In order to establish the credibility of the survey
response data,
we asked each participant to rate their involvement with their organizations
learning and talent management decision making processes. As can be
seen from the response data below, the vast majority of the respondents
indicated that they are key decision makers for their respective
organizations with regard to learning and talent management technologies.
Please indicate your
personal involvement with your organization's
learning and talent management technologies:
| Each year, millions are spent by technology
vendors to introduce prospective buyers to new and innovative learning
and talent management technologies. The majority of these
expenditures are through industry trade shows and other direct
marketing. Over the past 10 years, several industry analysts
and technology advocate organizations have sponsored trade shows and produced "reports" that
attempt to classify and compare the offerings of leaning and talent
management technology vendors. Most of the trade shows and many of these reports are
sponsored by vendor participation in the shows or through client case study
activities.
By comparison to our 2008 survey results, there
has been a significant decline in attendance at the industry trade
shows. The chart on the right illustrates that even
though the participants indicated they were key decision makers for
their respective organizations with regard to learning and talent
management technologies, nearly half did not attend any industry trade show
events during the past year.
|
How many Industry trade shows
did
you attend during the past year?
 |
Which of the
following organizations have influenced your
learning and talent management technology purchasing decisions?
The chart above illustrates the survey
participants responses when asked to rate the influence of the
industry analysts and technology advocate organizations on their
purchasing decisions. There were three "write-in" votes for
Gartner, Inc. Review of the response data showed that
individuals influenced by one organization were also likely influenced by at
least one other of the analyst and technology advocate organizations listed.
Individuals that attended two or more trade shows were likely to be
influenced by the organizations listed above.
|
What are the
learning blends, in terms of total training hours delivered, that
your organization provides:
 |
In contrast to our prior year
results, technology-based training delivery methods declined while
less formal methods, including On-the-Job Training (OJT), increased.
The eLearning delivery method declined from 22% to 18% and virtual
classroom based training declined from 12% to 11%. While not
significant overall, one could surmise that a plateau has been
reached for technology-based training delivery methods. We
took the opportunity to call some of the participants to better
understand the reasons for the decline in their organizations.
What we found was that eLearning development and maintenance
expenses, coupled with increases in LMS per-user license fees, has
caused organizations to refrain from developing training
materials for technology-based distribution. Most of the
organizations that we discussed this trend with were using
stand-alone eLearning authoring tools in conjunction with one of the
major LMS technologies. |
|
|
What is the
source of the learning content, in terms of total training hours
delivered, that your organization provides:
 |
The most significant trend in the
response to this question was a decided shift away from licensed
third-party eLearning (down from 26% in the prior year).
In-house learning content development rose from 33% to 38%.
Interested in better understanding this trend, we called several of
the respondents and found a pattern of organizations bringing
development of learning content back "in-house" in order to provide
content that is specific to their culture, products and services.
We also found that the organizations that were shifting away from
technology-based delivery methods had found it more cost-effective
to conduct learning content development efforts in-house.
We also noted a significant increase in the use of DVD technology,
coupled with online testing methods, to provide a low-cost blended
learning experience for qualification and certification of entry
level personnel. |
|
|
Does your
organization deliver training
in more than one language?
 |
Significantly up from prior years,
organizations are not only delivering training in more than one
language, they are consolidating development and delivery
technologies to platforms that can support multiple language
distribution. Some of the more popular languages offered
include English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Czech,
Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese. |
One of the most revealing questions on our survey asked
respondents to indicate what technologies their organizations were using and
what technologies were still needed. While over 85% of the respondents
indicated that their organizations possessed eLearning authoring tools, 26%
of these organizations reported only limited use of these tools. Over 37% of
the respondents indicated a need for examination/testing development and
delivery technology. We also noted that even with all of the recent
advocacy regarding talent management technologies, that only 38% of the
organizations responding had made an investment in this technology area.
Which of the following
technologies does your organization use or need?
| The responses to this
question came as no surprise considering the rapid consolidation in
our industry. In prior years, technologies from Pathlore,
Centra, Docent, Click2Learn, NETg, Macromedia and Thinq all rated
their own pie slice. We were happy to see that the KMSI slice
grew from 12% to 14% over the past year. We also noted that KMSI was
the only organization that increased it's slice of the pie that had
not merged with or purchased a competing supplier. The most
significant number of write-in responses (indicated by "Other" in
the pie chart) came from respondents using technologies from SAP, Peoplesoft, SkillSoft, Meridian KSI and Intralearn.
Learn.com, Saba, Centra, SumTotal, Pathlore, Toolbook,
Adobe, Macromedia, Plateau Systems, Outstart, Geolearning,
Generation21, SAP, Peoplesoft, SkillSoft, Meridian KSI and
Intralearn are trademarks of their respective companies. |
Which vendor
currently provides your organization
with learning or talent management technology? |
 |
 |
| The response to this question also came as no
surprise as the affirmative response has declined every year since
our first survey in 2002. During our follow-up review with
organizations that responded that they had made a purchase during
2008, we noted a significant shift from installed/licensed
applications to more affordable ASP hosted services. We also
noted a shift away from purchases through the large systems
integrators to direct purchases from the technology manufacturers. |
During calendar
year 2007, did your organization purchase learning or talent
management technology?
 |
|
|
If you
purchased learning or talent management technology
during 2008, what do you anticipate the total cost will be
over the next three years?
|
The responses to this question
absolutely broke the mold from all previous years with over 75% of
the respondents indicating that their anticipated total cost for
newly purchased learning and talent management technology would be
less than $250,000 over 3 years. Customers are spending
significantly less (down 50% from last year alone) than in all prior
years that our survey has been conducted. The majority of the
Fortune 500 companies responded with estimates between $100,000 and
$500,000. One company reported an estimate of greater that
$12M and eleven companies responded with estimates greater than $5M.
All but one of these "mega" purchases went to two of the providers
included on our survey. |
The chart below speaks for itself, with over 50% of the
respondents indicating that they are "not satisfied" with the learning and
talent management technologies that their organization uses. We
analyzed the responses to these questions on a vendor-by-vendor basis and
determined the following:
- Large (>5,000 employee) organizations are far more
likely to be dissatisfied with their current technologies.
- Technologies from three of the nine providers
included in our survey represent 50% of the "not satisfied" responses.
- The amount an organization paid for their learning
and talent management technology had no relationship to their overall
satisfaction.
- 92% of our clients responded as being satisfied or
very satisfied with our KMx technology.
Rate your satisfaction
with the following technologies that your organization uses:
Once again, per-user license fees and the newly coined
"on-demand" usage fees have resulted in organizations limiting the access to
learning and talent management technology. With the shift to ASP (vice
installed software) technologies, organizations are generally paying less
for their overall learning and talent management solution. Even with
these lowered expenses, the trend to restrict usage to avoid paying
"on-demand" usage fees is increasing. Several of the organizations we
interviewed have abandoned the use of eLearning for employee job
qualification, shifting to on-the-job training methods.
It is important to note that none of the organizations
using our KMx platform have restricted access to learning and talent
management offerings because of expense. With KMx, there are no user
fees, no maintenance fees and no upgrade fees.
What is the
availability of your organizations learning and
talent management technology offerings for the following individuals:
When we asked participants to rate their interest in learning and talent
management technology features, over 90% of the respondents indicated
interest in "easy to use eLearning authoring tools" and over 85% of the
respondents indicated interest in "return on investment assessment tools".
Our follow-up discussions with the participants revealed that corporate
learning organizations are having to defend their budgets to senior
executives interested in bottom-line results. Many of these learning
organizations are having to prepare corporate training plans that
specifically relate training program expenditures to corporate revenue,
quality and profit objectives. We also learned that many of the
organizations that had adopted "stand-alone" eLearning authoring tools were
surprised to find that while their tools provided capabilities for eLearning
development, they did not provide a reasonable mechanism for maintenance and
future revision of the developed materials.
Please rate your
interest in the following learning and talent management technology
features:
|
|
Summary: When we founded KMSI, we had a vision of what could
be done to reinvigorate the learning and talent management 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 is
simple; continuously interview organizations using learning and talent management systems, identify
the major areas for improvement in both technologies and processes, and use
that information to create the most superior learning and talent management
suite in the industry. Over the past six years, KMSI has become one of
the largest learning technology providers in the industry and our KMx platform
is providing service to millions of end-users. The key to our success
has been our ability to listen to our clients and meet their needs.
Our solution is a technology platform called KMx. This platform, our
associated pricing model and implementation processes have solved
the key pitfalls that have plagued the learning technology industry. With
KMx, there are no user fees, no maintenance fees and no upgrade fees. 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, maintainable and reusable content. Our sales
process is premised on one simple theme "try KMx and become a believer in
learning technology, again".
Click here to get your Free Learning
Technology Evaluation Spreadsheet!
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