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Solutions Overview
Scenario
As this fixed income specialty firm looked to improve their systems capability, they decided to strongly support analyst and trader work in the Excel-based environment. The firm wanted to take advantage of both existing user knowledge and the many analysis packages available in Excel.
Company Profile
Based in Boston, MA, this fixed income subsidiary of a major New York bank has over 4 billion dollars under management.
Situation
The users, a group of 14 traders, analysts and support personnel, had varying levels of Excel and database expertise. Management was looking to give each user a solid base of understanding to allow them to do their diverse tasks efficiently within the Excel environment. The lack of a common level of competence was hindering productivity. Many of the users had already been trained in Excel, but the training they had received was too general to add functional value to their daily tasks.
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- A fixed income specialty firm was looking to standardize and improve their users' competence in Excel and databases.
- Willow created a skill matrix to assess each user. The skill matrix pointed out strengths and identified weaknesses that could be helped by training.
- Group and individual training was devised. Training was targeted to each user's need and customized with live examples from in-house databases. Users were able to see immediate functional improvement in their daily work.
The client wanted to improve their users' control of Excel and improve use of company databases and information. The users were a diverse group of traders, analysts and support personnel who were using combinations of company databases, live financial data and web-based information, all feeding into Excel worksheets.
Willow created a skill matrix to evaluate each user's strengths and weaknesses. After the evaluation, Willow proposed a two-pronged approach of group and individual training sessions. Based on the evaluations, Willow divided the users into small groups with like abilities. The group sessions imparted common skills to each group member, raising their general knowledge and filling in any holes in their skill matrices. The individual sessions were intimately customized to each user's specific needs.
Individual sessions were held at the user's desk, using the user's own computer setup. This showed users how to get immediate tangible benefit from the training and minimized configuration problems. It also allowed Willow trainers to give each other specific instruction on how to get the most out of the databases and information available to them.
The most significant aspect of this training program was that it was customized to each user, using the data sources that they had available to them every day. The techniques that the Willow staff imparted to each user were relevant and immediately applicable to their work. This type of customized training is only possible using trainers who are both Excel experts and market specialists.
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