When we talk about the training industry, we tend to focus on corporate training: how effective it is or isn’t, how it can be transformed, and what’s the ROI. However, training companies and managing a training business are equally crucial parts of the ecosystem, providing an essential service and contributing to the skills development of the workforce.
It’s true that training companies are facing tough times: digital disruption and higher client expectations for customized services have put a squeeze on profitability. But why exactly do training businesses struggle with profitability, and how can we fix it?
First, we have to recognize that while most of the discussion in learning technologies revolves around e-learning, 70% of training today is delivered face-to-face, and this is even higher for commercial training companies. Secondly, the larger the organization, the more complex the processes and the more of a need to find the right software for training companies. Many challenges that training companies face when managing a training business revolve around improving collaboration and administrative productivity. Therefore, while the following tips can be helpful to all training organizations, they will be most useful to large training companies that deliver a significant part of ILT.
We’ve compiled a list of 7 key processes to review to address the most common challenges faced by training companies and improve overall performance.
Managing a Training Business: 7 Steps to Improve Performance and Profitability:
- Optimize resource use
- Automate administrative processes and improve collaboration
- Secure your processes and data
- Streamline your sales cycle
- Monitor profitability proactively
- Develop customer loyalty
- Invest in the right technology
Poorly managed training businesses?
Indeed, at the core of all this, we generally find inadequate technology that does not address a training company’s core challenges. When managing a training business, many companies use an LMS as the basis for developing and delivering their services. Instead, they should be using a training management system or course management software. This is because LMSs were never designed for training companies – no wonder why you’re always struggling to make your LMS meet your needs! LMSs are built with corporate training departments in mind. This means that:
- They are not built around a goal of profitability and do not provide tools to monitor or improve it
- They do not take charge of the B2B sales cycle, which makes managing orders and invoices difficult
- They are not designed to manage instructor-led training logistics and associated administrative processes, which represent more than 70% of training company delivery
For all these reasons, you’ve likely had to develop a “workaround” by cobbling together several disparate systems to try to meet your needs, maybe by buying a CRM and customizing it. This is unnecessarily costly, impossible to maintain in the long term, and most importantly: this is not your core business!
So how do we address the above challenges?
In our Complete 7-Step Guide, we detail the specific features and processes needed for training providers to improve their performance and profitability.
Training Orchestra is a leading training management system designed to provide a fully integrated solution for enterprise learning delivery and administration, from Training Companies and Training Departments, Corporate Universities, Extended Enterprises, and Training Companies. Covering the whole training process: finance, logistics, administration, sales, and portal, Training Orchestra has proven its efficiency with over 600 satisfied clients and $6 billion of training budgets managed.
