Podcast 19: Customer Education 101 – With Dave Derington of Azuqua

WELCOME TO EPISODE 19 OF THE TALENTED LEARNING SHOW!

To learn more about this podcast series or to see the full collection of episodes visit The Talented Learning Show main page.

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EPISODE 19 – TOPIC SUMMARY AND GUEST:

On our previous episode, we talked about the increasing popularity of customer success programs among high-growth companies – especially software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors. But what role does customer education play in this process? And what does effective customer education actually look like?

Today, we discuss these questions and more with Dave Derington, Director of User Enablement at Azuqua, a cloud integration-as-a-platform (iPaaS) provider that makes it easy for anyone to set-up automated digital workflows across business applications.

Dave is also committed to empowering customer education professionals everywhere. Together with industry colleague Adam Avramescu, he recently co-founded the CELab Podcast as a knowledge-sharing resource for anyone interested in this discipline.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Every business can benefit from educated customers. Yet customer education traditionally hasn’t existed as a dedicated function.

• Recently, organizations have started seeing value in customer education programs – especially subscription-based software companies.

• Because customer education programs are a relatively new concept, they’re often cobbled together by resourceful pioneers with limited instructional design experience. But new communities of practice are emerging to offer knowledge sharing and support.

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Q&A HIGHLIGHTS:

Welcome, Dave. First, could you tell us about your podcast, CELab – the Customer Education Laboratory?

Absolutely. Well, we fit into the extended enterprise learning space by focusing on the customer education segment. But we define that a bit more sharply.

How so? 

As my CELab partner, Adam, and I see it, customer education is a part of all organizations. But there’s definitely a gap.

For example, I previously worked at Gainsight, where we talked about customer success all the time. But 10 years ago that function didn’t even exist by name.

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It’s the same with customer education. We know it’s been there and we’ve talked about it for years, especially in the software industry. But with CELab, we’re really interested in the leading edge of customer education. We want to move this profession forward. That’s the spirit behind the podcast.

Great idea to fill that gap with a community by and for customer education pros…

A lot of us find ourselves kind of falling into this field. In my case, I was an educator. I was a trainer. That helped a lot.

But startups run fast and lean. Many like me find ourselves in roles where we have to help customers succeed, yet content and infrastructure may not even exist. We know education is essential. But unlike corporate training professionals who are instructional designers by trade, many of us don’t know where to start.

So this is an open resource for anyone who wants to understand the fundamentals of customer education?

Yes. Our mission with CELab – the Customer Education Laboratory – is to take kind of a scientific approach to connecting practitioners with each other and with communities like yours. We’re tightly focused on bringing people up-to-speed and helping them understand what they need to do to be successful in customer education.

Excellent. You’ve brought your expertise to customer-oriented positions at multiple SaaS companies, including your current role Azuqua. Tell us a bit about that…

Good question. How do we define our job roles? Actually, HR directors at both Gainsight and Azuqua had the same question. I’ve written those descriptions for myself.

How did that happen at Azuqua?

My role is defined as user enablement. That’s a little broader than customer education. And I like that because an Azuqua user can be a customer, a partner or an internal employee. Regardless, they need to learn and learn fast. So my responsibilities are pretty clear.

First, I have to set the direction. When I started, we had no training. We had documentation and some material, but I needed to figure out what we needed, fill the holes, develop a training rubric so we could get a program together and start providing a foundation to bring users up-to-speed quickly.

Big job…

Yep. It’s a broad job description. Plus I’m in marketing, which may seem weird. But I love it because the scope of responsibilities in a startup is broad and it shifts daily.

Every quarter I define OKRs and targets because I’m not just in a box developing content. I’m also doing large-scale programs or social campaigns or I’m talking as an evangelist at events.

Yeah, that’s big and broad and fun. So to clarify, could you summarize what the Azuqua platform does?

Totally. So, if you’re familiar with Zapier or IfThisThenThat (IFTTT), these are great applications that allow you to set up point-to-point automated actions.

Right…

Azuqua goes even further, with an enterprise-grade platform or iPaaS (integration platform as a service). This means the platform is in the cloud and it allows you to connect anything to anything else, as long as an app can talk to it.

In other words, we help you easily connect, manipulate and move information where it needs to go, so you can act upon your data.

So it’s a central point of integration?

In the past, organizations developed and managed their own tech integrations. But we’re helping companies steer away from having to do that. Why should you build your own integrations when we have connectors for all the major business apps, and we’re connected to 250 others? Imagine the permutations…

Impressive…

Think about MuleSoft or Boomi, which connect business applications with an integration cloud that removes data silos. Azuqua is basically like that. It’s a powerful yet more cost-effective alternative. And it’s a lot of fun.

So among the 250 application connectors, which are most popular? Salesforce? And what else?

Absolutely. You can connect Marketo marketing automation data with Salesforce CRM and Slack for work collaboration or Trello for project management – whatever you need. There’s an app library on our website. We also offer a portfolio of common use cases. But the point is to save time and resources.

Examples?

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One of my favorite use cases is from Aramark. They needed to streamline their RFP response process. After using Azuqua to connect multiple apps, including Dropbox, Salesforce and Smartsheet, they sped up their sales process and are saving 40 hours a week of manual processing.

Nice. So you primarily train two external audiences – customers and partners. Is the educational approach different for each?

Yeah. This is a meaty problem. When training people, I have to think about all kinds of stuff. It’s not just teaching them how to use the product, but helping them understand conceptually how it helps them accomplish what they’re trying to do. And there’s is a bit of differentiation between the two user scenarios.

Let’s start with an end user…

OK. You buy, you sign-up for a free trial, and you start working with the product. Ultimately, you want a lot of self-serve type content, because you might not want to pay extra for training.

You could join me every Tuesday at 10 o’clock on Twitch. I do a product demo with a use case and it’s free, so you can learn a lot about the product that way. Or you could visit Azuqua Academy online anytime to pick and choose training from one of our various tracks.

And how is partner training different?

I really want those people to have a complete educational experience. Everything. So we may offer them a full series – 100 Track (the basics), 200 Track (more advanced), and 300 Track (for expert users). But customers can also self-select into what they need, and we don’t force them into any particular curriculum.

But I’m more into just-in-time type training, where you get what you need in the moment. We’re working on a lot of automation to help detect moments when a customer may be struggling with a particular connection. I can look for indicators that detect when you’re having an issue. Or you can notify me and I can create a flow that delivers relevant real-time help.

And the media? It sounds mostly like webinars and live streaming. Do you also do pure online or video activities…?

It’s a mixed-mode approach. I like to develop a video and a document that includes everything in the video. I also offer hands-on material if you want to do the work and skip the other stuff. And if we need to go deeper and answer specific questions for a partner, then I may develop and deliver live training for that.

Which content do you develop first?

Typically it’s easier to do instructor-led training first and then back into on-demand. But frankly, because we have such a big self-serve market, I had to do on-demand first.

Again, it speaks to the fact that customer education must address many different use cases, and in a fast-moving company sometimes you need to work outside of standard methodologies. You have to do what works for your customers and your team.

What’s your typical design process?

Generally, I start with a document and work through it with subject matter experts iteratively, in an agile way. Once I get the content squared and tested, I share it with a limited number of customers. Then I publish it.

What does your learning tech ecosystem look like?

You’ll love this. I built my own learning management system from scratch, accidentally. I know there are hundreds of LMSs today. And companies like Skilljar and Thought Industries offer great platforms for customer education.

