How Dale Carnegie Training Reduced Printing & Shipping Costs

With learner content format preferences changing and new training material fulfillment options created by distributed printing networks, Dale Carnegie Training saw an opportunity to create value for its learners and franchisees while lowering operational costs.  Partnering with SharedBook, they set out to achieve three goals:

1. Improve an outdated print and ship model
2. Decentralize training materials customization
3. Meet learners' mobile expectations

Company Overview: Dale Carnegie Training

For over a century, Dale Carnegie has been improving individual and business performance around the world. Dale Carnegie’s training methods are proven to sharpen professional skills and transform people into successful, fulfilled individuals. Headquartered in Hauppauge, New York, Dale Carnegie Training is represented in all 50 of the United States and over 90 countries.

Over 190 global franchisees use their training and consulting services within companies of all sizes, in all business segments, across 25 languages to increase knowledge and performance. The result of this collective, global experience is an expanding reservoir of business acumen that clients rely on to drive business results.

Dale Carnegie Training emphasizes practical principles and processes by designing programs that offer people the knowledge, skills, and practices they need to add value to the business. Connecting proven solutions with real-world challenges, Dale Carnegie Training is recognized internationally as the leader in bringing out the best in people.

Key Challenges

Within Dale Carnegie Training, the Product Services Department supports global franchisees by providing all classroom materials including printed participant manuals, instructor manuals, class powerpoints, sell sheets, syllabi, wall charts, etc.

Additionally, the Product Services Department supports customization requirements for training events. They had a goal to improve their existing printing process while simultaneously establishing a mobile-capable infrastructure for their custom training materials.

The Product Services Department faced three main challenges: 1) Improve and outdated print and ship model; 2) Decentralize an internal customization process, and; 3) Meet clients' mobile expectations.

Improving an Outdated Print and Ship Model

Dale Carnegie Training historically relied on a traditional printing partnership with production occurring in 1-2 centralized production hubs. They paid for shipping to their many training locations, often paying a premium for expedited shipping.

SharedBook provided an efficient and cost-effective alternative to printing at centralized hubs and paying for expensive shipping. By leveraging over 1,800 convenient production locations, SharedBook allowed Dale Carnegie Training to eliminate shipping costs by printing materials near each training event and receiving free delivery within a 30-mile radius. Because materials are printed in proximity to events, same day delivery is also possible. This approach reduced lead time requirements and created more operational flexibility.

"We were stuck printing out of 1-2 hubs and experienced a high cost for shipping. And, periodically, we had last minute orders. Our previous vendor couldn’t support our same day distribution needs. With SharedBook, we now have more delivery options at lower costs."

Decentralizing Training Materials Customization

The Product Services Department was responsible for 100% of the customization work related to training materials. Although customization and personalization is an enormous value-add to the end user and franchisee, the centralization of these activities created long lead times and higher (internal) pricing for services than necessary.

SharedBook helped Dale Carnegie Training extend more customization ability to their franchisees while maintaining control. The Product Services Team was able to pre-approve a collection of training modules and load those into SharedBook. Franchisees were given access to the pre-approved training module collection where they could now build custom sets of pre-approved resources, order printed copies, or distribute digitally to their trainees without having to engage the Product Services Team. This self-serve model instantly created an on-demand custom solution at scale for all of the Dale Carnegie Training franchisees.

Meeting Clients' Mobile Expectations

While there has always been real value in delivering a physical workbook or manual to clients, Dale Carnegie Training’s view is that the landscape is evolving and participants are expecting a choice of using print or mobile devices. They wanted to provide materials in both print and mobile formats as a convenience to participants and to provide as much value as possible.

Protecting intellectual property is critical to Dale Carnegie Training’s revenue streams. Shifting from a traditional printed model to a mobile access model required complete security and control over the content.

SharedBook’s solution allowed them to deliver mobile content in a completely secure and controllable environment. End users could access Carnegie’s content online or offline via PC, iOS and Android devices with features such as highlighting, note taking, peer collaboration and cross-device syncing.

While end users benefit from the convenience of mobile access, Dale Carnegie Training maintains complete control over their materials including visibility into how each user is interacting with their content. Users cannot share or download files to any other applications, and Dale Carnegie Training can withdraw access at the individual or group level at any time.

A Rapid, Supported Implementation Process

With a large network of global franchisees, the Dale Carnegie team anticipated a complex implementation process and significant time investment to ensure a successful rollout. They were delighted and surprised by the ease of implementation and how fast the SharedBook platform took hold with franchisees.

SharedBook’s platform was able to process their existing documents; no reauthoring of content in new formats was required. The Dale Carnegie team was able to simply upload their existing files into their secure cloud-based Content Collection and begin printing or digitally distributing within minutes.

The simple and intuitive nature of SharedBook’s interface allowed franchisees to learn how to use the system with very little training. Dale Carnegie Training’s Sheri Bogener summarizes it best, “It’s been very easy on our team because it’s so intuitive and the support materials are so detailed. Our franchisees know now that once a project has been finalized, they’re going to be able to easily place an order on their own.”

“In addition to solving our specific challenges, we need highly-responsive partners. The SharedBook team is always available, and very responsive which I absolutely love!”

Business Impacts

Through their partnership with SharedBook, Dale Carnegie Training has realized the following positive impacts for their business:

1. A reduction of printing and shipping costs related to training materials
2. Flexibility to meet rapid production timelines through local printing
3. The ability to extend digital and mobile access while protecting their IP
4. Greater ability of franchisees to self-serve customization needs within boundaries set by the Product Services Department
5. The ability for the Product Services Department to invest more time in other services which create value for their franchisees