Learning Management 2.0 Has Moved

Learning Management 2.0 has a new home and publishing platform. It also has a new look and will be recieving many enhancements in the short term (forums for example). If you haven't already, visit www.lms20.com and leave your feedback.

I think I fixed the problem with the feed directs, so you shouldn't have to update your RSS but you may want to just in case.

Upcoming Post: Demystifying LMS Licensing Models
Thanks!

Justyn

Stop Shaking a Stick at Sales Training!

I ran across a very insightful article in CLO Magazine today written by Tina Teodorescu (I had to cut and paste that one!). The article, "How Effective is Your Sales Training Program?" talks about the unique challenges of developing an effective training program for people that fund your payroll.

Tina brings light to the fact that we've come to rely on Sales Managers, who were in many cases top performers themselves, to develop their team's talent. The problem is these people were promoted because of their excellent sales skills, not their employee development skills. In other cases we rely on HR or T&D to develop these programs when they don't have a sufficient understanding of the dynamics of sales to do so.

The article mentions using your top performers actual day to day tasks and activity (if I am reading correctly) as the basis for your training program instead of skills and competencies. This is where our opinions start to differ.

I have always been a believer in benchmarking your top performing sales people and developing toward that baseline. I also agree that competencies and skills are very difficult to measure in such a subjective process as sales. However I don't feel that duplicating an activity pattern alone is going to get you where you need to be.

If you have a salesperson who is a terrible communicator, do you really want them speaking to an extra 20 prospects a day? If a salesperson can't close deals, do you really want them working more of them?

It reminds me of the old seminar joke - "don't send idiots to motivational seminars because you only end up with highly motivated idiots."

While I think most of Tina's thoughts are solid, I really feel that there needs to be a balance between process and execution. I personally wouldn't want certain salespeople doing certain tasks - like writing a blog for example - It may be your top performers key to success, but the dynamic of that persons abilities cannot be mirrored in process alone. Communication, comprehension, confidence and expertise are all skills that must coexist with activity.

Let your sales managers help benchmark top performers on both activity and skill, and leverage T&D to figure out how to translate that into a program that can be coached to and measured.

I just don't know if I would worry so much about mirroring activity. Sales Managers have every metric and dashboard you could think of for that stuff already.

Justyn

Updated LMS RFP Template Available For Download

Learn.com has posted an updated LMS RFP Template (including areas for performance/talent management requirements) for public use. It's a pretty comprehensive document and you wouldn't likely need it in it's entirety, but it can easily be scaled down and adapted. Not to mention there are bound to be things on here that you haven't thought of yet.

You can access the template Here - Or if you don't feel like filling out the form, let me know and I will route it to you.

You may also want to browse my previous post: Questions You Should Be Asking Of Your LMS Vendors

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!

Justyn

Who took the 'consult' out of 'consulting'?

I've recently seen more and more examples of a trend in our industry that alarms me.

I've witnessed more than one example of e-Learning and LMS consultants who are hired by an organization to help select a vendor and create a deployment strategy. These practitioners then simply present 3-4 solutions that they have "referral" relationships with, see which one sticks and collect a check (from the client and the vendor).

I liken this to hiring someone to help you buy a car. They take your money, drop you off at an auto mall, hand you some bus fare and then come back later to collect a fee from whatever dealer you chose to buy from.

I don't mean to speak in generalities, and certainly not to discredit the professionals in our field who are providing a valuable service to their clients. I'm just worried that some folks may be taking the path of least resistance/quickest fee. I've seen some instances where 3 of 4 solutions presented fall completely outside of the clients requirements, or are priced exponentially out of the clients budget range.

I say with conviction that professionals in our space have a tremendously noble role and provide great value to the training & development community. I'd like to see that continually reinforced by the actions of our peers.

If you find yourself in a position of trusted advisor to an organization, take it seriously. We've had enough ruined reputations and dysfunctional buying practices during the 1st generation of e-Learning. It's our responsibility to help organizations put highly effective solutions in place. Pretend it was your money and job on the line.

If you find yourself in a position to retain the services of a professional consultant, be clear on your expectations of the work to be performed and be sure the consultant's goals are aligned with yours. You can even take it a step further, tie a portion of the compensation to the projects success and ask for disclosure of terms of relationships between presented solutions and the consultant.

My two cents, as unpopular as they may be. We're all responsible for the ongoing health of the training & development profession, lets take good care of it!

Thanks!

P.S. - You may have noticed that from post to post I alternate between "eLearning" and "e-Learning". Have we as a community agreed upon one or the other? Am I the only one?