But I decided to build-out our Academy just using HTML. In fact, we use GetHub to develop our training live or in a platform, just like a developer would. It’s weird, but kind of cool.

So I just have HTML right now, but the backend is very simple. I prototype with Google Forms, and then our product surfaces all that. So I can see when someone completes a quiz or an activity. My whole ecosystem is built with inexpensive off-the-shelf tools.

Interesting. And it’s in the spirit of your company to tie together free tools…

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I love LMSs and I have a strong need for them in some settings. But for startups that need to move fast, you may not have the time or budget. In this case, by the time I engage with a vendor, I’ve got everything laid out, so we can replicate it in an LMS and take it to the next level.

No doubt. So customer education professionals seem obsessed with measurement – probably because that’s how you get funding and justify your worth. What are your thoughts on that?

This is a sticky question. Metrics. Data. It’s one of our biggest challenges. I tend to look more at consumption and adoption.

Primarily, I’m concerned with getting materials in place, making sure people start to consume that content, looking at where they struggle and covering gaps.

And for the long term, I need to focus on adoption. Who’s consuming training? What accounts are they associated with? Do we see an uplift for organizations that use training versus those that don’t? If so, I can share that message. “When you use training, you can expect x% increase in success with this product.”

How do you move the meter on adoption?

I would encourage your listeners to get a pencil and paper and start outlining ways you can add value to your company’s bottom line. Because I’m at a high-growth company, I can contribute value with an onboarding program that helps drive users to the training they need in-the-moment, so they can quickly overcome roadblocks in their path.

Then I can begin correlating this with customer adoption and success. For example, how much more time do trained users spend with the product than those who haven’t completed training? These can be squishy values, but it starts to paint a picture.

FOR MORE QUESTIONS AND COMPLETE ANSWERS, LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST NOW!

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Want more insights? Watch our on-demand webinar:

The Competitive Advantage of an Externally Facing LMS

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There is tremendous diversity among the nearly 700 learning management systems available today. And when customer education is a top priority, it pays for organizations to choose an LMS designed specifically for that purpose.

What exactly are the business benefits of choosing a specialized learning management system (rather than an employee-oriented LMS) to support customer learning initiatives?

Join John Leh, Talented Learning lead analyst and CEO, and Terry Lydon, VP of Training Operations Projects at Litmos, as they explain the value of choosing an externally focused LMS. Specifically, they discuss: You’ll learn: 

• How to quantify the benefits of customer learning
• Which factors set a customer LMS apart from employee-focused platforms
• What case studies reveal about the value of customer learning technology
• How to find the best LMS for your customers’ needs, and
• 5 areas of innovation unique to customer LMS solutions

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Innovative LMS Features: Real or Hype?

One thing you can count on from learning systems – there’s never a lack of new LMS features to grab your attention.

Have you checked out any trade show demos or marketing materials lately? Artificial intelligence, machine learning, content curation, interactive learning experiences, analytics dashboards, mobile-first design, digital badges, credentialing, virtual reality, augmented reality, in-app guidance –gulp- the list of mind-blowing capabilities seems endless.

Feeling LMS Feature FOMO?

With so many cool new advances, you may wonder if your organization lags others on the adoption curve. I call it Feature FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s actually a false comparison. But it’s easy to fall into this trap, especially if you’re improving a basic online learning presence one step at a time.

For example, one organization I know recently launched on-demand access to recorded live event video and another converted a popular, live-class certification program into an online format. For both, this was a huge advancement and a big step forward. Could they gain even more from implementing all this other cool stuff?  How would they know?  Should the have done it already?  Done what?

As I’ve said before, innovation for innovation’s sake doesn’t add value. Every organization has its own unique requirements. The important thing is to evaluate new functionality through the lens of your specific business priorities and your ability to measure the payback on your investment.

So, with that in mind, let’s define some of the most buzzworthy new features available in extended enterprise learning systems. Then let’s look at how those features are being applied in the real world, and whether they are worth it.

LMS Features: Hype Factor Reality Check

1) Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Hype Factor: High
Mainstream Usage: Medium

These companion terms are clearly stealing most of the LMS innovation thunder these days. Many vendors tell me their system already incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning. Many others say it is under development.

In a nutshell, AI and ML work together to create smart software that uses data and program parameters to make decisions or drive workflow automatically in a learning or collaboration environment.

Currently, the AI/ML combination typically manifests itself in two ways:

• Automatically delivering content recommendations and content streams to learners and
• Driving backend analytics for surveys, test items, content usage and advanced learning/business data analysis.

It’s important to keep in mind that AI and ML are hard to demonstrate and easy to exaggerate.  In any case, just by having an LMS and keeping it updated, AI will come your way sooner or later first in the learner UI and then in analytics as a new feature commonly covered by your license cost.

2) Virtual Reality (VR)

Hype Factor: High
Mainstream Usage: Low

Virtual reality technology makes it possible to create an immersive digital environment that simulates the real world. To interact with VR training, participants often wear special visual and audio gear.

Designing and developing this type of training isn’t cheap or easy. Because it requires so much time and expertise, VR is primarily used in training for situations with significant safety implications like medical procedures, aircraft navigation, military and police maneuvers and high-risk equipment repairs.

Training data from simulations is often tracked using xAPI, and is stored in an LRS that is self-contained or integrated with an LMS. Although VR is making inroads, it’s still on the bleeding edge. So until development costs decline and delivery mechanisms are widely available, most organizations are keeping it on the backburner as a future possibility.  If you are thinking of VR for sales or leadership training, save your money for now.

3) Mobile Responsive Design

Hype Factor: High
Mainstream Usage: High

In today’s on-the-go world of work, mobile responsive LMS design is essential for learners, instructors and administrators, alike. With a mobile responsive system and content, learners can use a smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop or any modern web browser to access learning content that works in that environment. No zooming, pinching or panning is necessary because navigation menus and content blocks typically are restacked and resized on the fly.

Many extended enterprise and association learning platforms also include authoring tools that produce fully mobile responsive content. Vendors with systems that aren’t mobile responsive may tell you they have a mobile app that accommodates mobile responsive design. However, that kind of solution delivers a subpar learning experience. For that reason, I would avoid any system that isn’t fully mobile responsive.

4) Mobile Apps

Hype Factor: High
Mainstream Usage: Low

When smartphone and tablet use exploded earlier in this decade, many LMS vendors were caught flat-footed. It’s impossible to reverse-engineer an existing system for mobile responsiveness, so it was necessary to rebuild platforms from the ground up.

Many vendors still haven’t completed this process. As a temporary workaround, LMS vendors developed basic first-generation mobile apps that replicated a small subset of features for learners and sometimes managers and instructors.

Second-generation mobile apps are much more useful and effective. They’re typically available from fully mobile-responsive platform vendors who want to provide incremental capabilities that aren’t supported by mobile web browsers. For example, specialized mobile apps can support activity notifications, content downloads and online/offline consumption, video and photo uploads, QR codes for live event registration and geolocation for participant tracking.

Mobile apps are worth the investment when used for strategic audiences and measurable purposes, otherwise, it’s just an incremental cost and maintenance headache.

5) Microlearning

Hype Factor: High
Mainstream Usage: Low

In its purest form, microlearning is exactly what it says – small chunks of learning. And because most learning platforms accept and manage content of any length, size is not an issue.

