I am Cecile White.I'm a Curriculum Developer at ManTech International Corporation on around North Charleston, SC
Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Tuesday, 11 June 2019
How Is Digital Transformation Shaping Customer Experience?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because extended enterprise learning involves multiple disciplines, we sometimes ask other experts to share their insights with our readers. Today we feature insights about customer experience from Daniel Newman, Principal Analyst at Futurum Research and CEO of Broadsuite Media Group. Daniel is an author, speaker, blogger and educator who works with leading technology brands to help businesses around the world embrace the benefits of digital transformation.
Some organizations assume that digital transformation is about efficiency – saving time and money, beating competitors to market or snagging customers with fancy apps. They’re wrong.
As I’ve often said, digital transformation is about one thing – creating business value by improving customer experience. Fortunately, many companies are starting to realize that this is a smart strategy. Here’s what stellar customer experience management looks like as digital transformation heads toward 2020:
5 Ways to Elevate Customer Experience Through Digital Transformation
1) Recognize that customer experience is everyone’s job
Think back to the last time you had a fulfilling customer experience. Can you even remember? Too many customers still struggle with a jumble of illogical phone trees, frustrating chatbots, glitchy apps and disorganized online documentation. Customers don’t want more – they want better.
So, what if you decided to dig deep and exceed expectations? What if you were relentless about transforming today’s fragmented customer experience to a seamless web-to-mobile digital experience that actually works? No doubt, you’d rocket to the top of your industry.
For organizations to achieve their goals, every team member has to be committed. Providing an outstanding customer experience requires the same level of commitment. That’s how inextricably linked your business goals and customer experience need to be.
Indeed, customer experience is such an important aspect of differentiation that it can no longer be siloed inside your marketing or sales functions. It needs to be a full-scale, top-down/bottom-up, across-the-board objective for every person in your organization. The secret is in creating a culture that empowers all employees to fulfill that mission.
One company that excels at this is Nordstrom. The mobile app and online presence are easy to navigate, and in recent years, I’ve enjoyed being able to buy something online and pick it up in the store on the same day. Plus, when I encounter an issue with a purchase or I can’t find something I want, employees – both in-store and online – consistently go above and beyond to help.
With its customer-centered culture at the core of its digital transformation, Nordstrom continues to set the standard for customer experience excellence.
2) Let go of how you think your company should operate
If you say that customers are a priority, but you don’t actually accept customer feedback, isn’t that like – lying? After all, as the saying goes, the customer is always right. So the smartest way to improve is to know what customers want, even before they tell you.
That’s why companies need to abandon preconceived notions about customers, and instead become experts at learning about customers’ true needs, preferences and behaviors.
Research shows that 66% of CEOs plan to change their business model in the next three years. Are you willing to do that? Leaders today need to practice a type of healthy detachment, trusting that customer expectations and customer experience technology will work together to inform the company’s direction.
For instance, consider an example from Netflix. In January, the streaming video service provider announced that it was discontinuing the popular sitcom Friends. But thanks to an immediate uproar from customers and fans, Netflix quickly changed its mind and invested heavily to keep Friends in its programming line-up.
This may seem like a minor incident to people who don’t yet subscribe to streaming media services. However, it’s a great example of listening to your customers – and giving them what they want.
Of course, the whole fiasco might have been avoided if Netflix had been more proactive in assessing customer preferences. But better late than never.
3) Automate – again and again
You know how it’s difficult to be friendly, happy, and service-focused when you’re burned-out and stressed-out? That’s probably how your front-line employees feel.
That’s why you should think about how to free-up their cognitive load for more business-critical activities by introducing robotic process automation whenever possible.
What kind of benefit can you expect? One bank found that 85 bots could do the same work as 200 employees, for only 30% of the cost.
Those numbers are impressive, but here’s what they don’t show: The increase in time available to better-serve customers when employees no longer had to perform mind-numbing, redundant procedures.
Automation isn’t just about saving time or money. It’s also about adding value by increasing the quantity and quality human time available to strengthen customer relationships.
4) Take care of customer data as if it’s your own
What’s the fastest way to lose customers? Hurt them. Compromise their personal information. Allow their bank or credit card data to be hacked and hoarded. It’s not pretty. But it’s true.
This point doesn’t need a lengthy explanation. We’ve all seen high-profile examples of companies that tanked when they failed to protect customer data.
