Blended learning supports Xerox rollout

Tempted by breakfast at a top London hotel, I sat in this morning on an interesting case study presentation delivered jointly by IT training specialists Assima and corporate giant Xerox. I wasn't too familiar with Assima, even though they've been around for 24 years, but as seems to be the case with many e-learning specialists, they seem to be doing rather nicely thank you - 150+ employees, a £15m ($30m) turnover and 40% year on year growth. I'm not sure the same is true for classroom specialists. As I heard today, one of the City of London's largest law firms has put a complete block on international travel for training. I pity the poorer organisations.

Assima Managing Director, Paul Stevens presented some strong arguments for effective IT training:

• ROI is directly related to the speed of adoption of new systems and processes and the proficiency of users (Prosci).
• Poorly trained users require six times more support than professionally trained users (Gartner).
• Professionally trained users make 50% fewer errors and spend more time on critical tasks (SAP).

The Xerox case study was an excellent example of a blended solution, with each component in the blend well thought through. The major SAP rollout that Xerox was attempting would have required 4500 classroom days delivered in a 6-week window - simply not possible, but probably ineffective anyway, given the need for careful positioning and change management. The chosen blend consisted of:

• A communication programme.
• Short workshops run by departmental managers to help employees understand the new processes.
• One-to-one discussions on role changes for each user with their managers.
• A short period of formal training to cover the new system.
• Support provided by floor walkers, help desks, a software practice environment, electronic materials and highly realistic software simulations.
• A programme of ongoing stabilisation.

It was interesting that Assima was able to provide support for much of the blend - the supply of tools, content creation and face-to-face delivery. I've been thinking for a while now that major corporates will want to find one supplier to support all aspects of the blend and that those suppliers who can show themselves to be strong in all media will be at a distinct advantage. Very few e-learning companies are credible in classroom delivery and vice versa. Time for some mergers and acquisitions perhaps.