What is Boyum eLearning platform and what's in it for you
Hi, and welcome to our blog post on how to become a certified partner. Why should you bother to spend your time investing in learning and education for your consultants and your organization?
In a recent podcast, I interviewed Tamas Wirth, an operations manager from partners success organization.
Would you tell me what you do in your daily job?
I have very two hats here. The one is the general management role for the Hungarian office, which is not so relevant for this discussion. Another role I have is the partner success operational manager role, which includes many things, sales, support, and enablement. So all of these areas are one unit.
We do this all because we want to respond efficiently to our partners' challenges and increase the satisfaction on their side. And of course, this change is coming with a lot of projects, right?
My job is actually to make the smooth operation of this project, of all these improvements. With everything I do, there is a team behind me. So, even though I'm sitting here answering your questions or discussing with you, I have to say that there is a team behind. I'm incredibly proud of these guys.
You know, the topic of our discussion is why partners should care about our e-learning platform? What's in it for them? And why should they put the effort to certify their consultants?
If we go back a bit, we know that onsite training was a primary method for teaching ERP software, even as recently as the end of 2019.
This model was challenged this year as companies switched to all remote work. And that meant no more online training as most traveled ceased due to covid-19.
People realized in 2020 that online meetings are just as effective as in-person. Companies discovered through this accidental experiment that online learning doesn't decrease employee satisfaction or performance. In many cases, it actually increases both. Contrary to the fears about reducing in-person interactions, not to mention the time and money savings that e-learning offers versus traditional ways of learning.
At times like that, it's, it's really great to see Boyum learning platform up and active. We started a long time ago. I think we were lucky enough to be prepared for the consequences of covid 19.
With eLearning, partners can go through the training material with their mobile app. It's not so commonly used, but they can do it. And I think it's going to use in the future whenever the travel is going to get back.
We also changed the training materials. We basically rerecorded all the pieces of training, so it's all brand new content on the eLearning hub. Among other things, we included certifications, which is a brand new thing in our e-learning space.
You know, some partners don't really know our brand new eLearning. Can you tell them what is included in the e-learning and where partners can find it and register?
There is a self-registration in place. My strongest advice is to go to Google and type Boyum eLearning or go to our website under Learning page to register. We also have a guide on the web with information on how to register for e-learning.
Why is it essential to register and use the eLearning platform?
Basically, all of the training material we gathered during the years about the products we put in the same place.
In our eLearning platform, you can find different levels, basic and advanced level pieces of training for most of our products.
Some learning materials can be very long, which are primarily for our vertical products. Then, of course, there are shorter ones, for example, for our new product offering Boyum cloud. It's a one and a half-hour training.
So, there are different kinds of training, different types of selections for different kinds of people. So, that's it in a nutshell.
Then there is one more thing, which is the certifications. Partners can decide to pass our certification test. I strongly recommend having certified consultants for our solutions.
When somebody is passing the test, that's clear proof of solid product knowledge about that particular product.
You mentioned that we have basic and advanced tracks. Would you say that the eLearning programs that we have today are for specific roles within the partner organization?
I wouldn't say that we have training for specific roles. The basic level is basically good for everybody. The advanced level is including profound knowledge about that particular product.
If you ask if we have specifics course for sale, presales, or implementation consultant, for example, I wouldn't say that what we currently have are specific training for that.
We plan to have more training, especially in the vertical solutions covering the implementation process. It's a similar concept and similar content like the implementation workshop we were doing beforehand onsite.
Can anyone join the e-learning? So if I'm an end-user, for example, will I be able to join or only restricted to partners?
No, end users can join too. The issue is this, and I think this is important to mention. If a partner is joining the eLearning, they can do it for free. And they will have access to the certifications and the training materials.
But of course, in that case, they should ask their partner the get access to the e-learning. End users do have to pay to gain access to the content.
In terms of the certifications, it's open for all the partners. So, if somebody is registering a free user account and does not want to see the video content. He can go straight for the certifications. And then, on top of that, if somebody is passing the certification test, the partner receives 10,000 partner points, which is an excellent deal.
Is it per consultant? So just to repeat what you said, 10,000 partner portal points for taking the e-learning or the certification itself?
