Marriott recognizes that technology is critical for its business as the largest hotel chain in the world. It caters mainly to business travelers who need to stay connected. Marriott recently upgraded 60,000 computers across its network from Windows XP and Office 2003 to Windows 7 and Office 2010. To ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption, Marriott leveraged external vendors to customize training materials and resources into bite-sized formats accessible anytime. This allowed employees to learn new skills at their own pace. Marriott's focus on seamless technology and on-demand training reflects its priority of accommodating business travelers' needs.

1. Training Industry Quarterly, Winter 2012 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ 37
H
otels offer a home away from home for travelers, whether
for business or pleasure. The point of leisurely travel, of-
tentimes, is to become disconnected from the world, relax
and unplug from day-to-day life, but business travelers need to stay
connected, whether by a convenient location or by Internet and
phone.
Marriott recognizes the business traveler as its number one cus-
tomer base, requiring the hotel to be IT experts as well as hospi-
table hosts. Marriott is not only an IT expert, it’s a technological
powerhouse, hosting the sixth largest e-commerce site in the world;
averaging 75 million phone calls each year and booking as many as
five reservations each second online. With that volume of activity
running through the Marriott network, it’s a pretty accurate depic-
tionofjusthowdependenthotelsareontechnology.Nooneknows
this better than John K. Hart, director of IT learning solutions and
enterprise desktop training at Marriott. Hart and his team design
learning solutions for the IT staff, as well as providing desktop and
security training to hotel staff.
With technology constantly changing, companies need to keep
up or risk being left behind. To refresh the company’s standard
desktop image, Marriott recently switched from Windows XP 2003
and Office 2003 to Windows 7 and Office 2010. This conversion
impacted 60,000 computers within the Marriott network, touching
roughly 100,000 employees worldwide.
Marriott:
Accommodating
IT Training
B Y M I C H E L L E E G G L E S T O N
“Hotels connect
technologies that
were never meant
to be connected.
Marriott’s approach is
to make that high tech
disappear, that’s what
the customer service
approach is about.”
— John K. Hart, Marriott

2. 38 Training Industry Quarterly, Winter 2012 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
Designing a conversion strategy for a
companythatoperates24hoursaday,seven
days a week requires a non-disruptive ap-
proachtoensurebusinessoperationswould
not be affected.
“The project team decided having a cur-
riculum would be more disruptive than not
having a curriculum,” said Hart. “The most
important thing to do is to minimize the
disruption. A quiet turnover is a successful
turnover.”
Marriott recognizes there is no one size
fits all learning option, which is why they
providearangeofoptionstomeettheneeds
of learners, including classroom training,
books, job aids, interactive and e-learning
options. Marriott represents 20 brands (in-
cluding The Ritz-Carlton, Courtyard and
Renaissance), which is essentially 20 dif-
ferent companies spanning 72 countries.
Regardless of language, country of origin or
position, associates need to obtain informa-
tion at the point of need, requiring different
resources to meet different business needs.
Each business unit within the enterprise is
able to choose and select options based on
its unique needs, customizing the learning
experience for employees.
“Because we’re open 24/7, we needed
something to allow the user to take control
atanymomentintime.Theycouldn’twait,”
said Jules Baradi, senior director of learning
governance at Marriott. “The user felt very
empowered that they got what they needed
when they needed it.”
To create this personalized learning ex-
perienceandensureasmoothsoftwarecon-
version in a highly matrixed organization,
Hart initiated help from suppliers. While
Hart doesn’t require much direct support
underneath, he does leverage help from
outside suppliers. Instead of creating deliv-
erables from scratch, the hotel chain “Mar-
riottizes” resources, meaning they rebrand
and repurpose an established resource to
put their own spin on the product.
“In the area of technology, we don’t have
the time and luxury for building custom
products,” said Baradi. “We want to keep
up with what’s happening in the market-
place, so we heavily leverage external ex-
pertsthatcanhelpusgetthingsoutthedoor
quickly.”
Marriott utilized Element K, a recently
acquired SkillSoft company, for creating e-
learning courses and job aids. Recognizing
their employees didn’t have time to take en-
tire courses, Marriott approached them to
repurpose e-learning course materials into
snackable content.
“An e-learning course is like a patchwork
quilt,” said Hart. “We basically took all the
threads out and were left with individual
patches. We took what was one course and
turneditintoacollectionofindividualstep-
action e-learnings on highly specific top-
ics.”
They helped condense e-learning pro-
gramsintobite-sizedconsumablechunksof
information to empower the learner to find
exactlywhattheyneed.Thisrestructuringof
content is hosted on the company’s desktop
under the help desk express (HDX) tool,
which is a support tool for employees.
Custom Guide provided Marriott with
a library of check lists and cheat sheets on
Adobe and Microsoft applications. They
worked with Custom Guide to acquire their
library of resources to license and host on
the corporate intranet site in a way that
would also allow them to “Marriottize” the
files as needed.
“We leveraged different organizations
for different purposes and at different lev-
els,” said Hart. “We either took what they
had and modified it or had them innovate it
and repurpose content to make it available
in different modalities.”
By learning training approaches from
other organizations and leveraging vendor
products, Marriott created a self-service at-
mospherewhereemployeesarecomfortable
and able to learn at their own pace and in
their own time.
“There was no pride of ownership with
who is responsible for this,” said Hart. “It
was everyone working together.”
This method is not only convenient for
the employee; it is also a gain for custom-
erstodobusinesswithacompanythattakes
learning into its own hands in the moment
of need. Just as with any workforce, there
were some adjustments for employees who
werenotfamiliarwithtechnology,requiring
theirhandtobeheldalittlemorethanthose
who are tech savvy.
Inthehospitalityindustry,securityisalso
a big concern. Customer information needs
With technology
constantly
changing,
companies
need to
keep up or
risk being
left behind

