Take part in the public’s first glimpse of Bravais [brav-ey]; Xyleme’s new cloud learning solution that allows you to quickly deliver personalized learning applications.

This is a rare opportunity to attend a live webinar with Xyleme’s President & CEO, Mark Hellinger. He will be your guide as you explore everything Bravais.

Along your journey you will find out how Bravais can revolutionize the way your learners access and interact with your learning content by:

• Delivering learning anywhere, anytime, on any device
• Allowing content to be accessed within your learners favorite media channels like, Linkedin, Facebook, and Google+
• Liberating content from your learning management systems to create personalized learning experiences
• Tracking how users consume and interact with your learning content
• And more!

Reserve your spot now – before it’s too late!
 Tuesday February 7, 2012 @ 11:30 MST

What is Bravais?
Bravais is your cloud of learning content upon which you can quickly build personalized learning applications, connecting your students, employees and customers to the content they need, using the apps they prefer, on the devices they choose. Read more…

We all have read about how traditional manufacturing jobs are rapidly disappearing in the U.S. and Western Europe. In reality, since the dawn of the information age, a new type of manufacturing job has emerged, the “digital” factory worker – software engineers, database architects, etc. Since these jobs are counted in the services sector and not manufacturing, people often overlook the fact that we are actually hiring many more workers in “digital” manufacturing than ever before in traditional industries, but the truth is that the skill requirements are much higher.

The “manufacturing” of software requires people to create, test and ship products in a systematic approach, as you would with physical goods like automobiles. In the case of software, or let’s say “digital products” in general, the “production systems” have undergone vast technological change, in the same way as traditional manufacturing techniques. The same is true for “digital content”, including training content and learning content management systems.

Back when I started as a software engineer, you wrote programs that were procedural in nature, self-contained, beginning to end. The system was a linear process. You really had no way to know if anyone else had built something similar before. And then came along came object-oriented programming and all of a sudden the “production system” changed. You could easily re-use code built before. Test systems emerged that allowed you to validate “modules” or components before the entire system was finished. Version control systems emerged to help you track changes and manage new revisions. While initially things took a little longer to build, the “system” allowed you to build new things much more rapidly as your library of “assets” grew. The on-going time and expense of maintenance decreased dramatically.

So what does this have to do with Learning Content Management Systems?

To begin with, what I constantly hear from Learning and Development departments is that they are faced with similar “production” problems. Do more with less… Customize, Localize, Globalize… If you start to think of developing learning content in the “manufacturing” metaphor, you can look at the history of traditional manufacturing and software “manufacturing” and see some very interesting parallels.

Like software, traditional manufacturing started with an assembly-line style production model. Eventually, a better manufacturing system was adopted that changed the way things were built. This is now known as the “Lean Manufacturing” model – based on the Toyota Production System. One of its key tenets is that you achieve cost reductions by eliminating waste, whether it is labor, materials, or other resources. Another is that it drastically reduces production cycle times.

Learning Content “Manufacturing” in the Training and Development world is undergoing the same transformation. It’s about building new systems that eliminate waste, improve quality and allow you rapidly adapt to customer needs. Unfortunately, many organizations still produce content using traditional production systems (not tools – while new tools have emerged, systems have often been overlooked).

Improvements in Learning Content development mean a new system, not a bunch of new tools with old processes. It’s about designing and building content components. Being able to find, re-use and re-purpose them without having to cut, paste, assemble, review and test over and over again. It’s about being customer driven. It’s about getting the right content to the consumer in the format they want when they want it. It’s about Lean Manufacturing techniques for Learning Content Management Systems.

And I think you know what happened to many companies that did not adopt the new manufacturing model …

So, what you really need is a new factory system. A Learning Content “Manufacturing” System, not one of those old LCMS products.

The enterprise content management software market currently exceeds $4B, so it’s quite clear that the vast majority of organizations place strong emphasis on their ECM strategy – a strategy that the training organization unfortunately typically takes no part in. In his paper At the Intersection of Learning and Enterprise Content Management (available for download at the resource library section of our web site), Chapman Alliance analyst and Brandon Hall associate Bryan Chapman makes clear the repercussions of such a strategy:

1. The training department cannot leverage content used in other parts of the organization,
2. There is limited or no collaboration between training and other enterprise functions,
3. Training have limited influence on the enterprise content strategy.

