Quick facts about Wilo SE: 
- Industry: Mechanical Engineering
- HQ: Dortmund, Germany
- Established: 1872
- Website: www.wilo.com
Challenge: Digital transformation of global technical training
The Wilo Group is one of the world’s leading premium suppliers of pumps and pump systems for building services, water management, and industry. With 9 different offices across different locations, it was a challenge to reach all employees within one global learning management system.
Wilo sought a learning platform that supports their way towards the digital transformation of internal training as well as one global learning experience.
“Thanks to Learn365, we can put the administration of courses in local hands! As global admin, Wilo SE still has an overall view but each department is able to produce its own content, pull reports or implement its own country-specific measures.”
André Babusch, Employee of the Technical Academy, Wilo
Solution: Future-focused learning with Learn365
Wilo previously used Learn365 OnPremises for their company-wide personnel development, sales and product-related training. With Learn365 OnPremises, the Technical Academy based in Germany was the only way administrative rights could be assigned. If another office/department wanted to make changes to or add learning content, they always had to go through the Technical Academy. The language barrier between organizations also posed a major and time-consuming challenge when implementing new learning content.
One of the goals Wilo was to give the individual country organizations full autonomy in managing and structuring their training offerings, giving them much greater responsibility and autonomy in managing and administering country-specific learning content.
With the introduction of Microsoft 365, Wilo went looking for a new learning platform that could further optimize training processes and simplify administration.
We were already in close contact with the Learn365 team. When we received the information from our IT department that the roll-out of Microsoft 365 was imminent, the logical decision was actually the switch from Learn365 OnPremises to Learn365 Cloud.
Thorsten Brennecke, Project Manager, Wilo
In 2020, Wilo upgraded their old OnPremises solution to the Learn365 Cloud solution and introduced their global learning management system called “Wilo eAcademy” – home to content like applications, products, and technical training.
Results: Adaptable technical training hosted in the cloud
The switch to the Learn365 Cloud was a completely new beginning for Wilo. With the move to the cloud, Wilo is relying on a scalable IT infrastructure that allows internal and external participants to be managed in one system. Learning is now far more intuitive, modern, and user-friendly for all employees.
The Technical Academy now serves as the global administrator. In its role as global administrator, the Wilo Technical Academy maintains an overview of the big picture. However, it also can give individual country organizations significantly more autonomy in designing their learning content, generating evaluations, reporting on training attendance, and offering country-specific course catalogs.
As part of Group Product Management, the Technical Academy at Wilo is responsible for establishing global standards for technical training. The Technical Academy provides learning content in English and German that is adaptable by the country’s organizations. In terms of knowledge transfer, the Technical Academy focuses on the areas of products (solutions), applications, and technical fundamentals. André Babusch, a Technical Academy employee, explains:
We create the content for these three topic blocks and make it available worldwide via our learning platform Learn365. The country organizations then have the option of translating our content into the respective national language. In addition, they are free to adapt the content using country-specific standards or guidelines.
Additionally, outdated learning content that does not adhere to Wilo’s new standards for modern learning modules is quickly removed. André Babusch explains:
As a result, the range of Web Based Trainings that we published for the release has become smaller, but of a higher technical and visual quality.
In addition, mandatory compliance courses are regularly added. This ensures that, sooner or later, every employee interacts with the Wilo eAcademy. Mr. Babusch formulates the overarching goal as follows:
By continually providing interesting and relevant, technical content, we expect learning in the Wilo eAcademy to be considered part of our employees’ everyday work.
Every Wilo employee who needs technical training for their jobs uses Wilo eAcademy. Web Based Training (eLearnings) and scheduled webinars (eTrainings) are very popular. Webinars on new products are particularly popular. André Babusch adds:
The main focus here is on digitization (eAcademy), i.e. it is possible to learn anywhere in the world, regardless of time or location. In addition, international academies are being developed. Among other things, the Learn365 ensures that the organization of continuing training can also be placed in local administrative hands.
Future: Accessible learning and training for all
In the future, Learn365 will continue to be the channel on which relevant topics are offered according to the latest methodology. In this way, the intrinsic motivation of employees is to be promoted in the long term. André Babusch explains:
We are pursuing the goal of giving every employee worldwide access to the eAcademy content, regardless of time or location – and on the end device of their choice. It should be possible for the user at any time to acquire the required knowledge at short notice within a few minutes.
About Wilo SE
The Wilo Group is one of the world’s leading premium suppliers of pumps and pump systems for building services, water management, and industry. Today, around 8,000 employees work for Wilo worldwide.