MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - August 9, 2010) - Global software companies are increasingly reliant on a network of partners to sell their products, so revenues and profits deeply depend on resellers' collective product knowledge and sales skills. However, a common challenge for learning organizations is finding effective ways to provide relevant, accessible information to this critical set of learners. Expertus, a global provider of products and services that optimize the business impact of learning, recently announced the launch of ExpertusONE™ to help address this issue.
ExpertusONE (www.expertusone.com) is a revolutionary new social learning platform that brings together formal, informal and collaborative learning for all audiences across the enterprise -- employees, customers and channel partners.
A well-trained channel partner sales force has numerous potential benefits, including increased training revenue, product sales, and up-selling and cross-selling; reduced support costs, channel salesperson turnover, and cost of sales; improved time-to-market, win ratios, and customer loyalty; and shortened sales cycles.
"A traditional LMS cannot support the fast-paced needs of a channel sales force, and just-in-time learning is the only way to keep the extended enterprise educated," said Ramesh Ramani, founder and CEO of Expertus. "ExpertusONE answers the call, offering a learning ecosystem where relevant information can be organized and dramatically presented to learners based on their needs, maximizing relevance and usability."
A multinational software organization was an early adopter of ExpertusONE, and even helped in its development. A full case study has just been published here: http://www.expertus.com/Results/Case-Files/Social-Learning-Ecosystem-Strengthens-Software-Reseller-Relationships.
The organization partnered with Expertus to create a single, engaging learner experience for its more than 3,000 channel partners, but it couldn't be one-size-fits-all. Its distributors and resellers generate software revenue on every continent in the world and the new platform had to account for major variations in language, product-focus, region and industry. Their criteria included:
- Support a diverse, global audience with content delivered in 13 regional views and 10 localized languages.
- Integrate training offered through four unrelated enterprise systems into one centralized learning environment.
- Provide on-demand 24/7 worldwide access to virtual training and e-learning content that could be accessed regardless of bandwidth constraints, both within a reseller environment and in the various countries in which they operate.
- Incorporate meaningful social elements, such as interactive course ratings and comment capabilities, so resellers could share opinions and collaborate with other channel partners.
- Ability to automatically assign learning paths to resellers based on the role, geography, industry vertical and product authorization. Since the resellers' roles changed quickly or in many cases had "matrixed" roles, this plan had to be dynamically calculated and displayed.
Despite an aggressive timeline, Expertus delivered a flexible and scalable global reseller environment. The customer is now able to globally share critical new product information and personalized training plans and content -- quickly and easily -- all under one platform. Most importantly, the time it takes to roll out new training has decreased by 30-40 percent.
In addition, usage statistics indicate a growing reseller reliance on the new platform as a central learning resource. Within one year after the launch of ExpertusONE, the organization experienced:
- 757% increase in course registration volume (7,645 to 65,535)
- 125% increase in estimated new learners (6,128 to 13,780)
- 464% increase in new courses offered (404 to 3248)
- 281% increase in registrations per new learner (1.3 to 4.8)
"We ended with an innovative solution that transformed how our channel partners learn in a very short amount of time," said a senior manager with the company. "ExpertusONE brings together learners into a single ecosystem and delivers a knowledgeable sales force -- that's no easy feat."
To learn more about Expertus or ExpertusONE, please visit www.expertus.com or call John Schneble at 704.604.8150.
About Expertus
Expertus is the leading global provider of products and services that optimize the business impact of learning. For more than a decade, the firm's 500+ learning management professionals have defined and implemented plans, processes and technologies that transform training organizations -- creating measurable value for the world's most successful corporations. Clients include ADP, AstraZeneca, Cisco, ConocoPhillips, EMC, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin. Every day at these and other companies, more than a million employees, customers and business partners are educated as a result of Expertus' innovative business strategies, outsourcing services and technology-rich solutions.
Based in Silicon Valley, Expertus serves its clients from offices in the US, UK and India. For more information, visit www.expertus.com, or call toll-free 1-877-827-8160.
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