If there is any question as to why the training department has become increasingly marginalized and the CLO role quickly diminishing, this should provide some good insight.

But this blog post isn’t about why learning needs to engage with the enterprise. I’ve already written about this extensively in my Plugging Learning into ECM white paper (also available for download at the resource library section of our web site). What his blog post is about is what happens when the training function actually engages with the rest of the organization to take a leading role in the enterprise content management strategy and radically grows its sphere of influence to elevate learning from riding the bench to a star player within the enterprise.

In mid-May, along with Xyleme CEO, Mark Hellinger, I attended EMC World where one of our enterprise customers, Informa, had the opportunity to showcase their integrated Xyleme LCMS / EMC Documentum solution to the ECM community. For those of you unfamiliar with scope of this event, EMC World 2010 boasted about 8,000 attendees, filled up the entire Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for four days, and closed down Faneuil Marketplace, one of Boston’s biggest tourist destinations, for a private party for event attendees. It was very different from the typical training conferences that we regularly attend.

In front of an audience consisting of the people responsible for developing and executing on their company’s ECM strategy, Bob Hecht, Senior Vice President of Publishing Technologies at Informa, presented on how Informa’s performance improvement businesses, the groups responsible for the development of the company’s training content, transformed the company’s content-driven business through an enterprise project they dubbed “Olympus”. So how did they do it and what were the results? Read on!

Informa leveraged their existing ECM strategy and systems

In Bob Hecht’s view of the world, while there was a critical need for training-specific content management functionality such as interactivity, multi-channel publishing, and customization, as well as the need to support key learning standards such as SCORM – with the company-wide goal of implementing an enterprise content management strategy and system (EMC Documentum) already firmly in place – it made little business sense to implement a separate learning content management infrastructure that duplicated much of Documentum’s core functionality.

In ECM systems, functionality such as digital asset management, document management, and business process management are simply services of the ECM platform and not separate infrastructures. Much to his credit, Mr. Hecht recognized that learning content management needed to be just such a service that provided the functionality his team required, but within Informa’s over ECM system.

With that decision, Informa’s learning content developers were instantly elevated to the same playing field as other functional roles within the company. Training, marketing, product documentation, etc. could now all use the same tools, they can all access the same pool of content, and they can all follow the same set of standards.

If you don’t think this is a big deal, take this to heart: I was speaking with Bob after his presentation when an audience member came up to ask him a couple of questions about the Informa project. She was the person responsible for the content management strategy of a large European governmental agency. One thing she said that struck me:

“You know, we have a training department but no one really knows what they do. They kind of just sit over in the corner doing their own thing. I had no idea we could bring this into the ECM fold.”

I’m willing to bet you’d here that same sentiment at a lot of companies.

Informa set strategic goals beyond learning

One of the first slides that Mr. Hecht showed there was a list that he entitled Project Olympus scope and goals. Here it is:

Many of these should look familiar to any training department that is looking to purchase a learning content management solution, so I won’t elaborate on them. But then Mr. Hecht did something I’ve never seen a training organization do. He put up a slide that outlined the broader strategic goals:

Because Informa integrated their learning organization with the rest of the enterprise, Mr. Hecht had to look beyond training’s goals and understand how his own department’s business drivers would affect broader corporate goals.

Why is this significant? Well, when the training department makes the move integrate their systems and processes with the rest of the enterprise, they acquire something extraordinary: significant influence on the organizations corporate strategy. It’s this exact lack of influence which is the Achilles heel of CLOs today.

Informa chose to utilize best-of-breed ECM functionality for training

The training organization loves to reinvent the wheel. We as an industry dedicate vast amounts of R&D resources to general functionality such as workflow, collaboration and now social media functionality that will never get adopted past the departmental level. Why not? Well, for the simple reason that this functionality already exists with best-of-breed vendors outside of learning.

