Verizon Business reshapes around IP applications, managed services

(Part 2 of 2. Part 1 is here.)

Over the last 18 months, Verizon Business has been reshaping its organization to do a better job of selling, deploying and supporting not only IP-based services but the more complex IP-based services such as managed security or hosted IT offerings. According to senior Bob Toohey, senior vice president of human resources for Verizon Business, the company has gone further to integrate the sales, marketing and support efforts into a global solutions business that can present complex products to large business customers and provide the deployment and support of those services. And that has meant considerable training on all fronts.

"We know that there are technology differences out there," Toohey said. "We know that the organization is changing from a standpoint of going from the core network to really selling our applications and consulting, our professional services and IT solutions and security solutions. I'll use the word solutions, and clearly that is what customers want; they are looking for us to help them with their problems. We need the right skill set to walk in and be able to talk to the customers and talk about a solution from a consulting standpoint and then turn around and look at the toolbox they have and be able to take all the assets around Verizon and put all that solution together." 

To get that skill set, Verizon Business has used internal talent, bought talent through acquisitions such as CyberTrust and recruited other talent, Toohey said. The company then created functional teams across the sales, engineering and operations units to create the solutions customers are seeking, Toohey said.

"As you sell large deals, complex deals, where you are integrating multiple product sets and you are integrating a solution across all different platforms, you need the right skill set to, one, sell those, and two, to also implement them," Toohey said. "We put teams together that have brought one organization in global service that can go out and do those deals. That team has that skill set to go integrate all those product lines. We have a whole sales engineering group that helps build up these programs. We do quite a bit of training. As products shift, we look at how we train those organizations."

In designing that training, Verizon Business moved away from a traditional classroom model to one that uses the best of the technology available to make training more on-demand, Toohey said. Verizon Business still works with its largest vendors, which provide training in their equipment, but it also works with third parties and develops its own training modules.

"There could be vendors coming on-site to locations to work with folks, but in other cases we do blended learning online," Toohey said. "You can quickly deploy modulized training onto a desktop computer or PDA. There may be a two-hour training course, but maybe one of our people is going to see a customer and they only need 15 minutes of the course to refresh themselves on what they need for that customer. They can drop it into their PDA and listen to it on the way to the client. We try to make training anytime, anywhere and easy to access so that they can get what they need based on where they are going. Years ago everybody took the same course, had the same training. Today people need to know what they need. You are bringing in so many different skill sets you need to make that training more accessible from the standpoint of, I need what I need and let me get the right training for what my role is with my client right now."