As roofing manufacturer Owens Corning continues to improve its learning platform, Owens Corning University is also enhancing the resources offered to its distributor partners.

First launched in October 2023, Owens Corning's "Distributor Academy" is a dedicated platform for roofing distributors and suppliers. Officials with Owens Corning call the resource "product-plus," meaning it provides plenty of impartial information about the manufacturer's products and general education.

The platform grants access to a range of videos about the actual application, both product and system and resources in PDF and other formats. Contractors can use these documents to provide specifications or answer questions that homeowners might have.

Officials with Owens Corning said distributors have accessed the most content related to the industry and Owens Corning, as well as technical details about products.

Jon Gardner, senior leader of strategic partnerships, learning and development, said Owens Corning had taken these observations into account to provide improved experiences for its distributor partners. For instance, distributors can work with Owens Corning to create tailored education tracks.

"The platform allows us to provide custom experiences for our partners," he said. "The areas of focus may be different, so the Distributor Academy itself is a great resource. We can create a custom experience for each one of our distributor partners through a better understanding and working with them on what's the most important information you want us to build out in Distributor Academy for you."

Sales are also a well-treated topic in the academy. Gardner said Owens Corning's sales team is "very embedded with our distributor partners, and work with them carefully" to ensure that individuals at the branch are capable of having solid conversations with their customers.

"Just like Owens Corning University 2.0, Distributor Academy allows our distributors to leverage product-plus resources to help out their contractors," said Gardner. "Our distributor partners are a vital part, a vital connection and a vital partner to the entire chain with contractor, distributor, manufacturer or homeowner, and our distributors have played a vital role in helping contactors get to a better place."

As the Latino community within roofing continues to grow, so do the needs of companies looking to add them to their team. Recognizing the community's role, Owens Corning includes Spanish-focused live training for the insurance and storm segment of the industry. Through a partnership with Latino Claims Academy, this resource provides training in a live setting where Spanish and Latino contractors can now have training on running a business and other critical industry information. 

Distributor Academy is available 24/7, allowing distributors to head to one place for their education at whatever time works best.

"What I love about the Distributor Academy is that it's helping our sales organization get focused with our distributors on content that's important to them and those markets," Gardner said.