Extended Enterprise Learning: Building Capability and Driving Performance Across the Value Chain

 

The webinar hosted by David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, and John Trader, Managing Principal at Latitude, explored the concept and significance of extended enterprise training. Key points included:

Definition and Importance
  1. Extended Enterprise Training involves educating individuals and organizations outside traditional employee bases, such as partners, suppliers, distributors, and customers. It ensures these external entities understand a company’s products, services, policies, and practices to enhance overall performance.
  2. The approach is critical for aligning external networks with company objectives, improving compliance, and fostering consistency across geographically dispersed and diverse entities.
Challenges Addressed
  1. Complex Partner Ecosystems: Managing multi-role learners, certifications, skill development, and compliance requirements across varied brands, geographies, and organizational structures.
  2. Technological Gaps: The need for specialized LMS solutions that go beyond internal training to address external networks’ complexity.
  3. Content and Delivery: Developing engaging, scalable, and role-specific training while adapting to rapid changes in products and regulations.
 Key Findings
  1. Organizations allocate significant resources to external training, sometimes over 50% of their L&D budgets.
  2. Extended enterprise training boosts sales, enhances customer satisfaction, and generates revenue by equipping external stakeholders with targeted skills and knowledge.
  3. Effective LMS platforms, like LatitudeLearning, offer features like multi-portal architecture, performance tracking, dynamic content assignments, and e-commerce capabilities.
Tools and Best Practices
  1. Utilize robust LMS platforms tailored for extended enterprise training, emphasizing reporting, analytics, and scalability.
  2. Align training goals with measurable outcomes such as compliance rates, sales metrics, and learner feedback.
  3. Foster engagement through blended learning, gamification, and incentivized training models.
Insights Shared

John Trader emphasized the transformative potential of well-structured training programs, supported by technology, to address extended enterprise complexity. The session concluded with discussions on leveraging these insights for tailored implementation across industries.

This comprehensive webinar provided actionable strategies and highlighted the critical role of technology and data-driven decisions in scaling extended enterprise training.