Research In Motion (RIM) provides training to over 100 wireless carriers and to select government and retail accounts. Learners may select from six curricula geared toward sales and support training. Until last year, RIM was using its Partner Relationship Management (PRM) system to manage this training. As RIM's business grew, the system began to show a number of shortcomings, including difficulty in tracking certifications and poor performance and instability due to the increasing load on the system.

RIM needed to find new solution that could handle the current workload and scale with their business. With a slow, unstable system and dissatisfied customers, their need was urgent.

This case study details how RIM selected and implemented a new solution in just 26 weeks. The paper describes the unique challenges with external training and how RIM found a system to meet its needs out of the box.

The outsourcing of training functions and technology is a major trend in the market and, despite political issues, we believe offshoring will grow accordingly. Organizations should look at the opportunities to focus on their core competencies and take advantage of offshoring's economic benefits.

Selecting a supplier and managing an offshore project can prove to be tricky, however. Without carefully managing these projects, a company can squander the costs it had hoped to gain.

This article highlights some of the findings from our upcoming research study, Offshoring E-Learning: What Works®, to be published in the next few weeks.

This comprehensive industry study is the first-ever detailed analysis of best practices in the management and operations of corporate training. It is designed to help you understand how to organize, manage, and govern corporate training for the highest business impact.

Key strategies discussed in this study include:

• What is the impact of a CLO? What are the qualities of a highly successful CLO?
• Centralized vs. Federated approach: What functions should be centralized vs. distributed? What are best practices in each model?
• Resource Allocation: What % of your staff should be in different roles? How should you allocate your budget across different training programs?
• Relationship with HR: What learning programs and functions should be aligned with HR?
• Managing the LMS: How do create a process for central control and distributed administration?
• Managing Content Development: What are best practices for creating an effective, efficient content development operation which shares best practices?

The report gives small, medium, and large organizations specific, actionable information to help them improve effectiveness and efficiency of enterprise learning and training.

We have two webcasts scheduled in the coming weeks. The first, entitled "Custom Content: Options and Alternatives to Meet Your Business Objectives," will review popular options for creating proprietary content in-house or through a vendor. The presentation will explain how and when to apply various delivery models - including Rapid E-Learning and Simulations -and and will use examples of custom content solutions designed for industry- leading companies to illuminate the concepts as they are presented.

This webinar is free and is presented by Josh Bersin, Bersin and Associates Principal and Founder, and Jeff Felice, Element K VP of Content Development Services.

• "Custom Content: Options and Alternatives to Meet Your Business Objectives"
• July 27, 2005
• 2:00pm Eastern/11:00am Pacific
• SIGN UP NOW

The second webinar highlights the findings from our new industry study "The High Impact Learning Organization: What Works®." The webinar will describe best practices in organization and governance of learning teams and how leading companies allocate resources for optimum effectiveness and efficiency.

This webinar is free and is presented by Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder, Bersin and Associates.

• "The High Impact Learning Organization: Best Practices in the Organization, Management, and Governance of Corporate Training"
• August 4, 2005
• 2:00pm Eastern/11:00am Pacific
• SIGN UP NOW

We are very excited to announce three upcoming workshops this fall on Building the High Impact Learning Organization.

These workshops, led by Josh Bersin and Leighanne DeMarzo, are a collaborative, research-driven program to help CLOs and Training Directors understand how to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of their organization.

These one-day workshops are built around our High Impact Learning Organization research. All attendees will receive a free copy of the study and walk away with a detailed, tailored action plan to improve the organization, governance, measurement, and management of their training organizations.

We will launch this program next month with more details. Dates are as follows:

• September 20 - Washington DC
• October 12 - Chicago
• November 10 - New York City