extended enterprise learning, training software for channel training, customer training, distributor training, reseller training, partner training, remote learning, sales enablement

1. Executive Guide
Improving Business
Performance through
Sales Teams, Partners,
and Customers
Engaging Your
Extended Enterprise
A SumTotal Executive Guide
Organizations today face multiple challenges to sustain and grow their bottom
line, and they engage multiple audiences to achieve success including customers,
25%
partners, suppliers, channel and distribution networks, independent agents, and
others. These diverse groups of constituents who have an impact on your
organization’s success are known as your Extended Enterprise.
Likely, your organization is involved in activities to derive the greatest value from
these groups including: Annual growth
rate of companies
• Strengthening sales skills and tool sets to increase sales effectiveness
delivering knowledge,
• Cross-selling and up-selling to customers to grow your existing share of wallet information & training
to an audience
• Focusing on customer satisfaction and retention to protect the revenue stream beyond employees.
• Improving customer service by finding new ways to sell, generating greater
knowledge of the customer and adding value to current offerings to reduce churn Source: Bersin & Associates
• Finding new customers to capture new revenue
• Generating additional revenue streams via precisely targeted marketing and
heightened brand awareness
• Evaluating supplier agreements and processes to minimize costs
• Enabling Channel and Distribution networks with tool sets and knowledge to
drive more sales
Improving Business Performance
But exactly how are these objectives to be attained in a cost effective manner?
The answer lies in the concept of the Extended Enterprise. SumTotal’s
Extended Enterprise platform is ideal for companies that are to some degree
dependent on external audiences to promote and sell their products. Industries
including insurance, real estate, financial services, durable goods manufacturing,
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2. Improving Business Performance through Sales Teams,
Partners, and Customers
technology, communications, or any field relying on the channel or independent
reps/dealerships can all benefit markedly from the Extended Enterprise. Firms
operating in such sectors can harness Extended Enterprise to:
1. Boost agility to prepare for and react to rapidly changing
market conditions
2. Improve business performance and productivity to impact the top
and bottom line
3. Increase customer retention and acquisition to maximize revenue
4. Protect, reinforce, differentiate, and promote brand image
to attract and acquire customers
The concept of the Extended Enterprise encompasses the extension of a cor-
poration outward beyond traditional bounds. It can stretch out into many differ-
ent business or performance spheres. This might include customers, partners,
suppliers, channel and distributor networks, franchisees, association members,
independent agents, contractors or volunteers. Various combinations of these
external audiences form part of any company’s Extended Enterprise.
Obviously, some organizations are more dependent upon a healthy Extended The concept of the
Enterprise than others. An insurance firm that is reliant on a large group of Extended Enterprise
independent agents is a good example. Similarly, a member-based organization’s encompasses the
livelihood is directly tied to groups existing external to the corporation. extension of a
corporation outward
The same goes for a durable goods manufacturer that distributes products to a
beyond traditional
variety of retail outlets. Its sales are carried out by salespeople who don’t directly bounds.
work for the company, and who have the option of selecting competitive products
if they choose. Those firms that best understand the concept of the Extended
Enterprise are most likely to survive and expand in a chaotic economy.
The purpose of SumTotal’s Extended Enterprise training platform, then, is to bring
about the efficient delivery of knowledge for the strategic purpose of transforming
business performance. This can perhaps best be explained by looking at what
typically happens with educational programs aimed at suppliers, distributor
networks and independent agents:
Organizations send out material in the form of mailings, emails, PDFs or links to
webcasts in order to brief external audiences on their products. This approach can
be supplemented by visits to train these individuals in a classroom setting. However,
they are also inundated by collateral about competitive offerings. In such an
environment, even the most finely crafted training campaign is likely to struggle.
What the Extended Enterprise is all about, therefore, is achieving success with
such programs. It cuts through the noise to effectively capture the hearts and
minds of external audiences. Result: training initiatives are turned into profit centers.
Extended Enterprise solutions are embraced by some of the biggest names in
technology, telecommunications, engineering and sales. In addition, a host of
small and emerging businesses utilize the Extended Enterprise to stretch their
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3. Improving Business Performance through Sales Teams,
Partners, and Customers
sphere of influence beyond traditional corporate boundaries. Let’s look at some of the
ways that the efficient delivery of knowledge can transform business performance.
Boost Agility in Rapidly Changing Market Conditions
In many industries, speed to market is a major success component. Particularly
in industries such as computer hardware, software, durable goods and
telecommunications, rapid development of products is rarely enough. It takes
velocity and agility on the marketing side to ensure results.
Take the example of a software release. In many cases, multiple vendors come to
market at the same time with their latest offerings. Extended Enterprise training
can help differentiate products by educating channel partners and resellers about
a new release more effectively than those of competitors. The speed with which
that knowledge gets out can make or break a new product release effort. This
doesn’t mean that formal training has to be absent from the process. Distribution
Extended Enterprise
of a webcast, PDF or PowerPoint in conjunction with accurate tracking of training can
participants can move your product to top of mind in the target audience. help differentiate
Another way to become more nimble in a rapidly changing marketplace is in the products by
area of centralized training. Many companies require external sales personnel to educating channel
be out of the office for one week every year for an update on products, pricing
partners and resellers
about a new release
and policy. This represents a hefty annual expense for all concerned when you
more effectively than
take airfares, hotels, food and lost productivity into account. What if that week those of competitors.
could be either eliminated entirely or reduced to only two days, with the rest of the
training done online? An Extended Enterprise solution can facilitate these needs.
