A Note from the CEO
Jim Everidge
Can you legitimately criticize someone you have
never met? OK - Sam Adkins - here goes: You have it partly right!?!
Or, in a more critical vein, you have it partly wrong!
Sam wrote an article in the May issue of ASTD's Learning
Circuits. He was providing added insight into Kevin Oakes' and Kevin
Kruses' previous articles on the emergence of learning systems
embedded in the enterprise application suites from vendors like SAP,
PeopleSoft, and Oracle.
Where Sam got it right is the
suggestion that the mere presence of those big vendors in the
learning space validates that customers are beginning to demand
these products. I agree with that - the enterprise vendors are
making learning part of the discussion. I also see a healthy
interaction between the big enterprise application vendors and the
eLearning vendors in the integration of the learning products. Sam
also noted that Learning is now seen as a core Business Process.
Again, I agree and see broad adoption of learning technologies as a
catalyst to begin the accountability process for training
organizations that is long overdue.
However, I firmly
disagree with Sam on his statement that there is plenty of room for
both to play in the enterprise ecosystem. Rightly or not, all
enterprise application vendors are starting to carry the message
that they too have world class learning applications embedded in
their products. Because these vendors have significant Executive
exposure, their customers who hear this message are freezing their
traditional eLearning vendor evaluations. This is beginning to
deplete the pipelines of the eLearning vendors and will ultimately
have an impact on their ability to survive. This is significant in
that these enterprise vendors will take years (if ever) to catch up
to sophistication that we are now seeing emerge in the Learning
Suite vendors.
Sam points to technology integration as a key
variable for the long term viability of the eLearning technology
providers. I would contend that technology integration has never
been hard - it just requires competent staff on both sides of the
fence, vendor and customer. The real challenge is the integration of
workflow. Contrary to Sam's viewpoint of using the 'best of breed'
granular capabilities of various products (with a seamless
technology backend), I would say that integrated workflow is
ultimately going to win the day. Unless, of course, the customer
doesn't make the best 'learning process' decision but instead moves
to the safer 'business' decision. Tough choice - a position that
makes the rhetoric of consultants like Sam and I seem far away when
the customer is in the midst of it. The next few years will be
interesting to say the least.
What do we do? 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 June issue of The eLearning
evolution (e2). There are several interesting
articles on Learning Suites in this issue - we will be
interested in hearing from you on this topic! Enjoy this
months features...and refer a friend!
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Learning Suites - Have Your Cake and Eat it
Too! |
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John Alonso
Chief Technology Officer and
Founder, Outstart
Learning is recognized as a way to drive business
performance, but most organizations struggle with where to
begin building their learning technology infrastructure. Many
start with a Learning Management System (LMS) to address
administrative learning pains like:
· Where do learners
register for courses or select curriculums?
· How do
managers and administrators control or assign the courses that
each learner is able to access?
· How do users schedule
classroom instructors for certain courses, or reserve rooms or
materials for certain learning events?
· How do users
record the results of learner activities?
Others start
with a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) to:
·
Ensure learning and training content is consistent and
available.
· Standardize learning content creation and
structures.
· Centralize learning content within an
organization, making reusability, maintenance and updates
easy.
· Deliver content through multiple channels without
having different versions of the same content.
·
Personalized or prescribe learning experiences for individual
learners.
Forward-thinking vendors know that
administrating learners and instructors is unproductive
without content that creates effective learning. Likewise,
they realize that the greatest content and content management
in the world only goes so far without an efficient way to
track its delivery and impact on learners, and incorporate it
into regular business processes.
Their response is the
emergence of the learning suite; a single, integrated offering
that offers both sets of functionality. No matter where an
organization decides to begin its learning initiative, it
should select a vendor that demonstrates the vision to support
both sets of issues, either through strong, proven
partnerships, or preferably, through an organization's own
suite or product family. By selecting a vendor that provides
this flexibility, an organization is afforded the freedom to
evolve its learning initiative as its learning needs grow and
change, with the assurance of protected investments and smooth
integration of new functionality along the way. The
Learning Suite is here to stay.
For more information about
Outstart and their Learning Suite, click here>>
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Customer Connection - Global 150
Pharma |
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 A Vision for Learning Suites - Jeff
Merrell
Principal Consultant, e · l · r · n ·
g
Imagine, if you will, a large pharmaceutical firm that is
in the second year of a major effort to establish a single,
global learning platform. The vision - from the project's
inception -- is to provide a suite of learning technology:
learning management, multiple delivery modes, content
management, performance management, and analysis. Does it
sound achievable?
After the past 12 months of effort,
the firm clearly understands that achieving the vision is
dependent on an integrated approach to three areas:
technology, operations and governance. Lessons learned in each
of these areas are instructive for any firm embarking on an
effort to implement learning suites.
The initiative
began as a push to implement a single, global learning
management system and avoid the creation of LMS "islands"
among its disparate business units. The firm selected an LMS
in 2002 and implemented a global instance that reaches
employees in the North America, UK, Europe, Asia, Australia,
South America and Africa. The system manages both e- learning
and traditional, classroom-based instructor led training
activities. The user interface - and some e- learning content
- is presented in multiple languages.