Mr. Hecht gets this and as a result, made the choice to utilize Informa’s ECM system for general functionality and utilize LCM functionality for unique, training specific requirements. Take a look:

ECM Platform	LCM Services

Collaboration is a great example here. Instead of the learning organizations collaborating only with each other using systems sourced from training vendors, they now participate in a role-based Documentum Team Room open to all relevant participants across the enterprise. Training content developers, subject-matter experts, product managers, marketing specialists, instructional designers, technical writers, consultants, etc. all create virtual communities of practice from which they can collaboratively work on new projects.

It’s impossible to understate the significance to the training organization when they are no longer disengaged from the rest of the organization. By plugging his learning organization into the enterprise, Mr. Hecht enabled transparency and seamless communication across all functions of the enterprise.

The training organization wins big

What I think is most extraordinary about the Informa story is the recognition of the immense contributions that the training organization can make to corporate goals and objectives. In 2010, the Olympus project won the award for the most effective Business Transformation within Informa. In a company with over $2 billion in revenue, 9,200 employees worldwide, and 150 offices in 34 countries, this is no small feat.

It also underscores the training industry’s acceptance that it needs to move to a point where this type of influence on the organization is a norm for a training department. In May, Xyleme LCMS for EMC Docmentum, the solution that drove the Informa Olympus project, was honored by Brandon Hall for the Best Advance in Learning Content Management.

This is just awesome momentum but the real question is: Can the training organization as a whole finally let go of their silos or are these destined to be one-off accomplishments?

In my next blog post, I’ll have my own answer to this question, but what do you think?

Intelligent content is content which is not limited to one purpose, technology or output. It’s content that is structurally rich and semantically aware, and is therefore discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable and adaptable. It is content that helps you and your customers get the job done. It’s content that is limited only by our imaginations.

With intelligent content you can:

• Automatically deliver to multiple channels
• Personalize content
• Enable customers to easily find the information they need no matter how complex their requirements
• Let your customers build their own unique information products
• Deepen your customer relationship
• Share content across organizational silos
• Manage content throughout its lifecycle
• Rapidly adapt information to changing needs

We love this conference because it stands for everything that Xyleme is trying, and succeeding to accomplish, in the training industry. That being said, training still lags pretty far behind other industries such as technical publications and product documentation when it comes to intelligent content.

So, Mark Hellinger, President and CEO of Xyleme, took the opportunity during the event’s panel discussion to provide his view on why this was the case, and how to effectively make the move from documentation to Learning & Development. Here are some of the highlights from his talk, ranked by the number of tweets on Mark’s discussion points:

Create new output models but retain ability to use existing materials

Despite the movement to e-learning and now mobile delivery, print-based materials are still critical. So, structure content components to allow for conversion to different formats and let audiences select appropriate delivery modes as their needs evolve.

#ic2010 68% training worldwide today is still not done online or as e-learning. Despite initiatives 10 years ago, progress = slow [Xyleme]

#ic2010 People in e-learning try to move to new online tools, but want to keep all the “old stuff” content. Often a mismatch. [Xyleme]

#ic2010 e-learning: challenge of training on-line, is that legacy content was created around classroom, paper-based model. [Xyleme]

#ic2010 PowerPoint is number one “e-learning” tool in the world. Also, the least structured authoring tool. Start from outside in [Xyleme]

Mark Hellinger, Xyleme: 68% of training world-wide is in person, instructor-led or virtual instructor led (not elearning) per ASTD #IC2010

68% of all training is instructor-led or virtually instructor-led. Mark Hellinger/Xyleme #IC2010

Mark Hellinger, Xyleme: Q: What’s the most commonly used training software in the world? A: PowerPoint. #IC2010

Learn that silos are the norm in L&D

Most global training & development groups are very decentralized, therefore effective collaboration is crucial. So, provide the right tools and processes for subject matter expert (SME) knowledge capture, review, and discussion for these dispersed teams.

#ic2010 “Silos are the norm in L&D” [Xyleme]

#ic2010 Tech Doc is often completely disconnected from training & development people. TD often part of HR; way down on food chain. [Xyleme]

Understand that single-source is a change management project not a technology implementation

A single-source L&D implementation is not a one-off project. It’s a paradigm shift for almost everyone involved. Nothing will bring a project crashing to the ground faster than not clearly setting expectations and properly managing the change management issues faced by each stakeholder.