However, to be effective as a learning strategy, microlearning must deliver precisely the right content chunk at the moment it’s needed. (Think of the precision and power Google and YouTube require to deliver highly relevant real-time search results.) This means systems that support microlearning must make it possible to create, curate, tag, catalog and maintain content chunks so learners can quickly find them individually or in related clusters.

The taxonomy creation and chunking process can be time consuming and expensive. As a result, many organizations limit their microlearning scope to the classification of discrete digital assets, such as video clips, Microsoft Office documents and PDF files.

If your organization wants to initiate a microlearning strategy, don’t start by looking for a new LMS. That’s putting the cart before the horse. Instead, begin with a content audit and needs analysis. This can guide your technology decisions.

6) Learning Paths

Hype Factor: High
Mainstream Usage: High

Learning paths (or pathways) have been around a long time. But in the past, they were known by another name – curriculums. The concept is simple. It involves a series of activities that individuals complete as they progressively develop specific knowledge, skills and competencies.

Effective learning paths focus on well-defined audience personas and are structured to include relevant goals and rewards. They also tend to mix multiple content resources, for example self-paced online courses, videos, digital documents, assessments, surveys, polls, articles, games and social interactions. Of course, these learning path components can also be deployed as standalone microlearning elements that learners can find and use as needed.

Learning paths are used extensively by associations and other continuing education providers. For example, when professionals complete certification training paths, they often receive digital designations that they can display on LinkedIn profiles, email signatures and job applications.  Learning paths with intent is a smart, low-cost, high-impact activity.

7) Learning Experience

Hype Factor: High
Mainstream Usage: High

This one is a bit tricky. I’m a fan of learning experience. But I see it as a strategy that builds on innovative feature sets, rather than a point solution.

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For example, in extended enterprise settings where learning is a voluntary act, it’s essential to attract and engage learners so they keep coming back for more. This is where a learning experience recommendation engine can be a powerful LMS enhancement made possible by AI and ML.

Learning systems have always been able to assign or suggest content based on profile criteria like job title, role, organization and perhaps custom fields. But with AI-driven learning experience personalization, this concept goes much further.

Now many more criteria can be combined to shape content recommendations. For example, systems can consider learner profile data, membership or customer relationship history, search keywords and behaviors, time on site, content viewed, download behavior, media format preferences, content purchase history, course registrations, courses started and completed, percent of completions, time to complete, and tags or channels that learners choose.

Systems can also factor-in social behaviors such as topics and frequency of learner posts, likes, comments or shares. In addition, they can consider the nature of content posts, likes, comments or shares by peers or relevant subject matter experts. The options seem limitless.

Every vendor that says AI and ML are built into its system also says that content recommendations are supported at some level. But although this functionality is useful and innovative, it doesn’t guarantee a fully personalized learning experience. Proceed with cautious optimism. And be prepared to trust but verify.

Conclusion

Advances in learning technology always bring both good and bad news along for the ride.

In this case, the bad news is that LMS feature FOMO is real. It’s easy to be convinced that you’re missing out on the latest hot tools of the training trade. But before FOMO leads you in a new direction, we encourage you to revisit your existing learning systems strategy.

Now, here’s the good news: You have plenty of time and choices. The seven highly hyped features outlined here are already built into most systems designed for continuing education or corporate extended enterprise learning. And vendors that don’t yet offer these features are giving them top priority on their product roadmap.

But it’s important to remember that every vendor approaches innovative features differently. That’s why we recommend that before you move forward, conduct a thoughtful audience analysis, audit your learning content and specify your use case requirements. This process will help you focus your investment in new functionality where it will make the biggest impact.

Thanks for reading!

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Technology vs. Innovation: Association Learning Strategies in Practice

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AI. AR. VR. Digital breakthroughs like these are capturing headlines every day. Clearly, these innovations are promising. But many associations are focused on making the most of learning technologies that are already in place.

So how are these resourceful organizations actually transforming member learning experiences?

Join John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, and Linda Bowers, CTO at WBT Systems, as they explore real-world examples and discuss innovation strategies that will help you create lasting value. You’ll discover:

• The push/pull relationship between technology and change
• How to develop an innovation roadmap that works for your organization
• Tips for creating a business case your board will support
• How to avoid missteps when expanding your learning technology stack
• Guidelines for measuring results

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Need Proven LMS Selection Guidance?

Looking for a learning platform that truly fits your organization’s needs?  We’re here to help!  Submit the form below to schedule a free preliminary consultation at your convenience.

• First Name*
• Last Name*
• Email Address*
• Company

The post Innovative LMS Features: Real or Hype? appeared first on Talented Learning.

Innovative LMS Features: Real or Hype? original post at Talented Learning

2019 Talented Learning Awards: Continuing Education Systems

Last week we kicked-off the 2019 Talented Learning Awards by honoring the best learning systems in our first category – corporate extended enterprise systems. And this week the celebration continues, as we recognize excellence in our second category – continuing education systems.

Specifically, today we focus on top learning and certification solutions used by trade and professional associations, mission-driven non-profits, commercial training providers, trade schools and subject matter experts.

Of course, other kinds of learning software also deserve recognition. For example, many top-notch solutions focus on employee compliance, talent management, academic ed tech, learning experiences, content management and authoring. We may explore these market segments in the future.

However, today we’re excited to shine a light on exceptional continuing education systems because they are our lifeblood. When we founded Talented Learning five years ago, we set out on a mission to chart every corner of the extended enterprise learning landscape. This is where our knowledge and expertise are strongest. So naturally, we want to emphasize these solutions first and foremost.

Why Are Continuing Education Systems Special?

For most continuing education providers, creating and selling content is their primary business, so the underlying infrastructure is absolutely mission critical. Associations and continuing education companies must attract, engage and sell to people who voluntarily choose to consume instructional content. In contrast with employees or students, these audiences can’t be forced to complete training “assignments.” Instead, their learning journeys are much more self-directed.

For these reasons, a complete continuing education solution usually requires multiple elements:

• A high-quality public “branded” website;
• Integrated systems for content management, customer relationship management, event management and membership management;
• Tools for marketing automation, social networking, secure ecommerce, product fulfillment, analytics and more.

That’s a long way from an employee LMS, an academic LMS – or even most corporate extended enterprise learning systems!

Not surprisingly, many continuing education learning systems vendors are specialists. Their solutions are built exclusively for organizations that create, manage and sell multiple types of professional development content in various formats and quantities. Company founders, investors and executives usually have deep experience in the continuing education sphere and are personally familiar with the problems their systems are designed to solve.

Because continuing education providers often look to technology vendors for hands-on guidance, these learning solutions usually come with professional services that are much more extensive than standard implementation and administrative support. For example, customers often seek expertise in strategic marketing, curriculum and instructional design, online and mobile content development, video production and event management, as well as integration, administration and end-user support.

As a result, continuing education system developers tend to build stronger partnerships with clients than corporate extended enterprise learning vendors. These relationships often distinguish successful continuing education systems from many of their corporate systems counterparts. In fact, if you compare our awards for corporate extended enterprise solutions with the continuing education systems below, you’ll see that only five vendors are recognized in both categories.

How We Select Award Candidates

To qualify for a continuing education award, a system must meet these criteria:

• The vendor’s website must clearly position the system as a continuing education solution. (Purely academic or employee-only solutions are not considered.)
• Vendors must have participated in executive briefings and/or buying opportunities we’ve managed.
• Current and/or former customers and employees must endorse the winners.

