One of TSIA’s primary goals is to help technology services organizations continue to effectively run their services businesses, while adapting to the changes that are necessary to survive and thrive in the future. This year, we’ve identified three key organizational capabilities education services should be leveraging to stay ahead of industry trends.
What Are Organizational Capabilities?
Using our Service Capabilities Framework, the TSIA research team helps tech services organizations pinpoint the organizational capabilities in which they should be investing. TSIA defines organizational capabilities as “the ability to perform actions that achieve desired results.” As the industry continues to change, so do the service capabilities. At the end of each year, our researchers are tasked with defining and evaluating those capabilities for their discipline. Below is a brief look at two new education services capabilities, as well as emphasis on an existing capability, and what these capabilities could mean for your business.
(Existing) Capability 1: Embracing New Technology
Workforce demographics are rapidly changing to include more tech-savvy, digital natives who are demanding alternate methods for consuming training material. This is leading to increased pressure on education organizations to continue developing their technological capabilities to deliver more remote, cloud, and subscription-based offers, such as learning-as-a-service (LaaS).
The need for this capability isn’t new by any means, but it is one that deserves renewed attention in 2015. While most education organizations have the necessary tools in place to develop instructor-led and online content, many still rely on old processes and dated technology to do so. To satisfy the needs of a changing marketplace, and more importantly, to avoid becoming irrelevant to learners, education organizations need to continuously make the effort to embrace new technology.
(New) Capability 2: Implementing Learning Analytics
A common question we receive from our education services members is, “Do you have any metrics/data/information about how training improves or accelerates adoption?” While anecdotal information about what another company has achieved relative to training and adoption is helpful, it is necessary for each ES organization to establish its own training/adoption correlation. The best way to determine the correlation between your training and the consumption of your products is to collect your own data. Unfortunately, very few education organizations have a dedicated process in place for collecting learning and product usage data.
By developing a learning analytics capability within your organization, you’ll be able to establish a connection between training and product adoption. The next step in this evolution is to then show how training affects business outcomes, for both the customer and your company. To start down the learning analytics path, begin by gathering data that answers the following questions:
- Is the customer currently using the technology product purchased?
- Could the customer be using the product more (e.g. frequency, duration, etc.) and/or using more of the product (e.g. features)?
- Could the customer be using the technology product better?
By answering these questions, ES organizations can better identify training that bolsters usage of additional features or helps a learner to use the product better. Tracking this training against product usage helps establish the training/adoption correlation.
(New) Capability 3: Regularly Conducting Performance Analysis
Underlying learning analytics is performance analysis. Performance analysis enables ES organizations to determine whether training has influenced any of the following three things:
- Learning: Did the learner learn something?
- Application: Can the learner apply what was learned to the job?
- Results: Did the application of what was learned result in a business outcome?
For the amount of time and investment that goes into designing and developing a course, it is critical to take the time to measure its effectiveness, and this is where performance analysis can help. To truly demonstrate the link between your training offers and the adoption of your company’s products requires a strong performance analysis capability. Additionally, mastering this capability solidifies the value education services brings to its customers.