Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear about transformative IT, and with it comes a pressing need to master new technologies quickly. For organizations with teams of IT administrators, developers, and end users, transformative change places a heavy demand on training.
Fortunately, times have changed since the days of whiteboards and classroom hand-outs. Smarter ways of learning are available, building on advances in video streaming and global communication tools. We are pleased to announce our own transformation right here at BMC, to leap into a more productive and exciting digital learning experience for our customers.
Starting in October 2016, our BMC Education Services team rolled out a new delivery method called Assisted Self-Paced (ASP) training. The ASP format combines digital learning — quality recorded instructor-led videos, e-book materials, and hands on experience in virtual labs — together with scheduled, focused appointments with our highly experienced instructors. This allows individual students to learn BMC technologies the way they want to, at their pace, yet with access to the right expertise on their schedule.
For enterprise leadership teams, this transformation means employees spend less time away from daily work deliverables. There is no requirement to physically travel or block specific dates for training.
Most importantly, the very projects IT teams are working on will more directly map to the on-demand education they need from BMC specialists. Learners can quickly get answers to their most relevant and specific questions to push their project forward. They can also solve technical learning problems the same way they solve any life or work challenge — by tapping into digital communities. ASP courses allow for 24/7 access to communities of BMC trainers and product experts, as well as other students worldwide who share helpful tips and feedback.
It’s worth noting one other interesting side effect driven by this transformation of education. We are better able to engage a global community by increasing their exposure to English-language industry and business terminology. The self-paced approach ensures students can stop, understand, and replay instruction repeatedly. This provides time for them to translate terms, not only increasing their technical knowledge of BMC products, but also vastly improving their command of English in the workplace.
As every enterprise strives for efficiencies by tapping into global resources, this type of talent development can play an invaluable role in driving productivity and richer communications. Certainly as IT teams are required to deliver solutions at faster rates than we have ever seen before, a consistent set of technical and language skills across resources is an exceptional competitive advantage.
We feel this new flexible and effective delivery method for training supports more productively the realities of on-the-job education, while rapidly preparing customer teams for digital transformation IT opportunities. We hope you will try Assisted Self-Paced (ASP) this quarter as we pilot the first set of courses. Early registration can also lower your costs: students who sign up for ASP courses before December 31, 2016 will pay 20% less than waiting until our 2017 wide-scale roll-out. During this time ASPs overall cost 30% less than Instructor-Led Training (ILT) courses, yet offer all the benefits described above.
We are all part of this digital transformation journey. By scouring every aspect of our business and applying digital improvements, we can make great strides to lead in our respective markets. We hope you will take advantage of our education transformation initiatives and share your feedback.