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2019 Awards List:
Best Continuing Education & Association Learning Systems

More than 750 learning systems are currently on our radar. With all these possibilities, selecting winners is no easy process. So if your name is on this list, it’s a big deal.

This year, we honor 25 outstanding continuing education solutions – 15 award winners and 10 finalists – listed alphabetically in each category below. In the following section, we briefly describe our impression of winners and finalists, so you can learn about each solution and its strengths. Feel free to bookmark this page so you can refer to it when you’re looking for systems in the future.

Congratulations to all!

AWARD WINNERS

BenchPrep
Blue Sky eLearn
CE21
CommPartners
Community Brands Crowd Wisdom
Community Brands Freestone
Digitec Interactive
EthosCE
ExtensionEngine
Higher Logic
mElimu
Thought Industries
WBT Systems
Web Courseworks
Yardstick

AWARD FINALISTS

BlueVolt
Cornerstone
eLogic Learning
Holmes Corporation
Kokm
LearningCart
LearnDash
LearnWorlds
Teachable
Thinkific

(NOTE: We invite all winners and finalists to display the Talented Learning Awards badge on your website and in promotions. This week our team will send original badge artwork to your primary contact via email or direct message, along with our best wishes!)

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Award Contenders: What You Should Know

Below we’ve described what we think are the key strengths and differentiators for each of the continuing education systems we considered. Award winners are listed first, followed by finalists – all in alphabetical order.

AWARD WINNERS

BENCHPREP

Founded in 2009 to deliver efficient on-the-go learning, BenchPrep quickly established itself as an innovation leader in the certification and test preparation industry. This omni-channel learning platform now helps some of the world’s top publishers and credentialing bodies deliver self-paced tutorials and other continuing education content online.

Additionally, BenchPrep is carving out a niche with commercial training companies. This SaaS platform powers a growing collection of apps that drive user engagement and business revenues through highly personalized user experiences. Among other capabilities, BenchPrep solutions include white-label branding, single-source content management, third-party software integration and support for delivery via B2B, B2C and reseller channels.

BLUE SKY ELEARN

Blue Sky eLearn is known as a powerful system and great partner for organizations that produce educational webinars, webcasts and live events at national or regional conferences. It is a particularly attractive choice for finance, healthcare and legal industry associations.

Founded in 2002, Blue Sky supports the entire event lifecycle, including branded event portals and ad networks, registration and attendance, presentation proposals and materials management and complex certification credits. It also records session videos and posts them immediately on the LMS, along with related materials.

Many organizations that conduct large-scale events rely on proven production and event management experts. As a strategic differentiator, Blue Sky has sought out these vendors and partnered with them to build LMS integrations for third-party event mobile apps, registration systems and video applications their clients already use.

CE21

CE21 (short for “continuing education for the 21st century”) provides a modern, mobile-optimized solution for companies and associations that sell continuing education content. This robust, specialized LMS was built with user experience in mind, so organizations can easily develop, manage, promote, sell and deliver live webcasts, webinars, virtual summits and on-demand continuing education programs.

The CE21 platform also includes a neat “sharing marketplace” that makes it possible for continuing education providers to buy and sell content with others across its extended ecosystem. This is a smart way to leverage the shared interests and buying power of the global CE21 client network.

COMMPARTNERS

With more than 25 years of experience in serving associations and non-profit organizations, CommPartners has grown and evolved along with continuing education needs and technologies. The CommPartners solution is unique because it offers more than just a strong, community-oriented, mobile-responsive, modern LMS.

The platform is also supported by a variety of companion services, including curriculum and instructional design, as well as production and management of webinars, webcasts, live-streamed events and virtual conferences. With personalized, hands-on guidance from in-house experts, CommPartners ensures that clients achieve high-quality results from their investment in continuing education programs.

COMMUNITY BRANDS CROWD WISDOM

Crowd Wisdom (now a division of Community Brands) is a great choice for organizations that want to generate revenue from professional development, certification, test preparation and other continuing education offerings. Building on a common software-as-a-service (SaaS) code infrastructure, this platform makes it possible to create semi-custom solutions that deliver an ultra-modern learning experience.

It also provides ecommerce capabilities that integrate easily into broader technology ecosystems. The Crowd Wisdom platform is mobile responsive and scales affordably as organizations expand their global reach.

COMMUNITY BRANDS FREESTONE

For nearly 19 years, Freestone (now a division of Community Brands) has led the way in serving the association and non-profit community. This learning platform is designed specifically for live-event capture, webinars, webcasts and on-demand streaming. It also integrates seamlessly with third-party AMS platforms for complete continuing education business support.

Freestone is special because it’s not just technology. It’s actually a hybrid solution that bundles essential tools with production personnel who help schedule, promote, broadcast, moderate, record, develop, host and administer engaging interactive content. This turnkey approach makes it easy for clients to rely on Freestone for precisely the level of hosting needed to deliver successful educational events, live and on-demand.

DIGITECH INTERACTIVE

Digitec Interactive offers a strong mix of association domain experience and content development services to support their LMS clients. Digitec’s learning portal platform is a pure SaaS solution with a low entry cost and reasonable ongoing operating costs. This solution supports the creation and management of any type of content, including video, training authored within the Digitec platform, off-the-shelf titles, MOOC-style courses based on time-released modules and more.

Digitec’s solution is attractive for small and mid-sized associations, for commercial continuing education providers and for non-profits that want to get started with high-quality online delivery, but with minimal complexity and cost.

ETHOSCE

EthosCE rocks the healthcare continuing education world. With more than 90% of its clients in the healthcare industry, this company focuses on medical education more than any other LMS vendor we’ve met. In fact, this company serves many of the world’s leading medical associations, academic medical centers, health systems and medical education programs.

EthosCE is usually the first platform provider to productize new healthcare industry-standard APIs and compliance reports. For example, the platform includes automated reporting and integration with ACCME web services for PARS, ABA, ABIM and ABP MOC 2 programs, as well as CE Broker and CPE Monitor. (Even if you aren’t familiar with these terms, this indicates just how deeply EthosCE cares about continuing medical education.)

This platform is ideal for any organization that sells CME, CNE, CPE and related content to organizations or directly to individual health practitioners.

EXTENSIONENGINE

If you’re looking to deploy a jaw-dropping, one-of-kind, high-end, high-dollar continuing education solution, look no further than ExtensionEngine. This vendor leverages its extensive instructional, business and marketing expertise with its own proprietary code and/or open source code to create full custom solutions for leading organizations that want to deliver premium branded learning experiences.

Associations, universities and commercial continuing education providers that bet the future on content quality aren’t as rare as you might think. And when user experience is synonymous with brand experience, there’s little room for compromise. It calls for highly personalized, engaging solutions that differentiate themselves through carefully coordinated marketing, commerce, interactivity, collaboration, gamification and mobile design. This is ExtensionEngine’s strength.

HIGHER LOGIC

Higher Logic is not a LMS. Rather, it’s an online community and marketing automation platform that connects association members with one another for continuing education experiences that add depth and dimension to lifelong learning. Whether individuals are simply visiting a web page that clarifies your organization’s mission or exchanging professional advice in a digital forum, Higher Logic tracks and manages interactions and engagement through each stage of a member’s journey.

