The Buzz - June 2007

Welcome!  As the technology supporting the operations of your business becomes more complex, the need for training becomes increasingly important. This month's issue features an overview of online training in general and web conference training in particular.  We also talk a little about ERP's promise to the enterprise community.

In This Issue

Online Training - In-House Or Not?

Web Conferencing And The Paradigm Shift

Bob's Blog!

Making ERP Deliver On Its Promise

Are You Missing Out On Value?

Software Support Notes

Online Training - In-House Or Not?

Online training is the combination of technology and service required to deliver an effective online learning experience to the right people, anytime, anywhere.

If you were told that online training could help your organization improve overall performance by delivering more training, more effectively, more often, to more people, for a much, much lower cost than any alternative, would you believe it? You should, because this is exactly what a well- executed online training initiative can do.

Some handy facts:

· Online training is getting immensely popular because it has the ability to deliver the right material to the right people, anywhere, anytime, and to do so effectively.

· A good online training program can be vastly less expensive than the equivalent classroom training setup.

· Although online training has certain significant advantages over traditional training, the tested process of developing courses still holds.

· Online training technology comes into play after course materials are developed.  The technology used is a fusion of online learning management software, course content management software and the services required to effectively convert content to an online format.

· Online training initiatives require a wider range of skills to implement than do traditional training programs. Therefore, organizations generally outsource online training development functions.

Most businesses looking at implementing online training should evaluate whether or not to use an in-house resource. For the most part, outsourcing your online training should prove to be more cost effective. If you have a need for training, should you do it online? Most likely. Should you do it yourself? Get all the information you can before making that decision.

Statistics on Web Conferencing Point to Paradigm Shift in Corporate Training

A recent survey of 1385 corporate trainers came up with some interesting results.

And of these results, the ability to include learners who could not attend previously is the single greatest impact of web conferencing on training offerings - 63% use web conferencing to reach more learners. Here are some more interesting statistics from that survey:

· The ability to save travel costs is the top reason why people use web conferencing for training, with 79% citing this benefit.

· More than half (51%) believe web conferencing is more or just as effective as in-person training, and another 36% believe it is almost as effective. An even greater number (70%) believe web conferencing is more than or just as effective as asynchronous, self-paced training, with another 18% believing it is almost as effective.

· Almost three in five respondents (57%) believe the value returned by web conferencing for training is high (39%) or very high (18%). Only 14% said the value is marginal.

· Ease of use, reputation, customer support, and transparent download and installation all score between very important and extremely important (between 2.29 - 2.35). These can be viewed as the top criteria for selecting a web conferencing supplier.

· About 3/4 of trainers (76%) use the same web conferencing system for both training and general meetings.

The trainers who indicated that web conferencing for training increased 14% while in-person training decreased 13% in 2006 - and the 70% of trainers who believe web conferencing is more than or just as effective as asynchronous tools - are a powerful testament to a fundamental paradigm shift underway in corporate training.

Bob's Blog!

What are the key ingredients of a new system implementation ? These ingredients are all present in any size project. Sometimes one person takes on more than one role in a project. For example, the person who is running the project might also assist in documentation. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work on various projects, large and small. At times, I have been asked to take over a project that was in trouble. I have also been hired to assess a project's status and identify areas where that project was at risk of failure. Over the next several months,

I will share with you some insight into what I have found to be key ingredients or characteristics of a successful project.

INSIGHT NUMBER ONE: Don't Change Everything at Once! Companies embarking on massive re-engineering in their core processes at the same time as a new implementation, subject the implementation to higher risk with greater probability of failure. I typically recommend that a company should implement less re-engineering effort and more process enhancement. This expedites the implementation and causes less disruption to that company's culture.

My approach begins with a conversation and analysis of business issues, such as company competitiveness, long-term business objectives, a detailing of the functional business processes, a listing of the business issues at an operational level, and a listing of the company initiatives. Fundamentally, what evolves is the makeup or definition of the company foundation. Senior management, of course, is the group that defines what the business objectives are. Then it is a matter of having the functional managers become involved so that there can be a determination of how the objectives can be met and to look within the architecture to make a determination of what needs to be addressed.

New systems can return great rewards, but because they are so high profile and cut across the entire organization, they need to be approached carefully to be successful.