A Note from the CEO
Microsoft has joined the fray! Well ... they did buy
a company that was in eLearning....does that mean that they are
going to be in the eLearning business?!?
Based on this move, it is easy to believe that Microsoft and
other big software companies are jumping into the business (IBM's
'Next Generation LMS' and PeopleSoft's acquisition of TeamScape). I
see it as continued exploration - to determine if Big Business has
really bought into the concept of learning and the process that it
implies. I really think that Microsoft bought Placeware to have a
solid Business Communication tool - not to be a vendor in the
eLearning space. PeopleSoft has been putting their toe into the
business for some time. Only if we see continued Product Development
and an emphasis on developing a suite of services around their
Learning Practice can we conclude that they have 'jumped into the
fray'. One big player to watch is Sun Microsystems. They purchased
Isopia 18 months ago and have continued to invest in product and
services around the platform. Combined with the global reach of the
Sun Education Services business, the Sun offering could be a
harbinger of how the 'big' guys will approach this business. It will
be an exciting show!!!
What do we do (look at our subtle change...)? rapidLD provides
consulting services focused in the learning industry. Our consulting
offerings evolve around four Customer questions:
1)
Where do I start? (Strategy and Business Plan
Development),
2) Who do I partner with?
(Vendor Analysis and Selection),
3) How do I
maximize my investment? (Deployment) and
4) How do I
manage the implementation that I have?
(Outsourcing).
If you think that we might collaborate
on one of these topics and want more information, edit your
Interests (at the bottom of the page) and we will send you more
information.
We have seen many customers realize fabulous benefits from
learning technologies. We hope that you have that same success!
Visit our Home
on the Web!
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Dear Guest,
Welcome to rapidLD's February issue of The eLearning
evolution (e2). Some of you are digging out
from several feet of snow - plenty of time to catch up on your
backlog of reading. You might find some nice nuggets in this
issue. Be safe...and refer a friend!
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Strategic Planning |
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Susan Rosner
Business and Executive Coach,
Coach-On-Call
Vision, mission, purpose, goals, strategies, performance
targets, actions....whether you are an executive,
professional, entrepreneur, or investor, you are probably
familiar with these strategic planning concepts. The notion
that strategic planning is critical to organizational success
has been widely researched and in today's leadership
literature is accepted as common sense and core practice. If
that's true, every one of us should be able to answer the
questions below. Quick, what are your answers?
· What
are the three year goals of your company?
· How do these
goals forward the organizational vision, mission and
purpose?
· What are the goals of your work unit?
· How
will you know when you have achieved these goals?
· How
does each individual contribute to achieving the work unit
goals and company goals?
· What are your three year goals?
· How do these goals align with the goals of your
organization?
You should be able to answer these
questions quickly, specifically and succinctly. My guess is
that there's quite a bit of hemming and hawing.
The
reality is that although there is a broadly held view that
strategic planning is critical in an organization and it makes
common sense, it is not common practice. There are all sorts
of excuses and explanations. It takes too much time, costs too
much or it is seen as a yearly budget exercise that is focused
on financial results with little or no follow through.
The work in developing a strategic plan for a business
can be quite challenging. It requires challenging your
thinking and your past actions not to mention a willingness to
take risks. Ideally, through this process, organizations and
its people can share a crystal clear vision about the goals,
the measures of success, how each business unit contributes to
the results, and how each individual's performance is
connected through performance measures and results to the
bigger picture.
The reality is that when strategic
planning it done well, it can provide a powerful roadmap that
keeps businesses focused on actions that are aligned with the
strategic intent of the company as a whole, a business unit or
a strategic initiative . The impact is not only clarity about
organizational, strategic and individual goals but a framework
in which businesses can achieve breakthrough results and
ignite corporate spirit and team performance.
For more information
about Strategic planning, either for yourself or your
Business, click here>>
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When Do I RFI? When Do I
RFP? |
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 Ensuring that the time spent in either process is
a good investment for the company AND the
vendors
Have you been in the middle of a Vendor Selection process
only to wonder when it will ever end? Or frustrated that the
value of the time spent was not recognized by your own
company? Here are some general guidelines to follow when
contemplating the selection of a learning technology vendor
that can help you make this a more effective use of your time
(and the vendor's time):
RFI Process
· The RFI process
should be designed to take a larger number of vendors down to
a select few (two or three). You should look at third party
data (like Gartner or Meta) to make sure that you are
comparing relatively 'equal' companies (versus one from the
high end and one from the low end).