Many associations deploy this solution as a standalone community and collaboration platform, while others use it more strategically by integrating it with their LMS. By combining detailed analytics data from these sources, associations can create a full panoramic view of the member experience.

mELIMU

With a brand name combining ‘m’ (for mobile) and ‘Elimu’ (an African word for education), mElimu is an LMS with a mobile-first mindset that supports training anytime, anywhere, on any device. Rather than rearchitecting a web-based LMS, mElimu saw the need for an application that delivers continuing education to low-bandwidth clients through a true mobile app. As proof of concept, mElimu initially landed key clients in the African market, including the Young African Leaders Initiative Network and the Apex Training Institute.

mElimu provides associations with a suite of complementary learning-related capabilities, including registration management, online/offline conference apps, elearning and virtual classroom tools. It also includes an ecommerce-based education service provider platform, so subject matter experts can create and sell learning content online.

This system is a good choice for small and mid-sized global associations and nonprofits with diverse content and learners that face inconsistent bandwidth.

THOUGHT INDUSTRIES

Thought Industries is an up-and-coming learning platform, available in two variations. One is for organizations that sell learning content to businesses or individuals. The other is for customer education in B2B and B2C environments.

Both are highly configurable and built to attract voluntary learners and drive ecommerce revenue. In fact, these systems almost fully customizable in the admin interface, so your learning environment can look and feel exactly like your organization’s other branded apps and web properties.

Thought Industries also includes incredibly powerful authoring tools such as automated interfaces and editable intra-content language localizations. In addition, sophisticated B2B ecommerce capabilities – including branded portals, shared content licensing, coupon codes, promotions, subscriptions, delegated administration, complex CE management, tight CRM integration and robust reporting – make it easy for training companies to sell and manage content in volume.

WBT SYSTEMS

Based in Ireland, WBT Systems is an established learning solutions provider with a powerhouse platform built expressly for associations. The WBT solution is very robust – comparable to the best corporate learning management systems – because it is highly configurable and addresses even the most complex continuing education requirements.

This platform is ideal for large-scale domestic and international member organizations with complex learning technology requirements. For example, WBT makes it possible to manage multiple organizations, local chapters and all types of learning content. It also features tight AMS and CRM integration, language localizations, badging, gamification, ecommerce tools and advanced analytics.

In recent years, the leadership team purchased WBT and took it private, so it’s now a tight-knit group of owner/operators that care deeply about client success. WBT is known for retaining clients by keeping them satisfied with the quality of their tools and the level of support they provide.

WEB COURSEWORKS

If you want a sophisticated LMS with user-friendly social and mobile functionality for complex continuing education needs, you’ll want to look at Web Courseworks. This 30-year-old company started as a content provider that produced live events and video for member-based organizations. Over time, that focus expanded to online learning and a system that delivers learning content.

Now Web Courseworks is one of the strongest LMS providers in the association market, especially for healthcare-related organizations. This platform makes it easy to create and deliver content and integrate it with AMS solutions and Salesforce.com.

In addition to providing mobile-responsive content delivery, they’re pushing the envelope with mobile apps that extend beyond classrooms or events to encourage continued engagement. For example, you can deliver daily or weekly questions or case studies that promote ongoing interaction and lead to certification credit.

YARDSTICK

Yardstick is a Canadian company that specializes in online testing that ensures students and professionals are ready to move forward in their endeavors. The company combines innovative technology with expertise in instructional design and exam administration to design, deliver and interpret tests guided by psychometric science.

Working together with numerous associations, licensing bodies, government institutions and private-sector corporations, Yardstick’s full-service proctoring and exam administration address virtually any test scenario. For example, to support high-stakes proctored exams, Yardstick provides an integrated online solution that monitors attendance, manages credentials and automatically verifies student identity using biometric keystrokes.

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AWARD FINALISTS

BLUEVOLT

There’s a lot to like about BlueVolt. The company is about 15 years old and its approach to learning management is different from any vendor I’ve seen. BlueVolt LMS is purpose-built to serve industrial business segments – organizations focused on things like HVAC, plumbing and electricity, as well as continuing education in those specialties.

All of these industrial professions are supported by trade associations that are unique, complex ecosystems of suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and distributors. The BlueVolt LMS brings together these various constituents in a holistic, community-based learning environment, where all participants benefit from lifelong, measurable education.

CORNERSTONE

Cornerstone is the world’s leading talent LMS brand. The platform’s capabilities are comprehensive and can be configured and integrated to support both internal and extended enterprise requirements.

Although organizations of any size can benefit from this platform, it typically adds the most value in large, heterogeneous environments with complex learning requirements – including associations and commercial continuing education providers. For continuing education scenarios, Cornerstone provides global delivery, certification, credit management, ecommerce and analytics capabilities.

As a competitive advantage, Cornerstone now largely relies on certified implementation partners, rather than staffing a global professional services organization. This means you can expect more personalized, hands-on support –typically from a local organization that specializes in guiding Cornerstone clients through the implementation process.

eLOGIC LEARNING

eLogic Learning offers a very strong, configurable LMS that includes deep support for complex continuing education, organizational/role management, B2B and B2C ecommerce, and systems integration capabilities that continuing education providers need to run a successful content business. Located in Florida and known for happy, referenceable clients, eLogic is a small, focused, owner-operated organization that attracts many big-name, long-term clients.

The eLogic platform is an affordable workhorse that is a great choice for organizations with more sophisticated continuing education needs. Its rare unlimited-use, fixed-cost licensing tier is especially attractive for member-based organizations with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of annual learners.

HOLMES CORPORATION

Since 1970, Holmes has developed and delivered comprehensive learning solutions for individuals seeking globally recognized professional credentials and certifications. Through partnerships with more than 250 academic institutions and training providers, Holmes specializes in building custom solutions for member-based organizations that sell complex certification programs and test prep solutions.

As a result, Holmes has become a leader in helping professional associations grow their certification business by driving brand awareness, membership and non-dues revenue. In fact, this company is so committed to the quality of its solutions that it shares risks and rewards with customers through a percent-of-revenue payment model.

KOKM

Built by Scottish virtual learning campus developer, iWise2, Kokm combines best-of-breed products from several vendors into a single community-oriented learning platform. Specifically, Kokm integrates a CMS, an LMS, authoring tools and a social platform into a unified environment for global team-based work, collaboration and knowledge sharing.

This infrastructure is ideal for continuing education providers that need to organize and sell an abundance of content from multiple sources. It includes full white-label site design and Google-quality search, along with easy-to-use tools for content creation, web conferencing, video capture, publishing and ecommerce. To support live learning events, Kokm also adds hotel booking and catering tools, cohort capabilities and an attendee directory.

LEARNINGCART

This platform represents the expertise of Big Step Consulting, a provider of custom solutions that blend ecommerce, content management and learning management technology. LearningCart makes it easy for organizations to promote and sell learning content in multiple forms – training modules, digital files, physical products, in-person events, webinars and more. In fact, LearningCart clients generate more than $500 million in combined content revenue each year.

Core platform functionality can be enhanced with more than a dozen plug-and-play integrations. Plus, integration with Zapier extends integration support to another 1000 applications. LearningCart offers free trials and is priced affordably at much less than $1 per active user for organizations serving 500 users or more.

LEARNDASH

LearnDash is a solid solution for any organization that wants to transform its WordPress website into a full-featured continuing education platform, complete with ecommerce capabilities. Deployed as a WordPress plugin, LearnDash adds learning content creation, promotion, delivery and administration.

