Harnessing the Power of Collaborative Learning Across Your Extended EnterpriseBy Kathleen Waid

Learning 2.0 embraces a much wider net. Here’s how to meet the challenge.

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Every global business enterprise understands the strategic importance of training. But how to best create, manage and administer learning programs—particularly in large companies with considerable budgets—continues to be a challenge, especially during what are obviously very difficult economic times.

These times require mitigated risk, great partnerships and fiscal

conservatism—all while maintaining a commitment to continuous

improvement across all operational aspects of the enterprise. The

challenge for learning organizations everywhere is to work within

this framework and develop the processes that enable them to

harness the power of not only traditional learning, but also of social

and informal learning, in ways that reach and inform the extended

enterprise of employees, partners and customers.

Learning 2.0: Informal Learning Takes Shape

In order to understand this challenge, first examine the ways in which

learning programs have changed over the course of the last decade.

The traditional view of learning that was embraced for many years

entails a structured approach of regularly scheduled classes that

help employees, partners and customers use a company’s products

better.

Sometimes traditional learning is composed of instructor-led courses

taught in classrooms; other times it can be accomplished through

eLearning or some other types of virtual training. But in all cases,

it dovetails closely with the educational experiences we’ve all had

attending schools and universities throughout our lifetimes.

A new paradigm of “informal” or “social” learning has evolved over

the past decade, however, fueled in large part by the Internet and the

continuing proliferation of different ways of obtaining knowledge in

the Information Age.

Informal learning can be a case of seeking information through

online search engines such as Google, or reading an article or

a blog. It includes conversations in person or online, inside the

firewall or outside. And it can result from the proliferation of

interactions through social networks—whether they’re purely social

manifestations such as My Space and Facebook, or more business-

oriented networks such as Linkedin.

Corporate

Learning Systems

Enterprise

Social Software

Training

Infrastructure

Getting the full potential out of your informal and social learning

programs can’t be solved by software alone or by just changing

processes. It requires a complex solution from a vendor with

expertise in training infrastructure, enterprise social software and

corporate learning technology.

These changes have increased the complexity of the challenges that

learning organizations now face − how to combine traditional and

informal learning in ways that embrace the whole and truly provide

integrated value and cost-effective return on investment?

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Vendors

must have

expertise in

The sobering truth is that very few, if any, of today’s enterprise learning organizations are equipped to handle these challenges on their own. Increasingly, they’re being called upon to enter into partnerships with third-party vendors who have expertise in learning processes, technologies and solutions, and have the experience and expertise to add real value.

But these third-party vendors have to bring more to the table than in the past, when the dominant position of traditional learning made the challenge relatively simple. Today, learning vendors must deliver a complex solution and have to be equally comfortable in handling the requirements of three very different components in the learning arena of the 21st century.

A learning vendor must have experience with the lion’s share of learning management technologies from vendors such as Oracle, Saba, Plateau, SumTotal and a host of others.

A learning vendor must demonstrate expertise in training infrastructures and services, with the ability for strategic consulting and outsourcing services.

And finally, a learning vendor worth partnering with must understand the new array of enterprise social software solutions that are emerging to fill this new niche in the business marketplace.

Finding a learning partner versed in one of these disciplines is not

particularly difficult. Finding one, however, that has expertise in all

three is a much more daunting challenge.

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Where Learning Means Business: Gaining the Expertus Edge

Expertus has made a real difference in meeting the challenges that

face today’s learning organizations by functioning in long-lasting

partnerships as a value-added outsourcing learning services and

technology provider. The company has been making that difference

for more than a decade, working with some of the world’s largest

business enterprises as a trusted and successful partner in learning

—and in the process, establishing an expertise in the new, broader

learning domain that is second to none.

From management consulting designed to devise the proper learning

business strategies on through outsourcing services that encompass

learning operations and systems management, content development

and learning analytics, Expertus has forged a track record of

success in the marketplace. Those attributes will be discussed in

turn. But first, it’s appropriate to focus on the latest generation of

learning management solutions that Expertus has developed—value-

added technologies designed to accommodate the new order of

learning that melds traditional training processes with the evolving

spate of informal and social learning trends that characterize today’s

business arena.

Known as SmartSolutions™, these new technologies from Expertus

address three vital needs of the new learning paradigm: accessibility

and ease of use, learning measurement and analytics, and learning

technology integration.

Successful learning technology begins with a quality learning

management system (LMS) and a well thought-out implementation.

LearningManagement

System

Manages Databases,Gives Admin Control,Performs Back-end

ProcessesColla

bora

te, M

ultid

imen

sional •

Comprehensive • Enables Insightful Decisions

Integrat

or, R

ules

Dri

ven,

Pla

tform

Agnostic, Simplifies Processes, Change Friendly

CH

ANN

EL

PORTAL CUSTOMER PORTAL

EMPLO

YEE PORTAL EDUCATION

PORT

AL

Channel Partners• Increased efficiency - Partners will only spend time on what is needed• Configurable and customizable learning paths

Employees• Ability for employees to take web-based training• Learning paths available by role in the organization

Customers - Commercial • Learning connection for

customers• Integration withexisting systems(Partner Center)

Customers- Education

• End-to-end learningconnection for customers

from school through employment• Integration with existing systems

(Partner Center, education communities, etc.)

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SmartPortal translates into a host of tangible benefits:

• Better leverage of collaborative and informallearning

• Increased training adoption by partners andcustomers

• Extended brand reach

• Increased training revenue

• Increased productivity and sales

• Lower upgrade costs

• Centralized control and enhances learningtechnology

• Improved training image

• Better connection across the extended enterprise

Accessibility and Ease of Use: The Social Learning Platform

Nothing frustrates learners more than having difficulty in finding

and registering for the courses they need. But thanks to innovative

Web 2.0 technology from Expertus, learning organizations can

dramatically improve user satisfaction and extend the functionality

and usability of learning technology to increase training adoption.

Known as the Expertus SmartPortal™ platform, this Social Learning

Platform (SLP) is a unique architectural approach that enhances the

learning experience for users, provides learning on demand, and

serves as a conduit for combining informal and formal learning. It’s a

scalable solution that overcomes the shortcomings of working within

the application framework of a typical learning management system.

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Beyond the Portal: Intelligence and Integration

It’s important that learning organizations continuously measure

and monitor all facets of their training to ensure maximum business

impact and proper alignment with their corporate strategies. To that

end, Expertus provides a range of services that go hand in hand with

portal technology to give enterprises actionable intelligence to make

sound judgments on the planning and execution of their training

programs.

Beyond these consulting services, we also rely on a new Expertus

solution called SmartVisibility™. It’s a learning business intelligence

engine that seamlessly integrates data from multiple systems into

easy-to-access dashboards. It also provides drilldown capabilities

that enable organizations to gain actionable intelligence that drives

better learning and business decisions.

In addition, Expertus provides a technology that addresses the

challenges that most large enterprises face in upgrading to new

versions of their LMSs, CRMs, ERP software and more. Known as

SmartConnect™, this innovative and robust distributed software

management solution enables companies to rapidly integrate their

various enterprise technologies.

Based on a service-oriented, Web 2.0 architecture that can be

implemented in as little as a month, SmartConnect functions

as a hub for tying together all of the disparate software systems

that relate to the learning function. As such, it dramatically

simplifies the process of integrating disparate enterprise systems,

technologies and applications, virtually eliminating the need to redo

customizations when patches are applied.

The Outsourcing Edge: Efficiency and Added Value

The trio of SmartSolutions discussed above gives Expertus a real

edge over other learning service and technology providers when it

comes to harnessing the power of formal and collaborative learning

across the extended enterprise. We combine these solutions

with our ability to provide learning organizations with a unique

combination of smart outsourcing and strategic learning consultation

that delivers outstanding results.

From operations and systems management to training content

management and learning analytics, these outsourced services

provide large enterprises with new levels of efficiency that result in

significant savings and business impact.

But that return is about much more than simply adding efficiency

and increasing productivity. It’s also about working closely with

our clients’ business units across the enterprise to ensure that their

learning initiatives are closely and properly aligned with their strategic

business objectives.

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A case in point is the value Expertus has provided by working hand-

in-hand in partnership with one of the world’s leading networking

companies. Expertus delivered significant improved results within

just one year:

• Multi-million dollar cost savings

• Centralized service and improved learnersatisfaction

• Upgrade from innacurate reporting toactionable intelligence

Looking more closely at this engagement, Expertus conducted

an independent analysis that examined the pattern of class

cancellations. We discovered that, due to multiple classes

scheduled in the same location during the same month, registrations

were spread across the classes. This resulted in a spate of class

cancellations, due to the fact that minimum student count was

not being met. The solution was to remove more than 40% of the

classes from the catalog, achieving much better efficiency and

capacity without negatively impacting registrations.

The above example is merely one among many that demonstrate

how Expertus can provide new levels of efficiency, value and return

on investment for learning organizations everywhere. It’s more

than just leveraging a decade of experience to provide outsourced

efficiencies and process improvements. It’s also about developing

new technologies and solutions that provide learning organizations

with powerful ways to harness the evolving combination of traditional

and informal learning that has become so important in today’s

business arena.

To learn more how Expertus can turn learning into business power,

please check out our website today at www.expertus.com.

Within three months of implementing the Expertus SmartPortalTM, the training website received 65,000 more visits, web-training purchases increased by 30% and visitors who left the site due to frustration or lack of clarity were reduced by 20%.

Corporate HeadquartersExpertus Inc 3945 Freedom CircleSanta Clara, CA 95054 USA

Telephone 877-827-8160Toll Free 877-827-8160 Fax 408-213-0753

Product Support support@expertus.comSales sales@expertus.comEmail info@expertus.com

Website expertus.com

Would you like to discuss what platform’s best suited to your learning obligations? Feel free to contact Kathleen directly at kathleenw@expertus.com.

Well versed in LMS and eLearning technology, Kathleen solves key learning challenges for Expertus’ numerous global Fortune 100 companies by overseeing client relationships, technology implementation and business analysis.

Kathleen WaidSr. Director of Client Services, Expertus