Park Place Technologies and Go1: Enabling learning across the business

A global company of 2,200 employees, Park Place Technologies is a data center and networking optimization firm that provides customers with data center services and software and helps them manage their IT infrastructure. 

Danielle Lansberry, Director of L&D, and Josette Lanese, Learning Technology Manager, work together at Park Place, where their vision, according to Danielle, is “that every Park Place employee has a clearly defined career path through strategic learning to enhance skills and knowledge that will fuel their personal growth and professional development.” 

At the start of the COVID pandemic, Danielle and Josette saw a significant surge in employee interest in virtual learning. However, while employees were requesting more training content from the company’s L&D team, Danielle and Josette found themselves having to say “No” over and over again. They simply didn’t have the content people needed—or the resources to create all of it themselves. 

With training requests pouring in, Danielle and Josette decided it was time to look for a content solution that wouldn’t only save the company money but also better enable employees to increase their knowledge and skills—and allow their team to say “Yes” more often.  

Key takeaways: 

• Park Place Technologies had a great sales training program, but they needed learning and development content to offer employees non-sales employees. 
• Because L&D couldn’t provide employees with the training they needed, teams began purchasing one-off courses, which were a significant cost for the business. 
• Since partnering with Go1, the L&D team has saved the company money and increased learning engagement. 

Content for all sides of the business 

Park Place wasn’t starting from scratch in their search for content. In fact, they already had a robust sales training program involving skill-building, mentorship, and role-playing that they had been using for years. But when it came to the rest of the company, they didn’t have much to offer. 

A few years ago, the L&D team decided to purchase an LMS so they could deliver training to departments other than sales. Once they had their LMS established, they began to partner with subject matter experts across the business to build learning content in-house. While employees enjoyed the content that Danielle and Josette’s team created, they were still submitting requests for training in soft skills, language learning, and other areas where the L&D team lacked the time, budget, and expertise necessary to meet those requests. 

“We were having to say, ‘We’ll have to find room in the budget to purchase something,’ or ‘We’ll have to create it in-house,’” Danielle recounted. “And that’s just not scalable or sustainable.” 

A business case for learning 

Soon, individuals and teams began buying one-off courses for training that the L&D team couldn’t provide. Danielle and Josette even found out their team would need to purchase content for certain company requests. 

“We just didn't have the courses and that was gonna cost us another several thousand or tens of thousands of dollars,” Danielle said. “So when you add up what we were already spending, plus what we would need to spend to fulfill these immediate needs that we had, it was kind of a wash.” 

The good news was, creating a business case for a new content solution was simple. “When you added up what we were already spending, plus what we were going to need to spend, the business case just made a ton of sense,” Danielle said. 

Content and culture 

In their search for a content provider, it was important to Danielle and Josette that their new vendor would be able to provide a wide array of high-quality, vetted content to meet the diverse needs of their workforce. 

“Our vision is to be able to give every individual what they need in order to progress in their career, whether that's just becoming better in the role that they're in, being the best person in that role, or becoming a leader of that role or a leader of a department, or even the CEO,” Danielle said. “We want to make sure that each individual has the right learning for that. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to leave any stones unturned.” 

The team also wanted to find a vendor who was a good culture fit. “Our culture is very professional,” Josette said. People have certain expectations. And we wanted it to be a company that fit our culture. That’s when we found Go1.” 

A seamless transition 

Danielle and Josette looked at a handful of different vendors that they could integrate into their LMS. This integration was a key priority, as they didn’t want to send people to multiple systems for learning. They then realized that many of the vendors they were considering already had content available through Go1. 

“When we realized that all those other vendors we could pretty much get in Go1 – it was almost a no-brainer,” Josette said. 

The seamlessness of Go1’s integration with Park Place’s LMS resulted in a smooth transition for employees. “It's so seamless they don't even know that we're pulling from different vendors within Go1,” Josette said. “It all looks the same to them, and they have the ease of use that doesn't change.” 

Keeping track of learning 

Go1’s content has been a win for employees, but it has also made Danielle and Josette’s jobs easier. “The Go1 sales team was promising us it would be seamless, and we'd be easily able to convert the courses, and the reporting would be easily done through Uptown Academy's [LMS],” Josette said. “They hit every mark. There has not been anything that we've had difficulty with once we've instituted Go1 into our LMS.” 

Reporting is an important piece of the puzzle for the L&D team as they need to be able to keep track of what content is being used, and by whom. With Go1, they’re able to track everything all in one place. 

“If we have all these different platforms and people sharing licenses for things and all that kind of stuff, you don't really have a good way of tracking who's done what,” Danielle said. “Now that it's all in one place through our LMS... we have that visibility and reportability now that we didn't have before.”  

No more no’s 

A recent company-wide engagement survey has shown Danielle and Josette that the new Go1 content has been well-received. Danielle noted that since Park Place implemented Go1, they’ve seen survey responses like “There's more options available,” “I feel like learning has improved,” “I feel like I have the ability to learn what I want to learn,” and “I feel like the company is investing in me.’” 

Now, when employees come to Danielle and Josette with content requests, they no longer have to turn people away empty-handed. “We are now able to provide content quickly upon request,” Josette said. “The large number of options for each topic allows us to tailor the content to our needs and culture.” 

Danielle added, “It’s amazing to be able to say ‘yes’ when people reach out to ask if we have courses.”