SAP Partner Education Rides The Perfect Storm

How One Learning Organization Turned Adversity on Its Head

By guest blogger Sue Martin, Global Certification Manager, SAP

Sue Martin, Global Certification Manager, SAP

In 2008, our education organization at SAP faced a perfect storm that forced us to rethink the way we did learning. It’s a challenge that others may still be facing.

The economy hit our customers and channel partners hard, so they had smaller budgets to spend on traditional instructor-led training.

In addition, our business changed overnight, as the result of multiple SAP acquisitions. This transformed our channel partner landscape from a few organizations into a vast ecosystem of partners, consultants, and independents, who worked globally selling, implementing and supporting SAP software. Most of our new partners were small companies with limited resources, time and budget for training.

Our partners demanded more collaborative learning and more peer-to-peer interaction so that they could learn from each other and collaborate on global projects.

For our extended enterprise to successfully sell and support more SAP products, we needed an easy and less obtrusive way to access training.

Very early on, we realized that our learning technology would be a key part of overcoming these challenges. We began by implementing a learning environment that:

• Expanded our learning technologies to provide a global environment for social and collaborative learning.
• Developed a user-friendly “Amazon-like” front end that made self-service possible.
• Focused the technology to support virtual and modular learning, which our customers demanded.

The results have been impressive, with a large increase in virtual training consumption and to our surprise; the evaluation scores have actually been higher than traditional classroom courses.

Feedback from customers and partners has been excellent. Global channel partners with complex training and information needs who need training fast can easily find courses, enroll, cancel, and develop blended learning solutions that are tailored to their unique projects and staff.

Our ultimate goal is to enable the ecosystem to empower partners and employees to maximize the value of the customer’s SAP investment. We are pleased with the results so far, and are happy to be heading in a very positive direction.

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Conclusion

As Sue points out, it takes a highly flexible, user-friendly LMS to engage channel partners, and encourage them to consume the training they need to sell your products successfully. It also takes a solid learning strategy. Your competitors know this, but making it happen is a big challenge. Here are more insights from other partner education leaders:

• Case Study: How Autodesk leveraged the power of its massive reseller network with ExpertusONE cloud LMS.
• Think Tank Summary: What learning executives say is essential for successful channel training programs.
• Webinar On-Demand: How to Build a World-Class Partner Certification Program.

To learn more about how our cloud-based LMS can make channel training more accessible and effective for your company, contact us at Expertus info@expertus.com.

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Editorial Note: Do you have a real-world enterprise learning story to share? Contact our editor anytime at info@expertus.com.

Photo credit: Storm in the Sea by Rodolfo Belloli.

Building a Better Certification Program

A Roadmap for Improving Business Partner Loyalty,  Mind Share and Revenue

By Mohana Radhakrishnan, VP Client Services, Expertus

Mohana Radhakrishnan, VP Client Services, Expertus

Do you struggle to keep your partners engaged?
Are you challenged with providing global channel support?
Do you know which resellers are the most productive – and why?

In today’s tough economic landscape, channel partner sales reps face more pressure and obstacles than ever. There’s no doubt that they’re motivated to drive sales. The question is… are they motivated to drive your product or service sales?

Reseller certification programs still provide value to organizations. But, thanks to new technologies, they can easily be reconfigured and re-energized to keep your partners more supported, engaged and productive than ever before!

Consider these 3 ways that enterprise 2.0 learning innovation can engage partners more deeply:

Tip #1 – Add Dynamic Learning Paths

Web 2.0 technologies like dynamic learning paths and role-based course management make governing your partner learning tracks and curriculum much easier for both users and training administrators:

For Users:

• Only see and search relevant learning content via a personalized view.
• Quickly see next steps needed and current certification timeline.
• Save time and learn more with prescriptive content/course assignment.
• Alerted when new product or service details are available.

For Partner Training Administrators:

• No more rebuilding content lists and curriculum definitions.
• Simplifies curriculum content updates; just tag and publish.
• Zero enrollment headaches – certification paths/curricula are automatically assigned.
• Push new content globally and know when it’s received.

Tip #2 – Simplify Partner Reporting and Data Access

Can you see which partners are training, how often and when? Do you know which regions are leveraging your learning programs and assets?

Did you answer “No?” Then it’s time to simplify your reporting process. A next-gen reporting system provides quick and easy access to real-time stats of all your channel training activities:

• View completions and scores on-demand.
• See current status.
• Receive up-to-date channel, regional and individual-level insights.

Tip #3 – Integrate Your Learning and Certification Systems

Are partners frustrated with the time it takes for your certification status updates? Do you struggle with gathering this data? Are your certification programs aligned with your curricula?

There are new, dynamic learning platforms like ExpertusONE that seamlessly integrate all of your learning assets and programs with your partner management systems. This means you actually get real-time data sync and alignment.

To learn more about how a strong channel education strategy and learning technology can work together to drive partner engagement, we invite you to watch a special “on-demand” webcast, EMC’s head of partner productivity: “How to Build a World-Class Partner Certification Program.”

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Conclusion

With real-time, end-to-end synchronization, all of your systems are automatically updated, as needed. In other words, the most recent data is available simultaneously, across your entire program network, when a partner completes a new certification level, when you modify training program content, or when other changes occur.

This frees you to focus on building partner relationships, rather than focusing on verifying information that supports those relationships.

Note from Mohana: Would you like to discuss how your organization can apply any of these partner certification tips? I’m happy to help. Please contact me at mohanar@expertus.com.