#ic2010 Real challenge: how to you radically change the way that people are creating content and doing things. [Xyleme]

#ic2010 1: start with hi impact project 2: understand single-source is change mngmt project, not tech implement [Xyleme]

Recognize that content reuse and multi-channel publishing are only part of the success equation

Unlike traditional documentation, successful Learning & Development projects go far beyond content reuse and multi-modal delivery. They also find a way of efficiently integrating interactivity, tracking, and performance support into the content life cycle.

#ic2010 3: recognize that content reuse and multi-channel publishing are only PART of the success equation [Xyleme]

Support training industry standards – they especially matter for blended learning

In the training industry, multiple standards (e.g. SCORM, QTI, Common Cartridge) are designed to support different types of delivery platforms and may have little overlap. Blended learning (combined classroom, web-based, and on-demand) requires extraordinary content reuse across these widely accepted standards.

Support training industry standards – they especially matter for blended learning. Mark Hellinger/Xyleme #IC2010

Examine the best practices of online universities

Online universities (e.g. University of Phoenix) are becoming common ways to earn degrees – even top-tier schools are offering online programs. Recognize that educational content will need to be effectively reused and delivered to this critical channel or lose a valuable source of revenue.

#ic2010 Notice changing trend: online Universities like Phoenix are doing well; traditional institutions are struggling for funds [Xyleme]

Thanks to Ann Rockley for putting on a great event. Till next year.

One thing that has always been of great interest to me is what I’ll refer to as the integration of social and formal learning content. So when I got to the part of Jane’s article that said it’s time to re-think the design and delivery of formal learning initiatives, I felt we were on to something. Jane nails it when she says:

“It is also not just about churning out content (however well instructionally designed) but also about the social aspects of learning. Individuals need to have the opportunity to discuss, collaborate and share their experiences – and thereby add to the body of knowledge around a topic. UGC (user generated content) should therefore be seen as a valuable aspect for formal learning context – as much as expert generated content. ”

The industry accepted statistic that social learning evangelists often refer to is that that formal structured learning (FSL) accounts for only 20% of an individual’s learning. This is true. However, it doesn’t mean that the development of formal expert generated content is going to go away. Rather, it’s the delivery of this formal content that will change – in the form of less courseware and more guided delivery at the point-of-performance, with social media platforms providing a critical publishing channel.

Moreover, it’s crucial that we focus on ways for UGC to make its way into formal content development processes and leverage this rich source of information to create better learning products, drive new instructional design models, and most importantly, increase the richness and instructional value of learning content.

How User Generated Content Can Make its Way into Formal Learning:

1. Integrate UGC into formal learning content management: Feedback from forums and content from blogs and/or wikis are examples of valuable information that can be pulled or linked into learning content repositories to provide a unified view of organizational and social content. This pool of connected assets gives authors and instructional designers a more powerful arsenal of resources for creating compelling learning (formal or not).
2. Create Subject Matter Networks (SMNs): Socialize formal content by creating communities around its subject matter to foster rich dialogue around topics and to leverage connections between content authors and their networks. In this way, formal content is now supported and supplemented by an ecosystem of experts and related information. For example, at Xyleme the “Frequently Asked Questions” section of our user guide comes primarily from our product SMN.
3. Make social media part of formal workflows: Allow social collaboration to be another step in the review process by publishing formal content to internal (or external) communities for peer review prior to its wide release. Capture this valuable user-generated feedback and route it into the formal review workflows.
4. Republish UGC with (as part of) formal learning products: Monitor your social learning networks and capture the relevant UGC identified to be of potential value to the organization’s learning products. Send this UGC through the formal editorial workflow to check for appropriateness and quality standards, and then re-publish this content – in the appropriate context – to formal training publications to supplement and enrich these products. For example, supplement your product training materials with instructional demos created by your users and posted on YouTube.

(Note on this post: “Subject matter network” is a term I picked up from Harold Jarche when I commented on his Social learning in the enterprise post; also, the points I make regarding SMN are based on quotes from leading Social Business Software vendor, Jive Software. )