Open, open, open—everywhere. But what does it really mean?
Open source software, open educational resources, massive open online courses. The word 'open' is everywhere—and it’s a nice-sounding idea, right? But you can't simply rely on buzz-words to make a business case for new technology. Why should companies harness open to power the technology behind their training and compliance programs? What is an open training platform?
An open training platform is flexible.
You don’t want to totally upend your existing training program, just to offer 24/7 learning online. You don’t want your trainers to bend over backwards to accommodate a rigid new learning management system. You don’t want that trouble, cost, or complexity.
You’re looking for a flexible system—a platform your organization can use to model and integrate with existing processes, instead of the other way around.
That’s what an open training platform offers. Open technologies are flexible because they’re developed by dispersed communities of developers that are passionate about innovation. Dispersed communities with a whole lot of different needs, so the resulting product has no choice but to be accommodating and flexible, while meeting core business requirements. The technology suits your needs, not the other way around.
An open training platform is extensible.
You don’t want to be forced to adopt a new technology, just because your company has grown, or moved into a new market, or developed a new type of product. Having the option of tailoring your learning system to take on new learning plans without having to pay for customization is key benefit.
As an HR or Training professional, you’re looking for an extensible platform—a learning management system that will change and grow with you.
An open training platform provides that scalability. Using APIs and plugins, open platforms, can integrate with key HR systems, providing you a 360 degree view of your employees' learning and development progress.
An open training platform shares cost.
Simply put, you want to minimize cost. This will forever be the case.
And an open training platform does that. It’s kept up-to-date by a wider world of open source users and developers—not just one vendor, not just your internal team. The implementation experience of users who came before is there to support you in your adoption process. The responsibility—and cost—for fixes and improvements is shared with a big community. Because the base technology is shared, costs are too.
Open is about sharing—co-creating—value.
Open technologies, because of their large, dispersed communities of builders and users, develop organically. They must adapt to the needs and conditions of users. They can only exist if they offer shared benefit.
For business users, this is a beautiful thing. It maximizes value, and minimizes expense. It finds the sweet spot that benefits all stakeholders to the utmost—including you as a user. An open talent platform is the most flexible, expandable, and cost-effective way to keep your talent training and working towards both their personal goals and your (shared) corporate objectives.
Interested in finding out more on how open platforms can improve employee performance and engagement? Register for our upcoming webinar.
