Welcome to the Ipsen Technical Development Center (TDC)
A new training program for Ipsen Field Service Engineers (FSEs) signifies a major investment in current and new hires to the Ipsen Customer Service (ICS) Team. The FSE Academy is designed to be a 20-week in-depth program that involves both classroom learning at the TDC in Cherry Valley, Illinois and hands-on experience in the field with veteran service technicians.
While new hires will make up a large part of the typical Ipsen FSE Academy class, more experienced field service engineers will also be able to benefit from the training program. Regional service managers help direct FSEs to select modules of the program based on an assessment of their current skill levels, with an eye on opportunities for growth through training.
“We’ll be focusing on the fundamentals of vacuum furnace repair,” Cavan Cardenas, Ipsen’s Technical Training Lead, explained. “From day one of week one, we want our technicians to get an overview of our equipment, how it works, and what our customers do with it. We want the technicians to understand the purpose for each product in the line.”
There will also be a focus on developing soft skills and handling administrative work. “The best recruits for our line of work come from people with a service or installation background. We want to build on their people skills within a busy service lifestyle. There’s an adjustment to being on the road, and we’re looking for people who have the right mix of personality, attitude and ability.”
Leadership Driven Training
Darci Johnson, Ipsen USA’s Program and Transformation Manager is leading the implementation of the FSE Academy. “As I started at Ipsen, there wasn’t a formalized department dedicated to creating technical training programs specific to Ipsen Field Services,” Johnson recalled. “We see some of our biggest opportunities coming from improving the onboarding of our field service teams.”
Johnson, who comes with a resume packed with training development, has seen the benefits of consistent training programs throughout her career. Recruited by Ipsen leadership in late 2022 to deliver a comprehensive field training solution, Johnson is confident that she’s suited for the job. “I have a lot of experience in instructional design, leading teams to build training programs from the ground up,” she noted. “When John Dykstra (Chief Service Officer) and Geoffrey Somary (Ipsen Global CEO) talked to me about the opportunity to do that at Ipsen, I could quickly see the potential there.”
Dykstra and Somary saw an opportunity to revive the training program once known as the Ipsen Corporate Academy, which ended in 2020 at the start of the COVID pandemic. Johnson’s career experience made her the perfect candidate to modernize the training program and to meet the needs and demands of today’s new hires.
Educating a Dispersed Workforce
Ipsen Field Service Engineers are distributed across North America to serve a customer base that reaches from coast to coast. Across distances like that, it can be difficult to make sure there’s consistency of service without having intentionality. Johnson sees the FSE Academy as an important part of ensuring a broad base of consistency from one region to the next.
“While we have regions for our field service engineers, that hasn’t meant they have exclusively done jobs within their regions,” Johnson explained.
Getting the training right is crucial when it comes to meeting the expectations of customers. “In the past, a furnace could be down in California and the customer may need it to return to service quickly, so a technician from Alabama would end up flying there,” Johnson offered.
With a stronger, more consistent training program, Ipsen will expand more localized expertise, ensuring customers have more opportunities to work with the technicians they’re familiar with.
Growing Ipsen’s field service team and preparing them for all the aspects of customer service, from technical diagnostics and repair to entrepreneurial soft-skills and administrative software, is an important outcome of this investment. “I think the successes lie in working with our customers that weren’t previously choosing Ipsen service. Expanding our outreach, building relationships, and letting our furnace buyers know that working with Ipsen service is the best option,” Johnson attested.
The inaugural Ipsen Field Service Engineer Academy launched in September 2024. Ipsen is actively recruiting for field service positions nationwide. Explore our current openings here.