In 2019 there are no more excuses for overlooking this cornerstone of customer experience management. Every digital transformation roadmap requires a rock-solid commitment to protect customer data privacy and security.
And if a breach happens, you need to be transparent and own your responsibility. Organizations can no longer afford to wait for months while customer trust evaporates. When faced with a scandal or crisis, it pays to be more like Tylenol, than Toyota.
5) Align your efforts
With digital transformation, there are so many forces at work that, even with automation, it can feel incredibly overwhelming. That’s why so many companies are also moving toward digital experience management tools to keep their data and efforts organized.
Digital experience management can help handle tasks like personalization, language translation, content management across channels, analytics and even ROI. I’d go so far as to say it will become a necessity for companies that are leading the digital transformation pack this year.
Next Steps
These customer experience priorities may seem overwhelming. After all, digital transformation touches so many corners of an organization. And now you’re being challenged to make it happen faster and easier – while customers play an active role in the process.
It’s a lot to take in, let alone manage. But there’s also some good news. First, most companies aren’t winning on this front yet. That means you probably have some wiggle room – not just to improve customer experience, but to differentiate your company from your competitors.
Second, when we look at digital transformation through the lens of customer experience, everything becomes much clearer. Tech acquisitions, product development, staffing decisions and journey mapping – all are informed by customer imperatives.
This sharper perspective, alone, can improve your organization’s efficiencies, costs and overall reputation. And along the way, customer experience will benefit, too.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post has been adapted, with permission, from a post published on the Futurum blog.
WANT TO LEARN MORE? REPLAY THIS WEBINAR!
How to Reduce Time-to-Value with Modern Customer Training
Indoctrinating customers as quickly as possible is a smart business move. But exactly when should you start, how fast should you move and how can you be sure that your onboarding process makes a real difference?
Join John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, and Samma Hafeez, Vice President of Customer Success at Thought Industries, as they explain how to accelerate customer time-to-value. You’ll learn:
- What “onboarding” a customer really means
- The critical relationship between onboarding and time-to-value
- How quick wins and clear milestones drive engagement and adoption
- How learning pathways strengthen the onboarding experience
- Tips for metrics that align customer objectives with business priorities
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.
The post How Is Digital Transformation Shaping Customer Experience? appeared first on Talented Learning.
How Is Digital Transformation Shaping Customer Experience? original post at Talented Learning
Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Wednesday, 29 May 2019
How Do You Find an LMS That Nails Extended Enterprise Learning?
No doubt about it. If employees are the only learning audience you serve, it’s easy to find an LMS that will meet your needs. For decades, corporate training programs have focused on employee compliance training and skills development. So naturally, learning systems embraced an employees-only mentality. But that insular worldview is fading fast.
Now, companies large and small are extending education programs to customers, channel partners and others outside traditional corporate boundaries. In fact, many organizations are proving that a “big tent” learning strategy is actually a profitable business move.
Regardless, it’s no picnic for buyers who must find an LMS that fits unique extended enterprise needs. With more than 800 systems available, what’s the best way to narrow the field?
We recommend a thoughtful, structured selection process. It may not be the fastest path. But as a consultant who’s been down this road more than 60 times in the past few years, I guarantee that it’s worth the effort.
Want to see for yourself? Let’s walk through a real-world case together…
How to Find an LMS: Inside One Example
Assume for a moment that you’re the decision-maker at one of our client companies. Imagine this:
Your Business Profile
- You work for a rapidly growing B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, based in the U.S.A.
- Your company develops operations management solutions for manufacturers of all sizes.
- Organizations worldwide purchase your software through a direct sales force.
- Revenues come from annual software fees, based on the number of users in customer organizations and the products they license.
- Customers use your software at one site or many locations, depending on their organizational size and structure.
- You train customers as well as your own employees.
Your Learning Programs
Customer Training
- Your company serves 3,000 customers around the world.
- The potential customer learner base is 300,000 – expected to grow to 500,000 in a few years.
- Historically, you delivered customer training in-person at your location. But recently, up to 50% of new customer training is delivered digitally via webinars and online product portals.
- The source of learner record is Salesforce CRM platform.
Employee Training
- 1000 employees – expected to grow to 1500 employees within the next few years.
- You rely on an inexpensive cloud LMS for employee onboarding and compliance training.
- Source of learner record is Workday HCM platform.
