Introduction
When we founded KMSI, we had a
vision of what could be done to reinvigorate the learning technology
marketplace. Our founding team brought over 100 years of hands-on
experience with nearly all of the "leading" learning technology
platforms and e-learning development suites. Our plan was simple;
interview organizations using learning management systems, identify
the major areas for improvement in both technologies and processes, and use
that information to create a platform that could avoid the pitfalls that have plagued the e-learning industry. The key
pitfalls that we uncovered included:
Per-user Licensing and Maintenance fees - While nearly every
executive we talked with despised the industry practice of software
vendors charging these anomalous fees, they are still to this day being
charged by our competitors. It's obvious that the companies that charge
these fees just don't want to listen to what their clients are saying.
"Learning officers at two Fortune 500 companies last week
pointed out that vendors' insistence on applying per-seat licensing
contracts to companies with large numbers of potential end users can
negate the returns associated
with e-learning."
Costs
negate e-learning ROI - ComputerWorld
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2009 Industry Survey
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Delivering the wrong content - The majority of
offerings available at corporate universities is regulatory compliance,
HR, soft skills or information technology related material. The programs
that can significantly increase revenues and decrease costs are the ones
focused on the people who sell and deliver the company's offerings. Our
research showed that nearly all of
the offerings were delivered as stand-alone eLearning courses with no
effort applied to determine which courses applied to which
personnel. There was also very little effort applied to the
development and delivery of employee performance support materials.
“Less than 18% of
corporate e-learning courses are on topics specifically related to an
e-learner's job.
Only 23% of corporate learning organizations target their programs to
external customers.
Only 13 % of corporate learning organizations target their programs to
suppliers.”
Pillars of
e-Learning Success - Corporate University Xchange
Implementation cycles - Our discussions with
executives at numerous Fortune 500 companies disclosed that many of the
learning technologies purchased never really get fully implemented. A
dizzying array of issues, primarily stemming from learning management data
systems that were so poorly designed that the integration with true
enterprise human resource management systems and other enterprise resource
planning software ultimately proved futile. This research revealed
implementations that had cost clients triple their original estimates and
have taken years to achieve any productivity.
"Learning Management
Systems can be one of the most valuable and strategic tools
in your
corporate arsenal
– or they can be an expensive and frustrating headache."
Josh Bersin - Bersin & Associates
E-learning development tools - Numerous
published reports revealed that clients were paying vendors as much as
$85K to produce a single hour of e-learning material. The costs were
directly attributable to the amount of labor expended generating analysis and
design information, developing course objectives, testing materials and
instructional content using manual processes and difficult authoring
tools. Some e-learning development vendors estimate as much as 450 hours
of labor to produce a single hour of instruction. In the end we became
convinced that the e-learning development vendors were not unfairly
overcharging for the services they provided. The manual processes and
difficult development tools revealed themselves as the real culprits.
“Nearly 75 percent of
corporate learning professionals indicated that reducing education and
training costs
was their main driver for launching an e-learning initiative. Corporate
learning practitioners indicated they
saved less than 20 percent in training-related expenses by delivering
programs via eLearning.”
Pillars of
e-Learning Success - Corporate University Xchange
Standards conformance - Our review of the
leading learning technology platforms revealed that the underlying data
systems and logic were built long before the introduction of the Shareable
Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). This has resulted in a
"retrofit" approach to implementing the one standard that nearly
everyone agrees is the optimum environment for e-learning materials. This
retrofit approach has led to a "watering down" of what the materials
produced to these standards can and should be doing for both the learner
and the administrator. Truly shareable, highly granular, reusable content
is what the SCORM standard is all about. Unfortunately most companies will
never realize these benefits with their current learning technology
platform.
"Thousands, if not
millions, of dollars will be spent on these technologies, content, and
services to improve
knowledge and skills. If the systems can not grow, be sustained, maintained,
and delivered to the
learners, the investment will be wasted or seriously less effective on
returning results."
Making Sense of Learning
Specifications & Standards - The Massie Center
Initial acquisition costs - In talking with
executives that had already purchased a learning management or development
technology from one of our competitors, it became apparent that the high initial acquisition cost (sometimes in excess of $1M)
caused these companies to conduct lengthy proposal and evaluation
processes to ensure that the planned investment would be well spent.
Unfortunately, many of these same companies ended up spending the
remainder of their learning technology budget on the integration of the
newly selected technology platform with nothing left for migration of
content into the newly purchased technology. This obviously resulted in
little to no return on investment for these companies, many of which have
since abandoned the use of the technology they worked so hard to procure.
"it has been a dirty
little secret of the software industry that the maintenance part of the
business
is the largest part of vendors’ revenues, and is really where vendors meet
profitability (if not “money for
the caviar,” meaning their profits exceed original profit margins"
P.J. Jakovljevic - Technology Evaluation
Centers
Our Solution: KMx - The Advanced Distributed Learning
Platform
Our solution is a technology platform called KMx. This
platform, our associated pricing model and implementation processes have
forever solved the key pitfalls that have plagued the e-learning industry.
KMx Enterprise is sold for one low price, regardless of the purchasing organization's
size. KMx can be installed and integrated in a matter of days, not months
or years like many of our competitors. KMx provides the tools required to
develop e-learning materials without the need for programmers or complex
development software. KMx realizes the vision of the SCORM standards
through its ability to produce truly shareable, highly granular, and
reusable content. Our sales process is premised on one simple theme
"try KMx and become a believer in
e-learning and learning technology, again".
"KMSI is revolutionizing
e-learning and is positioned to be the leader in the corporate e-learning
space
through delivering superior technology with measurable, high return
on investment for its clients"
Duke Essiam - IPA Advisory & Intermediary Services
We recognize that many organizations have already
licensed learning management system technology. We
also recognize that many of these solutions have provided a
minimal return on investment or have been unable to meet client
expectations. Organizations that have incurred the significant expense and
time required to implement the offerings of our competitors are sometimes
reluctant to consider alternative solutions, fearing additional expense
and delays. In order to counter these reservations, KMSI offers a solution
specifically designed for organizations that have already licensed
learning management technology. Our solution will
provide your organization with the ability to: ·
- Deliver training to an expanded group of employees,
customer and/or suppliers without incurring per-user fees.
- Quickly and easily convert existing instructional
materials to standards conformant on-demand e-learning for delivery.
- Provide virtual classroom training without incurring
per-user fees. ·
- Create and manage a reusable learning content object
library to expedite development efforts and provide just-in-time
training and performance support.
The satisfaction that our clients achieve with our
solution quickly overcomes any hesitations that they may have had when
considering abandoning the use of the learning management technology that
they have licensed from our competitors.
"After almost 2 years
of research and exhaustive evaluations, TVPPA is convinced that
KMx will quickly become the standard by which all other systems are
measured"
Doug Peters - TVPPA Education & Training
Director
Request a KMx Platform Information Pack:
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