Pavel Grekov
Executive Director
Ascona company

Over the past seven years, Askona has accumulated tremendous experience in the field of enterprise management and has in its portfolio impressive collection successful retail cases. Until recently, our connections, however wide, were limited, for the most part, to the furniture community. At the same time, Askona has always had a desire to share knowledge with the outside circle. We want to involve as many entrepreneurs from various industries as possible in our orbit. And to do this, in our opinion, the most correct way is on the basis of the company's educational center. Over the past two years, we have been actively reforming it and turning it into a kind of club for those who want to develop and grow professionally.

remotely and continuously

Like any company involved in large wholesale and franchising, Askona pays serious attention to the training system for employees and partners. Training center and electronic portal for coordination educational services have been operating for quite some time. At the end of 2015, we decided to expand the powers of the "training" and made this structure more open - this is how the "Corporate Center for Personnel and Business Development" appeared. Inside the company, we call it in the English manner - learning center. But on Facebook you can find us as the Ascona Training Center, where you can also get information about upcoming events.

The renovated center has been operating for a little over a year. The cornerstone of this structure is an electronic educational portal, to which all our partners have access today. Prior to the official opening of the landing center, the set of portal materials was aimed at training line personnel - employees of our franchisee stores and wholesale partners. Today, the Askona Learning Center is represented by two online areas. The first includes a wide variety of practices and modules for self-study. The second is represented by author's courses and webinars conducted by Askona trainers. There are real masters among them.

Electronic practical courses and programs are separated by sales channels, as well as by specific tasks and specializations. Askona's trading partners, Hilding Anders franchisees and partners in the wholesale direction have their own websites. Access to the materials is available to all employees of retail companies, who are supervised by the manager of Askona, who is responsible for the training process in the field. He ensures that courses and certifications are held, according to the standard, at least once a quarter, and upon request, they can be held at least every day.

Basic information is available in the methodical office. Users are provided with a comprehensive toolkit: training manuals (presentations) for specific products, videos, scripts for sales techniques for specific products, information letters, product conformity declarations, certificates, assembly diagrams commercial equipment, workshop on the basics of effective store management, latest edition consumer rights law.

The current retail training program includes three practical stages, each of which determines the required number of lessons and sets the criteria for online certification. An employee can be tested right in the store. The system itself will give him a final grade - depending on the points scored. The calculation is based on a 100-point scale, taking into account the number of completed online webinars. As soon as a specialist goes through all the stages (and the training program is designed for 9-12 months), he has the opportunity to participate in personal training from the top managers of Askona. This, I must say, is a great motivator. Believe me, the first persons of Ascona know how to charge for success. In April, for example, the personal training “Business with Meaning”, designed for managers, was conducted by the founder of Askona, Vladimir Sedov. The feedback and audience reaction was beyond all expectations.

The work of portals is absolutely transparent. If the account has not been active for a month, the system blocks it. In order to continue training, the partner needs to recover the password. This algorithm allows us to monitor the demand for educational services and the intensity of the training itself. To my joy, over the past year and a half, the number of restored accounts has decreased to 5 units per month, and Askona now has more than 2,500 partners, and each has from 10 to 100 employees. Plus affiliate retail chains with a solid staff - no less than a thousand people in each.

Partners whose managers are registered on the portal can, upon request, perform scheduled or unscheduled certification of employees. We, in turn, regularly make summary tables of training by region. Dealers, therefore, have information about where their employees are in the ranking in terms of qualifications and knowledge. For example, in June of this year, the Ryazan franchising salon Hilding Anders broke out into the forefront. And in the Asconov franchise network, the salon from Michurinsk is in the lead.

Our electronic academy is working properly, the system is well developed distance learning for line staff. But we continue to form a complete database of training courses. At the moment, we want to achieve a deeper involvement in the educational process of the business owners themselves. An enhanced cyclical program is being developed for directors, managers and store owners. In parallel, the possibility of attracting entrepreneurs from related industries to this resource is being considered.

Close encounters outdoors

In addition to online learning, there is another, no less important, activity of the lening center - offline education. Askona coaches regularly travel to regional partners to conduct full-fledged training for their team on the spot, identify those areas that require improvement in the work of staff, and correct systemic errors. We have a standard training program covering all aspects of the business retail company, and there is what is called out of the box - programs that a business owner can order from our specialists for their personal tasks. The training is prepared on the topic set by the partner and is held at a convenient time for the trainer. By the way, there is a queue for programs from especially talented and efficient corporate trainers - their trainings are ordered almost six months in advance. I would like to point out that in individually trainers can advise our partners not only in the mattress area. In most cases, these seminars cover all aspects of the retail business.