Although LearnDash is a plug-in, it is a feature-rich solution with capabilities such as drip-feed content, lesson timers, discussion forums, quizzing, prerequisites, CE credits, certificates and more. Also, because it leverages the native strengths of the WordPress publishing platform, LearnDash is the most SEO-friendly, mobile-optimized way to market learning content. What’s more, this solution costs only $159/year for an annual license to deliver unlimited courses to unlimited users. That’s crazy cheap, given the value LearnDash provides.

LEARNWORLDS

LearnWorlds is a fully customizable platform that helps subject matter experts and organizations create and sell dynamic, interactive courses online. This platform makes it possible to market and deliver content through mobile-responsive, branded white-label websites.

LearnWorlds also leverages a combination of social learning, gamification, daily news feeds, embedded video and notetaking to transform learning content into dynamic learning experiences. Packaging options help you promote content “trials” through free chapters, free courses and private content delivery. Plus, solid marketing tools like built-in SEO, conversion tracking and analytics make it possible to improve business results over time. If you’re not sure whether the advanced features or pricing fit your needs, LearnWorlds offers free trials so you can try before you buy.

TEACHABLE

Of the many online course platforms available today, Teachable is one of the best for beginners because it’s simple, it’s affordable and it works. This platform primarily targets teachers, subject matter experts and consultants with a no-frills platform that makes it easy to create continuing education and deliver it through a secure, professional online point-of-presence.

You can sell courses directly to the public, or through the popular Teachable Marketplace, or both. The solution also comes with helpful marketing tools such as coupons, promotions and subscriptions, as well as affiliate marketing support and automated payouts.

While there are plenty of useful features, Teachable may not offer all the functionality you’ll need to expand your business over time. Nevertheless, you can get started immediately with a free trial, and with costs as low as $29/month for unlimited users and courses, it’s an attractive choice.

THINKIFIC

Thinkific is one of many online platforms that enable entrepreneurs and subject matter experts to turn their expertise into a sustainable business. Specifically, Thinkific makes it possible to create, market, sell and deliver courses and membership sites without having to invest time and cost in standalone software.

This solution effectively pulls together all the pieces of a learning business, including site design, course creation tools, sales and marketing automation, secure ecommerce capabilities and third-party tool integrations. Unlike more basic online course platforms, Thinkific also offers an enterprise-level platform for more sophisticated business needs.

If you want to kick the tires before you commit, Thinkific offers free “test drive” access. But what really sets this solution apart is its pricing structure, based on unlimited students, unlimited customer support and no transaction fees.

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2019 Talented Learning Awards: Corporate Extended Enterprise Systems

Today is a banner day for extended enterprise education, because today we’re unveiling the new face of learning systems excellence – The 2019 Talented Learning Awards!

As outlined last month, we’re simplifying the way we honor the best learning systems by focusing on two key extended enterprise categories:

CORPORATE EXTENDED ENTERPRISE:  Business-oriented solutions targeting external audiences such as customers, channel partners, suppliers and contractors. Employees may also be included, but aren’t the sole focus of these applications.

CONTINUING EDUCATION:  Learning and certification solutions used by trade and professional associations, mission-driven non-profits, commercial training providers, trade schools and subject matter experts.

Certainly, other learning software categories deserve awards, including employee talent management, compliance, academic ed tech, learning experience platforms, content management and authoring. We may explore these and other categories separately in the future.

However, the extended enterprise is our lifeblood. We founded Talented Learning five years ago to chart every corner of the extended enterprise learning landscape. And that’s where our knowledge and expertise are strongest. So naturally, we want to celebrate solutions in this space above all.

Today we start with corporate extended enterprise systems. Next week, we’ll honor continuing education systems.

Why Is This Segment So Special?

Extended enterprise learning solutions must attract, engage and often sell to people who voluntarily choose to consume instructional content. In contrast with employees or students, these audiences can’t be forced to complete training “assignments.” Instead, their learning journeys are more self-directed.

This voluntary learning mindset is why successful extended enterprise solutions often include tools that blend marketing, business strategy, content development and promotion, social engagement, customer relationship management, ecommerce and more. Working together with core learning technologies, these solutions draw learners in, and keep them coming back for more.

How We Select Award Candidates

To qualify for a corporate extended enterprise learning award, systems must meet these criteria:

• The vendor’s website must clearly position the system as a corporate extended enterprise solution. (Purely academic or employee-only solutions are not considered.)
• Vendors must have participated in executive briefings and/or buying opportunities we’ve managed.
• Current and/or former customers and employees must endorse the winners.

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2019 Awards List:
Best Corporate Extended Enterprise Learning Systems

There are over 750 learning system solutions in 2019.  Selecting winners is no easy journey.  Being on this list is a big deal.  This year, we honor 28 outstanding solutions – 15 award winners and 13 finalists – listed alphabetically in each category, below. In the following section, we briefly describe our impressions of the winners and finalists, so you can learn about each solution and its strengths. Feel free to bookmark this page so you can refer to it when you’re looking for systems in the future.

Congratulations to all!

AWARD WINNERS

BlueVolt
Community Brands Crowd Wisdom
Cornerstone OnDemand
CrossKnowledge
Docebo
eLogic Learning
LearnUpon
Litmos
NetExam
Northpass
OnPoint Digital
ServiceRocket Learndot
Skilljar
Thought Industries
Totara

AWARD FINALISTS

Absorb
Accord LMS
Degreed
EdCast
LogicBay
Matrix
PeopleFluent NetDimensions
Saba
Schoox
TalentLMS
Together JAZZ by Skylab Italia
UpsideLMS

(NOTE: We invite all winners and finalists to display the Talented Learning Awards badge on your website and in promotions. This week our team will send original badge artwork to your primary contact via email or direct message.)

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Award Contenders: What You Should Know

Here’s what we think is the key strengths and differentiation with each of the corporate extended enterprise learning systems we considered. Award winners are listed first, followed by finalists – all in alphabetical order.

AWARD WINNERS

BLUEVOLT

There’s a lot to like about BlueVolt. BlueVolt is about 15 years old and its approach to learning management is different from any vendor I’ve seen. BlueVolt LMS is purpose-built to serve industrial business segments – organizations focused on things like HVAC, plumbing and electricity, as well as continuing education in those specialties.

BlueVolt offers a unique business-to-business ecosystem solution. It’s ideal for any organization that wants to connect partners, suppliers and resellers in relationships that elevate employee and channel knowledge and skills.

COMMUNITY BRANDS CROWD WISDOM

Crowd Wisdom is a great choice for organizations that primarily want to generate revenue from professional development, certification, test preparation and other extended enterprise content programs.

Building on a common software-as-a-service (SaaS) code infrastructure, Crowd Wisdom makes it possible to create semi-custom solutions that deliver an ultra-modern learning experience. It also provides ecommerce capabilities that integrate easily into broader technology ecosystems. The Crowd Wisdom platform is mobile responsive and scales affordably as organizations expand their global reach.

CORNERSTONE ONDEMAND

There’s a good reason why Cornerstone is the world’s leading talent LMS brand. The platform’s capabilities are comprehensive and can be configured and integrated to support most global internal and extended enterprise applications. Although organizations of any size can benefit from this platform, it typically adds the most value in large, heterogeneous environments with complex learning requirements.

