Ag Tech Sunday - Case IH swap the paddock for the "virtual" classroom

By: "Farm Tender" News
Ag Company News
Aug 15, 2020
736 views
Share

By Case IH Australia

Pandemic restrictions have forced Australian businesses to take a new approach to their day-to-day operations and ag machinery company Case IH is no exception, with dealer training sessions this month taking on a very different look.

Six months ago, Case IH training with its dealer network would have involved dealer representatives travelling to a central location to undertake face-to-face sessions with Case IH staff, but under current restrictions the company opted for a new approach which is opening training up to increasingly more dealership staff throughout the network.

“We’re obviously committed to adhering to the government guidelines around COVID-19 and the health and safety of our staff and dealership representatives is paramount, so the way we’ve previously conducted machinery training for dealers was out of the question at this time,” said Pete McCann, General Manager Case IH Australia/New Zealand.

“But equally our business operations must continue and training for dealers on current and new machinery is an extremely important part of what we do to ensure they have the most up-to-date and comprehensive information for customers interested in our product lines.”

The answer was to move the training sessions to a virtual classroom, where for the past few weeks Case IH dealer representatives from across Australia and New Zealand, from the comfort of their homes and offices, have been undergoing important tractor product training with Case IH High Horsepower Product Specialist Jason Wood, from a tractor in regional NSW.

“None of us know how long these pandemic restrictions will be in place, so it’s reassuring to know we don’t need to stop what we’re doing. Using some ingenuity and with the help of online technology, we can continue to reach out to our dealerships and through them, our customers, by providing the most current information related to every aspect of our product range - Pete McCann, General Manager Case IH Australia/New Zealand

It’s a new experience for Jason, looking at training participants – more than 200 over three weeks of sessions - via a laptop screen in a tractor rather than face-to-face, but he says the feedback from those involved had been extremely positive.

It’s the first time Case IH ANZ has conducted on-line training from the cab of a tractor, with numerous cameras mounted in the cab to assist Jason in showing dealers all the features via his laptop, and illustrating the increasing connectivity abilities of the Case IH tractor fleet. Jason’s ‘classroom’ was in a paddock on his property between Gunnedah and Mullaley in North West NSW.

Sessions were limited to 20 people to maximise the opportunity for interaction by those involved, and participants were encouraged to ask questions throughout the course of the session. Jason said it had proved highly successful and came with a number of benefits.

“There’s cost savings when participants don’t have to travel and conducting our training in this way actually allows us to get to a wider audience because dealerships can involve more of their staff when it’s in an online format,” he said.

Pete McCann praised the efforts of the Case IH team in ensuring an engaging and successful training experience for dealers – considering the challenges - and agreed it was a great addition to the current training structure.