1. Trane Commercial North America Field Communications System
For Associates – May 2016
Thank you all for joining today!
My name is Mary Beth Kime, and I’m a communications business partner for Trane Commercial.
Today we’re going to talk about some exciting changes coming to how we communicate with the field.
Before we dive in – a couple of things:
We likely will not have time for Q&A, so I ask that you contact me directly with questions.
This webinar will be recorded, and additional training and support materials will be sent to you by the end of this week. My apologies for the late notice for these invitations.
Presented by:
Mary Beth Kime, Communications BP

2. Agenda Communications today – why make a change?
New Field Communications System
How it works
How it affects you and your teams
Today in our short 30 minutes, we’re going to cover a few things…
The state of Communications today – why make a change?
And we’ll introduce the New Field Communications System…
How it works
How it affects and benefits you and your teams

3. Today’s Discussion OUR SITUATION
Burning platform to update and improve communication with district office leaders and our front-line employees
We conducted focus groups, 1:1 conversations and a full assessment of our system today. We benchmarked external companies for best practices
What we found was…
NEXT STEPS Develop, implement and maintain a communications system that achieves the following goals:
Ensures that the field receive the information needed to do their jobs
Streamlines flow of communications to the field to increase productivity and predictability – and avoid “one-off” messages and communications
Respects the pace of the business
Creates consistency in communications roles and responsibilities for front-line employees, managers and leaders in the field
Increases employee satisfaction
Creates a loop for addressing issues through interactive methods
This image below represents what communications looks like to the field today.
A lot of information is coming at you from many sources!
And There is not a defined system for communicating.
So the real question is – is any of this sticking? Are we getting our messages across to the right people, and effectively?
We realized that in Trane Commercial, we have a burning platform to update and improve communication with our district offices.
So, during Q3 last year we held focus groups, meetings, visits, and 1:1 conversations with more than 200 employees of all levels and roles in the field, as well as with dozens of content creators. In fact, some of you on the call were part of this initial evaluation work. We also sought out best practices internally and externally, and considered how to leverage current technologies such as the Hub and the latest version of Share Point.
What we found (which will not be surprising) is that you are in message overload.
A few key themes we picked out:
The problem isn’t just about the VOLUME of content… but rather the content is not predictable or consistent, and it’s coming from so many different places… it’s not streamlined in other words.
Messages are TOO LONG.
It’s not always clear what you’re being asked to do… “What’s the action”?
It’s difficult to sort through what’s important for you and your teams based on your roles
You often look to your managers to help you prioritize – there is generally a high level of trust there.
So we want to work with your needs and offer a communications system that does the following:
Gives you the information you need to do your jobs – in a concise and predictable way
Streamlines the flow of communications to the field and creates consistency
Increases employee satisfaction
Reduces the time spent filtering through long s, memos, letters, and newsletters to determine what’s important
And that leverages new technologies, such as the Hub.
So let’s talk about what this system looks like…

4. Approach/Strategy for Communications with Field (CSOs)
Field Communications: Future State Proposed Flow of Communications
Approach/Strategy for Communications with Field (CSOs)
Operationalize: Leverage new technology and tools to improve effectiveness of information sales and field operations employees needs to do their job. Use The Hub to build strong, sustainable two-way communications that includes simple, predictable push methods by audience
Activate: Develop a predictable, simple process for District Leadership to prioritize and organize messages Bundled messages are short, action-oriented with clear “to do” and delivered predictably in a push format with a special audience- specific SharePoint site with all materials; create feedback mechanism for questions and dialogue
Engage: Continue to strengthen the top-down Build upon the top-down communications – extended leader meetings, roundtables,– with emphasis on short, brief, actionable messages
The flow of communications can be separated out into three buckets.
The first, operationalize, involves leveraging new technology and tools, like the Hub, to improve how effective we are at getting critical information to front-line employees in the field. When I say “front line” I mean all of you on this call – account managers, energy engineers, fulfillment staff, marketing, estimators, etc.
We propose using The Hub as the vehicle for communicating updates and announcements to the field around new products, offerings, programs, systems, initiatives, changes, etc…
The second bucket, “Activate”, is about developing a predictable and simple process for district leadership ( as in operations, services, sales, and district managers) to prioritize and organize messages about important topics, programs, offerings, news, or focus areas.
Finally, in the third bucket, “engage,” we continue to strengthen the top-down communications by building upon what we already have in place such as extended leader meetings and roundtables, and more.
Before we go much further, let’s talk a little about the Hub…

