Intranets and training: A virtual lesson in technology

By GEOF WHEELWRIGHT

If there is any single issue that holds back the deployment of new technologies and strategies in a company, it would likely be training. Whether a company is upgrading standard office applications for word-processing and spreadsheet work or implementing a new sales system, the results are often entirely dependent on how well the workforce is trained to use it. The computer training industry has struggled for years to find the fastest, most helpful and cost-effective way to train people. Products that allow training to either take place more quickly or more comprehensively have gained great attention.

Computer-based training (CBT) has been used to try and move forward training at a pace that will keep up with the rate of change in the software industry. The advent of multimedia features on desktop computers has helped the cause of CBT. These allow the computer to play 'how to' video segments as part of the training software. Some corporations were held back from using such software because it was CD-ROM based, and their employees did not have CD-Roms or built-in sound on their personal computers. Even among those that did, the need to use a CD-ROM disc to access the video data meant that only a certain number of users could access the training course at any one time. The intranet is changing all of this. By using standard Internet technologies to create - or buy - training applications that can be run over a corporate network, companies can offer training without the need for CD-ROMs. And because the training is offered over the corporate network, there is no need to wait for data to first be published on a CD-ROM.

This means that even live data can be used in training applications. Corporations can write the information themselves using web page and Internet content creation tools. One challenge, however, has been in finding ways to allow video - for use in such online training sessions - to be distributed over the corporate network without using up vast amounts of data bandwidth. Two North American companies, MicroVideo Learning Systems and Multimedia Solutions, announced at the Comdex '97 computer trade show in Las Vegas that they have found a way around this problem. The companies claim to have been able to achieve clear video transmission over the network at rates as low as 65kbps (little more than the speed of an average high-speed consumer modem), which is about one-twentieth the data rate commonly required to send data over a network. With this, Multimedia Learning Systems has been able to develop network- based training applications that can provide an average of 300 video help topics per software application.

This, it says, has helped users understand what is being taught and "dramatically reduced" the number of help desk calls they make. In addition, by running over the network, the training software can be designed to run in a "work along" mode so that it operates alongside the application on which the training is based. It would appear that the market for such products, as well as the services of training experts themselves, is huge. According to an August report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the western European market for IT training and education alone reached $5.1bn in 1996. IDC says this represents slightly less than one-third (31 per cent) of a total world IT training and education market. Prior to the widespread availability of technology-based training products, the largest restraining factor on market growth had been customer concern about the expensive and time-consuming nature of training activity together with doubts about its effectiveness. IDC suggests this is no longer the case. And with the advent of just-in-time learning environments (such as those produced by MicroVideo Learning Systems), take-up by the corporate sector is certain to accelerate. In its report, IDC predicts that by the year 2000 the terms Internet Intranet and on-line learning will be the prevalent buzzwords in this services industry. "We have isolated four critical success factors for companies offering global training programs," says Puni Rajah, program manager of IDC's European services. "Without these qualities - a collaborative mentality, excellent local partners, cultural sensitivity and management commitment - it is highly unlikely a training organization will be successful in developing, marketing, servicing and sustaining a leading presence in the global marketplace." To become a winner in the global IT training marketplace, he says suppliers will need to maintain a global perspective, offer an easy-to-use learning environment, develop innovative products to take advantage of available technologies and show a thorough understanding of their customers' needs with flexible and up-to-date content. Intranets: corporate enthusiasm reaches fever pitch.