The Business Advantages of E-Learning

Classroom-based (instructor-led) training is still an effective way to teach new skills, particularly those subject areas that involve changes in behavior or complex concepts. But it comes at a high cost in terms of training charges, travel and lodging expenses, and lost work time. And the transition from theory to application in the workplace is still not guaranteed.

E-learning engages the end user with interactive material, testing and motivation. Web 2.0 learning strategies further adds human support and interaction between students and instructors through text chat technology, social learning, collaboration and Web casting, thereby extending the scope of what can be effectively taught into many new subject areas. In addition, more supporting material can be made available by capitalizing on the ease with which an e-learning system can link to other resources, multimedia, documents and systems.

E-learning for external audiences can also offer organizations the opportunity to:

• Develop and deliver education and information to audiences outside your organization.
• Drive revenue through customer, channel and distributor channels.
• Increase sales and market penetration.
• Accelerate adoption rate of new products and services.
• Improve productivity and information sharing with external partners.
• Deliver certification programs and share knowledge.
• Eliminate excess training costs while accelerating time to market.
• Increase customer satisfaction.
• Provide consistent training available 24x7x365.

E-learning for external audiences, applied to the right business problem in the right way, can deliver enormous efficiency and
effectiveness gains to an organization. But how do you justify the investment and ensure that learning is aligned with business goals?

In this document, you’ll look at e-learning from a business manager’s perspective, learn some of the ways it can improve your bottom line and build a compelling business case reaching out to your external audiences including customers, partners, channel or distributor networks, independent agents, suppliers, franchises/franchisees, association members, contractors or volunteers.