5. Field Communications: Future State The Hub
What?
Replacement tool for Knowledge Center (KC) and Tech Connect discussions boards
35,000+ solutions migrated from KC as well as 1,700+ Tech Connect discussions
All factory technical support teams using it now!
Why?
Reliable, mobile-friendly system you can access from anywhere
Intuitive keyword search helps you find answers you need
Ask your questions/find answers from support teams and fellow technicians
Where?
In the cloud – no need to VPN
Access by PC, mobile, or tablet
Just go to and log in with your IR credentials
Who?
Anyone who has access to KC today
Discussion boards limited to Trane CSOs (independent and company-owned) and headquarters
The Hub is for You!
When?
Official rollout January 18, 2016
Training available
But you can get in today!
Because the Hub will play a significant role in our new field communications system, especially for you, I would like to remind everyone a few things about the Hub:
Was launched in January this year
Replaces the HVAC Knowledge Center… and then some.
It is also a social collaboration platform that allows employees to start discussions and groups, share information and knowledge, comment on and rate usefulness of content, follow their peers and be part of communities.
Independents also have access
To log in, go to “hub.trane.com” in your browser. And use your IR credentials to log in
And in case you need any more help…

6. Go to hub.trane.com, log in with IR credentials
Field Communications: Future State The Hub – Getting Started
Go to hub.trane.com, log in with IR credentials
Start with Hub Help Community and Get Started videos
Watch the Hub Demo (30 mins):
Learn about the mobile experience:
….please look at the “Hub Help” community, watch the demo, ask questions, and browse answers in this community.
Now, let’s get back to talking about the Field Communications System and how it impacts you.

7. Field Communications: Future State How it will work
BEFORE
AFTER
We just looked at a more high level view… Now let’s get more specific – how does it all work?
Instead of receiving really sporadic and random communications from multiple places at random times (like what you see illustrated on the left)….. You, our associates, will primarily be getting your communications through a super-concise bulleted daily push … which is directly linked to content on the Hub.
And I know many of you right now are thinking “wait what, I get an every day? That sounds like a lot…”
Actually, these s are going to be so “skim-able” and simple that it will take you 15 seconds to review it to decide if anything or everything is relevant to you in your current role…. In addition… [flip to next….]
Exceptions:
Local marketing newsletters
Crisis, confidential, extremely timely messages
HR and IT-related, acquisitions
NOW: Dozens of channels, not predictable or consistent, too much volume, hard to prioritize
FUTURE: Daily updates, combination push (summary ) and pull (Hub), lower volume

8. Field Communications: Future State How it will work
Once a day, you will receive a short summary of updates for a specific business stream – each day will be different
Click on a link to go directly into viewing the update from the Hub
Each day of the week will be dedicated to giving you updates from a specific business stream… For example, Monday is all about Systems Sales… so if you’re used to getting the Monthly Systems update from “Sales News Flash” or from a colleague, you’ll now get this in the corresponding Monday as a single bullet with a hyperlink that takes you directly to the latest systems update power point file.
NOTE: All associates / front-line employees will receive the updates each day, regardless of your role, because many of you have multiple responsibilities across different business streams, and/or may be interested to see what’s happening across the business. The idea is to make it extremely simple and quick for you to determine if the update contains anything you need to know.
As you can see in the calendar image here, we will have 5 “subspaces” within this community, which will correspond to each business stream
Mondays are for Systems Sales….
Tuesdays are dedicated to ES&C Sales….
Wednesdays to ES&C Operations….
Thursdays are all about Building Services Sales topics…
And finally Friday is about Building Services Operations topics….
So essentially, we are leveraging the Hub as the vehicle for communicating updates and announcements and availability of new critical information on products, offerings, programs, initiatives, systems, processes, changes, etc…. to all of you.
NOTE: There are a few things that will NOT be included in this System – such as crisis communications, Legal, IT, and HR communications, which are of a more confidential nature. Also, Ingersoll Rand corporate messages are not incorporated here. However, everything else should be incorporated here.
Also, I want to make sure you’re aware that there will be a bit of a transition period over the next few weeks. You may see a few things hit through the Daily updates that you also receive elsewhere as we move through a transition. Just be aware.
The first daily will hit your inboxes next week. Look for it from “Trane Commercial Updates”!

