While many technology OEMs provide authorized training content to encourage successful adoption of their products, the content isn't always consumed by the end-users who use the solution daily. OEMs often face internal obstacles when taking authorized training content to market, including limitations on resources and infrastructure. But providing your employees, partners and customers with high-quality, authorized training is key to driving success across your entire ecosystem.
The Case for Authorized Training
According to a TSIA training/adoption survey, individuals who have sufficient training are:
- 68 percent more likely to use a product
- 56 percent more likely to use more product features/functions
- 87 percent more likely to work more independently, relying less on coworkers and customer support for help
Additionally, a 2018 report by IDC highlighted that when users are trained better than average, they can achieve 80 percent of their business and project objectives. IDC also found that a lack of ongoing training can lead an IT organization to lose 60 percent of its capability in just three years, due to changes in staff, technology and processes, as well as insufficient refresher training. Around 10 hours of ongoing training per year per employee not only helps users stay current with their responsibilities, but it can also help improve performance by 30 to 50 percent.
Vendor-Authorized vs. Gray-Market Training
Training helps ensure that your employees, partners and/or customers know exactly how to use each feature and function of your technology, ultimately extending its shelf life and accelerating overall product adoption. “Vendor-authorized” means that, as an OEM, you've invested in training for a product or solution that you know customers are going to leverage. Unfortunately, however, there are some training companies out there are producing gray-market training, which means it doesn’t come from the OEM directly, and, therefore, it doesn't possess the same level of standards, quality or customer support. Gray-market training can quickly impact the adoption of a product, as its content may not necessarily align with the OEM’s goals or the most efficient way to use the product.
Activate Authorized Training Content With an Enrollment Portal
Once your stakeholders have developed a new tool and the accompanying authorized training intellectual property is completed, you need to find a way to get the training into the market and in the hands of the right users. This is where Shyft Global Services' certification and training services come in. You’ve made a significant investment in developing the training materials to ensure your software is being used the right way and to its fullest potential, ensuring a longer lifecycle of the end-user — whether those users are your employees, channel partners or customers. Shyft makes it easier to take the training content you've worked so hard to build to market, and offers a convenient training enrollment portal.
Your Shyft training enrollment portal — white-labeled under your brand or co-branded — eases the administration and management of your training content. Your portal comes with a dedicated URL and can be set up to use a custom domain based on OEM or partner. Product and services can be easily added and removed, and training can be delivered through multiple delivery format options, including virtual, instructor-led and more. The Shyft training enrollment portal takes management and administration of content, users and training performance to the next level, ensuring that, as an OEM, you can see what’s being consumed and what’s working. With customization options for both OEMs and your partners, a portal is a great way to take authorized training content to the market.
Learn more about implementing the training enrollment portal to enable your employees, empower your channel partners and grow end-user product adoption.
About the Author
Matthew George is a Director of Marketing with ExitCertified. He's worked within the education industry for nearly a decade, within various marketing roles and countries. He's an advocate for evolving technology and keeping an organization's skills up to date.
