1 Jeremy Blain, Director, International Partners Network, Cegos Group LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE CLOUD – OPPORTUNITIES AND WATCH OUTS Just like water from the tap in your kitchen, cloud computing services can be turned on or off quickly as needed. Like at the water company, there is a team of dedicated professionals making sure the service provided is safe, secure and available on a 24/7 basis. When the tap isn’t on, not only are you saving water, but you aren’t paying for resources you don’t currently need. Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer, The Obama Administration “ ”
Transcript
1
Jeremy Blain, Director, International Partners Network, Cegos Group
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE CLOUD – OPPORTUNITIES AND WATCH OUTS
Just like water from
the tap in your kitchen,
cloud computing
services can be turned
on or off quickly as
needed. Like at the
water company, there
is a team of dedicated
professionals making
sure the service
provided is safe, secure
and available on a 24/7
basis. When the tap
isn’t on, not only are
you saving water, but
you aren’t paying for
resources you don’t
currently need.
Vivek Kundra,
Federal Chief Information
Offi cer, The Obama
Administration
“
”
CONTENTS
Page
4 OVERVIEW
5 1. CLOUD COMPUTING: A DEFINITION
7 2. THE IMPACT OF CLOUD COMPUTING ON L&D
7 2.1 Mobile, Decentralised & Just in Time Learning
8 2.2 A Richer and More Personalised Learning Experience
9 2.3 Speed of Implementation
9 2.4 Cost Effective/Lower Entry Barriers
10 2.5 No More IT Dependence
10 2.6 Greater Integration
11 3. FORMS OF TRAINING THAT WILL BENEFIT FROM
THE CLOUD
11 3.1 Mobile Learning
11 3.2 Video Content
11 3.3 Social Networking & Informal Training
12 3.4 Virtual Learning
12 3.5 E-Learning
13 4. THE CLOUD AND AN ORGANISATION’S CULTURE
14 5. THE POTENTIAL THREATS
14 5.1 Data Security
15 5.2 A Loss of Control?
15 5.3 The Future Roles of Managed Service Provider and
There are few IT developments that have garnered more airtime and news copy over the last few years than cloud computing.
Yet, unlike many of the technology fads that have come and gone, there’s no doubt that cloud computing is changing how we manage and exchange information forever.
Recent research by International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that worldwide IT spending on cloud services will grow almost threefold to $44.2 billion by 2013 and almost every industry sector has adopted the cloud into their business operations.
This is very much the case with L&D today with cloud computing offering a unique opportunity to reshape learning as we know it, with implications for how we deliver learning, how learners receive it, and the content of learning. To date, however, there are few resources L&D professional can go to in order to gain a comprehensive overview of the potential of cloud computing to L&D, the applications, and the pitfalls to look out for. This is what this white paper intends to achieve.
The fi rst starting point is to be clear about what cloud computing means today.
There are few technological developments that have captured the imagination more over the last few years than cloud computing – what is considered ‘the next great frontier’ in the words of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and a technology that has had the distinction of gracing the front cover of the Economist last October (2010).
Yet, what exactly is cloud computing? The world-renowned industry analysts, the Gartner Group refer to cloud computing as ‘a style of computing where massively scalable, IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to external customers using internet technologies’.
What this means is that applications and data are stored in a central location on the internet and accessed via an internet browser. This location consists of multiple servers, forming a part of a digital network, and is based totally outside the traditional corporate IT infrastructure. The US-based, National Institute of Standards and Technology also provides a strong defi nition (see right).
Essentially, any computer or Internet friendly device connected to the Internet may access the cloud and the same pool of computing power (although that inevitably depends on how fast Internet connections are). In the words of a recent Training Journal article in April 2011, this ‘means you can tap into a wealth of infrastructure at the touch of a button without having to manage lengthy implementation plans and substantial costs.’
It’s the cloud that has spurred on the development of numerous new business applications over the last couple of years and now even hardware with new devices, such as Google’s thin client laptop, the chromebook, which has no internal memory and is simply a tool for accessing the cloud.
In regard to L&D, the main manifestation of cloud computing we have tended to see is in ‘Software as a Service (SaaS)’, although recently a number of new applications and terms have also evolved, such as ‘Infrastructure-as-a-Service’ and ‘Platform-as-a-Service.’
SaaS is about delivering a single application from a computer outside the traditional company IT structure with no required hardware or software to install and users tending to pay for the software on a pay as you go basis.