Key Learning Systems Issues
Several challenges are prompting you to find an LMS that will serve your growing business:
Customer Training Challenges
- Current live training events are costly and don’t scale well, compared with migration to a fully digital approach.
- Individual training activity isn’t tracked. Data reveals which customer organizations access training sessions, but not who attends these sessions. This lack of person-specific data has several negative implications:
- You’re unable to offer individual or customer certifications, personalized content recommendations or role-based learning assignments.
- It’s impossible to gauge training effectiveness and business impact.
- The power of Salesforce CRM integration is minimized.
- Lack of LMS integration with your organization’s customer IT ecosystem exposes multiple issues:
- It negatively affects customer learning experience.
- It requires more manual administrative intervention.
- Content duplication occurs when developing learning for customers and customer-facing employees.
- Weak reporting and analytics capabilities make ROI measurement difficult.
Employee Training Challenges
- Your existing LMS poses administrative and usability issues – too many clicks, too much irrelevant content and overly complex workflow.
- Because you lack Salesforce CRM integration, you can’t automatically create accounts or assign learner roles.
Two Paths: Which Would You Pick?
There are two apparent solutions:
1) An all-in-one extended enterprise learning system
2) A pure customer-focused learning system
Which would work best for in this scenario? Consider these pros and cons:
1) All-in-One Extended Enterprise LMS
This approach could reasonably address both customer and employee learning needs. But it also raises concerns:
Positives
- These solutions are purpose-built to support multiple scenarios – customer-only, employee-only or a combination of audiences. Also, many of these vendors are highly experienced in addressing extended enterprise needs.
- You’ll enjoy the convenience of a single-vendor relationship – only one contract to negotiate and one point-of-contact for support.
- With only one content database, you’ll eliminate the need to create, track and maintain multiple versions of the same content, and avoid the need for a separate SCORM cloud or course container solution.
- With a single system to learn, configure, deploy and manage, you’re likely to operate more efficiently and reduce your administrative burden.
Negatives
- Your employee LMS is not broken. It needs improvement, but any new system could require just as much effort to optimize.
- Although customer education is your priority, an all-in-one platform may require you to settle for less-than-ideal customer learning functionality.
- The default settings in all-in-one systems tend to emphasize employee learning. To reflect a customer mindset, you may need to rework interface language and logic on a regular basis.
- Because your vendor’s core competency is likely to be employee training, you may need to educate the project team about customer education needs and issues.
- All-in-one vendors offer broader suites – including things like talent management and performance management. These capabilities are forever out-of-scope for your organization, yet they compete for a vendor’s thoughts, priorities and investment in research and development.
- These platforms are typically priced higher than customer-only solutions. The most common license model is named-user licensing. But with 300x more potential customer learners than employees, you should prefer volume licensing based on customer location or actual usage.
2) Pure Customer-Focused Learning System
This choice means that your organization will need to manage two specialized solutions – one for employees and another for customer learning. Under what conditions does it make sense to add a second LMS, rather than choose a replacement?
If each audience has highly specific needs, an all-purpose solution may be only marginally effective, at best. Why settle for one platform that doesn’t serve either audience particularly well, when best-of-need options are within your reach?
On the other hand, it’s important to respect the limits of specialized systems. For example, some excellent employee-focused systems would be a terrible foundation for customer education. And conversely, some phenomenal customer-oriented learning systems would be useless as employee training platforms.
Positives
- Your business serves 300x more customer learners than employees.
- Customer education directly affects many metrics that help your business remain competitive – including customer acquisition, time-to-value, churn rate, product satisfaction, subscription renewals and account expansion.
- Pure customer LMS vendors focus 100% of their attention and development effort on features and enhancements that address customer education.
- Customer LMS staff (including executives, sales, R&D, product development and customer service reps) offer significant domain expertise to help advance your mission.
- These vendors recognize that CRM integration and automation with sales channel platforms is essential.
- Additionally, customer LMS platforms offer a broader API toolset for integration with your company’s software and other business systems – including ecommerce, marketing automation and customer service platforms.
- You won’t need to reconfigure or rework an interface that was designed for employees.
Negatives
- Licensing two systems may cost more than increasing user count in an all-in-one platform.
- There’s potential for duplication of courses and other content. A SCORM cloud would help resolve this issue and also let you deploy content on your customers’ LMS platforms.
- Your IT teams may have extra work. For instance, one solution may use REST APIs while the other may use SOAP APIs.