9. Field Communications: Future State Where do updates live?
Now, you may be wondering: where do all these announcements and updates actually live? In case you wanted to search for them outside of the daily s.
They will live in the Hub in a community called “Trane Commercial Updates” – which will go live by the end of this week. Once you’re in the Hub, you’ll look in the Communities tab and click on “Trane Commercial Updates”…

10. Field Communications: Future State E-Library…
A quick note on E-Library, as I think there has been some confusion…
"The Hub is not currently replacing e-Library. When you are in the Hub, you can search for documents as well as solutions. To find content stored in e-Library, please use the search link (and you can show them how to get to it, etc.), which allows you to use the Google Search Appliance (GSA) to find e-Library content."

11. You can change this via your Profile and Settings!
Field Communications: Future State Other Helpful Tips
You can change what you receive in your Outlook inbox, such as choosing to “follow” a group, community, person
You can change this via your Profile and Settings!
A few helpful tips….
You can change what you receive from the Hub (or Jive) in your Outlook inbox, such as choosing to “follow” a group, community, person.
You can change this via your Profile and Settings! See the images to illustrate….

12. Field Communications: Future State How you can choose to view the daily updates
You will NOT receive the daily push updates in your inbox… however…
In your monthly package you’ll see links into the Community sub-spaces for each business stream.
You can choose to “FOLLOW” the spaces for real-time updates in your by checking “Inbox”
Even though you WILL receive the daily update s, you can choose, if you wish, to receive updates the second that new content is posted in the “Trane Commercial Updates” community. Just so you’re aware… Some announcements may be posted a couple days or so before it appears in your daily push … depending on which day of the week it’s going out.
HOW?
You do this by entering the Trane Commercial Updates community on the Hub, choosing the business stream sub-space you’re interested in… Then click “Follow” at the top right, and then choose “Inbox”. This means any time new content is placed here in this sub-space, you will automatically receive an update from the Hub about the new content.
Just so you’re aware, by checking “Connection streams”, this just adds updates to your “News Feed” in the Hub. So if you’re on the Hub regularly, this could be a nice alternative to checking “Inbox” and adding additional s in your Outlook account.

13. Sales Manager Weekly Update will be absorbed into this system in Q2
Field Communications: Future State Other Changes to Keep in Mind
Trane News changes – will be shorter stories focused on recognition, community relations, major wins, etc.
Technician Newsletters (Service and Controls) – more easy-to-read bullets and action items, less paragraphs
Monthly Systems Update (MSU) – will continue our same process, continue to keep concise, and will make it available to link into the Hub, not share point
Sales Manager Weekly Update will be absorbed into this system in Q2
Local Communications – No changes at this time for district local newsletters and town halls
A few other things you should be aware of as part of the Communications improvements being made….
Trane News changes – this will be shorter stories focused on recognition, community relations, major wins, etc… Not about product launches, new offerings, etc.
Technician Newsletters (Service and Controls) – more easy-to-read bullets and action items, less paragraphs
Monthly Systems Update (MSU) – we will make it available in the Hub linked in your monthly package, as well as add each individual submission to the MSU into the Hub so it’s searchable.
Sales Manager Weekly Update will be absorbed into this Communications System. There will be a bit of a transition period in which you’ll possibly receive both for a few weeks.
Roundtables – adding additional leader roundtables for other business streams, based on best practices
Local Communications – No changes at this time for district local newsletters and town halls
And in terms of timing, you should be aware of two things:
The first daily push summary is going out next week… your employees will receive it. They might even ask you about it. We ask that you stress the importance of this change and what it means for them going forward.
The second thing is the first monthly manager toolkit will be headed your way by the end of May. Look for it coming from “Trane Commercial Updates”!