Although there are numerous SaaS applications today, perhaps two of the best known and most established SaaS applications are Salesforce.com and its applications for sales and customer service and Workday which provides a number of its solutions focusing on human capital management and talent management.
Cloud computing, however, is often considered to have a broader application than SaaS through the direct targeting of server space rather than simply a specifi c software application. It means that all a company’s data storage, social networking, software programmes and leaning management systems can all located outside the company’s IT and servers and can form part of the cloud. Such a system would also be highly scalable, with no data limitations.
Today, in sectors such as government and fi nancial services, the cloud has been taken up signifi cantly and, according to a study by Forrester Research, a fi fth of companies already use solutions from the cloud. In a recent report by Accenture (Rewards and Risks at the Dawn of Cloud Computing (2010), 44% of large organisations are today using cloud computing.
Yet, how many of these companies are using the cloud within the L&D sector? What are its benefi ts and what are the top tips for a successful cloud implementation?
In this paper, we will look at the potential benefi ts of cloud computing on L&D, specifi c learning applications that can benefi t from it, the potential threats to be aware of, and a suggestion of top tips for the implementation of a successful cloud-based L&D strategy.
It’s fair to say that in many ways L&D and HR have been at the leading edge of outsourced software services – managed services which are often seen as a precursor to the cloud. Functions, such as payroll, recruitment and performance management, have often been coordinated outside a company’s premises and IT infrastructure. Yet, the emergence and widespread adoption of cloud computing is likely to take this to a new level.
The last few years, for example, has unleashed a host of new cloud-based and web-based applications relevant to HR and L&D. If you look at the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 compiled by the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies and based on over 500 learning professional submissions, cloud-based tools, such as Google Docs, Google Reader, Delicious and SlideShare are coming to the fore, with traditional learning tools, such as Word and PowerPoint further down the list (at 22 and 60 respectively).
Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies – Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010
A full list can be found at http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100-2010.html
All these applications provide a signifi cant break with the traditional learning of the past with a move towards more informal, just in time DIY learning.
Let’s fi rstly take a look at the potential benefi ts to L&D of cloud computing in more detail.
2.1 Mobile, Decentralised & Just in Time Learning
We’ve heard so often over the past few years the need to have more fl exible learning which aligns itself more closely with the employee’s day to day activities and which doesn’t impinge on productivity. Cloud computing enables this to happen.
In taking content outside traditional learning structures, cloud computing is essentially allowing for the delivery of learning anywhere and at anytime. No longer requiring memory intensive laptops and the need to access fi rewalls, the cloud will enable people to access L&D from any location and from any device as long as they have an internet connection.
!!In taking content
outside traditional
learning structures,
cloud computing is
essentially allowing for
the delivery of learning
anywhere and at
anytime.
“
”
8
This development has the potential to have an enormous impact on mobile and fl exible learning, with users able to access e-learning content via a cloud-based learning management system, for example, as and when they need to. As we will discuss in more detail later in this paper, it will enable people to access learning when they need it, build their learning around their specifi c needs, and chimes in perfectly with the highly mobile and cross-cultural workforces so many organisations are advocating.
It also fosters a high sense of autonomy for both employees and L&D departments within organisations, with the cloud allowing relevant, tailored content to be created for users without any dependence on IT to update delivery platforms accordingly.
2.2 A Richer and More Personalised Learning Experience
The open and collaborative nature of the cloud can also enrich the learning experience opening up the opportunity for more contributions and applications from other people within the learning environment and from within the organisation as well as also encouraging an individual dialogue between trainer and trainee.
With all learning information and modules in a single place, for example, users will be able to link content and create a search platform that enables users to establish preferences and enter specifi c search criteria in order to generate customised results. With the rise of instant messaging, I can also certainly envisage a time where online tutors can bring in experts from across the world to enrich the learning experience – something which would work very effectively in a virtual classroom, for example.
Furthermore, the emergence of cloud-based training solutions, such as Brainshark and Mindshare, provide platforms for solutions that can be created in-house, providing a much greater sense of autonomy and independence for organisations’ L&D departments. This could, for example, usher in a greater role for subject matter experts within the organisation and training which is much more focused on that company’s business activities rather than more ‘off the shelf’ solutions.
Finally, the advent of web service providers, such as Live Matrix, where you can incorporate live and upcoming scheduled events on the Web, and authoring tools that are hosted in the cloud will enable your cloud-based L&D to be more closely aligned with day-to-day developments and issues, and ensure that expert knowledge from multiple sources is made available.