- For some users, both systems may need to record completion of a course. The transcript will need to be transferred from one system to the other, or the course will need to be completed twice.
- Your support personnel will need to develop expertise with two systems.
- You’ll need to be involved with both vendors over time – following updates about both platforms and attending events such as user meetings and conferences.
- The software selection process is likely to take longer – requiring separate research and evaluation cycles for each type of platform.
What’s the Best Path? Consider Strategic Goals
Above all, your organization’s future depends on stronger customer relationships. You must find an LMS that will support this goal with customer education driven by meaningful metrics.
On the other hand, you don’t want to lose sight of employee training needs. But you’re unsure if adding employees to this buying equation will dilute the results. Let’s take a closer look at your goals:
Customer-Oriented Goals
- Increase customer success rates and reduce onboarding time in a scalable manner.
- Increase customer satisfaction and renewal rates.
- Drive stronger customer retention and account expansion.
- Encourage customer self-sufficiency by developing deeper product knowledge across customer organizations.
- Integrate relevant learning content into your software to facilitate just-in-time customer learning.
- Increase product usage by involving customers in ongoing learning opportunities.
- Promote higher standards of professional development by introducing customer certifications.
- Gain deeper, more timely customer insights by integrating learning data with Salesforce CRM.
- Drive new sales by offering professional development as a competitive differentiator.
Employee-Oriented Goals
- Improve usability for administrators and employees.
- Expand employee development content options.
- Eliminate content duplication and unnecessary maintenance.
What Do These Goals Tell Us?
Whew. With all these factors and goals, what’s the best answer? One system or two? Perhaps even three? It depends on the answer to even more questions.
Which audience is more important to your company? Which audience is underserved – and at what cost to your broader business objectives? How can you serve both audiences without jeopardizing learning quality for either?
Keep thinking. Which approach will deliver the biggest net positive effect? Is efficiency more important than results? Is moving the needle on customer success more important than leadership development? Or are both achievable?
When answering these questions, two key takeaways emerge:
- The need for stronger customer education touches every aspect of this business, from new client acquisition to global long-term growth.
- At this time, improving employee learning is more of a nice-to-have than a mission-critical goal.
Our Final Recommendation
Although the top priorities were clearer, we still weren’t convinced that one type of platform would outperform the other. So we recommended a “best-of-both-worlds” approach.
First, we documented LMS requirements and developed an RFP mapped to those requirements. Then we contacted highly qualified vendors in both categories:
- Stellar employee-oriented extended enterprise LMS platforms that include viable customer learning capabilities.
- Highly innovative customer learning platforms that aren’t built to support employee training.
Our Rationale
With this approach, the buyer could weigh the incremental value of a specialized customer-focused solution on its own merits. This freed decision-makers from muddying the process with concerns about employee compliance, skills development and talent management.
After all, even if the client selected an all-in-one system to serve immediate customer needs, roll-out plans for employee improvements weren’t expected for several years. By then, who knows what kind of solutions will be available for employees?
However, by including strong all-in-one vendors, we covered all the bases, in case specialized pure customer learning solutions couldn’t demonstrate enough value to outweigh the headaches and inefficiencies of managing multiple systems.
What Did This Client Actually Choose?
In the end, a pure customer-centered learning platform won the day. But the decision could have just as easily gone in the other direction.
Either way, our client wouldn’t have been wrong. That’s what makes these LMS decisions so tough. There is no guaranteed road to success. No silver bullet. No straight line.
With this kind of uncertain terrain, your best path is to identify key business issues, goals and related requirements. Then evaluate the importance of these factors, so your decision truly reflects your priorities.
And of course, if you need guidance to find an LMS, I’m always at your service.
Thanks for reading!
Want more LMS insights? Replay our on-demand webinar:
How to Succeed at Extended Enterprise Education: Strategies for Learning Engagement
Convincing employees to engage in training is hard enough. So what happens when you want to educate customers, channel partners and others across your extended enterprise? Relevant content is a start, but it is not enough.
What else does it take to succeed?
Join John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, and Kevin Hanegan, VP of Knowledge and Learning at Qlik, as they explore learning strategies that win extended enterprise hearts and minds. They discuss:
- Innovative marketing techniques to attract external audiences
- Methods for improving content quality and contextual relevance
- How to motivate learners with contests and rewards
- Creative ways to leverage video for stronger engagement
- What custom mobile apps can do to drive continuous learning
- How to measure, analyze and improve your impact, over time
REPLAY THE WEBINAR NOW!