ASTD 2007 International Conference

Just an update for anyone out there who plans to attend but didn't register yet...

Deadline Extended!
The Advanced Registration deadline for the ASTD 2007 International Conference & Exposition has been extended to March 15, 2007. Register today and save $250 off the regular registration rate. Unlock the Knowledge, June 3-6, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The ASTD 2007 International Confenrence website is http://astd2007.astd.org

If you are planning to attend let me know and maybe I'll see you there!

Effective Business Requirements for the LMS

My last few posts have been original works sharing my thoughts and ideas on the industry. I intend to keep the focus of the blog as such. However, I will occasionally come across fantastic work that came from someone other than myself which I just cant help to share. This is one of those times.

In February of this year, Pat Alvarado of eLearning Engineering wrote the following article which I found loaded with great information. The original article can be found at CLO Media's Website using the link following the article.

Keep an eye out for the section that discusses Use-Cases. Here is an excerpt "There should be a minimum of three use-case scenarios and probably no more than five in an RFP for an LMS. This keeps the use-case scenarios manageable when it comes time for the vendor to demonstrate them. There should be enough, however, to represent all the people who are involved." - This is sound advice for anyone writing an LMS RFP. Read on for more...

Effective Business Requirements for the LMS - February 2007 - Pat Alvarado

A good learning management system (LMS) produces a practical environment in which learners can find the content they need, managers can develop their team to improve performance and the learning staff can evaluate training effectiveness. What good is the LMS if it does not meet the needs of all of these people? One of the key factors in finding the right LMS is matching it to business requirements, not the other way around. For this reason, among others, it becomes essential to document effective business requirements and use-case scenarios that describe exactly what is needed and can be included in a request for proposal (RFP).

The key term to consider here is “business.” Business requirements are not system requirements — system requirements are very specific to how a system functions and although important, any system ultimately must be useful in reaching business goals or solving business problems.

In this case, the LMS must be useful to the business of training and development and the requirements created from an establishment of business needs. The basis for defining these requirements likely would be coming from a learning strategy.

The learning strategy defines the objectives of the business and the learning organization’s alignment to those objectives. At the heart of the learning strategy is defining how the learning organization would achieve the objectives, in other words, the actions that need to be taken and the processes to be executed to accomplish the objectives.

Effective business requirements for an LMS are driven by a clearly articulated learning strategy that defines the processes the LMS can help manage. Defining requirements based on how the business manages learning provides a foundation for creating use-case scenarios that LMS vendors use to show that their product will meet specific business needs.

The Learning Strategy
A learning strategy describes the goals, processes and job roles of the business. The goals define the top priorities on which the business is focused. These goals will change as market conditions and other business factors drive them. Each organization within the business might have its own specific goals that are aligned to overall business goals. Processes are the sets of repeatable tasks executed to support the business in reaching its goals. The accumulation of the processes could represent the business model under which each organization functions. Job roles define the responsibilities and the daily functions that need to be done to execute specific components of the processes.

The focal point of the learning strategy is to describe the approach taken to educate, train and develop the people who occupy the job roles which execute the processes to attain the business goals. People are the foundation of the business, and an LMS can be useful in managing the complexity of improving performance in individuals to attain business goals.

Defining the Requirements
A learning strategy likely will categorize the processes and tasks in several categories. The following is a sample, although by no means exhaustive, list of categories that might originate from a learning strategy:

• Skill assessment
• Content access
• Enrollment and tracking
• Learning Evaluation
• Marketing and communications
• Content development
  

Each requirement would fall into one of the defined categories. By focusing on a specific function defined by the learning strategy, it becomes easier to organize key requirements.

As the requirements are documented, it is important to assign a number and apply a priority to each requirement based on its importance. This helps keep consistent communications regarding requirements, and it provides perspective in determining vendors that meet all the highest priority requirements. Consider the following rating system for defining priorities:

Each business requirement should be written to describe who, why, what, when and the result. The definition should describe who is performing the task — the learner, the manager, the learning staff or a combination. It should provide the motivation for doing the action such as needing to address a specific skill gap, and it should describe what is being done such as searching for courses that fill the skill gap.

It also should include any time constraints that need to be observed such as whether the training or improvement in performance needs to be met by a specific time frame, as well as describe the expected outcome of performing the action. A use-case scenario is built from the business requirements, and that is why it is so important to describe the business requirements so clearly.

