With all the online tools we use today at the office, it's no wonder training professionals find it a challenge to get their content out to a wider learning audience. Employees have access to so many apps and logins it's hard as training pros to squeeze your way into anyone's tool stack or busy schedules.
Since teams are more used to seamless experiences with white-labeled, single sign-on company portals, they expect everything to be available in a central location. You might be finding it hard to compete with that ease of access. Now it’s time to think about different ways you can offer learning content to customers, and explore new delivery channels that bring your content to a broader audience.
Here are several considerations training providers must consider when looking at repackaging your content and delivering it through different channels.
It's easy to ensure customers use the latest version of your training when you control the delivery channel. When you use multiple channels, however, you need to track what versions are available on each channel and the process by which you update them. Your update and publication processes should be documented and socialized to your training team and to your customers. Integrating your content management system (like SharePoint or Google Drive) to your learning management system (LMS) makes it easier for training teams to upload final versions of content.
Knowing how customers use training content is a valuable piece of data for every training provider. When you offer the training to external providers or third-party channels, you may lose access to reporting data. The data may have a direct impact on your financial performance with the training program or partner relationship, such as a revenue sharing or cost-per-completion agreement. You must ensure access to this data, either through an automated reporting or regular touchpoint with the vendor.
With so much training content available online and accessible on many different devices, protecting your content from illegal access and use is critical. Ensure your delivery channels use the latest security protocols and that any partner channels that deliver your content use them too. Your company could take a reputational hit if a third-party vendor suffers an online hack or outage.
When you control the delivery channel of your training, you know exactly what type of content works well with the channel (audio, video, text, etc.). The moment you rely on a third-party channel, however, you can't be sure that it's up to the task. Again, your company could suffer if the external vendor or partner doesn’t provide a robust platform to deliver your training. As a result, people may think twice about buying it in the future.
As you can see there are pros and cons to each approach, so consider what makes sense for your customers and your company. Customers expect to access it on a wide variety of platforms or devices, so We keep these options in mind when broadening your learning audience.