and improving customer service. A few are redeploying the staff and resources they put in place to handle customer choice to bring in new revenue. For example, one call center retrained a group of CSRs to promote the utility's highly profitable lighting, power quality and appliance warranty programs.



2. Utility executives spoke of needing to rebuild confidence in the energy industry and get back to the basics of keeping the lights on.



3. Vendor executives to whom I spoke were feeling the pinch of all this and were happy if they had business abroad. Most recognize their space is overly crowded and expect consolidation among the players.



4. Everyone is looking for ways of doing more with less and leveraging their effectiveness with customers. One prominent example of this is the trend toward handling more customer interactions via the Internet. From paying bills to answering frequently asked questions to notifying their provider of an outage, the Internet is increasingly the way utilities are communicating with customers.

My presentation was attended by a lively group with whom I discussed how Apogee's products, originally deployed to train field staff, are migrating to call centers. The audience was especially interested in the demonstrations of the software-based training systems we've built for major energy retailers including Shell Energy Services, TXU, Southern Company, and FPL.

E-Learning Enters Call Centers

In our work with our clients, we're seeing that online learning is becoming the way people learn. If you haven't tried it, that may come as a surprise. If you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about. How do you compete with something that allows you to inexpensively learn a topic whenever you want or need to know it? Add to that, it's interesting and interactive, has simulations that test your knowledge in real-life situations, gives personalized feedback on how to improve your performance, and produces management reports on progress and accomplishments. It is truly a fundamental change in our way of thinking about education.

Applied to call centers, it's a perfect match. During times with low call volumes, CSRs can easily switch from phone-mode to study-mode with the click of a mouse, giving motivated employees the opportunity to expand their knowledge, capabilities and upward mobility. New employees can jump right into a course without waiting for an entire "class" to be formed for group training.

If you're interested in getting a jump-start into e-learning, let us know. We have low-cost and no-cost ways of helping. Our standard courses are available at www.Study-Center.com and range in price from $150 to $250 each. We also have a FREE e-Learning Starter Kit for utilities that includes an ROI calculator to help you evaluate various training investment scenarios. Just let us know how you would like us to help. Please contact me at 770-270-6502 or susan@apogee.net. We're ready when you are.

Deregulation -- Blessing or a Curse?

Gilbert's definitive answer:

A politician campaigning for re-election was asked his position on one of his constituent's most hotly contested and divisive issues: Deregulation. Some in town were fanatically supportive of a free market approach while others were vehemently opposed, and it appeared the election would be won or lost based on his stand. So when asked by a local newspaper reporter for his position, he phrased his reply carefully:

"Sir, I had not planned to discuss such a controversial issue at this time. But far be it from me to sidestep any issue, regardless of the nature, and regardless of the consequences. But first, I want to be sure that I understand your question."

"IF when you say deregulation, you mean that Machiavellian control, that poisonous scourge, that malevolent monster that robs senior citizens of their lifelong savings and takes the very bread out of the mouth of babes. If you mean that vile force that destabilizes the rightful budget planning of every household and throws them into the bottomless pit of despair, bad debt, and humiliation over having their service disrupted. Sir, if you mean that unlawful tax on humanity imposed by greedy generators without regard to the outfall on all citizens. If that is what you mean by deregulation, I want you to put in your article that I promise my constituents, if I'm elected, that I will fight to destroy this demon with all the strength that I possess."

"However, on the other hand, IF when you say deregulation, you mean that powerful force for market transformation, that philosophic virtue of open competitive markets and efficiency so sought by socially conscious professionals when they assemble, puts a song in their heart, laughter on their lips, and satisfies their deep emotional need for rational, environmentally sound principles. If you mean that economic principle that puts the spring in an economist's step and gives them hope that the real world operates according to theory. If you mean that nectar of the gods, the pursuit of which avoids the heavy hand and dull instruments of regulation and makes this world a better place in which to live. If that's what you mean by deregulation, I want you to put in your article that I promise my constituents, if I'm elected, I will fight to protect this divine business principle with all the strength that I possess."

"And sir, now that I have extemporaneously answered this potentially divisive and controversial question with neither equivocation, nor concern over pandering to party politics, I feel you should in all good faith put in your article that I am a man with the courage of my conviction! This is my stand! I shall not compromise!"

ALPHA Group Offer

Based on the needs expressed at our Study-Center Annual Meeting in May, Apogee is forming an Alpha Group for the development of a specialized Spanish course for utility employees. Apogee's "Alpha Group" concept provides companies with the opportunity to help direct a course's development while receiving substantial cost savings.

Conversational Spanish for Utility Service Providers

We're also announcing an Introductory Price for a new product that provides instant, online access to Study-Center course content for all Study-Center graduates.

Course References

Please click on any of these new offerings for details or call 770-270-6501.

Will Distributed Generation Change the Wires Business?

Apogee Interactive just completed an American Public Power Association sponsored project that answers the question: Will Distributed Generation Change the Wires Business? Joel Gilbert, CEO of Apogee and The Demand Exchange, presented the results at APPA's Annual Conference in Dallas in June. The room was packed to capacity with interested municipal power representatives, many of whom are eager to see environmentally friendly distributed generation (DG) incorporated into their plans and to position themselves as value-added providers in evolving energy markets.

The project summarizes how distributed generation does and does not influence planning; the situations in which customer interest in DG makes economic sense; and how customers are often misled by cogeneration proponents about customer economics. Perhaps of most interest is the way customers who perceive risk about power reliability can be helped by DG and how DG can be incorporated into the municipal's portfolio of price risk mitigation strategies. Details on first cost, operating and maintenance cost, and fuel cost are also covered. The study also points out opportunities for energy companies to parallel existing grid-isolated generation with DG, thereby building a value-added partnership with their customers through coordination and operation of DG resources with regional energy markets.

Joel's insights into distributed generation come from decades of actual field performance verification and experience with this equipment. For more details, contact joel@apogee.net or 770-270-6504.

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