The Benefits Of Training Management Software For Small And Mid-Sized Businesses
The great thing about training management software is it has so many features that it can fulfill the needs of training companies and training departments, as well as businesses from lots of different industries, and businesses of different sizes. Today we’re going to look at the specific advantages of training management software for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), and what parts of the system will work especially well for training businesses of this size.
1. Create A Centralized Knowledge Base
One huge advantage of using training management software is the fact it gives you the ability to store all your information in one place rather than having multiple systems on the go where information is held. This could be a combination of spreadsheets, files on Google Docs, files saved on personal computers, or even hard copies of some information – this can get very confusing, very quickly!
In a smaller business this can prove even more of a problem, as you may have a department which is made up of one person, and they may keep all their department related information simply stored on their computer, with their own little system, because no one else ever needs to access the information. But what happens when they are off sick, or on holidays, and someone needs access to their information? It will be impossible to access! Also, if this staff member ever leaves, even with the best of handovers, they still risk leaving out key information that the new person will need to do their job effectively.
You may think that will smaller teams it’s fine to leave lots of information in person systems, but actually it’s more key that the information is stored somewhere central, to ensure that other people can access it without going through this other person. The last thing you want to do is to create a gatekeeper to all your vital business data, as this could create problems further down the line.
2. Keep Up With Larger Competitors
Are you losing business to larger competitors because you feel you can’t compete with them online? Using training management software could help boost your presence online because you can do things such as sell your courses online in just a few clicks!
At present you may list your courses online so potential customers can browse your course catalogue, but maybe they still have to phone or email you in order to close the sale. This little extra bit of effort is enough to put people off and have them make the jump to a competitor. It could be they don’t want to deal with people personally to make their sale, or it could be the extra time it takes to make a phone call or wait for an email response, over simply purchasing online, is enough to sway them. Finally, it could be the fact that they simply feel more secure completing their purchase online through a trusted payment provider. Whatever the reason, if you’re not selling your courses online, you are missing out big time!
Selling your courses online will be no extra effort as well, as once you’ve entered all the information about your courses into your training management software, it will automatically be pulled through onto your website, meaning your website will always display the most up-to-date information without you having to enter any information twice. It also means any edits that you make will show on your website in real-time, as the information is pulled through automatically!
3. Save Money!
Investing in training management software can help save you money in a number of different ways, so it’s important not to be put off by the initial expense of buying a new piece of software.
First of all, paying for just one system which will manage everything your business needs to worry about should work out cheaper than using lots of individual systems to cover different aspects of your business. Instead of paying for a separate training course management software, CRM, LMS, reporting system, finance system, sales system etc., you’re simply paying for one system! This will also make working across different systems a lot easier, as all the information is in one place, and can be pulled across to wherever you need it, without having to worry about tracking the information down, or any duplicate data entry.
You can also save money as training management software can mean you don’t have to expand your team for longer than usual. Training management software can automate so many of the tasks that your team complete at the moment, which means they will have a lot more time to get on with other tasks. This will mean your team will be able to do even more work without actually increasing the amount of staff you employ. This also means you’ll have a little more leeway before your staff starts to reach capacity and you have to look at hiring more. That will not only save you the cost of a salary or two, but also the cost of hiring staff and on-boarding, which can also prove expensive.
4. Allow Your Staff To Grow
Completing repetitive administration tasks over and over again is hardly anyone’s idea of a good time, but these tasks are vital to your business, so what’s the answer? It’s simple – get some training management software!
Training management software can take over a lot of these boring, but necessary tasks to allow your staff to have more time to grow in their role and expand their knowledge!
Here are just some of the things you can automate using training management software, so you never have to do them manually again:
- Automate your communications.
Create email templates and decide on the triggers which will cause them to send and your training management software will take care of the rest, including pulling in all the specific information needed, such as email address, name, and course information. - Compile reports.
Decide what data you want to be displayed in your report, save it, and you never need to worry about compiling that report again. Every time you open the report all the data in it will be pulled through from your training management software, and updated in-real time, so you always have the most up-to-date data possible without any extra effort. You can also set up the reports to send automatically to whoever needs them, whenever they need them, so you don’t even need to worry about that. - Collect student feedback.
Collecting feedback from students at the end of a course is a vital business practice, but it can be very time-consuming! Training management software allows you to create and store surveys, which you can then set to automatically send to students once their course has finished. Any responses will then automatically be pulled back into your training management software, so the data can be analysed using your training reporting system!
