Episode 14: Interview with Janet Kuhn (Transcript)
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Announcer: SyberWorks podcast. Learn any time, any place.
Mary Kay Lofurno: Welcome to the next addition of the SyberWorks LMS e-learnng Implementation Podcast Series where we look at real world learning management, LMS implementations and e-Learning program roll-outs.
SyberWorks specializes in custom e-Learning solutions, learning management systems and e-Learning development for corporations, governments and non-profit institutions. My name is Mary Kay Lofurno and I'm the Marketing Director here at SyberWorks and your host today.
In this edition we are talking with Janet Kuhn, Vice President of Finance and Operations at itSM Solutions LLC about their unique use of the SyberWorks Learning Management System and Seminar Logistics Module to provide management tracking and class support for their on-site seminar training division. This division specializes in running on-site seminars at companies, hotels and other venues.
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Mary Kay: And now let's talk with Janet Kuhn, Vice President of Finance and Operations at itSM Solutions LLC. Good afternoon, Janet. Thanks for coming to talk with us today.
Janet Kuhn: Thank you for inviting me, Mary Kay.
Mary Kay: Janet tell me about yourself.
Janet: I am the Vice President of Finance and Operations for itSM Solutions and IT service management training and training content development company. I have over 25 years of managerial experience in IT in enterprise level organizations.
I am also an accredited trainer for courses leading to certification in IT service management based on the IT infrastructure library known as ITIL. ITIL is a set of best practices for providing IT as a set of services to the business and it's become an adhoc worldwide standard within the IT community.
Mary Kay: Tell me about itSM LLC.
Janet: Well, itSM Solutions is a small company but we have become one of the leading IT service management companies in the U.S. We're a little different in that our business model is to partner with other training and consulting companies to provide ITIL training services throughout the U.S. and several foreign countries. We offer a full range of both certification courses in ITIL and workshops to help organizations jump start their ITIL implementations.
Mary Kay: Janet I understand your company is using the SyberWorks Learning Management System and optional Seminar Logistics Module in a different configuration and business model than we had previously discussed in this podcast series. Can you describe how your company has implemented and used the SyberWorks Learning Management System and Seminar Logistics Module?
Janet: Sure. Because we partner with other companies to deliver our courses we don't maintain a training venue nor do we directly employ a full-time training team. As you might guess this presents a number of logistical challenges. Class materials need to be shipped to different customers at different addresses, contractor instructors need to know where to go to teach their classes and the examination agencies need to ensure that the proctor and the exams show up at the right place at the right time. Also, we need to know how many students are taking the course so that we ship the right amount of class materials, and of course, so we can prepare an accurate invoice for the customer.
We are using the SyberWorks Learning Management System and the Class Logistics Module to keep track of all of this information.
Mary Kay: OK. So who uses the SyberWorks System at your company?
Janet: Well, our Operations Manager is the primary user but we all use it from time to time to check schedules, locations, class sizes, to look at the history of classes, to see who's been running classes and who's been teaching them.
Mary Kay: OK. Can you tell me a little bit about the business case that drove your organization to use technology to manage the physical aspects of your companies traditional training business? Aspects like managing and scheduling instructors, providing hotel reservations for traders and third party fulfillment of books, notes and other materials.
Janet: The business case was actually pretty easy to put together. We'd reached the practical limit on our semi-automated system that we were using and it was slow, hard to update and single threaded. We also had a few embarrassing incidents due to the unstructured way in which we were maintaining this information.
We had a lot of new business on the horizon and we wanted to be able to consistently provide high levels of service to our growing number of partners.
Mary Kay: What benefits has your organization experience since it implemented the SyberWorks Learning Management System and it's Seminar Logistics Module?
Janet: Among the biggest benefits has been the ability to track instructor assignments, course materials and examinations. It helps us to avoid double booking instructors for classes with conflicting dates and helps make sure that the instructor's schedules are as full as they desire and it also provides a good record of the services provided for each course which again supports an accurate and timely billing procedure.
Mary Kay: Sure. Do you have any future plans for rolling out some of the other functionality available in the SyberWorks Learning Management System like surveys, e-Learning management or integrating web-conferencing?
Janet: Yes. Absolutely. We are rolling out our first e-course right now and we'll be using the SyberWorks e-commerce module to automatically enroll students in the course and process their credit card payments. In addition, we are working to allow our partners to log in and set-up their own classes. That will cut a lot of administrative overhead on the loop but it will still allow us to monitor the delivery of course-ware and examinations.
Mary Kay: OK. Well, tell us about your customer experience with SyberWorks.
Janet: My customer experience with SyberWorks has been great. They are always willing to answer my questions whether they are technical or focus on setting up some aspect of the system. I've also had occasion to use some of your consulting services to help me on a special project.
Mary Kay: Well, that's great. Is there anything more you'd like to share in terms of working with SyberWorks to deliver your traditional on-site seminar training?
Janet: Yes. Recently the IT infrastructure library was revised and new certification standards for ITIL training were introduced. We have implemented a large train the trainer program to train and certify our contract and partner instructors on the new material. The enrollment and training status reports let me know who has registered for train the trainer class and who has passed the certification exams. That is very useful information so that we know who is prepared and certified to teach any upcoming classes on the new material.
Mary Kay: Well, it sounds like it would be. Well, you know Janet this has been great and I know you're really busy and you have to go, so thanks for joining us today.
Janet: Thank you, Mary Kay.
Mary Kay: This is Mary Kay Lofurno, Marketing Director here at SyberWorks. Thank you for listening to our interview with Janet Kuhn, Vice President of Finance and Operations at itSM Solutions LLC on the SyberWorks LMS e-Learning Implementation Podcast Series.
Talk to you next month.
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