Use-Case Scenarios
A use-case scenario is the most powerful component of the business requirements. It describes a complete set of actions for a specific process that represents the vision of the learning strategy. The description must be simple and straightforward so as to be clearly understood by the executive decision-makers and stakeholders, as well as the vendor. This produces a baseline metric that can be compared and evaluated by everyone involved in selecting the LMS. The power of the use-case scenario is that vendors become accountable for directly demonstrating that their product fulfills the objective of the scenario during the final demo meeting.

The use-case scenario uses the same parameters as the business requirements as far as defining who, why, what, when and the result. The difference is that the scenario is combining several business requirements to articulate a complete process. Here’s a sample of what a use-case scenario might look like:

“Mary is a manager in the loan processing department. She has noticed productivity is not as high as needed to reach an important company — processing 50 loans per week per loan processor in her department. Under closer review, she has determined John is below the average proficiency of processing 50 loans per week. Mary and John review his proficiency level against the competencies defined for a loan processor. Both agree John is not at the median level of proficiency in several areas of loan processing. Mary asks John to come up with a learning plan that will address the gaps. John identifies several courses related to his job role that would address his proficiency gaps. John and Mary review the learning plan together and make further revisions before committing to the timeline. John enrolls in each of the classes except for one. One of the courses John is scheduled to complete is nearing the deadline defined by the learning plan, and John has not yet enrolled in the class. Mary is notified of the issue, and she discusses it with him. John enrolls and completes the course. Each week, Mary reviews John’s productivity and notices he has risen to 60 loans per week after completing the learning plan.”

This use-case scenario starts off by tying in the corporate objective and how Mary’s department is aligned to that objective. This establishes the business need and, therefore, the objective to achieve. This also defines the fact that a performance metric is being used to determine the course of action in regard to a learning plan.

It could be that a requirement has been defined that managers must be able to determine an individual’s proficiency to not only identify a need for a learning plan but also the effect of the learning plan after execution. When vendors demonstrate this scenario, they might demonstrate how their LMS connects to external operational systems or data warehouses that provide these metrics or simply admit that they are unable to do so.

The use-case scenarios must represent the vision of the learning strategy, independent of whether it is expected to be managed by the LMS. Although it might be known that no vendor can meet a portion of the scenario, it never should be omitted — it provides an opportunity for vendors to demonstrate how their product will function within the vision of learning strategy.
Use-case scenarios also describe all the people whom the learning management process affects. This sample scenario likely would have a counterpart that describes the learning staff defining proficiency levels and core competencies, as well as matching specific courses or perhaps learning objects that address them.

Ultimately, the use-case scenario is simply describing the learning management process and not the learning management system. It does not try to define nor even mention using a system to manage learning. It is important to note that when technology is considered in a business environment, its purpose must be to support the people, job roles and processes of the business rather than to replace them.

There should be a minimum of three use-case scenarios and probably no more than five in an RFP for an LMS. This keeps the use-case scenarios manageable when it comes time for the vendor to demonstrate them. There should be enough, however, to represent all the people who are involved.

Putting It All Together
Once the business requirements and use-case scenarios are completed, they should be compiled into the RFP, so vendors have an opportunity to understand how learning is managed and how their product can support the process. A clearly defined learning strategy is a big help in developing the business requirements, as it defines how learning is to be managed, and it characterizes specific components the LMS can support. It also avoids the common pitfalls of defining system requirements rather than the learning management process and makes it easier to use.

Eventually, it comes down to this: Effective business requirements for the LMS are simply clear descriptions of how learning is managed. The most effective business requirements will come from a learning strategy that is aligned to the business. After all, companies are composed of people. Each person is expected to perform a specific job role, and that job role is part of a specific business process, and that process is designed to meet business goals.

Pat Alvarado is the learning and technology professional at E-Learning Engineering. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. This article has been unaltered and can be viewed in it's original form here.

Cheers - Justyn

Will Employee Performance Support Systems (EPSS) Ever Get The Credit They Deserve?

While putting the finishing touches on my next post "Talent Management - State of the Union", an interview with Talent Management expert Michael Sabbag, I read a case study which prompted one of my unpredictable thought spirals.

The case study was about a University who implemented an EPSS solution for a new Email & Collaboration environment with fantastic results. The thing that struck me as odd is that you so rarely hear of projects like this. For the purpose of this post, my definition of an EPSS tool is a piece of software (or collection of streams, etc.) that house themselves within a website or application and allow for instantaneous access to concise learning elements (typically a multimedia stream) without ever leaving the application or task at hand. Similar to a help menu but with far more flare.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, it's not easy to visualize so I will provide a little better illustration. Let's say that on your last enterprise email upgrade your IT organization spent a couple million dollars walking users through password resets and why their favorite features are in a different menu now (an extreme example for illustration). This time around, you employ an EPSS solution which embeds small tutorials directly into the application which users can access at that EXACT moment, in a single click. At the same time, the help desk is prepared like a wild west gunslinger to send links to these tutorials in the follow-up email after closing a support call. Finally, on the companies support website is a list of the top-ten support calls and links to the appropriate EPSS module.

