Customer CharacteristicFirst McDonald's restaurant had been opened inIllinois in 1955. It is interesting that one of thefounders was Ray Kroc, son of the Czech immi-grant born in Stupno close to Pilsen. Today thereare 28000 of restaurants in 120 countries aroundthe world serving daily almost 1% of the worldpopulation with the annual turnover of 32 billiondollars. The first restaurant in Czech Republicwas opened in 1992. Today there are 68 restau-rants here serving more than 36 000 customers.All restaurants are built on the same foundations- quality, service, cleanness and reasonable pri-ces. All restaurants share the same goal - fullysatisfied customer.

Training NeedsEven though the restaurants are spread aroundthe globe and far from each other, they are basedon the same grounds, business rules and commit-ments. As mentioned above, the core values arequality, service, cleanness and reasonable prices.Quality is assured by strictly defined selectioncriteria, storing rules and food preparation regu-lations, strict quality checking and use of stan-dardized equipment. Service is provided by kindand prompt employees knowing their duties andprocedures exactly. Cleanness also requires plan-ning and checking. Reasonable price maintenan-ce together with top quality products requiresqualified and well trained staff. In the CzechRepublic McDonald's employs 3700 people; 400of them are managers and 3300 are employees.Especially among employees there is a high per-cent of fluctuation caused by a large number of

students. All this shows that McDonald's Corpo-ration needs well trained employees on one handand on the other hand needs to train new emplo-yees immediately and fluently in new processesand means.

eLearning Environment SpecificationsBefore starting the project McDonald's alreadyowned very well prepared training contentsrepresented by a set of printed manuals andhandbooks of a total extent of 2000 pages.However, in individual restaurants there were nocomputers available for employees to studyeLearning courses. Restaurants are interconne-cted with the central office by an ISDN line char-ged for the time spent. Part of employees they areto study courses, does not belong to users wor-king with PCs regularly in their private or busi-ness lives.

eLearning SolutionKontis has been selected as the vendor of the

Case study: McDonald'sô

Through eLearning implementation in McDonald's Corporation we have solved one of the basic pro-blems of today - training materials become out of date. This is caused by continual updating and incre-asing of effectiveness of processes and also by new product launches. The whole thing is now very easy,effective and fast. Each employee can access the same source. No misunderstanding can be caused bymaterials of a different update, which is very important within McDonald's Corporation.

whole project. Kontis proposed and implementedfollowing solution based on actual situation:ï For future electronic courses uniform environ-

ment has been designed. This environment isto ease significantly course operation even forbeginners. The company clown Ronald is apart of the environment changing himselfaccording to the type of presented topics. Theenvironment also includes structuralized con-tents distinguishing between explanation, pre-sentation, and tests; operation elements ormeans for immediate contact with the trainingsection. Environment also defines an attractivegraphics in the company style and rules for itsmodification in individual courses.

ï It is essential to make the electronic coursesdifferent from the printed materials. To makethem beneficial they have to present matter inan attractive an interactive form. If not, the stu-dent will prefer to use printed textbooks.Materials from manuals and handbooks hadbeen adapted and completed with interactiveelements as testing questions, games related tothe presented matter or animations of explai-ned processes and equipment. Courses werecompleted with sound, because audiovisualinformation is more effective than visual oneonly. Gradually there were more than 20 cour-ses created. They cover the whole training sys-tem of restaurants. ToolBook II Instructor hadbeen selected as a development tool. Courseswere then developed by Kontis.

ï In fact training is a process based upon inter-action between students and lecturers andupon cooperation of participants. It is therefo-re necessary to provide all participants withmeans for cooperation, feedback and commu-nication. To realize the above listed activitiesMcDonald's selected Tutor2000 managementsystem, which has been implemented in thepersonal system of McDonald's in the headoffice. From this system the Tutor2000 is ableto draw information on company structure andemployees automatically. The last problem tosolve was the study in restaurants interconne-

cted with the head office by ISDN line. McDonald's provided each restaurant witha multimedia PC. To avoid the necessity ofcharged connection by ISDN line, we takebenefit from the ToolBook II Instructor's abili-ty to create off-line courses. These courses canbe used without permanent connection withthe head office and there are crypt files createdrecording all student interactions. Tutor2000 isable to import these files. The lecturer is thenable to review activities of the student thesame way as in case of permanent connection.Kontis programmed automatic actions and thespecified files are then transferred to the headoffice by night and imported to the manage-ment system.

Solution BenefitsThe whole project is under continual develop-ment. We are planning gradual integration of tra-ining in other spheres. The benefits are also eva-luated gradually. For example we have alreadyevaluated:ï Update possibilitiesï Possibilities of achievement record

observationï Training attractivenessï Faster understanding of presented matter

Training Center Manager's statement

McDonald's is well known for their maximumcustomer focus. We know what the customersexpect and we try our best to meet their expecta-tions. Kontis met all our requirements on electro-nic training solution and our lasting cooperationproves this fact in a best way.

Alexander Molnar, Training Section Manager ofMcDonald's Corporation in Czech and SlovakRepublics.