Navigation platform, TomTom, is on a mission to provide the world’s most accurate map data. To support this mission, TomTom uses a variety of internal and external editors to help update their map in near real time.
The Map Partnerships Team at TomTom was originally using an open-source learning management system (LMS) to train map editors. However, the LMS required significant ongoing back-end engineering development. So TomTom decided to replace this legacy LMS, selecting Tovuti instead for its user-friendly interface and costto- value ratio.
With the help of Tovuti, TomTom:
Founded in 1991, TomTom defined the category of personal navigation. Its portable GPS device was one of the fastest-selling consumer products in history – putting it at the forefront of millions of road trips worldwide and changing driving forever.
Today, TomTom is still one of the leading route-planning platforms globally. But, now, it’s on a mission to provide the most accurate map data in the world – with the ultimate goal of allowing for real-time map editing.
To maintain the world’s most accurate map is no easy feat. Roads may close for months due to construction. Businesses can move unexpectedly. New bike paths and parks may be added during city planning. All of which happens frequently in nearly every community around the world.
To keep their maps up to date, TomTom relies on a global force of in-house and external map editors. TomTom trains these editors on specialized software editing tools that allow for near real time map corrections.
Editors consist of partners who need to make custom changes, hobbyists who edit for fun, enterprise-level customers like car manufacturers who use the technology in their vehicles, and internal TomTom employees who assist in maintaining map accuracy.
Prior to Tovuti, The Map Partnerships Team at TomTom used a free German-based open-source learning management system (LMS) to train their editors. However, the platform was difficult to use. And it required significant backend development work from TomTom’s engineering team, whose main job was to develop their internal software tools.
The Map Partnerships Team at TomTom decided to search for an LMS that required less development work and was easy to use. After four months of evaluation, Tovuti was chosen for its intuitive admin interface and high cost-to-value ratio.
For TomTom, Tovuti proved to have the most robust features at the most affordable price point compared to other providers. Not only that but Tovuti also included highly-configurable features such as a customized menu and tailored learning paths.
Under a white label, TomTom first launched Tovuti as the “TomTom Maps Academy” via its Community and Partnerships team. The Map Partnerships Team uses the academy as an onboarding program to train partners and hobbyists on Vertex, one of the geolocator’s map editing tools.
In the Maps Academy, editors follow a checklist that includes a mix of self-paced training modules, interactive videos, and forums to learn how to use the editing tool. Users then move to TomTom’s sandbox, where they progress through milestones, earn badges, and receive feedback on their edits before a final assessment and personalized certificate when they pass.
“Our main goal is to retain and grow our community and partner channel,” said Susan Ray, Technical Trainer and Learning Innovator at TomTom. “We do this by ensuring users have the right support and training to be successful on our platform. And we accomplish that by having an organized, engaging program that continuously motivates them to engage in learning.”
Ray and her team maintain engagement by leveraging pop-up notifications and forums, allowing for constant communication with users and community-building between learners. They also use the pop-up feature to tease out monthly editing challenges.
They’ve even used Dizi, Tovuti’s AI-generated content builder to create quizzes about mapping rules. Once a learner passes a quiz, they’re rewarded with a badge. Ray has found that this system of challenges and rewards helps to keep their learners engaged beyond their initial training and motivated to continue learning.
Additionally, Ray has been able to leverage Tovuti for asynchronous learning – a huge benefit to her small team. Originally, she was hosting live webinars in Tovuti, allowing her to eliminate a costly secondary webinar platform. However, varying time zones made live webinars a drain on her team’s limited time.
Even though they still host the occasional live webinar, Ray and her team largely use interactive videos for self-directed learning and house them in an on-demand resource tab. She’s found this asynchronous learning style “empowers” their mostly geographically-dispersed learners, leading to an uptick in course completions while enabling her team to allocate resources in other, more important areas.
Within six months of implementing Tovuti, The TomTom Map Partnerships Team doubled their user base. And within a year, it increased 10x.
Fueled by things such as the monthly challenges, The Map Partnerships Team at TomTom is now expanding into intermediate and advanced training paths after receiving feedback from users that they want to learn and engage with the platform even more.
Due to the success of its partner program, TomTom implemented Tovuti in two additional divisions to support enterprise customer and internal employee training.
“The rollout was seamless,” said Ray. “We didn’t have to worry about firewalls or IT challenges. And even better, we can now share content across three separate departments, which saves us a ton of time and energy.”
Each of the three audiences has its own white-labeled, separate login portals on the Tovuti platform. And while each user base has unique training needs, they are often able to share content, avoiding duplicate efforts and providing cost savings to the organization.
“Our experience with Tovuti has been amazing,” said Ray. “I know the support team by name. If I need anything, they’re always ready to help. I couldn’t have asked for a better LMS.”