DIY Learning – Brainshark
Brainshark provides the leading cloud-based software for creating, sharing and tracking online and mobile video presentations. With Brainshark, you can easily transform static content, such as PowerPoint® documents, into voice-enriched video presentations that can be accessed anytime, on-demand. You also have access to extensive viewing details, enabling you to measure the effectiveness and reach of your content, so you can follow up accordingly.
Live Matrix is the fi rst guide to live and upcoming scheduled events on the Web. Live Matrix links to anything that has a start time and can be attended online: audio and video webcasts, live chats, limited-time sales and auctions, conferences, product launches, games and contests, events in virtual worlds, and much more.
Conceived by two veterans of new media, Nova Spivack and Sanjay Reddy, Live Matrix organizes the real time Web into three time segments – future, past and present – and enables the birth of the Scheduled Web. It’s the fi rst schedule of “What’s When on the Web.”™
2.3 Speed of Implementation and More Time Devoted to
Learner Needs
Another key benefi t of cloud computing is that it can dramatically speed up the implementation of new learning initiatives and can free up more time for the L&D department to focus on learner needs rather than getting bogged down in discussions with IT.
With the business environment in a constant state of fl ux, we no longer have the luxury of months of negotiation with IT and management before a new learning initiative or platform can be delivered or a new set of e-learning modules can be incorporated with the existing IT infrastructure.
Cloud computing provides organisations with the opportunity of rolling out constant, on the job training which can build staff skills quickly and effi ciently without needing to wait for scheduled classroom instruction. The recent troubles News Corp have found themselves in, for example, could have been partly alleviated if senior management had had a quick refresher course in crisis management in the midst of the recent crisis.
2.4 Cost Effective and Lowering the Entry Barriers
One of the most exciting things about cloud computing is that it will make high quality and innovative training accessible to so many more organisations. In the words of Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, “the cloud services companies of all sizes…The cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy.”
If used correctly, correctly cloud is highly cost effective, enabling L&D budgets to be more competitive and streamlined and not weighed down with IT costs. In all cases, the organisation will only pay for the server space it uses with the costs of maintenance and updates normally built in.
In this way, the cloud can have a great ‘democratising’ effect on the provision of L&D today, lowering the entry barriers and opening up sophisticated learning applications to SMEs – SMEs who had originally been put off the costs of additional IT hardware and software.
In addition, cloud computing can have an enormous impact on the bottom line through reduced costs from training away-days, greater productivity among the workforce, and a leveraging of the technology to foster more effective and collaborative means of working together. This can be only good news for all employees and the L&D sector as a whole.
2.5 No More IT Department Dependence A running theme of all these benefi ts is the new freedom from the IT department and it’s important to address this as a key benefi t in its own right as well.
Traditionally, IT worked side-by-side with the learning organisation, creating platforms and applications that delivered information and training. While on occasions, this has been a harmonious relationship, few could deny that this has been a source of frustration as well, with delays, roadblocks and simply a lack of priority given to L&D by an already overstretched IT department.
The cloud has the potential to change all this, enabling L&D departments to bypass IT for the fi rst time – something that IT departments will probably be grateful for as well!
2.6 Greater Integration
Too often, in the past, there has been a fragmentation between different L&D and HR-based systems, whether they are talent management systems, performance management systems, recruitment, learning management systems or training strategies. With a common data platform, the cloud offers a unique opportunity for greater integration and standard methods of data exchange.
Speed of Implementation & More Time Devoted to Learner Needs.
Cost Effective & Lowering the Entry Barriers.
No More IT Dependence.
Greater Integration.
!THE IMPACT OF CLOUD COMPUTING ON L&D
!!
11
3. WHAT FORMS OF TRAINING WILL BENEFIT FROM THE
CLOUD?
We’ve now seen some of the signifi cant potential benefi ts that L&D can gain from the cloud today. Let’s take a look at how cloud computing can benefi t some specifi c learning applications.
3.1 Mobile Learning
Mobile learning, for example, has seen considerable growth over the last few years. The Cegos survey in May 2011, for example, showed that mobile learning has now been adopted in 21% of organisations across Europe.
Just as the proliferation of hardware, such as smart phones and tablet computers are facilitating this growth, so is cloud computing, enabling a large variety of mobile learning activities to take part outside the fi rewall with employees calling down the information as and when they need it.
With memory and fi rewalls no longer issues, cloud computing should make it that much easier to access learning applications from any device and make learning that much more immediate. Furthermore, there are also compelling economic arguments for cloud-based mobile learning with no expensive proprietary tools and data storage and computing power issues.