Let's see a perfect example of that. One of our partners in Latin America wanted to get a lot of knowledge on one particular horizontal product. They had 5 consultants passing the certification, and they received 10,000 points each, which is basically 50,000 partner points in credit.
This works for us because we have strong confidence in these certifications that if a consultant is passing it, that's proof they have excellent knowledge. So then we can rely on that knowledge in that consultant's future projects. So this is the reason why we are heavily investing in these kinds of certifications and partner points incentives.
Let me ask you a question that I guess most partners have their minds. So let's say I've taken the e-learning training. I passed the certification test, and I'm trying to implement our vertical products. Is the certification enough? I mean, can I, as a consultant, go and implement and be ready?
Even though these training programs create a solid foundation of knowledge, I think there is something that comes with time, and this is experience.
Our delivery team is happy to help in the first three implementations.
This is something that new partners or partners who are incorporating a new solution from the Boyum portfolio into their portfolio should take advantage of.
I would strongly recommend that the first thing they should do before any implementation is to make sure they have a certified consultant for that particular solution. Otherwise, especially for the vertical solutions, I completely say that they need to have a certified consultant to have a successful project. Then the second step, they should take advantage of that offering from the delivery team.
By having the first three implementation and decent product knowledge they will gather with experience, they can be self-sufficient in the future.
As I told you, we plan to have an implementation e-learning training available for our vertical solutions, Produmex WMS, and Beas Manufacturing.
But again, I think there is something that comes with experience. That experience needs to be gathered and earned during the implementation, but we are here to help. This is why the partner success unit has been established to help our partners as much as possible.
What is the best way to cover the gap between what we've learned from the e-learning to the actual day-to-day job?
It comes with the certification test itself. In the good old times, somebody took the e-learning, it was completed, but there was no counter check if that knowledge was already gathered by the person or not.
These certification tests are not easy to pass. These were put together by individuals or employees who are very good at those particular solutions. In some cases, these questions are tough to pass. I think that it's important to emphasize that when somebody does the test and passes and earns the certification, that's an obvious sign that that person has solid knowledge of that particular product.
And that's the reason why I think it definitely holds value. I am pleased to see many consultants and users who share it on LinkedIn whenever they pass the certification because they see its value.
So I think that's the best way to go for the certification once they have it. Then, they can start working with that product in their particular area, whether it is support, presales, or implementation.
Does the certification have an end date? I mean, products change over time, and we changed the material.
Yes. I haven't mentioned that one. So actually, every certification is valid for two years. We set up the two years because, as you said, new features are coming, changes happening on the product. So by the end of the two years, you must renew the certification, which won't be tough if somebody is actively working with our product.
For the second time, if that knowledge is active, and if that person is actively working with that particular product, then I don't think it is going to be an issue the second time around. The certification needs to be renewed because there are so many changes in the product, right?
If you work on a particular product for a year, you will see massive changes sometimes. That means we need to change the eLearning or update the eLearning regularly. So that's the reason why I strongly recommend looking for the changes, work actively with the products. And then, in two years, passing certification again will be a breeze.
I've been wondering if you can share a few statistics on the number of consultants that have taken the eLearning or currently use the eLearning?
Let's start first with the number of users. Basically, it gives us a sneak peek at how many users are active on the platform. We have almost 1,000 users registered in the elearning, and they consumed 3000 hours of content. So that's amazing.
We have distributed 185 certifications. In some cases, there are users with more than one certification.
And do we plan to offer any role-based training programs like sales skills, demonstration skills, and developer certification?
These are all the time on the table. However, it is not set on the roadmap yet. There are many discussions, especially with the product core teams. Which are teams including individuals from different business areas and talking about each particular product's solution. Where there is a lot of discussion around these training programs. I definitely see the need for it. However, we haven't actually put it on the roadmap, but I'm almost sure that in the future, we are going to put role-based trainings, which are very specific, like the implementation one.
Will we ever go back to onsite training once COVID-19 is behind us? What's the plan.
Excellent question. I have to say that very recently, the day before yesterday, I got a question from a partner that they are looking for those kinds of personal relationships. For sure, our strategy is primarily to put everybody on e-learning because of the flexibility. But I'm almost certain that at some point, maybe not on the same frequency as we had before, we're going to have onsite learnings. But I cannot tell you when, because of the uncertainty.