Partnership Versus Suppliership
By Paula Moreira

Whatever criteria you use for selecting your training suppliers, it's time for an expanded view of the relationship and improved understanding of how to get more out of it. Here’s how to turn your training suppliers into full-service partners.

Just when you thought it was safe to be a training manager, along came e-learning. In a very short time, e-learning has increased our training options and altered key supplier relationships. But don’t despair, within this chaos lies unprecedented opportunity for decision makers to get the upper hand on suppliers and take control of training agendas. Rather than merely evaluating off-the-shelf content, training managers can get more out of their budgets by evaluating the depth and breadth of supplier services that focus on a customer’s individualized business needs.

Multiple challenges

Without devaluing e-learning, we can say that e-content is a commodity widely available from many suppliers. In a generic sense, e-learning is simply using the Web as a delivery mechanism. It solves a fiscal and logistical problem but doesn't address the core issue of how to bring necessary skills into an organization to solve business problems and sustain a generation of wholesale changes to business processes. However, finding a supplier who does understand how learning addresses organizational deficiencies and supports a company's business initiatives can help you accomplish goals faster.

Successful e-learning implementations are initiative-driven rather than training- and development-driven. Communicating that concept to some suppliers is difficult at best, and getting them to break out of their packaged deals can be even more difficult. For instance, although you truly appreciate that a supplier's off-the-shelf library includes more than 1,000 courses, you may only need three courses and you don't have the authority to sign yearly licensing contracts. In another example, an organization of 50,000 people might take a year to deploy an e-learning solution. can the supplier offer year-long support.

When choosing a supplier, look for flexibility to deploy according to your timetable and a contract that doesn’t penalize you for your organization’s size. Accommodating challenges that make you a unique customer is the difference between suppliership and partnership.

Multiple delivery methods

A good partner offers an ongoing choice of e-delivery methods, such as synchronous classes, online labs, Web-based self-study programs, an abundance of Web-based reference materials, and access to prerecorded content.

However, an ideal partner will also offer classroom training. Despite the drive to e-learning, it still only accounts for approximately 20 to 50 percent of your total training delivery, making access to traditional classroom delivery options key. A supplier that offers additional training delivery options equals savings in the long run. Other benefits are a better organized training effort, an easier time finding alternate solutions (online and in the classroom), and a reduced effort in coordinating training projects. In general, there's less hassle in overall management of the training initiative.

Multiple suppliers

In most large organizations, IT training accounts for less than 20 percent of the overall training dollars. However, off-the-shelf IT content is widely available, while soft skill courses covering management and leadership, workplace safety, or any vertical market-specific content is harder to find? It's critical for you to be able to make individual purchases among multiple suppliers.

Full-service e-learning suppliers let you select the content you need from a variety of sources and customize your own content. This means that their learning platform supports standards-based and some nonstandards-based content with the same tracking ability as their own native content. Sound simple? It's not, but ask your e-learning supplier how you can play their competitor’s content in their learning management system.

Continuous support

The real partnership test surfaces quickly after contracts are signed. In the new competitive environment, training managers have a unique opportunity to hold training suppliers accountable for services beyond content delivery. According to a June 2001 study by ASTD and the Masie Center, E-Learning: If We Build It, Will They Come?, there are three important factors that influence the success of an e-learning initiative: 1) internal marketing, 2) support, and 3) incentives.

An e-learning partner should have first-hand experience with these drivers to share. Applying best practices and methodologies on their specific platforms should be part of the package rather than an add-on. Investing the time to walk you through getting started and sharing examples can go a long way toward getting an e-learning initiative off to a positive, enthusiastic start.

Here are two additional ways that a supplier can offer support once the contract is signed.

• Developing the implementation team. Deploying e-learning isn't a one-person show. The process requires a cross-functional team with representatives from management, IT, users, and the e-learning provider. The most important role this team will play is in the evangelism of the united vision, purpose, and objectives for the project. The e-learning partner should provide guidance on who to include on this team and on how to manage obstacles they've encountered during previous implementations.
  
  
• Marketing e-learning internally. One role of the implementation team is to build buy-in across the organization. Marketing a solution within an organization is almost as tough as marketing a new product to consumers. Understanding how marketing works and how to make access easy for users is critical. An e-learning partner should have prepackaged marketing tools that you can customize and implement. In addition, your partner should stick around beyond the launch because there’s more to be done. In an effort to sustain momentum, they can help you stage post-launch activities, such as promotional meetings and raffle books that correspond to a course.

Currently, it’s a buyer’s market, making it an excellent time to look beyond content to a broad range of supplier services designed to drive usage and develop a higher return on investment. Although e-learning tends to emphasize technology, it's not surprising that personal service is still the main ingredient of an effective supplier, client, and learner relationship.

Published: May 2002