3.2 Video Content
The cloud is also likely to prove a major enable for video learning content which has often proved too expensive and memory intensive to be developed internally.
The cloud will provide the bandwidth for streaming and storing video content with delivery applications, such as YouTube and Brainshark (see separate box), likely to become increasingly popular. This information can then be accessed in the fi eld or when it is most needed – if a sales executive requires a few refresher sales tips, for example, just before going into an important meeting.
Furthermore, the rise of Internet TV is also likely to play perfectly with cloud computing, allowing the learner or L&D department to broadcast live or record items as if they had their own television channel.
3.3 Social Networks & Informal Training
The rise of informal networks and internet and social networking tools, which provide the key medium for the dissemination of information, is based on open communities, collaboration, cross-country and cross-company networks and the sharing of knowledge information. This philosophy fi ts closely with the main elements behind cloud computing with L&D operating outside the fi rewall and making it much easier to integrate social networking into L&D strategies through existing web applications, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Furthermore, providers, such as Yammer (www.yammer.com), who provide private, cloud-based micro blogging sites, are playing a crucial role in integrating social networking and the cloud within a structured, environment. In these environments, employees can collaborate with co-workers in real-time, share information about their work, link to articles of interest, ask questions, and even create external networks to communicate with partners.
Based in Columbus, Ohio, Nationwide has grown over the last 80 years from a small mutual auto insurer to one of the largest insurance and fi nancial services companies in the world, with more than $135 billion in statutory assets. Nationwide chose Yammer as its primary communication channel in its push toward fl attened hierarchy and better management. The network grew quickly, with adoption from the full spectrum of employees, salespeople to executives. Now, knowledge isn’t siloed into specifi c regions or department and associates and executives are more connected with a better fl ow of ideas.
3.4 Virtual Learning
Cloud computing is also set to have a major impact on virtual learning in the future.
Cloud computing, for example, can be used to create a fl exible classroom environment accessible to instructors and students over the Internet with cloud-led training going directly to people’s computers. Other delivery methods, such as e-learning and serious games, will all benefi t
In the 2011 Corporate Factbook by Bersin Associates, it was noted that “over the past two years, more companies have turned to virtual classroom instruction”, and yet “transition is not always an easy one, as organisations often fi nd it diffi cult to attain a truly interactive and engaging experience with a group of remote, widely dispersed learners.” Cloud-computing should address these transition diffi culties.
3.5 E-Learning
Cloud computing will also have important applications for the deployment and effectiveness of e-learning modules. For example, all supporting module materials can be stored in the cloud as can all record keeping and login details. There are also no scalability issues; availability is 24/7; and there are increased options for design, such as more simulation.
Whether it be sharing videos and documents, participating in a virtual classroom or engaging in e-learning tools using cloud-based applications, cloud computing helps improve the ways companies can support their people by bringing together a plethora of different learning methods onto a single platform and ensuring the integration of formal and informal learning.
13
4. THE CLOUD AND AN ORGANISATION’S CULTURE
It’s my view, however, that not only can cloud computing have a signifi cant impact on L&D, it also has the potential to dramatically transform company cultures today, particularly in regard to the delivery of information.
How? The cloud allows organisations to be no longer dependent on their IT departments and corporate bureaucracies. What this means is that it enables individuals to access information and specifi c technologies wherever and whenever they need it. In this way, it is a strongly democratic and decentralized approach to existing company values with employees no longer dependent on the internal IT department deciding that their line of business is a priority.
This change in company values is well illustrated in the world of software developers who have traditionally broken away from narrow company confi nements to deliver software through self-organising, collaborative and cross-functional teams. The values they came up with were formalised in The Agile Manifesto. The illustration on this page shows how the Agile Manifesto values:
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.• Collaborative technology over documentation• Collaboration with the customer – the end user – over contract
negotiations; and • The ability to respond to change rather than adhering rigidly to an
existing plan.
While initially developed for the world of software developers, this approach and these values can have a signifi cant impact on the company culture and L&D today as well.
In the words of Accenture and their recent report, already cited in this paper, executives will “take advantage of cloud computing to run leaner, more agile operations and expand their businesses. And while not every company can be a leader in providing cloud services like Google, Amazon or Apple, clouds will undoubtedly change not just companies but entire industries as executives better understand how they can use this powerful technology.”
