When the pandemic forced organisations to shift to remote working, many had to quickly adapt their learning and development strategies – and in some cases, even put them on pause.
Training Industry Magazine reported that only 33% continued their training programmes as they were, while 56% retooled and repurposed theirs, and 37% delayed the rollout of new programmes altogether.
But now that organisations have welcomed their workforces back to the office – or put the measures in place for a permanent remote workforce – many are looking to refine their learning and development strategies for 2022 and beyond. And that means finding a learning management system (LMS) that can help them deliver intuitive, modern training experiences that’ll keep employees engaged.
In our recent webinar, we explored why finding a future-proof LMS is so critical to creating successful learning and development plans today – and offered a closer look at SAP Litmos, an industry-leading LMS used by organisations worldwide.
Read on to find out how a forward-thinking engineering consultancy company uses the LMS to deliver industry-renowned training courses to its clients across the world.
Merlin – Delivering essential online learning with SAP Litmos
While SAP Litmos can be a powerful LMS for educating your own employees, it can also be a valuable system for delivering professional training courses outside of your organisation.
During our webinar, we were joined by Neil Armstrong, Engineering Director at Merlin, to hear exactly how the company has used the LMS to take its online learning to new heights in 2021.
Merlin serves a wide range of sectors, supporting any company that’s looking to drill complex wells of up to 50,000ft. Every operation involves significant risks, and if anything goes wrong, it can be catastrophic – from both a financial and safety perspective.
The risks make strategic, well-thought-out training programmes essential for any team planning drilling projects. And that’s exactly what Merlin offers – four in-depth courses covering extended reach, managed pressure, geothermal, and complex well drilling.
A chance to rethink what modern learning looks like
Previously, all Merlin’s courses were delivered in person to clients worldwide, involving frequent travelling for the company’s instructors and a significant volume of printed resources for their learners.
While time consuming, it was a method that proved successful for the company, generating almost £650k in revenue for Merlin in 2019. But when the COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to move online, the team had to rethink its strategy.
We had already started shifting some of our courses online by the time remote working started. We implemented our first LMS in April 2020 – it initially made us much more efficient, but we encountered a lot of problems with the system we used.
Neil Armstrong, Engineering Director at Merlin.
Merlin wanted to find an alternative LMS that offered its team greater flexibility and full control over the learning experiences they’re delivering.
“With our previous LMS, we had to rely on an external vendor any time we wanted to make changes to our courses and learning environment,” said Neil. “Even something as simple as changing our registration confirmation emails couldn’t be done in-house.”
After taking a step back to compare potential solutions – and redefine its course strategy – Merlin chose SAP Litmos to host its professional courses.
Intuitive modern learning powered by SAP Litmos
In just three weeks, Merlin set up its entire online course library on SAP Litmos, complete with the company’s branding and customised content. Using the LMS, Merlin offers its clients intuitive self-guided and instructor-led online courses that include pre-built and custom-built modules tailored to the drilling industry.
“Our courses have really taken off since our migration to SAP Litmos. We can now offer a wide range of interactive learning resources, pre-course and post-course assessments, course completion certificates, and much more,” explained Neil. “We can even offer our clients post-course reports on their employees’ performance, generated from data within the LMS.”
Critically, SAP Litmos offers Merlin’s team complete control over its entire learning environment – allowing trainers and administrators to easily customise course content, engage with learners, and make system changes without external support.
SAP Litmos offers greater flexibility than our previous system, and it’s much more cost-effective. We’ve been really impressed with the results so far – we’ve delivered 31 courses on the system, received a lot of positive feedback, and significantly reduced our carbon footprint.
Neil Armstrong, Engineering Director at Merlin
Watch the full webinar to see SAP Litmos in action
Merlin’s impressive course delivery is just one example of what’s possible with SAP Litmos. Watch the webinar on demand to discover some of the systems’ most compelling features, with an expert-led demo by our own SAP Litmos Specialist Alex Rae.
(P.S. You’ll also find out how to get a free 14-day trial for SAP Litmos, so you can see how it fits into your own learning and development strategy)