As a competitive advantage, Cornerstone now largely relies on certified implementation partners, rather than staffing a global professional services organization. This means you can expect more personalized, hands-on support – typically from a local organization that specializes in guiding Cornerstone clients through the implementation process.

CROSSKNOWLEDGE

CrossKnowledge is unique in the marketplace because it offers a powerful blend of learning technology, experience design and content expertise. CrossKnowledge is part of the 200-plus-year-old publishing giant, Wiley. This means its solutions leverage Wiley’s broad range of information resources, including content from the world’s most renowned professors and subject matter experts.

In addition, CrossKnowledge provides tools based on its collective domain experience in training methodologies like onboarding and sales readiness, complete with practical workflows, templates and personas. All this is wrapped in highly engaging distance learning solutions that are designed with measurability and business impact at their core.

DOCEBO

Docebo is widely known as one of the original cloud learning management systems. It’s affordable and easy to set-up and use. It supports pure extended enterprise solutions like customer or channel programs, as well as employee training at small- and mid-sized companies, or both.

Docebo offers integrated third-party content networks like Lynda, as well as its own aggregated content. It also integrates many third-party apps, so you can extend the platform’s functionality simply by entering API codes that tie-in everything from customer service software and content authoring to customer relationship management and virtual classrooms. You can sign-up online for a free trial and immediately start creating your own learning ecosystem.

ELOGIC LEARNING

I like eLogic Learning. For years, it has earned a place at the top of my go-to list as an all-purpose extended enterprise learning management system. Although it’s a small, owner-operated organization, it has attracted a lot of big-name clients – especially in retail, hospitality and franchising. And overall, eLogic’s clients are happy.

This platform is a highly configurable workhorse that is a viable alternative to tier-one talent management LMSs with similar functionality, but much higher price points. It features powerful ecommerce capabilities, tight integration with Salesforce and support for complex continuing education, along with a rare unlimited-use tier in its license model.

LEARNUPON

Based in Ireland, LearnUpon was originally a SaaS solution for associations, but it evolved into a customer learning platform that has been widely adopted by corporations around the world. LearnUpon is a highly functional, low-cost extended enterprise solution with low or no implementation fees, even though the company provides ample support to get you up and running quickly.

LearnUpon integrates well with other cloud SaaS applications, including ecommerce and CRM platforms. LearnUpon has built a large base of happy customers. It’s a solid option if your organization wants to offer a basic, yet high-quality learning environment for customer education at a reasonable price.

LITMOS

Early in 2019, Litmos became part of the SAP suite of products. SAP already offers SuccessFactors for traditional talent management and compliance training. But Litmos adds a different dimension, as a pure cloud platform that fills a market niche I call “agile business learning.” This solution makes it easy and affordable to manage and personalize content, so you can deploy learning initiatives quickly and iteratively, in a lean, agile way.

Litmos has found a sweet spot as the sole learning platform for small or mid-sized businesses. It’s also a strong solution for larger organizations that need to deploy and scale extended enterprise learning initiatives very rapidly. And with more than 4 million active users, and SAP as its new parent company, you can rest assured that this proven solution will continue evolving with market needs.

NETEXAM

NetExam is one of the coolest extended enterprise learning systems available. This company focuses solely on channel learning, with a heavy-duty channel management LMS, social, mobile and gamification functionality, comprehensive integrations and professional services. When it comes to supporting global high-tech reseller networks, NetExam is one of the best and most experienced in the world.

This solution does more than just deliver learning content. It ties into partner management systems like Oracle and Salesforce so you can evaluate your channel partners and identify weaknesses. This insight makes it possible to decide which partners need further training, so you can develop strategies to improve their business performance. In other words, NetExam helps channel organizations manage partners more effectively and tie partner education more directly to business operations.

NORTHPASS

Northpass (formerly Schoolkeep) is a cloud-based LMS that includes a rich set of tools businesses need to create, deliver and manage online education – especially for extended enterprise audiences.

Northpass sees tremendous potential in solutions that tie learning to “future of work” trends. In fact, it is of the first “next-generation” LMS vendors focused on solving learning challenges for high-growth companies and gig-economy startups that continuously onboard and educate customers, service partners, contractors and employees. For example, innovative organizations like Lyft, Shopify and Turo rely on the Northpass platform to deliver extended enterprise education.

ONPOINT DIGITAL

OnPoint Digital is a powerhouse LMS designed to address a wide range of corporate extended enterprise use cases including customers, channel partners, employees, or a combination of these audiences.

The OnPoint approach is different from many competitors because this vendor has created a library of core stackable code modules (for lack of a better technical description), that can be assembled in any combination to build semi-custom learning solutions for each client. This means you get a modern, mobile/social learning management system that is built to your exact specifications, but it’s also based on proven technology. Plus, OnPoint’s visual elegance and usability appeal to the “voluntary” mindset of extended enterprise audiences.

SERVICEROCKET LEARNDOT

ServiceRocket Learndot LMS is a full-featured pure SaaS customer learning management system. It is designed specifically for organizations that create and deploy content to B2B and B2C customers, integrate learning with CRMs, and use measurable analysis to improve related business results on a continuous, iterative basis.

Learndot also provides substantial education and support to its clients, including strategic guidance, deployment expertise, content development and ongoing managed services to fill the resource gaps that many customer education organizations face. Learndot is an excellent solution to consider, especially for customer learning initiatives in the software and high-tech industry.

SKILLJAR

Skilljar has been high on my radar for more than 5 years. This is a pure extended enterprise learning solution focused on customer education – including channel partners and internal customer service staff who need to understand products and services from a customer’s perspective.

Skilljar has an appealing, frictionless interface and powerful integrations with CRM platforms like Salesforce.com, which help automate content personalization based on a customer’s previous purchases, organizational role and more. Integrations with customer support software are also included, so service teams can interact with training in real-time while guiding customers effectively and efficiently through product questions. Although Skilljar is highly customizable for complex needs, organizations with fairly simply requirements can use it out-of-the-box.

THOUGHT INDUSTRIES

Thought Industries is a relatively new up-and-coming learning platform available in two variations. One is for organizations that sell learning content to businesses or individual consumers. And the other is for customer education in B2B and B2C environments. Both platforms are highly configurable and built to attract voluntary learners and drive ecommerce revenue. In fact, they’re almost fully customizable in the admin interface, so your learning environment can look and feel exactly like your organization’s other branded apps and web properties.

This platform also includes incredibly powerful authoring tools such as automated interfaces and editable intra-content language localizations. In addition, sophisticated B2B ecommerce capabilities – including branded portals, shared content licensing, coupon codes, promotions, subscriptions, delegated administration, tight CRM integration and robust reporting – make it easy for training companies to sell and manage content in volume.

TOTARA

Totara is unique in the marketplace because it’s a corporate learning management system built on the open source LMS platform, Moodle. Moodle is great because it’s affordable, it’s customizable and it’s built for the academic market. Totara used that foundation to reinvent the LMS from a corporate standpoint.

Totara isn’t 100% open source because you must purchase a basic level of access to receive ongoing code updates for a nominal fee. However, you can use all the pieces and deploy it on your own servers or in the cloud. If you need implementation help, you can work with one of Totara’s 200 professional services partners from around the world who are skilled at configuring and personalizing learning environments, creating content, hosting and supporting Totara solutions.