And the same report found that 60% of executives think that “speed, fl exibility and responsiveness will be one of the cloud’s greatest benefi ts to their organisation over the next fi ve years.”
So far, in this paper, we have just looked at the potential benefi ts and applications of cloud computing. With all emerging technologies, however, there are always issues to be aware of. This section will look at some of these.
5.1 Data Security
Probably the single biggest issue holding back cloud computing today is that of data security. The very nature of cloud computing and SaaS is that information is stored online outside company fi rewalls and protection networks with potentially highly confi dential information at risk. In addition, it is also that risk of entering the unknown that makes organisations concerned about the security issues.
However, just as external providers have been privy to confi dential HR information in the past, cloud vendors are acutely aware of perceived concerns and are continuing to bolster security measures. Organisations, such as the Cloud Security Alliance, have also developed a CSA Certifi cate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) to ensure best practices are shared among providers and to help users make their selections.
There is also a lot that can be done internally to strengthen security. For example, it is important to ensure that security is a key element of any contract or service level agreement with a cloud-based service provider and that you – the user – are aware of their security policies (see questions to ask in separate box).
Many of the same physical assets of a company’s internal IT infrastructure, such as fi rewalls, can also be applied in the cloud environment and a number of companies are also maintaining an internal cloud using virtual infrastructure for what they consider to be business critical processes. Assigning value to specifi c assets can also help you in formulating your security policy.
Top Security Questions to Ask Your Cloud Service Provider
1. How will you be managing my data? 2. Is my data encrypted?3. What recent external audits have been conducted? 4. What back-up and recovery measures do you have in place?
Where will my data be replicated to if your primary data centre suffers an outage?
5. Where is my data being hold? In what jurisdictions, for example?6. What’s the level of physical security in your facilities?7. How will you deliver your agreed service levels? It’s all very well
saying that your service will have 99.9999% uptime but how can you back this up?
8. What happens if something goes wrong? What support will I receive?
9. Can you isolate my virtual machines from those of other customers? Is there a danger of infections from other customers? How am I protected?
10. How can I ensure global consistency if I’m using other cloud providers as well?
Just as shopping and using credit card details online was greeted with considerable scepticism a few years ago, security will only improve over the coming years with greater levels of reassurance.
These concerns over data security are also linked to a perceived lack of control over L&D.
While a certain a degree of autonomy and personalisation is considered to be a good thing in L&D today, this should not be at the expense of L&D relinquishing control over the general framework of L&D and ushering in a potential L&D ‘free for all’. Cloud computing, as for any L&D development, needs to be managed.
5.3 The Future Roles of Managed Service Provider and Training
Provider
The advent of the cloud has potential to blur the relationship between the L&D department and external training or managed service providers.
While many such organisations are adapting and evolving their products to support cloud computing (as Cegos is doing) and while organisations will still need external providers to generate content for e-learning modules, for example, it’s clear that the boundaries of the relationship are likely to change. In these instances, it’s important that such transitions are handled carefully to avoid jeopardising relationships that, in many cases, have been built up over years.
5.4 Transition Diffi culties
This plays in to more general concerns over the transition to the cloud with some tips to managing a cloud-based strategy addressed in section six.
What is clear is that it is important not to follow the path of cloud computing at the expense of existing processes which have often been built up over years. It’s also important to ensure that training effi ciencies aren’t affected as the transition takes place and people adapt to changing processes.
In this paper, we have examined the potential benefi ts of cloud computing to L&D and the enormous effect it can have on the organisation as a whole. Yet, what is the difference between a successful and failed cloud deployment. In this fi nal section, we look at a number of tips towards a successful cloud-based strategy in L&D.
6.1 Always Keep the Cloud in Mind
Once you have made that decision to embrace cloud computing, it’s important that every L&D-based decision is assessed in a cloud-computing context.
In some instances, you might decide to keep some systems in-house, it’s important, however, that you keep the cloud in mind for any new piece of L&D software you launch. What you want to avoid is having a fragmented strategy where some applications are cloud-based and others aren’t without a strategic reason for this.
6.2 Don’t be Over Hasty... Don’t Give Up on Processes within
the Firewall
It’s important to understand that cloud-based L&D is about the delivery of new L&D services rather than simply the replacement of existing ones. It’s important to still keep faith with many of the L&D services that are often operating very effectively within the fi rewall rather than placing your entire future L&D strategy on the failure or success of the cloud. This being said, however, there’s no reason why many of your internal L&D processes can’t be transferred to the cloud.
