Infor has announced that it has signed an agreement with LearnQuest. As part of the agreement it has named them a global authorized training partner. In doing so it seems that the initial agreement only covers EMEA and APAC regions. Oddly the LearnQuest US site lists Infor as part of its vendor portfolio but all the training courses topics are classified as: “This course category is currently unavailable in your country.”
The availability of classes is somewhat sporadic between different countries. In the UK there are no scheduled classes yet, although there are several potential classes detailed, all online classroom. In Germany there are already scheduled classes, however these appear to be delivered in English. The topics initially covered are listed as:
- Enterprise Asset Management
- Global HR
- ION
- LN
- M3
- Public Sector
- Sales & Operations Planning
- SunSystems
- Talent Management (HCM)
- Workforce Management
Infor is not the first company to use LearnQuest as a delivery mechanism for training across the world. Other vendors that have global course material available include IBM, Lenovo, Teradata and Microsoft. In the US several more companies use the solution to deliver training including software companies such as Adobe, Citrix and VMWare.
For LearnQuest this is its first ERP solution and it will hope that success will bring more customers. Dimitri Schneiberg, Managing Director for LearnQuest commented: “We are truly excited and proud to have been selected by Infor. We have felt for some time that their enterprise offerings and outstanding reputation are a great match for our global capabilities in providing corporations and government agencies with comprehensive training on the skills, tools and methodologies which are designed to help their employees succeed.”
The intention is that the courses will be aligned to both the private and public sectors in the two regions. Courses will also be aligned to industry verticals such as aerospace and defense, automotive, fashion, healthcare, high tech electronics, industrial manufacturing and retail although there is no indication yet of those vertical alignments in the training offered online so far.
The agreement goes some way to address what some companies often find difficulty with. Namely, ensuring a consistent quality across the globe for its training courses and ensuring that those courses are at a consistent level. So far all the courses look to be classroom-based online trainng and it will be interesting to see whether this is expanded. Learnquest offer four different training formats including virtual instructor lead, self-paced learning and “Re-skilling and boot camp” learning experiences. It is shame that there are no self-paced learning opportunities within the solution for businesses that cannot afford to allow employees have the 3 to 4 days dedicated to training.
Conclusion
This will be welcome news for Infor customers looking to learn more about their products either before, during or after purchasing. For Infor this is an agreement that allows it to meet the flexible demand of training requirements without investing in its own training teams. As it looks to move its customer base across to the cloud, often upgrading their platforms there could be a huge demand for training. The number of courses in Germany alone would indicate that this move will be successful in meeting that short term demand and then flexing in the future.
As Jason Fox, Vice President, Infor Education commented: “This partnership offers valuable training options and greater flexibility for Infor customers. LearnQuest is a leading global training partner and we look forward to leveraging their capabilities to grow our presence globally.”
What will be interesting is whether the agreement is extended into delivering courses into the US.