Here's another example: A Company which enjoys high web traffic decides to change the user interface. The emails and calls begin pouring in. Support costs start to rise. Had they been forward thinking, embedded tutorials explaining common pitfalls of the new design would be made easily available to the end-user. Or, let's say there is a form or process on that website that is commonly filled out correctly or misunderstood. No problem, EPSS to the rescue.

So back to the question I pose in the title of this Blog...Will EPSS systems ever get the credit they deserve? Why aren't they being more widely adopted? Are there not enough credible solutions out there? Am I just way out of line in thinking that this is an effective set of tools (entirely possible, I thankfully only have one voice in my head so it's tough to debate)?

I do understand that even the term EPSS probably isn't well enough defined to mean the same thing to any two people. I also understand that the entire concept of EPSS is sometimes viewed as anti-training. That being said, I have never seen a case where the ROI from a well thought out EPSS solution was not staggering (primarily in adoption time and decreased support costs).

For those who are believers, or at least somewhat intrigued by my train of thought, I have included a few EPSS best practices that I have picked up along the way;

- Deploy WITH your new software/website/tool, etc. NOT AFTER.
- Communicate the benefits of the new tool early and often.
- Train your help-desk and support staff on use of the product extensively
- Also train these individuals to encourage users to become self sufficient
- Communicate before during and AFTER deployment

Here's an enlightening fact that I found in my travels as well. The average Level 1 support call costs a company roughly $24. The average user uses the help desk 1.6 times per month (this data is from 2005 and may not be entirely accurate). In a company of 5,000 employees this equates to $192,000 per month in support calls. If even 10% of those could be curbed by a well thought out EPSS solution, the savings would run nearly $200,000 per year.

In summary, these tools may be worth looking into. They are not traditional training and have little to do with Learning Management Systems but boosting performance and development is what we're all here for, so I thought it deserved some airtime.

Stay tuned!

Questions You Should Be Asking Of Your Potential LMS Vendors, But Likely Are Not.

What’s missing from your LMS RFP?

If you have been involved in sourcing or researching Learning Management System vendors in the past few years, you may have noticed that your functionality spreadsheets and RFI responses all look the same. If you think about it, this makes sense. Now that the number of vendors in this space has gotten closer to reaching earthly proportions, you would expect all vendors to meet the common requirements. Your task at this point, to narrow the field or identify a clear leader becomes quite difficult. It’s your responsibility to not only spend your company’s money wisely but also to put the right software behind the objectives.

Here are some tough questions that are not asked often enough of vendors. Some of them may make your salesperson squirm, but in the end will help you be more confident in your decision and avoid all-to-common pitfalls. This list should not be used verbatim nor is it intended to be complete. Pick the questions that are important to you and add them as you see fit. Most of all, keep a sharp eye out for candid responses. The vendors who are forthcoming with this information are one’s that deserve serious consideration.

What Post Implementation Costs Will We Potentially Incur?

Some vendors report as much as 65% of annual revenue from professional services. Why should this alarm you? Because you don’t want to more than double your initial investment to get the system to work the way you want it to. Find out what aspects of the system you have control over and what you will have to rely on (or pay) the vendor to do. Will you pay a fee to upload content? What will you have to pay if you choose to create a sub-portal to serve a unique user base? You're responsible for your project budget, don't let hidden costs derail your efforts to serve your organization.

Describe your 3rd Party Partner Relationships

There will always be a valid debate between best of breed vs. software suites. I could provide a compelling argument for either. Instead I will offer this insight: If your chosen platform includes 3rd party components, what does that mean to your support? Do you have a direct line of communication with those vendors? Do the 3rd party vendor’s product plans mesh with your LMS vendor’s? Is there potential for future competition between the parties? Will new releases always be in-synch to avoid any software conflicts? OK, so I just made a compelling argument for the latter. Regardless, this is a must-know.

How many clients are using the latest release of this exact platform? Provide references using the exact version of the software you plan to sell me.

With all of the mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in the LMS space, it’s not uncommon for a company to support several applications. Knowing if the vendor has a couple of dozen clients on each, is in the process of moving all clients to a single platform ($$) or phasing out products will give you a good read on what you may be in for during the term of your contract. I would also want to know that the household name references I was provided actually use the exact software I intend to purchase.