Improve Business Performance and Productivity
There are many ways the Extended Enterprise concept can boost business
performance. In addition to helping organizations increase top-line revenue
from more productive channels, it can also reduce the cost to sell to and service
customers and channels. Incentives can be offered to sales reps to complete
certain educational requirements concerning your products. End users can
rapidly get up to speed about technical products so they feel comfortable they are
making the right decision. By training retail store personnel about how to use your
goods properly, the level of product returns can be markedly reduced.
Further, such training programs can become a valuable revenue stream.
Companies with large affiliate programs, membership bases or external sales
teams can charge fees for training and certification. At the very least, this can
defray the cost of delivery.
Such initiatives must be rapid and effective, which is where the Extended Enterprise
solution comes into its own. Courses are fast, dynamic and to the point. Additionally,
the SumTotal Extended Enterprise system automatically tracks usage, making it
easy to see how many users have completed training, how many are incomplete
and who has yet to begin. This data can then be correlated with sales figures to
determine the effectiveness of training. For a small investment in training, sales can
be increased significantly.
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4. Improving Business Performance through Sales Teams,
Partners, and Customers
Increase Customer Retention & Acquisition
Sales managers don’t typically think of training as a key element to address
when leads are not being followed up. Yet Extended Enterprise training programs
can markedly increase responsiveness to the valuable leads generated through
corporate channels. How? Vice presidents and managers often know what needs
to change behaviorally to improve sales performance. Short targeted offerings
can be developed to encourage the right attitudes and habits about sales leads.
Another benefit is a reduction in the amount of time spent in training by focusing Extended Enterprise
only on those areas that will have a positive impact on sales, as directed by the training programs can
line of business managers. The key to success with a sales force is to minimize markedly increase
the training by specifically tailoring their education towards driving behaviors with responsiveness to
known positive outcomes. the valuable leads
generated through
In a financial services organization, for example, Extended Enterprise training corporate channels.
puts the company’s message and value proposition front and center. While
brokers may have dozens of packages to choose from, the addition of the right
training element as a value add for the broker or potential customers can be a
driving factor in decision making. By aligning a simple training item to a sales or
business goal, customer retention and acquisition can be boosted.
Protect, Reinforce, Differentiate and Promote Brand Image
The Extended Enterprise solution can exert a major impact with regard to brand
awareness and loyalty by helping organizations to enhance information sharing
with external audiences. By making it easy for distributors to become better
educated, they sell more of your products and fewer of your competitors. By
targeting sales personnel in a retail chain, it is possible to provide an incentive
to take a short online training course to become better informed about specific
products. By aligning training programs to a distinct business purpose such as
the improvement of sales, a small investment can pay substantial dividends.
And in a world where a multitude of brands are vying for attention, a professionally
produced training program is an excellent way to reinforce brand recognition.
When implemented correctly, it cleverly differentiates a brand in the eyes of
external audiences.
Extending Your Enterprise
Delivering training to an audience beyond traditional employees is one of
the fastest growing segments of the learning industry. According to Bersin &
Associates, this type of education is increasing at an annual pace greater than
25%. This level of growth is occurring due to the business and economic benefits
that can be realized by professionally delivered training.
SumTotal’s Extended Enterprise solutions can help you:
• Develop and deliver training to audiences outside your organization
• Drive revenue through customer, channel and distributor channels
• Improve productivity and information sharing with external partners
• Deliver certification programs and share knowledge
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5. Improving Business Performance through Sales Teams,
Partners, and Customers
• Eliminate excess training costs while accelerating time-to-market
• Increase customer satisfaction and product adoption
• Provide consistent training available 24x7x365
Such training can easily be developed and delivered on-demand in a timely
manner to customers, partners and resellers with no hardware to install. A
Software as a Service model only requires users to have Internet access to
complete their training, allowing maximum return on training investment by
providing a functional, flexible and scalable solution.
More Information
For more information on the Extended Enterprise solution:
www.sumtotalsystems.com/solutions/extended-enterprise-solutions.html
For additional information, send an email to connect@sumtotalsystems.com
About SumTotal
SumTotal Systems, Inc. is the global leader in complete learning and talent
management software that enables organizations to more effectively drive
business strategy and growth. Recognized by industry analysts as the most
comprehensive solution, SumTotal provides full employee lifecycle management,
including a core system of record, from a single provider for improved business
intelligence. The company offers customers of all sizes and in all industries the
most flexibility and choice with multiple purchase, configuration, and deployment
options. We have increased the performance of the world’s largest organizations
including Sony Electronics (NYSE: SNE), AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN [ADR];
London: AZN), Amway, GKN (London: GKN), and Seagate (NYSE: STX).
For more information, or to request a demo, please call +1 (866) 768-6825 (US
/ Canada), +1 (352) 264-2800 (international) or visit www.sumtotalsystems.com
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