Du Jour: Online R.O.I. Cases?

Training Directors, Forum E-Net, April 12, 2000

AN INSTANT ONLINE CASE
Proving ROI is at least as much of a challenge with Web-based training as it is with traditional delivery -- more so, of course, if trainers don't know how to do it, Training Directors' Forum Newsletter reported last year.

"Often, the people who compile ROI projections are as new to WBT as those requesting the information," Anne Derryberry told TDF.

ROI compilers "often overlook both costs and benefits that are appropriately theirs to claim," said Derryberry, Vice President of Corporate Development of Viviance new education Inc.

For example, don't forget to include: costs to train WBT designers and developers in the new medium, special equipment and software, updates to the training -- and higher hotel phone bills as traveling trainees log on from afar.

What training should you track online? Choose with care. "Many WBT programs aren't directly linked to overall business impact," Jack Phillips, a Birmingham, AL, ROI specialist, told TDF in the same issue.

Online training sometimes merely passes along facts, such as new- product information for field sales people. It might offer details, let you make choices and find out the consequences of those choices, and test you on what you've learned.

Does such a program link to overall business goals? Not directly enough to document return clearly, said Phillips.

Be more concerned, he urged, with the question: Did your salespeople acquire the product knowledge? If the answer is yes -- there's your ROI study.

In short, take a good, hard look at your WBT before you try to show how it is tied to your bottom line. Warned Phillips: "It might not be."