Because this software is open source, partners can also create reusable custom code extensions. This opens the door for creativity and innovation, not only in the core product, but also among partners and users throughout the global community. With Totara’s very low-cost entry point, organizations can choose to spend the lion’s share of their budget on services to develop an exceptional learning environment and high-quality content.

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AWARD FINALISTS

ABSORB

Based in Alberta, Canada, Absorb LMS is one of the original cloud learning systems. With nearly 1,000 clients and 5.6 million users in almost every industry, this multi-purpose SaaS solution is a good choice for organizations of all sizes that are just getting started with extended enterprise learning. It’s especially attractive if your in-house IT staff is limited, because Absorb makes it relatively easy to set-up and implement the LMS on your own, and then integrate it with other systems to add more functionality over time.

Given its affordable price point, this platform’s global ecommerce capabilities are impressive. You can deploy a shopping cart, offer pricing in multiple languages and charge in any currency. More than 80 payment gateways are also included, so you can set-up separate audience groups and sell content to them directly or through business partners. Even with all these capabilities, Absorb LMS is a relatively low-cost option, so it’s great if you need to kickstart learning revenues.

ACCORD LMS

Accord LMS is a full-featured but very affordable turn-key solution. It’s built specifically for small and mid-sized businesses that appreciate white-glove services from a small, dedicated, tight-knit company. Accord provides 20,000 off-the-shelf content titles for 10 different industries, including healthcare, legal and hospitality. In addition, friendly, family-like service ensures that clients succeed with the platform.

This system delivers and tracks all types of learning content assets, provides role-based and profile-based training enrollment, and is remarkably easy to use. That means you can expect to launch your solution in a matter of days, rather than weeks or months.

DEGREED

This self-described lifelong learning solution has been gaining serious momentum, especially after acquiring enterprise learning experience platform provider, Pathgather, last year. Driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning, the Degreed platform maps the needs, interests and behaviors of each user, so it can present the right type of content to the right people at the right time, based on their professional development goals.

This solution isn’t a fit for every situation. For example, it’s not ideal as a full-fledged replacement for an extended enterprise LMS. However, if your organization encourages lifelong skills development as part of a broader learning initiative for employees, contractors, customers and/or channel partners, Degreed will work in tandem with your extended enterprise LMS to provide a continuous learning experience that is highly personalized, engaging and adaptive over time.

EDCAST

EdCast is a popular learning experience platform that supports internal and external corporate learning audiences with ongoing knowledge and skills development. Specifically, the EdCast application provides a stream of daily learning content that aggregates formal and informal learning activities for each user. With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, EdCast automatically curates and presents content based on personalization criteria like a learner’s job role, program or project affiliations, declared interests, social connections, media preferences, content behaviors and more.

EdCast works well as a complementary application to enhance LMS functionality where continuous learning is part of the strategy. EdCast also offers an in-app software onboarding tool that guides learners step-by-step as they familiarize themselves with digital applications. This is popular functionality among software companies that need to educate customers more effectively and efficiently.

LOGICBAY

LogicBay is a top-notch pure channel management solution. It includes learning management, but other channel-oriented capabilities also play a prominent role. For example, in addition to supporting ongoing product training and enablement, LogicBay helps clients recruit and onboard new partners and manage lead flow. In addition, this platform is designed to be integrated into an organization’s broader ecosystem – including things like incentive systems and robust analytics to evaluate the performance of channel partners and the overall program.

The LogicBay system is particularly strong in organizations with dealer networks. For example, Freightliner, Mercedes-Benz Financial, Solar Turbines, Caterpillar and Penske have all embraced this platform.

MATRIX LMS

Matrix LMS is a pure SaaS cloud-based learning management system with affordable pricing and free trials, so it’s easy to build and deploy your own learning solution. It’s primarily intended as the first or second LMS for organizations that need proven functionality and self-service configurability, but don’t want to create highly customized applications.

The strength of Matrix LMS is its broad spectrum of configurable features you can choose to include (or not). It also includes a variety of pre-built integrations with HR software, payment gateways and other ecommerce systems. This makes it easy to set-up learning solutions for any combination of internal and/or external audiences.

PEOPLEFLUENT NETDIMENSIONS

UK-based Learning Technologies Group is an umbrella company that has been acquiring a best-of-breed suite of complementary learning-related systems, including PeopleFluent talent management, Watershed LRS, Gomo Learning authoring software, Leo Learning content services and NetDimensions LMS. Organizations can snap together any of these solutions and share data among all the different elements to create customized global learning solutions.

NetDimensions LMS is particularly strong in supporting compliance for high-risk and highly regulated industries like aviation, energy, medical and government. With exceptional domain and integration capabilities, this is one of the best holistic solutions for complex extended enterprise initiatives that serve customers, employees, partners and others.

SABA

Saba is a longtime player in the learning management space and is widely known for its talent management system. However, Saba also has a long history in extended enterprise learning, especially solutions for franchisees, retailers, channel partners and customers. In fact, as a client, I participated in a Saba presentation 20+ years ago that helped introduce me to extended enterprise education.

Despite phenomenal change in the learning industry and digital business technology, Saba has never lost its focus. It has the global capability to support nearly any complex pure extended enterprise or hybrid employee/external initiative. Additionally, Saba offers strong professional services teams that draw on countless years of expertise to guide customers from all types of industries through every stage of the software lifecycle.

SCHOOX

This up-and-coming LMS is built primarily for the restaurant, retail and hospitality industries. In particular, Schoox is designed to support training management and delivery to employees and non-employees in franchise organizations. For example, companies like Subway rely on this platform to provide training across their value chain – including employees at corporate locations, as well as franchise sites – to ensure brand consistency across all business outlets.

Strong integration ties it all together and passes training progress and completion reports to franchise owners with no fuss. Implementation costs are typically very low or even free, depending on a program’s complexity. Overall, Schoox is an effective, modern application for consumer-oriented businesses that need a straightforward frontline employee training solution.

TALENTLMS

TalentLMS is a true multitenant cloud LMS, meaning all clients access the same LMS via a web browser, and each client has its own secure area and sub-areas. Like most LMSs born in the last few years, TalentLMS is fully mobile responsive. It’s a no-frills system with an instant free trial option to help fast-track your training implementation.

Pricing is based on the volume of learners that actually use your training on a monthly basis, which is a great way to get into the game without risking upfront capital. If you run a small or mid-sized business, this is a solid choice for your first or second LMS. There are no implementation fees, and if your usage scenarios aren’t complicated, it’s hard to beat this system’s license pricing and ease of use.

TOGETHER JAZZ BY SKYLAB ITALIA

This platform is aimed at providing complete end-to-end learning process management, based on a “glocal” (global/local) enterprise model. Through specialized portals, Together JAZZ enables social interactions and gamification that enhance the learning experience. Smart digital services enable flipped classrooms and multiformat digital content.

Together JAZZ also delivers a broad set of functionality and integration services to fulfill enterprise needs through the cloud. This is a strong option for employee or external learning solutions in continental Europe and beyond.

UPSIDELMS

UpsideLMS is a full-featured cloud learning platform that is used effectively for employee learning and/or extended enterprise education. This company is based in India, but the solution is widely used in Europe and around the world because of its strong globalization, localization and GDPR functionality – including excellent configurable reporting.

Its user interface is appealing and online/offline mobile friendly. Also because Upside makes it easy and affordable to manage learning at an organization, domain or portal level, it’s an ideal low-cost option for external channel or customer education.

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