|
November 13, 2000 |
 |
Get Ready For New Training Push: E-Business
Courses teach underlying concepts to a wide cross-section of employees
By Mike Faden
 |
| More on Online Education: |
|
|
 Send Us Your Feedback |
ou know that E-business is going to drive huge changes in the way your company operates in the next few years. Is your staff prepared?
You'll need to think big, regardless of your company's size. Getting ready for E-business means more than just training some IT staffers in the latest E-commerce technologies; it involves a cultural shift and requires change management. Business managers, professionals, and perhaps everyone in the company will have to think and work differently.
One way to start the transition is with specialized training courses, though education of all types will be needed. Courses that teach the underlying concepts of E-business to a broad cross-section of employees are just beginning to be offered. These courses aim to familiarize students with subjects such as the benefits and potential pitfalls of business-to-business Web sales and with key technical terms. So far, only a few big companies, including General Electric, KPMG, and IBM, have committed to using this training method for thousands of managers and other salaried staff. But Gartner Group research director Clark Aldrich says he's talked to more than a dozen companies that are considering internal E-business training, and he expects the trend to grow. For companies moving heavily into E-business, "it's huge. It's necessary," he says.
Not everyone is as optimistic about the outlook for these courses. International Data Corp. estimates the current market for E-commerce training at just tens of millions of dollars--a tiny fraction of this year's expected $19 billion U.S. market for external corporate education--and sees growth coming very slowly.
General Electric is perhaps the most striking example of widespread E-business education (see story, p. 320). Its 20-hour online training program is part of a broader E-business initiative driven from the very top of the 340,000-person company, by GE chairman and CEO Jack Welch. "It's very well recognized that E-business is a game changer--we'll need to operate differently in the future," says Mike Markovits, leader of GE Capital's Center for Learning and Organizational Excellence.
Because E-business is a given at GE, the company is taking a hard look at what skills it needs and how to get people engaged in the process. GE's goal is to train 40,000 people--including executives, managers, professionals, and other salaried staff--at GE Capital Services, the largest unit, and at other businesses such as GE Plastics and GE Transportation Services.
The program started this spring, using content developed by E-learning supplier DigitalThink Inc. and KPMG Consulting. It includes an E-commerce fundamentals course, considerations in building a Web storefront and fulfilling online orders, and aspects of E-commerce security. The typical cost of a DigitalThink course is $300 for a 15-hour curriculum, but it varies widely according to the size of the site.
No one suggests that training alone can transform old-line companies into E-businesses, but supporters say that courses can help pave the way. The goals are "to increase awareness and get people excited," Markovits says, as well as "to make them aware of other business opportunities."
GE recognized that "if only executives learn about E-business, it's not good enough," DigitalThink CEO Pete Goettner says. Additionally, training for employees means "everyone's talking the same language, so they can recognize when opportunities present themselves."
In July, GE rolled out the second generation of the course, which added GE-customized content, such as success stories describing how GE units moved into business-to-business E-commerce and the lessons they learned. Off-the-shelf content won't work for long, it seems, and most companies decide to tailor content to their own organizations, Aldrich says, because E-business is so closely integrated with business practices. For a leading-edge company, the desired amount of custom content may be as high as 70%; for a less-innovative company, 30% may be enough, he says. Initially, the market will see a flurry of noncustomized courses, primarily from E-learning suppliers.
Earlier this year, NETg launched an E-commerce class for managers and executives, with 35 to 40 hours of content covering E-commerce directions, opportunities, a look at technical options and how to build a business case, says David Dufresne, NETg's associate director for product marketing. NETg has started work on a broader E-business course that focuses on retooling the company to be E-business focused, Dufresne says. The E-business training, expected to be offered next year, will add topics such as internal company applications and electronic communications among employees. NETg's list price is about $150 for this type of course, although like most suppliers, it mostly sells company licenses that offer access to multiple courses at a lower cost per user.
Strategic Management Group Inc., traditionally a provider of business-skills training based on simulated real-life situations, is branching out into E-business training as well. It has started giving half-and full-day classroom training for executives using the example of an E-toy company and dealing with strategic issues such as how to get funding, online branding, and how to deal with employee stock options. "They see how hard it is to be profitable in the first four years," says Jim Brodo, VP of marketing and product development at SMGnet, Strategic Management Group's online training unit. SMGnet is also testing E-business training for lower-level employees at large companies.
Midlevel managers, for instance, often "are very good at what they do, but don't always know how their actions affect different functions across the organization," he says. "If you place a Super Bowl ad with the goal of attracting 10 million visitors to your Web site, and that blows your Web servers, what is the effect of that on the brand?" SMG's product, called E-Business IQnet, is priced at around $125, though volume discounts can cut the price to less than $50, Brodo says. Several very large companies have pilot installations of about 100 people, though none has yet deployed it more widely, Brodo says. SMGnet is also preparing a product that aims to teach employees about Internet-based supply-chain technologies and their impact.
Illustration by Harve Chany
continued on page 2
Back to the Careers page
Back to This Week's Issue page
Send Us Your Feedback
Top of the Page
This Week's Issue
Free Print Subscription
SubscribeCurrent Healthcare Issue
- InformationWeek Healthcare CIO 25: Our second annual honor roll of the health IT leaders driving healthcare's transformation.
- EHR Unreadiness: Only a small percentage of physicians planning to apply for Meaningful Use funds have e-health record systems capable of achieving most of the requirements. .
- And much more!
- Read the Current Issue
Related Whitepapers
- Gartner Research Picking the Right Server Type to Solve Your Data Center Space, Power and Heat Problems
- Virtualizing Tier 1 Applications: A Critical Step on the Journey Toward the Private Cloud
- The Hidden Truth About Virtualizing Business-Critical Applications
- Cloud, Appliance or Software: How to Decide Which Backup Solution is Best for Your Small or Mid-Size Organization
- Open Source Governance in Highly Regulated Companies
Related Reports
Related Webcasts
- Powering your Business with IBM's New 2s General Purpose Servers
- The Business Value of Data Quality – Getting the Most out of Your Investments in Data Warehousing and Data Analytics
- How to Build a Next-Generation Big Data Architecture
- Collaborative DevOps: Bridging the gap between development and operations with automation
- Insurance Workforce Optimization: How To Work Smarter To Benefit Your Customers, Employees and the Bottom Line