As part of corporate programs"Ascon Training Center" author's trainings were conducted by Maxim Batyrev, Igor Mann, Dmitry Norka, Evgeny Zhigiliy, Igor Ryzov. Until the end of the year, we plan to arrange performances by Radislav Gandapas and Gleb Arkhangelsky.

"Star" trainings involve not only a broader view of business as professional sphere activities. They also form a circle of like-minded people, introduce and unite people who want to communicate in the same language and, possibly, implement joint projects. That is why we are interested in making our events as accessible as possible for all interested entrepreneurs and merchants.

This year, Ascona's "star" seminars were attended by about two hundred partners and colleagues. A lot of interesting things await the participants of the trainings. Askona Training Center maintains contacts with all speakers and business coaches included in the Russian TOP-20. Perhaps, over time, we will begin to invite foreign consulting stars.

Ascona, I want to note, does not earn anything from these events. The ticket price is formed taking into account the speaker's fee and operating expenses: hall rental, two coffee breaks and lunch. At the same time, the cost of participation turns out to be several times lower than, for example, in Moscow or large regional centers.

We conduct all classes and trainings in Dobrograd. In June, a comfortable four-star hotel was put into operation here. Today we are ready to work with an audience from 10 to 700 people. If necessary, we will be able to accept up to one and a half thousand listeners - the venues of Dobrograd allow this.

People come to us for knowledge, impressions, emotions. In addition, many people are interested in seeing with their own eyes the first private city in Russia, invented by Vladimir Sedov. Now Dobrograd is being actively built up with new facilities. There are beautiful views, fresh air and an amazing atmosphere of friendliness. We also serve tasty meals to our guests — the chef of the best Dobrograd restaurant Stork’s Nest creates real gastronomic miracles, so no one has ever left us hungry. Many training participants prefer to stay in Dobrograd for a couple of days off. And, believe me, there is something to have fun here.

At the end of each event, we collect feedback from the audience and try to make the next program even more interesting and exciting. For those who want to receive information about the educational activities of Askona, we invite you to contact us by e-mail. I will note right away that we do not send spam, only polls on the topics of the training and announcements of the next meetings.

An Internet resource that will help to significantly save time on studying the KOMPAS-3D Home system and other ASCON products.

Subscribe to ASCON news

Education

Training on software products ASCON is conducted by all regional ASCON offices and partners who have certified teachers on their staff. Also, certified courses on ASCON methods can be taken at organized on the basis of educational institutions. All trainees who successfully complete the courses are issued certificates of the established form.

You can get training in the following areas:

Course name	Number of academies cal clock	Training program
KOMPAS-3D - 3D modeling system
New features of KOMPAS-3D V16	4
Design and development design documentation in the KOMPAS-Graph system	32
3D modeling of parts and assembly units in the KOMPAS-3D system	32
KOMPAS-3D administration	16
Design methods in KOMPAS-3D	24
Methodology for designing harnesses in the KOMPAS-3D system	3
Pipeline Design Technologies	24
Properties and reports in KOMPAS-3D	8
Design of metal structures in the KOMPAS-3D system. Appendix "Equipment: Steel Structures"	16
Design of mechanical transmission elements using the KOMPAS-3D: Mechanics kit	16
Construction design in KOMPAS-Graph	32
Construction design in KOMPAS-3D	32
Designing plans for buildings and structures	4
Design of reinforced concrete and metal structures	4
Design of electric lighting and power supply systems	4
VERTICAL - computer-aided design of technological processes
CAD TP VERTICAL. User Course	32
CAD TP VERTICAL. Administrator Course	40
LOTSMAN:KB - automated design management system and electronic archive of design documentation
LOTSMAN: KB. User Course	8
LOTSMAN:PLM - automated system for managing engineering data and product life cycle
LOTSMAN:PLM. User course of engineering data management system and life cycle products in design preparation for production	24
LOTSMAN:PLM. User course of the engineering data and product life cycle management system in the technological preparation of production	16
Engineering Data and Product Lifecycle Management System Administrator Course PILOT:PLM	48
Pilot-ICE - project organization management system
Pilot-ICE. User Course	8

The Pixel Plus company has created a portal for training and advanced training of personnel for the Askona company, which is engaged in the production and sale of orthopedic mattresses and sleep accessories.
The site has a system for attesting employees, a rating system for sellers, a training schedule, a system online communication and alerts about events and contests.

