SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




Collaboration Software: The Preferred Support Mechanism for Corporate Training

TMCnews


TMCnews Featured Article


April 05, 2011

Collaboration Software: The Preferred Support Mechanism for Corporate Training

By Linda Dobel, TMCnet Contributor


The downturn in the economy over the last several years has caused a paradigm shift in the way companies operate and how they utilize the talents of their employees. Today, eliciting every ounce of productivity from each employee is imperative to staying in business. Across the board, companies are now operating with less people who are doing more work. To boot, budget cuts have dictated that all but the most essential activates stay grounded in the office to not only maintain productivity levels, but also to spare the costs of hotels, cars, meals, etc.


What Happened to Training?

So where do these restraints businesses are now surviving under leave the all-important issue of training?   Businesses that initially relegated training to the budget chopping block, soon found that this was not prudent. So now, instead of simply cutting training from the budget, or relying on traditional face-to-face group training or sending employees to off-site training venues, many are turning to collaboration software to meet their training needs, and they are finding great success.

Why Corporations Like Collaboration Software

The beauty of using collaboration software to support corporate training is that it relies on the communications tools every businessperson already uses: a PC and Web browser. Businesses also love that collaboration software allows them to communicate quickly, in real-time and get the message across using a wide variety of formats. For instance, participants in collaboration sessions can be shown documents and PowerPoint presentations, or they can share applications, chat, whiteboard and even annotate documents. Web collaboration software can enable users to "co-browse" specific live Web pages by directing them to specific sites as well.

The location of the individuals who can benefit from training or other support doesn’t matter. Wherever they are geographically located, participants can brainstorm ideas, develop strategies, solve problems and gain instant access to interactive, multimedia-rich online meetings through a web browser---with no travel costs. It also means more training can be conducted and it can happen whenever the need arises.

How it Works

It used to be that the only way to benefit from collaborative training was with a high-cost server solution. Today users can go through an application service provider (ASP) that hosts the application on their server and the user pays set charge fro use. Solutions can now also be hosted on a corporation’s own server. One source says easy of use has come to a level that the collaboration system can be installed and operational in just 45 minutes.

What to Look For

When choosing an online collaboration solution, a corporation will want basic functionality such as a file transfer feature to enable the trainer/host to transfer files to participants in real-time. A “transfer host” capability lets the trainer transfer control of the session to anyone else at the meeting without having to start a new session.

Some e-conferencing products let users transfer control of their computer to another user who is at a remote location. Corporations find this feature particularly useful because it enables the tech support individual to troubleshoot a software problem.

You’ll also want a solution that provides the ability to record and playback training sessions so anyone who couldn’t participate in the real-time session can access the information at a more convenient time. Also look for a solution that allows you to see who is in attendance so you’ll know who will need to be afforded the training at a later date.

Finally, be sure the solution has secure connectivity that won't interfere with network firewalls.

Training Benefits

A collaboration solution allows users to choose from different options in creating and delivering their training messages. For example, they can prerecord the training or deliver live training or create a-self-paced or highly interactive virtual classroom course. In addition, they might choose to reuse their training materials with templates and content libraries. In all cases, it would be beneficial to use robust reports to track course effectiveness.

The Bottom Line

Corporations are finding, especially in today’s economy, that a collaboration solution allows them to hold training sessions more often. They are also enjoying the fact that it makes it easy to share more information in less time with more people than ever before. And all of this is possible at a fraction of the cost of travel, and with infinitely more convenience.


Linda Dobel is a TMCnet Contributor. She has been an editor in the contact center space for more than 25 years, and has the distinction of being the founding editor of Customer Inter@ction Solutions (CIS) magazine. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca







Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy