Such is the case of Atlanta-based Orkin Inc. The 105-year-old pest control company launched Orkin TV, an interactive satellite television communications network that links the company’s 8,000 employees through first-of-its-kind live broadcast technology.

Orkin uses the satellite training system to add interactive distance learning to its award-winning employee training programs. The system helps Orkin save time and monetary resources related to traditional employee training, as new hires will no longer have to travel to the company’s headquarters for initial training sessions or wait for an instructor to visit their region.

Likewise, the time needed to make a new employee productive will now be cut nearly in half, enabling them to spend less time learning about the job and more time actually doing the job.

Migrating From Established To Cutting-Edge
Orkin’s training department had a traditional model of training in place that was successfully disseminating the information needed to its employees. It was comprised of instructor-led classrooms where sessions could run days at a time. Typically, Orkin would average 300 classroom events a year with roughly 80 percent of the participants having to travel to corporate headquarters. In doing so, Orkin incurred the cost of travel, lodging and meals as well as the loss of productivity while participants were away from work. This old model displaced roughly 3,000 employees annually for training.

“But the demand for our learning services far exceeded our capacity,” says Ramiro Banderas, the company’s director of media services for Orkin TV. “So if we wanted to train more people more often at a lower cost, we needed to change our operations.”

And so the executives at Orkin assessed the needs of both the trainers and the materials being disseminated in an effort to determine which technology would best meet their needs. “We did a lot of benchmarking and made site visits to companies that were training via satellite and observed how a satellite network in place works,” says Craig Goodwin, Orkin’s director of training. “We had enough interest from our senior management team to make a platform change, so we conducted a pilot program and that was really the watershed event. We found it was very user friendly, and the training was just as effective as our traditional classroom training,” he added.
Orkin commissioned three firms specializing in satellite broadcasting and digital content delivery: Globecast, a subsidiary of France Telecom, developed the platform for satellite delivery; One Touch Systems Inc. and Helius Inc. collaborated to develop satellite receivers equipped with hard drives to provide digital video storage and software applications for the viewer response capabilities.

Now, the new Internet Protocol (IP)-based, satellite-enabled network platform delivers live video over IP and file transfers to roughly 320 Orkin sites throughout North America. Globecast is providing the integration for the satellite network including equipment procurement and staging, network security and encryption; head-end installation at Orkin headquarters; backhaul and terrestrial circuits; and remote site installation and service as well as space and uplink from its teleport in Los Angeles.

Content is broadcast over the Intelsat-8 satellite using its Ku-band platform that provides video and data services for a range of corporate clients. Orkin launched the network Jan. 20 with a nationwide address from Orkin Inc. President Glen Rollins. The company’s first two-week satellite-based training sessions kicked off the following Monday.

As a combined solution, Orkin is able to provide traditional live interactive training to its locations as well as deliver the training as files for remote video-on-demand service. This integrated system also delivers interactive student response functionality with the video-on-demand capability, virtually creating interactive distance learning on-demand. Therefore, this development, entitled Classroom-On-Demand, enables Orkin technicians to receive interactive training at their convenience.

Furthermore, on its satellite platform, Orkin receives both live video and store-and-forward training applications. Having to deal with a bundled grouping of equipment and service providers also drastically streamlines the maintenance of the network.

“We initially conducted a full training course at five locations and trained roughly 60 people,” says Goodwin. “We had three sessions a week that lasted about two hours. We broadcast the same material twice to accommodate the time differences of our West Coast sites as well.”

Once beta testing was completed, Orkin rolled out the solution for its corporate training needs. Today, its training system creates a live virtual classroom for Orkin’s employees across the country. Even though satellite television networks have been available to corporations for years, they were limited in the scope of offerings and usually offered pre-recorded material transmitted to either a television set or a computer screen.

Orkin TV is the first to deliver interactive video on-demand (IVoD) services to employees through a system that also allows them to playback previous programming (much like digital video recorders found in many homes) and participate in past broadcast events. Furthermore, use of the (IVoD) capability is tracked and recorded in Orkin’s learning management system.

“By adding the IVoD component to our training, we’re able to start training new technicians just days after they’re hired. Before, it would take six to eight weeks to teach them the skills necessary to be productive and ready to work. Now it will only takes three to four weeks to train them,” adds Goodwin.

Customizing The Solution
Even though IVoD has added a tremendous value to the Orkin training offering, executives are not turning this new platform into a catch-all application. The advanced technology is used when appropriate, but one-on-one interaction has not been completely eliminated.

“We have a blended solution in place. Where the virtual classroom may not be appropriate, live instruction continues to be offered,” adds Banderas. “Some of our service management training, for example, where we are trying to teach leadership and supervisory skills, are stronger when they occur in person.”

Initially, Orkin converted two programs to satellite delivery and currently has a few classes for some programs. Those programs span about a two-week period and last four hours a day for each course.

“We are in the process now of really fine-tuning that broadcast schedule,” says Goodwin. “We want to become more efficient to better utilize the capacity of the channel and we are looking at the content of what we are broadcasting as well as our various courses and seeing if there is streamlining that we still need to do.”

In addition, because the training sessions are broadcast live to the branches and recorded digitally for on-demand playback, Orkin trainees receive consistent, uniform messaging from the company’s best instructors, says Goodwin. This benefit is also useful for special announcements from company executives — in the event of good news and emergencies.

“This system allows us to communicate at the speed of business,” adds Banderas. “For the first time in Orkin’s history, we can reach out and touch nearly every employee immediately.”

Time, Money Saved; Enhanced Training Achieved
Corporations such as Orkin who have implemented a satellite-enabled training platform tend to have more control over the satellite-delivered communications than they first imagined. This ensures that programs are rapidly, accurately and consistently deployed to all of the employees, as well as streamlining overhead expenditures for the company. “With this new platform in place, we are saving roughly 30 percent of our budget,” says Goodwin. “But after a three-year period, we believe we will have an initial rate of return of 16 percent.”

In fact, many established giants in the retail, automotive and movie industries already have incorporated interactive distance learning at the highest levels of their organizations. The fact that such companies are using satellite-enabled technology for their training regimens is one of the strongest testaments to the cost benefits of the technology and its long-term success. As technology continues to advance and rich media content continues to become more personalized for the business user, point-to-multipoint transmissions will become even more vital, further pushing satellite into the top tier for content distribution.

Moving Forward With Enhancements
Today, Orkin TV reaches sites throughout North America giving employees in every region access to the interactive technology. Orkin executives now are examining the possibility of building out a second studio and putting in another channel. In addition, there has been some requests from Orkin personnel for administrative and corporate communications services to be introduced into the system. Lastly, the company’s plan calls for expansion to an additional 50 sites and possibly into its Canadian operations.

“Many companies fail to look at satellite as a viable solution to their training needs, and that may be because its perception is that it may be a very expensive and complicated solution,” says Banderas. “In my opinion, our experience has been the opposite, and satellite has turned out to be a very viable solution for anyone who has more than 100 sites that need connectivity. The reliability has been tremendous. We have been rock solid with our training since implementation.” 

Nick Mitsis is the Editor of Satellite Business Solutions.