3. Training Industry Quarterly, Winter 2012 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ 39
to remain confidential and secure. With
the average cost of a security breach near-
ing $8 million, according to the Ponemon
Institute, Marriott realized it needed to
take steps toward maintaining the most
secure software. Windows XP had se-
curity issues more so than Windows 7,
an important reason Marriott made the
switch. The conversion would not only
create more security and efficient service
for guests, but it would also increase as-
sociate productivity. At the end of the
day, the added security measures results
in a healthy savings and protection of the
brand.
With its primary focus on the business
traveler, Marriott concentrates its efforts
on meeting and surpassing the needs of
this market base.
“Our bread and butter is the business
traveler,” said Baradi. “If we didn’t keep
our eyes on this ball, we’d lose our bread
and butter customer. We have to become
IT experts because it’s what’s expected.”
As a hospitality company, Marriott
tries to make technology as seamless as
possible by creating products that the
customer will instinctively know how to
operate without an instruction manual.
“We believe technology helps drive a
competitiveadvantage,”saidHart.“We’re
goingtofocusonwhereverwefindacom-
petitive advantage.”
This seamless experience is not just
limited to the customer; Marriott has also
createdaseamlessandnon-disruptiveap-
proach for employees to receive training
at the point of need. While technology
circulates through the veins of Marriott,
customer service remains at the heart. In
the hospitality industry that’s what it’s all
about, the customer.
“We are not a technology company,
we are a hospitality company,” said Hart.
“Hotels connect technologies that were
never meant to be connected. Marriott’s
approach is to make that high tech disap-
pear, that’s what the customer service ap-
proach is about.”
Michelle Eggleston is associate editor of
Training Industry Quarterly e-magazine.
Email Michelle.
ABOUT … John K. Hart
Title/Company: Director, IT Learning Solutions and Enterprise Desktop Training at
Marriott
How Long Have You Been in Your Current Post? Since August 2007, I was offered
the job the day my second daughter was born. My new boss had a flair for the
dramatic.
College/Education:
• M.Ed. from Marymount University in Arlington, VA
• NBCT (National Board Certified Teacher)
• B.A. in Government & Foreign Affairs from University of Virginia
• Initially a Rodman Engineering Scholar and then an Echols Scholar
• ROTC 4-year Scholarship Cadet and Distinguished Military Graduate (DMG)
• Infantry Officer in the National Guard
Leisure Activities:
• Spending time with my family (wife, two young daughters)
• Washington Nationals Baseball, Playing and Coaching Soccer, Reading
Favorite Social App: Lunch, followed by Hallway Conversations
What are your Top Focus Areas?
1. Supporting the Talent Management Strategy for our IT function
2. Supporting strategic projects (e.g., Office 2010, PCI Training)
3. Supporting Enterprise Learning Governance as a discipline learning leader
How do you Measure Your Team’s Effectiveness?
1. ROE – Return on Expectations for key stakeholders
2. Project – Deliverables (Scope and Quality), Budget, Schedule
3. Learning – Level 1 (pilot and early production) and Level 3 (use of new skills) and
some Level 4 (business impact – e.g., in Security)
Size of L&D Budget: Direct responsibility includes an initiative budget, a base budget,
course tuitions in some cases, and funding for strategic projects. Indirect responsibility
includes governance over discipline spending for Learning & Development activities.
Number of People on L&D Team:
Direct – 1 (me)
Indirect – Extensive network of internal and external labor
Who is Your Professional Role Model? My father. He was the youngest battalion
commander in Vietnam, won three Silver Stars, helped establish the Jungle warfare
school in Panama, and then later helped create the training revolution in the US
Army in the 1970s. He then enjoyed tremendous success running the Army Research
Institute (ARI) and then working for first Xerox and then GE.
What’s the Most Recent Business Book You’ve Read? SteveJobsby Walter Isaacson
Any Words of Inspiration for Future Training Leaders? It’s all about the business
results, not about better training.
If I Weren’t in Learning, I’d … Be a non-fiction writer, I am a wannabe Malcolm
Gladwell with one book in particular I am pining to write.