· Pricing in an RFI
should focus on Commercial pricing (versus Market or 'Best'
pricing) so that you can make an equal comparison among
vendors. Your Business Case should reflect this Commercial
pricing since Market price will vary based upon current
economic and business cycles.
· The RFI process should be
used when the Company buying decision is indeterminate. As
such, you should not make purchasing time commitments in the
RFI to the vendors involved.
RFP Process
· The RFP process should be used when you have
specific purchasing authority for technology based upon an
approved Business Case. This process is lengthy and laborious
for both parties - make sure that you are ready to buy before
you begin the process.
· The RFP process should be uniquely
tailored to your company including specific legal or business
questions.
· The RFP process should include scripted
demonstrations for the vendor based on Use Case scenarios that
you provide. This will allow you to evaluate each product's
work flow for the same functional requirement.
· The RFP
process should also ask for Market pricing, using specific
Licensing scenarios based on your deployment schedule. Be
creative in your licensing scenarios - the market has not yet
matured to one pricing model.
Use these guidelines and
everyone involved (your team and the potential vendor
partners) will get the most value for the time invested.
For more
information about how rapidLD sees the Vendor Analysis &
Selection process, click here >>
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What's COOL...What's
HOT... |
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 Comparative ROI Information
In recent years, many of us have experienced dwindling
budgets and painful layoffs. These cost saving measures may
pacify the investors and boost the bottom line in the
short-term, but they leave an organization with a host of
other problems. Problems like having a workforce that is less
prepared to address business issues because they have not been
trained properly. Your training department now has a multitude
of training requests, but you may be lacking the budget and/or
the technology to help address these training needs.
How do you convince the CEO or CFO to loosen the purse
strings and purchase technology that is vital to your training
department? You need to prove that the return will be greater
than the investment. Providing a comprehensive Return on
Investment (ROI) analysis will help you to:
· Shorten
the Purchase Process
· Build Consensus within Your Company
· Standardize the Purchase Process
· Focus on the
Business Issues
· Gain Senior Management Support
·
Establish a Historical Record of Return
In previous
articles, we have covered the value of having a learning
strategy, selecting the best technology, deploying technology
efficiently and measuring your ROI. This month, we are
exploring ways to generate ROI data while you are finalizing
your learning strategy and selecting your technology.
As you begin to develop a short-list of technology
vendors, you will find that each have slightly different
product features and a range of price points. You will begin
to ask questions and make assumptions that will provide
valuable data for your ROI studies. What if you had the
ability at this point to measure one product against another,
not based solely on product features or performance, but also
based on ROI calculations? There are several software tools
available today that will help you produce comparative ROI
analysis for two or more competing products.
According
to CIOview Corporation; ROI analysis is not just about the
final numbers. The value is in understanding how technology
drives different costs and benefits. The next step is to play
out "what-if" scenarios to assess the implications of
business, technical and financial scenarios. ROI numbers alone
do not provide a conclusion on the merits of adding a
particular technology solution. When used properly, ROI is a
guide for understanding the effects of the many different
choices made when planning a learning technology initiative.
One of the CIOview premiere products is ROInow. ROInow
is a software tool that gathers the total costs and benefits
of implementing a product, technology or solution, and
presents the results in a format designed for executive
decision-making.
Click here for more information
on the ROInow product >>
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Let's Get Personal |
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Did you know you can receive personalized supplements
to the eLearning evolution?
Click on edit
your interests at the bottom of this email and select
Consulting Tools within your 'Areas of Interest'.
Beginning in March, we will be distributing a second email
with Consulting Tools to those people that have selected an
appropriate category. Note that we have now added Business
Process Outsourcing of Learning Technology to our interest
categories!
But Note - you only get the link if you select 'Consulting
Tools' when you 'edit your interests'. So click on edit
your interests now to 'get Personal' with rapidLD!
Also - note that we have added a link at the bottom,
'Forward email' - this allows you to send this
newsletter to up to FIVE friends with one click. Go ahead -
try it!!
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rapidLD eLearning evolution (e2)
Overview |
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If you haven't been to our web site recently, check out
the latest updates, including the new eLearning evolution
(e2) overview.
More
info>>
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Introductions are in Order |
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Christine Clark and Rajib Singh have joined the rapidLD
team! Christine is a Senior Business Developer and comes to
rapidLD with almost 10 years of experience in the Training and
Learning business. Rajib is our Technical Consulting Lead and
comes to us with three years of development experience in the
Learning space and a great base of experience in both
consulting and product development. We welcome them to our
team!!
Contact Christine at: CClark@rapidld.com, Extension
237
Contact Rajib at: RSingh@rapidld.com,
Extension 232
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