6.3 Never Underestimate the Personal Touch
It’s often easy to get dazzled by the latest technologies but this should never happen at the expense of the personal touch in L&D today. Cloud-computing can only really work if individuals are actively involved in the process, making those important decisions as to how to manage the transition and foster collaboration – through the creation of forums, for example.
6.4 Make Sure you Pass the ‘So What’ Test
It’s important to not get so caught up by the latest cloud-based applications that you end up following the latest ‘fad’ at the expense of a longer term strategy.
It’s very important that every cloud-based applications incorporated into your L&D processes passes the ‘so what’ test. What use can my organisation make of this feature? How can it improve the performance of my employees? etc..
It’s also important to commit the appropriate resources to any company-wide transition to cloud-based L&D. Don’t allow everything to grind to a standstill as you start to deploy some applications on the cloud with a subsequent effect on training effi ciencies. Don’t simply see transition to the cloud as an immediate cost savings measure.
6.6 Give Yourself Room for Manoeuvre
It’s also important to give yourself maximum fl exibility when choosing a cloud solutions vendor. What can I do if the platform doesn’t live up to expectations and how easily can I migrate? How easy will it be to transfer the information and how much will it cost? You need to continue to have fl exibility in your L&D operations.
There’s little doubt that cloud computing has the potential to have a huge impact on L&D over the next few years – probably more so than any technology innovation that has come previously.
Cloud computing offers learning organisations an opportunity to create, implement and deliver user-specifi c applications anytime, anywhere and it enables users to have much greater input into their training paths. While concerns remain as to its implementation, it’s clear to me that the huge potential of the cloud has already been unleashed, delivering training more effi ciently and effectively than ever before.
Accenture Cloudrise: Rewards and Risks at the Dawn of Cloud Computing (2010)Agile Manifesto, www.agilemanifesto.orgBrainshark, www.brainshark.comCegos Group Survey, May 2010 www.cegos.comCentre for Learning & Performance Technologies, www.c4lpt.co.ukCloud Security Alliance, https://cloudsecurityalliance.orgCorporate Learning Factbook 2011, Bersin & Associates www.bersin.comForrester Research, www.forrester.comInternational Data Corporation, IT Cloud Services Forecast 2009-2013, www.idc.comLive Matrix, www.livematrix.comMindshare, www.mindshareworld.comThe National Institute of Standards and Technology, www.nist.govSalesforce.com, www.salesforce.comTraining Journal, www.trainingjournal.comWorkday, www.workday.comYammer, www.yammer.com
Cegos Group, established in 1926 is today the European leader in professional education and one of the major global players. Its consultants have expertise across all subject areas in management and developing competencies: human resources, management and leadership, performance and organisational skills, individual and team performance, marketing and commercial, project management, deployment of large training systems internationally.In 2010, Cegos Group achieved sales of 180 M€ and trained more than 200,000 staff in Europe and internationally. Cegos employs 1,200 consultants and works in 30 countries across the globe.
Jeremy Blain is a Director of Cegos SA, and is responsible for Cegos’ strategy for international expansion through a value adding Global Distribution Partners Network.
An L&D entrepreneur responsible for growing Cegos’ business worldwide through a network of distribution partners, Jeremy has 10 years experience in the industry as a managing director, partner, trainer, coach and programme author. In previous roles at Procter and Gamble, Pepsico and as CEO of his own business, Jeremy’s background includes marketing, sales, operations and account management.
Jeremy is a frequent international conference speaker and media commentator on topics related to the global L&D market. Themes include: the integration of emerging and informal learning technologies; the importance of performance measurement and proving ROI; developing ‘core’ leadership, management and commercial skills to achieve competitive business advantage; and change management and how to implement successful international training strategies. For more details, debate or discussion, you can fi nd Jeremy on LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeremyblain and also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/learntheplanet
Jeremy has also published a series of white papers on issues relevant to L&D. These are still current and available, and include:
• Cegos/ASTD global learning trends research: A comparison between what is happening among learners today and the perceptions of learning professionals, July 2011
• ‘Training Today, Training Tomorrow - An Analysis of Learning Trends Across Europe and Global Comparisons’, May 2011.
• Helping to Make an Impact’, May 2011• ‘The Rise of Virtual Learning’, April 2011• ‘What has L&D Learned from the Economic Slowdown’, March 2011• ‘Informal Networks – How They Are Changing the World of Work’,
December 2010• ‘Exploring and Interpreting the Most Important Learning Trends across
