Hosted SharePoint Case Study & Success Story

Utilizing SharePoint as an online education tool

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Business Situation

In the beginning, the American Heart Association (AHA) provided learning and development initiatives to employees at their individual office locations. With 8 affiliate/regional offices and 3,500+ employees, the program lacked uniformity and never really progressed. The Human Resources department of the AHA decided to take this program to the next level by creating an American Heat University for all corporate employees. In order to do so, however, they needed an online collaborative tool to manage the program data and materials.

There are 19 different Schools of Learning, based on the divisions of the heart. These schools each have diploma and certificate programs, encouraging employees to stay current on their cardiac knowledge. Courses can be taken in live classrooms or online; however, the online classes require unique user credentials, of which they have only 100 at their disposal. In order to make these programs run smoothly, they needed a solution that could manage course registration, track completed courses, and manage the check in/out process for all user credentials. Additionally, with so many divisions, the AHA needed a tool that would allow the workgroups for each school to collaboratively create and update course content and materials.

Solution

Fpweb.net provided the American Heart Association with a hosted SharePoint solution, running on top of Windows Server 2008, to centralize, track and maintain the 19 Schools of Learning in the American Heart University. Users are able to register for courses, as well as manage completed courses. SharePoint versioning allows AHA workgroups across the country to collaboratively create new course materials and make updates to existing materials, while maintaining an appropriate approval process. In addition, through SharePoint check in/out tools, 100 user credentials can effectively be shared between 3,500+ employees.

Lastly, the HR department is able to use SharePoint permission controls to lock down confidential employee information housed on the site, while still allowing open employee access to the American Heart University. This enables the department to use one hosted SharePoint solution for multiple projects and user groups.

Benefits

By using a Fpweb.net hosted WSS solution, the AHA has been able to expand and progress their employee education program. They are able to effectively utilize a limited number of resources for more than 3,500+ users. In addition, they have increased business efficiency by using SharePoint to centralize program management for the Schools of Learning. Finally, using one solution for multiple projects of different confidentiality helps save the company on IT costs.