15 LMS Vendors, 15 Channel LMS Case Studies

I’ve been collecting extended enterprise case studies from the global LMS community for almost two years.  I’m surprised by how few vendors take the time to tell their customers’ extended enterprise learning stories.  I really have to scour vendor sites and comb through an agonizing amount of employee LMS stories to find the gems I’m looking for.

A page full of client logos isn’t the same thing. Nor is a testimonial sentence on the website.  Many vendors try to pull off  “blind” case studies where they talk all the great things they have achieved for an unnamed client.  I won’t even read these, as I have no idea if they are truth or fiction.

I want facts.  Buyers want facts.  Together we are seeking extended enterprise stories with real clients experiencing a demonstrable return on investment.

Personally, I think case studies are the best possible sales tool because they help buyers self-educate as well as illustrate vendor credibility with similar clients solving identical business challenges.

So kudos to the 15 vendors I’ve identified who are doing a good job telling stories.  It means they are doing a great job with their clients or their clients wouldn’t be willing to be a public reference.

Channel, Partner and Supplier Learning

How do you get your external sales channel to look, act and perform the same or better than your internal sales team?

Best-in-class organizations train and certify their sales and distribution channel using a learning management system (LMS) and proprietary online content.  These organizations have proven that educating their channel provides a measurable return on investment and more importantly a significant competitive advantage.  As a result, these organizations treat channel learning as an ongoing mission-critical initiative.

Proving the worth of channel learning is simple though.  Use your LMS  to provide channel learning completion reports and compare with channel performance business reports. Here are the most common business metrics positively impacted by channel learning:

• Channel partner sales, cross-sales and up-sales
• Sale of premium “certification” content
• Cost per training interaction
• Time to market with new products
• Time to proficiency for new channel partners and partner employees
• Cost of customer support
• Increase in customer satisfaction

Who has the best Channel LMS solutions in the world?  Here are Talented Learning’s Top 10:

Top 15 Channel, Partner, Franchise LMS Case Studies

No wonder channel learning is such a big business.  In alphabetical order, here are  15 LMS case studies of world class organizations using an LMS to train and certify channel partners, suppliers and franchises and achieving a measurable result.  Do you have extended enterprise case studies that should be on this list, please reach out to Talented@TalentedLearning.com?

#1:  Affiliated Distributors

LMS Vendor:  BlueVolt

Affiliated Distributors (AD) is the largest wholesale buying and marketing group in North America, comprised of over 530 independent distributor companies with over 3,000 locations.  Using the BlueVolt LMS, AD has created an ecosystem of manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of all types.  Product manufacturers host weekly live product roll-out educational webcasts that reach hundreds of channel suppliers in one session that requires no trainer travel costs.   Manufacturing suppliers have increased their reach, reduced their product launch time from 3-6 months to one day and have experienced an exponential reduction in training costs.

#2:  Autodesk

LMS Vendor:  Docebo

Autodesk is a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software and services.  The Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI) program certifies instructors who can train users and organizations to help them obtain the greatest return on their Autodesk software investment.  The Docebo LMS supports targeted certification curriculum and even the ability for learners to upload a video of themselves teaching to obtain a practical exam grade.  Autodesk lowered cost, improved consistency and expanded their global reach.

#3:  Azlan, Hewlett-Packard

LMS Vendor:  Growth Engineering

Azlan, Europe’s largest value-added reseller of networking products launched an “HP Sales Excellence” program for its distribution network. combing sales and product content for resellers.  Using Growth Engineering’s gamified LMS they encouraged competition to facilitate content completion among resellers.  Active learners in the portal outperform inactive users by 75% in year over year sales comparisons.

 #4:  Bluebeam Software

LMS Vendor:  Mindflash

Bluebeam Software develops and sells software for PDF creation, editing and collaboration with significant market share in the architecture, engineering and construction industries.  Instead of using time-intensive webinars to reach their audiences, Bluebeam wanted to get its resellers excited about selling so they launched a highly interactive, 3-tiered certification program on the Mindflash LMS.  The average reseller doubled sales as a result of completing the base tier certification.  Those resellers that completed all tiers averaged a 400% increase in sales.

#5:  Chrysler Group

LMS Vendor:  Latitude Learning

Chrysler Group has approximately 6,000 dealerships in the US, Canada and over ninety other countries worldwide. Training and certification programs help establish consistent levels of performance throughout its large dealership network by allowing technicians to stay current with various certifications while training dealership personnel and selected suppliers in new product-related content, service and repair techniques and financing protocol.  Deployed on the Latitude Learning LMS, Chrysler achieved a significant decrease in training administrative costs as well as increased the consistency of the Chrysler experience.

