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Episode 26: Interview with Brooke White (Transcript)

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Announcer: SyberWorks podcast. Learn any time, any place.

Mary Kay Lofurno: Welcome to the next edition of the SyberWorks LMS e-Learning Implementation Podcast series where we look at real world learning management system (LMS) implementations and e-learning program rollouts.

SyberWorks specializes in custom e-learning solutions, learning management systems and e-learning development for corporations, governments and nonprofits institutions. My name is Mary Kay Lofurno and I am a Marketing Director here at SyberWorks and your host today.

In this edition, we’re talking with Brooke White, Training Manager for LANDesk Software, Incorporated about their use of the SyberWorks hosted learning management system to provide employee reseller and partner training.

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Mary Kay: And now let’s talk with Brooke White, Training Manager for LANDesk Software, Incorporated. Good afternoon, Brooke, thanks for coming to talk with us today.

Brooke White: Good afternoon, Mary Kay.

Mary Kay: Brooke, tell me about yourself.

Brooke: Well, I am the Training Manager for LANDesk Software, which is a division of Avocent Corporation.

Mary Kay: And tell our audience a little bit about LANDesk.

Brooke: Well, our premier product is LANDesk Management Suite, which allows companies to manage their corporate computers remotely from a central console. We also have solutions for network security, asset management, and service desk. My job as a training manager is to provide education to our customers, partners, resellers and all of our internal employees based around our complete product line.

Mary Kay: Great. Brooke, can you describe the business factors that drove your company to investigate and ultimately purchase a hosted learning management system for your company?

Brooke: Sure. Well, we knew that we needed to move toward providing digital training options as well as providing a more robust registration system for our instructor-led training. We had a list of several specific requirements and most of those were not met by other vendors that we reviewed, so we found SyberWorks and you guys have been excellent.

Mary Kay: So, Brooke, how did you even find SyberWorks?

Brooke: Well, Mary Kay, it was a podcast just like this one that I came across while I was searching the Internet for possible vendors. I was reading the transcript from it and within the podcast the company that was interviewed mentioned the functionalities that we were looking for.

Most of the other LMS systems that we were looking at internal-only facing training and this was one of the few that was external facing. So we looked at it and we have really enjoyed what we started.

Mary Kay: Oh, that’s great. Who actually works with the SyberWorks hosted LMS at your company?

Brooke: Well at the moment it is just my team that works with the administration of the system. We are relatively a small team, but we still handle e-learning development and coordination and certification examinations in addition to our face-to-face training.

There are several groups outside our department now who are starting to run reports like sales and finance and our channel support team. So slowly but surely the word is getting out and we are hoping with our new sales force integration that the flow of information will be even smoother.

Mary Kay: Great. Can you tell us more about the training that you will be offering through your system and why the training is important to your organization?

Brooke: Sure. There are three main types of training that we offer: traditional instructor-led classes, instructor-led online classes which are the same as instructor-led classes but people can attend the training online without having to travel. We also have a growing e-learning library available and in the current economy, customers are asking us for more flexible training options.

They want to get the same level of instruction without having to spend a fortune in travel. So our new instructor-led online courses and e-learning subscription option seem to be the right mix of technical content and ongoing learning that they are looking for.

Mary Kay: OK, that makes a lot of sense.

Brooke: And in addition to the training options that we provide, we also host our certification exams, post class assessment and surveys through SyberWorks, which is a lot, so the flexibility of your system allows us to keep all of our information in one place.

Historically, we have three different databases that we were using to track the individual students, now each student has their own transcript that tracks their e-learning that they watch, what training classes they have attended and they can view and print their own test results. So it has really cut down on the coordination and logistics from my team.

Mary Kay: Can you tell us a little bit about some of the instructional design and planning processes that you use to develop your courses?

Brooke: Sure. Because we are software company, we have a very fast development cycle. Ideas move from virtual to reality in a matter of weeks instead of months. So course topics are largely generated by customer requests or level of interest from the students.

Our trainers are often able to advise us as to what material will be most valuable to our digital learners based on the feedback in their face-to-face classroom training. So with as many product phases we have, there is never a shortage of available topics to choose from and our planning process seems to be very, very quick.

Mary Kay: So what course authoring tools are you using to develop your training, Flash, Captivate?

Brooke: We are currently using SCORM compliant programs to record and publish our e-learning content. One specializes in slides and visual elements of the courses while the other one specializes in recorded demonstration. We found that the final result is achieved by using a combination of the two programs.

For our technical e-learning content, short and concise demonstrations of the process or the product by the subject matter experts seem to be the best received. We tend to get subject matter experts from around the company to do our recordings for us and as an added benefit the demonstration based e-learning also has a shorter development cycle.

Mary Kay: OK, that sounds good. Can you tell us about your customer experience with SyberWorks?

Brooke: We love SyberWorks, absolutely. SyberWorks has been very responsive to our ongoing development and new methods of delivering training. Steve Pena, our SyberWorks contact, has been very willing to work with us as we expand the types of offering that we have recently made available. In fact some of what we are doing has never been done before through your system and we have appreciated your willingness to help make our ideas come to life.

Mary Kay: All right, that sounds great. Before we close up, is there anything more you would like to share about in terms of working with SyberWorks to deliver your training?

Brooke: You know what, SyberWorks is a natural progression for us. We have been receiving requests for digital training for sometime. We have received very good feedback for making this type of training available and in today’s economy with a fast paced software release schedule, it makes sense to provide rapidly developed training that requires no travel. You guys have been instrumental in making that happen for us.

Mary Kay: Well, Brooke, that sounds great. I know you are a busy lady, so I am going to let you go. Thanks for joining us today.

Brooke: Thanks, Mary Kay.

Mary Kay: This is Mary Kay Lofurno, Marketing Director at SyberWorks. Thanks for listening to our interview with Brooke White, Training Manager for LANDesk Software Incorporated on the SyberWorks LMS e-Learning Implementation Podcast series. Talk with you next month.

Talk with you next month.

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