CEdMA Blog

 

If you are not yet thinking about how training can have a measurable impact on business results, you need to start now. Our executives want to move the needle on software sales and renewals. If you cannot show the value of your training organization using metrics tied to business success, you are in danger of becoming extinct.

At its heart, CEdMA has always been a social network.  CEdMA was founded in January 1991, two years before Mosaic (the first multi-media web browser) and much has transpired since those humble beginnings.  Although the power and value of meeting face-to-face is still very much in the forefront of how we learn from each other – in the form of our highly attended bi-annual Training Leadership Conferences - the power of social networking online is undeniable.  Most would agree that our work life and career management are forever intertwined with the social network.

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It’s time for a big wake up call.  Education leaders have a tendency to report the “easy” metrics.  After all, we are a business within a business, so we typically report: 

• Training Revenue
• Training Margin
• Number of Students Trained
• Number of Courses Added and Revised
• Number of Online Courses Completed

Meanwhile, our executives are yawning with disinterest.  At the end of the day, no matter how large your training business, these numbers are often a rounding error on the overall software revenue and the C-suite is not losing sleep over these numbers.

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By Pat Durante, CEdMA President & Senior Director of Education Service, Black Duck Software

Contributors:
Jesse Finn, Former CEdMA President and Industry Veteran
Tom Kimmel, CEdMA Vice President
Ken Hirsohn, CEdMA Treasurer & Director, Global Customer Training Programs, AlienVault.

 

Traditionally, most software training has been sold as an ‘add-on’ service in the form of seats in a public classroom (virtual or physical).   This poses a dilemma for both the seller and the purchaser.  Selling a single seat at $3-5k per student is hardly worth the tiny commission an education sales rep or license seller would earn.  Even selling a private onsite class for up to 10 students for $15 or $20K can be hard work for very little return.  To make matters worse – these one-time training events are often designed to force students to “drink from the fire hose” and “learn everything you need to know in as few days as possible” so that the students can get back to real work. Retention from these type of training events is dismally low.