What impact will customizations have on future upgrades?

6 months after deployment, you finally have the application behaving exactly the way you want it. You and your team have put tremendous effort into building out your system. Your HRIS integration works flawlessly. Now, what happens when an upgrade is pushed out in the middle of the night? Will your system revert to its out-of-the-box existence? Will you be put into a queue until the vendor can provide you the manpower to make the migration? Worst of all, will you be forced to live with the current release while new clients get all of the new bells and whistles?

Describe your Support & Development Services (including location and escalation process).

Outsourcing is commonplace and I do not feel it should be weighted any differently than the domestic equivalent. I would like to know however if the support team and development team are in different hemispheres. I would also like to know specifically what support resources are available to me and how much client feedback goes into future product development.

How will integrations be supported on future releases?

At some point you are going to upgrade or change your existing enterprise applications. You will want to be certain you know what impact that will have on both one-way and bi-directional integrations with your LMS and what support will be made available to you to manage this process. Forward thinking vendors have chosen integration technologies which will require very little (if any) reworking to keep the data flowing.

Provide product release notes for the previous 12 months, next 12 months.

First, I want to see what you have done with the product over the past year. Are most of the changes enhancements or repairs? I also want to be wary of any large gaps in development. Stagnant software could be a sign of bigger concerns. I also want to know where the product is going. I’m going to feel a little silly buying a shiny new competency library, only to see it included in the next release of my LMS. Also be wary of any end-of-life releases in the vendors recent past. This scenario has caused countless headaches for otherwise faithful clients who are now forced to adopt the new (and sometimes unproven) technology, or stay with an obsolete and unsupported version.

Describe any major changes within your organization, and how this has impacted your clients?

If hundreds of clients were forced to upgrade to a different platform because of a merger or acquisition, well, I just want to know. I liken this to your car dealer calling and telling you that your new car was going to blow up in 6 months, but for a few thousand bucks you could come down and get on the waiting list for a new model.

How does your licensing model support infrequent users?

Many companies have large populations of learners who will be accessing the system infrequently (annual certification, compliance requirements, etc.). Your chosen vendor should offer a licensing model which takes into account that your bandwidth requirements and use of the system may fluctuate. There is no good reason to pay an annual fee for users who will access the system once a year. You may also consider asking about ways in which the "deactivation" of users can be automated to manage your licenses.

Closing Thoughts...

The Learning & Talent Management purchases that you make will have sizable and long lasting impact on your organization. We are fortunate to have learned from the first generation of LMS and eLearning licensing when we all became highly aware of our overzealous buying habits. I hope that we will continue to learn from our mistakes and share these ideas with our peers. All told, the Enterprise Software arena is high-stakes for all involved. While these types of questions appear only in a small portion of the RFP/RFI’s that come across my desk, I feel that they are imperative to making a sound decision. This is certainly a short list and I encourage you to share additional pearls of wisdom with your peers in the learning community.

Introduction

I have two passions which have led me here today; encouraging others to see things my way and writing. During my 8+ years in the Training & Development industry, I have had ideas ranging from brilliant (see future posts) to overly optimistic ("why shouldn't I be the only sales guy with his own corner office?" - I almost won that one). That said, if even a couple of the concepts, opinions or ideas I share here can help the people who have chosen training & development as a profession, which I view as quite a noble one, then I consider this time well spent.

My name is Justyn Howard and I am currently a Corporate Account Manager for a leading Learning & Talent Management software company. If you and I were eye-to-eye and I told you I absolutely love what I do, you'd recognize the sincerity and enthusiasm with which I said it. I started in this business selling CD-Rom tutorials to businesses in Central California. Since then I have managed training initiatives ranging from simple software roll-outs to enterprise wide paradigm shifts and everything in-between. The areas which I feel confident enough to put my expertise out for the web masses include; Training Design & Deployment, Enterprise Software & Soft Skills Training; Workforce Readiness, eLearning and Learning Management Systems. I have found my true passion in the Learning & Talent Management arena, the bulk of my posts will likely be in that area.

All said, I hope that my entries will serve some benefit to readers in the field that I love. I will do my best to keep these posts factual and unbiased, though I ask that you excuse me if my passion bleeds through from time to time. If you find the information I share useful, feel free to say so and share with others. If you disagree with my ideas then I appreciate that you care enough to have an opinion. If you have anything to add, please share and you will be given proper credit for your thoughts.