System users
span each of the major business functions in the organization
- sales, manufacturing, R&D and corporate. Each presents
is own unique mix of requirements for learning technology.
Manufacturing and R&D, for example, must have a system
that meets FDA 21CFR11 standards for the management of
training records. The sales organization must accommodate
users who are largely remote/home office workers and depend on
dial-up connections to access corporate resources.
The
firm has effectively achieved reach (Do all of the user
communities have access?) in some of the core system
capabilities. Today it is focusing on tightening up the
quality of basic access and improving richness (Are user
communities deepening their use of a suite of capabilities to
meet business goals?).
Lessons learned:
1)
Governance:
o Manage the gray areas with purpose. A
well-formed governance team and structure is required to help
the organization manage its way through evolving standards and
technology deployment decisions.
o Governance can be a
critical component of change management and organizational
adoption of new learning technology. For example: A business
unit which can meet a critical business need through the
implementation of live, synchronous e-learning will have the
most energy to do the implementation and lead the rest of the
organization. A governance team can sanction this effort and
ensure it will lead to (eventual) global
application.
2) Technology:
o A smart
learning management system choice includes doing some homework
on how the supplier develops, integrates and/or partners with
other firms on technology to form the basis of a learning
suite. Let the supplier amortize the cost of integration
across its client base, rather than take it all on yourself.
But on the other hand -
o Keep a close eye on other
leading technology providers of learning suite components.
Standalone components may require taking on some integration
costs but provide a better match for functional requirements.
Just be conscious of the trade-offs you make.
o Less is
more. Customize only when absolutely required to meet key
business needs. Settle on single solutions in each suite
component. Both tactics will pay off in more rapid deployment
and assimilation across large organizations.
3)
Operations:
o Metrics rule. An operations team focused
on meeting key metrics (system availability, responsiveness,
user satisfaction, etc.) will provide a check-and-balance
against releasing technology that will degrade user
experience.
o After metrics, structure rules. Well planned
releases of new technology - including 12-14 month roadmaps -
will help build quality into deployment and encourage
continuous improvement.
It has been an arduous journey
but one worth the effort. Keep your eye on the strategy using
the right tools and the pieces will fall into place.
For
more information on e · l · r · n · g, click here >>
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What's COOL...What's
HOT... |
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 A Profile of Learning Suites: Herding Cats through
the Forest and the Magic Quadrant
When you hear the words online content creation, reusable
learning objects, course launching and tracking, skills
assessment, virtual classrooms, ILT management, and training
analytics, how many vendors do you think that it takes to meet
these needs? If your head is swarming with the idea of having
to do 3-4 separate vendor analysis projects while sorting
through hundreds of vendors, there is good news! The eLearning
platform industry is graduating into eLearning suites (as
documented by The Gartner Group) in terms of the vendors
ability to evolve and execute.
Some of you may have IT
backgrounds or have worked on technology product teams and are
familiar with Gartner and its industry research on traditional
IT initiatives, but over the past five or so years they have
expanding into tracking learning technologies trends. In case
if you are hearing about Gartner for the first time, Gartner
was formed back in 1979 as an industry research firm.
Currently, their business centers around research, consulting
and industry events, and competes with firms such as
International Data Group (IDG) and Meta Group.
Gartner's research is presented in a format called The
Magic Quadrant in which technology vendors are assessed as
Leaders, Challengers, Niche Players and Visionaries. The two
criteria behind these four labels are the 'Ability to Execute'
and the 'Completeness of Vision'. Leaders have the strongest
vision while also proving that they can execute on the
promise. Challengers are currently strong in execution but
fail to lead in innovation. Visionaries are helping define the
future of the industry but have not yet proven the capability
to execute. Finally, Niche Players may demonstrate value in a
specific geography, product group or vertical but don't not
have the strongest execution track record or vision for the
general market.
Gartner's analysis of eLearning
technologies historically have been detailed in product
segments such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) and
Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS). However, in their
February 2003 report, they grouped together the platform
vendors in one area and evaluated them on their ability as a
suite of technology. A suite is defined by Gartner as "a
collection of point products that loosely or tightly coupled
and increases a product's functionality." The point products
are classified as LMS, LCMS, Synchronous Learning Tools and
Professional Services.
As training organizations grow
more sophisticated in their strategic vision of how to
leverage different learning technology capabilities their
frustration grows while trying to link together disparate
systems and the value is shifting to one stop providers. At
the same time, the vendors' technologies are maturing and
gaining ground on growing their offerings beyond a core
product. The evolution is gaining strong ground but different
vendors are at different stages and achieving these suites
through a variety of ways including partnering with one or
more vendors to present a suite, organically developing all
functionality and/or acquiring and integrating the technology.
Gartner's vendor information can assist you in narrowing down
those vendors that are in line with your organizatioanl goals.
Click
here to order the Gartner report on the 2003 Magic Quadrant
>>
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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 Update
your profile at the bottom of this email and select
Consulting Tools within your 'Areas of Interest'.
Beginning in June, 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 'Update your profile'. So click on Update
your profile 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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