#6:  Hewlett Packard

LMS Vendor:  LogicBay

HP uses LogicBay, a role-based, SaaS Web application, to streamline and manage all communications and content management between Product Development, Marketing and Sales within the Workstation Product Group. This reduced frustration among the functional teams, but most importantly increased responsiveness to the consumer with accurate information delivered on-time. In the channel, results showed that those sales reps who used the site and went through the associated sales development program outsold those who did not by 3X.

#7:  Jiffy Lube

LMS Vendor:  Blackboard

Jiffy Lube earned this distinction for training on new services, customer service skills and leadership that resulted in a 900 percent increase in the number of stores at 100 percent certification, a reduction in turnover and a 93 percent franchisee approval rating. Jiffy Lube has experienced eight consecutive years of increased average revenue per customer and improved customer service scores.

#8:  LPL Financial

LMS Vendor:  SumTotal Systems

LPL Financial is one of the nation’s leading financial services companies and the largest independent broker/dealer. LPL Financial offers industry-leading technology, training, service and unbiased research to more than 12,000 independent financial advisers nationwide.  Using SumTotal Systems LMS to reach its external agent audience,  LPL increased the knowledge of agents, boosted agent retention, increased course completions by 30% and reduced their overall training expenditures by $75,000/quarter.

#9:  Mace Business School

LMS Vendor:  accessplanit

Mace Business School provides learning and support services to key businesses in the Mace supply chain.   Its aim is to work closely with suppliers, offering a range of accredited management training courses, to maintain standards and compliance and improve performance within the supply chain for Mace clients.  Mace achieved a 30% reduction in admin resources, increased their client base by 200% and reduced reporting time by 50%.

#10:  Massage Envy Spa

LMS Vendor:  eLogic Learning

Massage Envy Spa through its franchises is the leading provider of therapeutic massage in the United States. To guarantee a consistently excellent experience for customers in any franchise location, Massage Envy Spa provides world-class online training to all franchise employees.  Using the eLogic Learning eSSential LMS, Massage Envy Spa has increased their ability to support franchisees, decreased time to ramp up new franchises and has positively contributed to long-term success and growth of the organization.

#11:  Medline University

LMS Vendor: KMI Learning

The nation’s largest privately held medical distribution company, Medline Industries, uses a KMI LMS and online education to educate medical professionals (partners) about Medline products and services.  In four years, they increased their registration reach from 15,000 users to almost 400,000!

#12:  Real Mex Restaurants

LMS Vendor:  Litmos

Real Mex Restaurants is the largest operator of full-service Mexican restaurants in the nation, operating over 120 restaurants and eight brands including Chevys Fresh Mex, El Torito and Acapulco across the country.  To maintain a high quality, consistent experience in each restaurant, Real Mex needed to ensure flawless execution of its strategy and develop a fully embraced learning culture throughout franchise network.  Deploying a franchise LMS reduced their travel and training materials costs by 60% and dramatically increased the availability of learning.

#13:  Siemens

LMS Vendor:  Expertus

Siemens is a global powerhouse in electronics and environmental engineering.  They holistically provide training and certification to 8000 employees, 400 distributors/dealers and 2500 customers from the same ExpertusOne LMS system.  Siemens enjoys increased channel readiness, increased use and satisfaction with the LMS and an overall decrease in training administrative costs.

#14:  TGI Friday’s

LMS Vendor:  Cornerstone

TGI Friday’s inspires franchises and their employees with anytime mobile access to all learning in a self-directed training, on-the-job support format.  Managers have mobile access to observation checklists to confirm their employees’ skills and abilities.  Friday’s has seen and measured increased guest satisfaction, increased average spend per franchise location and a decrease in guest complaints when franchise and employee-owned locations are properly trained.

#15: Yum! Brands

LMS Vendor:  Saba Software

Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company, is the umbrella organization for well-known quick-service restaurants including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Its 40,000 restaurants around the world are staffed by more than 1.5 million associates. Learn how YUM! uses Saba to deploy learning, training and virtual classroom to its associates around the globe reducing turnover by 20% and increasing customer satisfaction by 2% globally.

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Custom Learning Experiences: When No LMS Will Do

Are training revenues the lifeblood of your business? With so much at stake, you can’t afford a learning platform and content that misses the mark. Yet, even with more than 700 LMSs available today, it’s easy to come up short.

So, what should you do when an out-of-the-box LMS can’t meet your commercial training objectives? Join John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst and Edward Daciuk, Principal Learning Strategist at ExtensionEngine, when they explore this topic in depth. You’ll learn: 

• Characteristics of a custom learning experience
• How custom learning experiences can differentiate your training business
• When this approach does/does not make sense
• Business drivers for custom experiences vs. standard LMS solutions
• How to create a multi-year strategy
• Real-life examples

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