Whether an organization is seeking a solution to profit from selling its knowledge or just seeking to more efficiently share information internally, e-Learning initiatives have matured to a level of extreme flexibility, overall value, and marketplace acceptance.

Historically, organizations that sell seminars and other training-related items (books, videos, etc.) have been constrained by geographic dispersion of students as well as being saddled with additional costs such as time and money spent on material printing and distribution, traveling, instructor availability, and classroom facility maintenance. Corporations with internal training needs have incurred additional expenses which include bringing employees to a central location, productivity loss due to travel, and the inability to facilitate follow-up discussions once employees return to their offices.

With ongoing advancements in information/video delivery via the Internet, the initiation of an e-Learning application presents a number of opportunities in terms of time and dollar savings as well as significantly enhancing client reach.

Consider the benefits of e-Learning:

Geographic boundaries fall away with an e-Learning application. Potential students are no longer limited by location or time of class. Commercial training organizations can now promote their training programs in new markets without adding expense or personnel. Corporations can expand seminar offerings to multiple locations without increasing travel and entertainment expenses, thus eliminating any overhead associated with classroom facility maintenance or time spent out of the office.

Students can learn at their own pace based upon their schedule and comprehension of the material. e-Learning enhances the learning process by negating the challenge of instructing a class of students at different levels of expertise. Testing and assessments can also be conducted online and can include professional certification. Test scores can be delivered confidentially to the student or to a pre-determined audience seeking information on student performance and identifying additional areas for improvement. Corporations can easily manage employee certification programs through customization of e-Learning course completion catalogs while seminar companies, through appropriate database management, can market subsequent seminar offerings to those who have successfully completed prerequisite courses.

With threaded message forums, corporations and training organizations can offer the benefit of ongoing communication on the seminar topic for students and faculty alike. Students can be encouraged to share best practices and real-life application of knowledge gained. These message forums can be password-protected thus offering security and an opportunity for additional revenue as well as course content refinement.

Course management systems and e-Commerce applications can be used together to charge for premium content and manage access to that content. Used together, these systems can restrict access to non-paying students until the monetary requirements are met, then the courses can be delivered based on time or activation. Related course materials, books, videos, etc. can easily be purchased online through secure credit card systems.

Course content is always fresh and reflects the latest information available in the chosen area of study Placing course content online provides the ability to continuously update information with simple content management tools. Calendars, new course offerings, announcements, etc. are no longer constrained by printing deadlines or design limitations.

e-Learning has revolutionized corporate learning models and is rapidly becoming a preferred method of study for many university-level students as well as expanding markets for seminar/training companies. By focusing on individuals forced to juggle multiple roles and increased work demands, e-Learning providers can create opportunities for individuals to pursue a variety of courses to maintain their professional certifications. In summary, e-Learning offers a flexible, cost-effective method for ongoing education for the student as well as new marketing opportunities for the corporation.

An example of the successful application of e-Learning to move a traditional learning distribution model to an updated, flexible model for today's business world is Bergwall.com.

Bergwall Productions, Inc. has always been known for its customer focus and its adherence to providing quality training tools and certification programs. Founded in 1969, this privately-held firm located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania had originally provided course materials to its customers in printed form. In 1998, the firm's president and second generation family member in the company Eric Bergwall recognized the value of e-Learning and the opportunities it presented. These included offering the firm's courses online as well as increasing related revenues through the sale of books, videos and CD-ROMs.

Today, Bergwall uses a customized GIM.NET application, InfoServeCM, that enables it to provide its extensive inventory of courses online. Customers are able to register for courses online, pay with a credit card, and then access courses in a format that requires no additional plug-ins or downloads. Related training materials are also available for purchase in a secure manner online.

Customers can register online, and Bergwall's session identification management features include visitor tracking throughout the site. This allows for confirmation that items placed in the cart (courses or related materials selected to buy by the customer) remain in the cart for later reference.

"GIM.NET developed an extremely flexible e-Learning/e-Commerce hybrid application for us that provides solutions to so many opportunities across our different market niche focuses," said Eric Bergwall."With its inherent flexibility, we are able to easily adapt our course offerings including ongoing updates, private label our courses based upon client request, offer instantaneous course previews to potential customers, strengthen sales of related materials and develop new market niches. A tremendous benefit of working with GIM.NET was their insight into business coupled with their software development expertise."

Bergwall.com reflects a successful reengineering of a product distribution model to expand customer reach, maintain competitive positioning, and develop new business opportunities and eliminate unnecessary expenditures.<

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