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.
The post How Do You Find an LMS That Nails Extended Enterprise Learning? appeared first on Talented Learning.
How Do You Find an LMS That Nails Extended Enterprise Learning? original post at Talented Learning
Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Podcast: Selecting Association Software – With Chad Stewart of SmartThoughts
WELCOME TO EPISODE 21 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.
EPISODE 21 – TOPIC SUMMARY AND GUEST:
As an independent learning systems consultant, I’m obsessed with finding the ideal solution for each client’s unique needs. Fortunately, I’m not alone in that quest.
For example, today’s guest, Chad Stewart of SmartThoughts LLC, specializes in helping non-profit organizations navigate the software selection process for all kinds of operational needs.
I invite you to join Chad and me, as we compare notes about key technology trends and their implications for association software buyers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Thanks to technology innovation, member-based organizations are facing significant opportunities and challenges.
- In particular, the center-of-gravity for association software has shifted from all-in-one AMS platforms to diverse ecosystems.
- With so much at stake, software selection has become a strategic priority that non-profits can’t afford to treat lightly.
Q&A HIGHLIGHTS:
You and I are two sides of the same coin, Chad. We both help associations find software that meets their strategic needs, right?
Yes, our missions are very similar. At SmartThoughts, I work with non-profit organizations that are struggling to find the right systems. I assess their existing technology and help them find the best fit for their particular needs.
Our approach sounds identical. But I focus on learning solutions, while you focus on the rest of the association software ecosystem…
Also, like you John, I don’t derive any income from software implementation, training and support – although I think those services are very important. In fact, I originally offered implementation, training and support when I founded SmartThoughts in 2001.
Back then, software was installed on desktops and servers, so clients had different needs. But now with cloud computing, it’s more important to focus on the front-end of the process, helping clients find the right fit.
Interesting. I don’t cross paths with many other systems selection specialists. Why did you move to this side of the fence?
Honestly, so many new products are available and there’s so much confusion about how to choose systems. There’s a huge disconnect between buyers and sellers. So it makes a lot of sense to rely on an intermediary as an independent guide and advocate.
And why do you specialize in association software?
That shift was actually a gradual process. I started as a specialist in ERP and CRM systems for organizations of all types. But over time, as we began serving more member-based organizations, that naturally became our focus.
Excellent. So, what are the major technology components associations rely upon today?
Oh, gosh, it’s all over the place. And nomenclature is, too, because systems in the for-profit world are similar, but the acronyms are a bit different.
How so?
For example, a customer relationship management system (or CRM) is the terminology most businesses use when talking about customer-focused systems, right? Well, in the association space, the equivalent is an association management system (or AMS).
But an AMS is much more than just a CRM. It’s really an ecosystem that can include a website, marketing automation, event management, ecommerce, membership dues management, financial accounting and online community functionality. Sometimes even learning management is part of AMS capabilities.
With so many moving parts, how do you find the best fit?
Great question. An AMS may purport to be an ideal all-in-one solution. But an AMS can’t be all things to all organizations. And with so many components in the typical association software stack, best-of-class systems may be a better option for some capabilities.
OK. So let’s use learning functionality to understand this concept. How do you know when a specialized LMS is needed beyond the AMS, itself?
With each organization, I start by defining the situation. As we pull back the layers of the onion in that discovery process, it reveals what an AMS uniquely means to that organization.
For some, education and training may be critical, so specialized learning management capabilities would be a requirement.
That makes sense…
LMS components definitely are not a core competency of an AMS, in general, but you may find the capacity to track education activities. For example, you’ll see the ability to track continuing education credits or certifications.
But my job is to define what’s most important for a client. What makes that organization unique? That’s the key.
Absolutely…
Usually, that ties back to money. What’s are primary sources of revenue? Sometimes its dues. Sometimes it’s education. Sometimes it’s conferences fees. Often, there are multiple choices.
An organization needs to understand what drives revenues and choose a system that is strong at supporting those functions.
Agree. So, what are the top trends you’re seeing?
Well, that’s a good segue, because I see an increasing need to integrate with third-party systems. As organizations evolve, they sometimes outgrow specific capabilities in their AMS, so there’s a need to tap into more sophisticated, specialized functionality.
This is especially true of organizations using dated, all-in-one AMS platforms. But the need for expanded technology doesn’t necessarily mean an organization, itself, is growing.