Success stories

	non-state Pension Fund Power Industry was founded in 1994, it is among the top 10 NPFs in Russia. In 2010 to work with corporate clients At the request of the NPF of the electric power industry, AREALIDEA developed a turnkey CRM system. Four years later, this was not enough.
	Tyumensky TSUM is a shopping complex in the city center with an area of ​​35,600 sq. m. (GBA) with a customer traffic of 5 million people a year. Rental and own business. Product range 250 000 SKU.
	"Total dictation" is educational project, which helps to test your knowledge of the Russian language.
	The new site was to become a convenient resource where one could easily and quickly get information about the projects of the United Metallurgical Company. The AIC+QSOFT alliance was chosen to implement the project. The developers advised to make a website on the CMS "1C-Bitrix" - they already had projects in their portfolio for large companies created on this platform.
	How to put on the conveyor the automatic production of balloons with personal design and avoid human errors? The leaders of the Veselaja Zateya chain of stores entrusted this key business process to the 1C-Bitrix content management system and developers from ANIART. After a complete reconstruction, the new online store began to bring more than 100 orders per day, which exceeded all expectations.
	Behind last years the topic of a healthy lifestyle is increasingly raised in the media and is actively supported in the corporate sector. People begin to prefer their dishes natural products exercise and drink purified water. An important role in this was played by the Ukrainian company Ecosoft, which has developed dozens of alternative solutions for water treatment systems and supplies them to 46 countries around the world. They managed to place the entire product catalog, a water quality map, detailed documentation for all solutions, unique product cards with client cases, online support and launch full-fledged B2B sales on one online platform.
	In December 2015, the management of Ivashka decided to create a single site for all branches, with a common accounting and analytics system and a unified design, and connect it with the enterprise management system. The development of the new site was taken up by the Uberweb.ru studio. They also made previous versions of the site for the company. There was no doubt about the choice of CMS. The developers used 1C-Bitrix before, but this time they chose the Enterprise version - it had more functions that were important for large businesses.
	For the past eight years, our site has been running on an outdated CMS with no support. Slow loading of the site pages, lack of a mobile version, problems of line employees (not developers) with interaction with the CMS - all this limited the potential of our company. We decided that the site of the market leader must meet all the modern requirements that both search engines, users - employees and customers place on it.
	The resource was tasked with effectively broadcasting corporate and product information. It was necessary to speak convincingly and emotionally about the developer. Show the history, experience, business reputation of the brand. It was also important to effectively present the objects under construction: to provide comprehensive information and dispel the fears of buyers.
	One of the pioneers of online sales of Apple products in Russia was the re:Store specialized store. Years later, the company consolidates several such sites, and its online sales revenue is growing at an astronomical rate. The reason for the success there is called a technological platform that was able to combine very different online stores into a single whole.
	Kyiv department store Child's world» grew to the largest trading platform children's stores in Ukraine and is not going to stop. But the conceived online project in 6 years has turned from a functional site into an old-fashioned resource that has ceased to attract customers. After reviewing the possibilities of online business, the company relaunched the online store on a new platform and increased its attendance by 11 times.
	In a rapidly changing world, every minute is precious. But how to fill it with positive emotions? The owners of the KAANNI online store found the answer in the creation and sale of decorative pillows self made. They convey the warmth of the hands and soul of the masters who create them. Such a gift acquires special value, evokes warm memories every time a hand touches or a glance falls.
	Land Rover is a legendary car brand that Landstore has been working with for many years. They not only know a lot about the repair and maintenance of these machines, but are also actively involved in the sale of original auto parts for all models, starting from 1995. Land Rover owners know how to appreciate the quality of goods and services. Therefore, the company always tries to take care of its customers and wants to offer the most convenient and high-quality online service to both individual users and wholesale partner companies.
	"Spend a weekend away from the bustle of the city and civilization, in an ecologically clean place surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, and enjoy nature." This is exactly what one of the most popular desires of every second city dweller sounds like. And so you want someone to take care of all the troubles of booking, leaving only the feeling of a good rest. With the help of the new website, the mountain hotel "Karpatski Poloniny" made this dream come true and began to sell it to its customers. After moving to new platform mobile traffic grew by 48%.
	To make a significant profit, it is not at all necessary to spend money on signs, shop windows and crowds of attendants. The online store for children's goods Esky on the 1C-Bitrix platform competes with offline networks. This became possible after optimizing the work of the warehouse and delivery service. For seven years, the project has reached the federal level. He took a significant part of the clients from the multi-channel business and did not spend a single ruble on organizing his own physical network.
	One of the most successful online sales segments is footwear. Obuv Rossii group of companies thought over a detailed concept for the development of Internet business and brought several of its brands to the Internet one by one. The efforts were not in vain, the site of the online store on the 1C-Bitrix platform is visited by more than 100 thousand people every month.