Delivering customer education through dynamic content management

Transcription

1 CASESTUDYINFORMATION BUILDERS About Information Builders As an enterprise focused on delivering software solutions to companies running the gamut between large enterprises to small businesses, Information Builders central priority is its customers. Information Builders provides business intelligence and analytics, integration and data integrity - empowering companies to make the most of their information capital. Headquartered in New York City with offices spread across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe and South America, they are a worldwide leader in business solutions and support, including education and training, data warehousing services and documentation. Information Builders has worked hard to develop partnerships with organizations of all sizes and remains a leader in its industry. Delivering customer education through dynamic content management Overview At its core, Information Builders provides enterprise and labor-intensive. The five course developers on integration and business intelligence software that hand had to manually update each course multiple helps companies transform their data into meaningful, times a year, with each author amending documents to actionable information that guides decision-making. the point where the content wasn t standardized. And to facilitate these processes, customers receive Paired with a desire to deliver greater consistency both structured training so they re equipped with the to learners and instructors across multiple outputs and knowledge and capabilities to turn data into insights. courses, Information Builders collaborated with Xyleme Prior to partnering with Xyleme, Information Builders to integrate a dynamic learning content management had developed more than 30 courses delivered in system that enables content reuse and streamlines print-only formats - like Microsoft Word and development into an agile process. PowerPoint - that became increasingly homogenous Our materials and presentations, and the structure of our courses is much more consistent and professional. Vice President of Customer Education Information Builders 2015 Xyleme, Inc. All rights reserved. xyleme.com 1

2 Business Conditions To provide clients with the services and solutions they need to fortify their purchasing decisions, Information Builders depends on the ingenuity and dedication of its team to deliver learning content that works. However, it became clear that the procedures they had in place weren t scalable either in the long or short term. To satisfy its customers, the company recognized the existing framework was too sluggish. The company needed to capitalize on reusing its existing content efficiently, establishing consistency and reducing redundancy in the materials being created. Approach Information Builders revealed their standard approach led to inconsistent outcomes and content designers who weren t able to maximize their time. With the powerful platform Xyleme provides, they were able to develop and reuse content more effectively through a single-source. Information Builders Vice President of Customer Education underscored the importance of taking a structural approach to content management and standardization that allows developers to focus on their primary objective: creating consistently effective training content. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of Xyleme to them is the reusability of content and the ability to publish to multiple outputs from a single source Xyleme, Inc. All rights reserved. xyleme.com 2

3 The Shift Consistency and clarity Common content - numbering around 10 different items - is shared across multiple courses and curricula at Information Builders. These include appendices that guide users through progressive levels, documents on online forums and tech support Web pages and the company s documentation site. All contained similar, but inconsistent iterations of course content. Why? The human aspect of development - individual perspectives and approaches - created rifts in the user experience. A shared problem among many L&D departments, Information Builders shares some core learning across business units and courses, creating much duplicate content. With different people touching courses on each update cycle, eventually even that common content got out of sync. This driving factor led Information Builders to a content management system that helped standardize development and production - not to mention a reuse philosophy. Before partnering with Xyleme, producing materials was detrimental to the curriculum team s production and manager work flow. Student guides were created from stripped instructor guides and this effort required fastidious attention to detail, aggravating a process that could have been - and currently is now - far more streamlined. Instead of having to worry about deleting crucial items, the project manager can effectively create both types of content with the touch of a button. This was a cultural and functional shift for the organization. Going further, Information Builders transformed authorship by integrating new resources derived from Xyleme. In response to the need for more standardized tools, the learning team developed a variety of templates, including figure elements, tables and entire lessons that authors could simply input without compromising the integrity of the curriculum as a whole. This allows team members to put their energy into maintaining the highest standards of quality and efficacy in learning content. In the end, all outputs are concise and consistent. The ability to quickly produce consistent outputs across a team of people is a core function, enabled by the Xyleme platform, and a highvalue outcome. Senior Manager of Curriculum Development at Information Builders 2015 Xyleme, Inc. All rights reserved. xyleme.com 3

4 Performance and mobility In the past, Information Builders didn t have the capability to provide customers performance support if they didn t attend training and development courses. However, the demand for this service was apparent. They weren t in the position to distribute secure PDF content, which couldn t be reproduced or printed. Nor was the company interested in providing print copies to its clients, who could just as easily photocopy the contents. With a performance support version, Information Builders has been able to establish a brand new revenue stream by giving clients limited access to the same materials they d work with in an instructor-led course. This was a new line of business they had never had before. Most recently, Information Builders created a mobile app that has been made available to its upgrading clients, free of charge. Bundled with one of its software products, the mobile app provides users with access to an introductory course. With the crucial assistance Xyleme has provided in helping develop this app, the company plans to expand this increasingly popular training avenue. A glimpse inside the IB University app - a course on Information Builders product, InfoAssist Basic. Bundled with one of its software products, the mobile app provides users with access to an introductory course that includes videos and quizzes, available on their tablet Xyleme, Inc. All rights reserved. xyleme.com 4

5 Results By moving from a Microsoft-based content management and production model to a centralized learning content management system, Information Builders has only just begun to take advantage of the capabilities Xyleme has to offer. The software company has been able to repurpose and reuse content designed for instructor-led courses in a vastly more consistent and professional framework. At the same time, the resources that Xyleme offers have motivated them to push forward with their mobile learning objectives. Content developers and authors can now focus their energy on delivering powerful learning materials and spend less time dealing with structural and mechanical issues. While developing content continues to require diligence, a centralized LCMS has otherwise eliminated ancillary labor. As new software or upgrades roll out, fewer hours are spent reconfiguring training materials, which reduces employee strain and enables them to deliver exceptional software solutions to their customers. I would just say that the reuse piece is probably the biggest thing for us. The reusability of content. Single-source. Multiple outputs. Senior Manager of Curriculum Development at Information Builders 2015 Xyleme, Inc. All rights reserved. xyleme.com 5

6 ABOUT XYLEME Learning content has the potential to change your business and drive incredible results. Are you ready to unleash its power? You will be with Xyleme. Xyleme content management for learning and development gets critical information into the hands of your end users quickly and effectively. Transform the way you deliver that information with an end-to-end solution to author, publish, deliver, and analyze learning content. Xyleme supports both formal and informal learning, giving instructors the ability to create and collaborate on compelling training resources that are future-ready. Connect your learners to personalized, bite-size content at the moment of need, and give your authors the ability to create content that is able to change with your business. Xyleme s rapid single-source content development and anywhere delivery mean you can respond to your learning challenges without compromise. If you re tired of hard-to-access learning content that doesn t make a positive impact on your business, it s time to try the alternative to boxed-in, inaccessible content. Xyleme is your learning content transformed. Xyleme is headquartered in Boulder, Colo., and can be found online at Xyleme, Inc Contact Us 2015 Xyleme, Inc. All rights reserved. xyleme.com 6