Good point!
For example, one of my clients is a small association with a staff of less than five people. But this organization has relatively sophisticated needs.
They have international reach and their financial accounting is fairly advanced. They also host some very unique events, and most of their revenues come from those events.
They realize that a traditional AMS isn’t enough. So they want to find a system with strong event capabilities that also integrates with their core AMS and their website.
Makes sense…
It’s important to be open to a “best-of-need” approach. This calls for third-party APIs and services that integrate specialized applications into everyday workflows, so associations don’t have to give up anything in terms of understanding member information.
How do you see that playing out?
An association may not be able to get the best standalone platform for every need – for example, job board, email marketing, community management and learning management. But they’ll find an AMS with strong membership management at its core. Then they’ll add-in components to achieve their mission.
So, the underlying AMS will continue to play its primary historical role, but the organization can look beyond the AMS for specialized functionality. That’s more like a best-of-class strategy.
Excellent. Any other notable trends on your radar?
A related trend is increasing interest in what the for-profit world calls customer data platforms or CDPs. With so many systems working in tandem, associations want a central repository that provides access to a persistent, unified “master” record of every member.
It’s essential to consolidate and synthesize relevant data into a “true” single member profile. With a CDP in place, an organization’s relationship with each individual is more accurately and intelligently reflected in reports.
Interesting. So the AMS is no longer the center of the universe. But are associations struggling with the technical aspects of data integration?
Well, one reason why organizations move to a new system is just what you mentioned – integration issues. Their AMS is based on a closed architecture, so they’re opting for systems that are open and based on standards that facilitate back-and-forth integration.
Many systems of yesteryear were based on closed logic. Those legacy systems may not yet support full data exchange. But modern AMS systems usually offer open APIs to connect back-and-forth with other systems.
I see…
So, integration issues often motivate associations to change. They may change to a new AMS if their system isn’t keeping up with their integration needs. Or they’ll look for an integration services provider that knows their system fairly well and has a third-party relationship with whatever specialized system they want to add.
So about API strategy, are you seeing a trend in how AMS vendors approach this?
I can’t say there’s a clear trend, per se. But I think AMS providers definitely realize that they need to develop integrations for and with specialized systems that offer popular functionality.
What would you say those systems are?
Well, every year, I ask organizations which third-party systems they use in conjunction with their membership management system. Usually, the top of the list includes email marketing, mobile apps, job board, advertising, LMS and community management platforms.
It sounds like the AMS market is as diverse as the learning systems realm. Currently, we see more than 800 learning-related systems on our radar…
800? My goodness, that’s a lot of systems to track!
I’m tracking 128 AMS platforms – or vendors that say they offer membership-based systems. Every few weeks, I find another system that I may not have known, or a vendor goes out of business. So it changes. But it’s around 130 systems…
Oh, I’ve personally reviewed only about 200 of the 800+ systems on our radar, so I have a long way to go. How much do you track about each AMS? What’s your methodology?
That’s a great question! We publish a variety of lists on our website, and there’s no cost to be included. I’m just inquisitive by nature and it’s my job to be aware of the landscape. So I continually explore, evaluate and categorize systems.
I reach out to vendors and review their platform in-depth, even before I have clients that may be an applicable fit. I talk with these companies about their product positioning and I’ll go through a demo process. Then I’ll develop what I call a product report. Finally, I categorize the system and assign a specific fit, based on heuristics (or industry rules-of-thumb).
Yep. Our approach is nearly identical…
Also, since technology is constantly changing, I may re-evaluate a product once a quarter – or sooner, if a client is interested in a particular category.
Do you talk with customers about their experience?
Oh yes. Because we’re always gathering references and we know people who are using these systems, we capture their feedback, too. That adds another dimension to our understanding of each platform’s strengths and weaknesses.
Yeah. Anecdotal information is a great reality check…
FOR MORE QUESTIONS AND COMPLETE ANSWERS, LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST NOW!
WANT TO LEARN MORE? REPLAY THIS WEBINAR:
Technology vs. Innovation: Association Learning Strategies in Practice
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 Michelle Brien, VP Marketing 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
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.
IMAGE CREDIT: Paul Hudson
The post Podcast: Selecting Association Software – With Chad Stewart of SmartThoughts appeared first on Talented Learning.
Podcast: Selecting Association Software – With Chad Stewart of SmartThoughts original post at Talented Learning







