Gartner have recently released their survey results around SaaS and Software training within the enterprise, and we thought we would share it with you.
Training end users on how to use a SaaS system trails off more than with a software system (which is more episodic). For example, if an enterprise has just adopted Salesforce.com, end users need to be trained on its general layout and how to use it. After that, because new features trickle in from time to time (like Google Apps), there’s rarely another big “training event”–there may be an e-mail or short video on how to use the couple of new features, but that’s about it.
This contrasts with large software systems, which store up many features for a release that occurs once a year or every couple of years. This collection of new features makes some kind of formal training pretty much a requirement–whether it’s a half day of training in a classroom, a collection of videos, an e-Learning tutorial. If you added up the corresponding elements of SaaS training that occurred over the same time, the total training content for both SaaS and software would be the same (assuming the same features were released). The difference is that SaaS training happens in small amounts over time, while the software training happens all at once to coincide with the “big bang” release.
And some companies will go to great lengths to avoid “big bang” training. Organisations were worried about the move to Office 2007 with the Ribbon UI and the cost associated with the training which is significant within the enterprise. One organisation figured that a half day of training (around $600 per employee) would be required for the company’s 40,000 employees. He’d done the math and wasn’t too keen on spending $24 million for training. They decided to stay with Office 2003, and use the consumerisation of technology to drive the demand for Office 2010, by stating “By the time the next version of Office comes out in 2010, a whole bunch of the employees will have had to buy new home PCs and they’ll have spent their own (non-company) time learning the new UI. Yep, that’s how I’m going to dodge that bullet.”
Training has evolved anyway, gone are the days of a war and peace manual. Users are more technically savvy now and will look to the internet and their colleagues for initial support, representing a move to more communal support.