Wekaio increases training effectiveness & efficiency with custom training program

WekaIO teamed up with eThink Education and CyberCrocodile to build their ideal sales onboarding and training program housed on a robust and user-friendly LMS. eThink Education and CyberCrocodile provided WekaIO with a fully managed LMS solution and the custom courses they needed to implement a successful, trackable training program.

WekaIO is a software company that has built the world’s fastest shared and parallel file system, which is designed to fit the needs of organizations of a variety of sizes and scales. WekaIO’s flexible deployment models and software provide a modern file system designed to meet the demands of modern workloads with the intensive technical computing requirements.

The Challenge

WekaIO wanted a Learning Management System (LMS) that could be used for internal sales representative training, with the ability to expand the use of the platform for the training of other groups. WekaIO previously had no formalized onboarding program, and the ad hoc nature of training and onboarding they had been employing took an extremely large time commitment from both executives and managers. WekaIO’s sales training is particularly extensive due to their complex selling motion that requires a high level of competency before a sales team can be successful.

“We never had an automated LMS system prior to eThink. Every training program was live and required days of training by a few subject matter experts. A sales rep could not be effective without the training so it meant every time we hired even one new sales team member, we had to do a full training,” said Barbara Murphy, Vice President of Marketing at WekaIO.

WekaIO’s existing training solution lacked instructional design and was not easily updated or duplicated, greatly limiting its effectiveness and efficiency. WekaIO wanted to create a training solution that featured a series of custom, asynchronous courses that would effectively train and onboard their sales team, without the need for constant supervision by upper management. They also wanted a training program that would be scalable, repeatable, and measurable. It was crucial to WekaIO that their new training content seamlessly integrate into an LMS so that they could easily track and report on the effectiveness of their training programs.

WekaIO had a long list of desires for their LMS beyond just housing the courses they hoped to design. They required built-in authoring tools, social learning functions, calendars, integrations with Google, DropBox, and more. WekaIO was looking for a fully-managed solution that would streamline the LMS process and reduce the required time commitment from their team, while still having the flexibility and far- reaching functionality that would allow them to use the LMS for training now and for other needs they may have in the future.

The Solution

Fully-Managed Totara LMS Solution

CyberCrocodile introduced WekaIO to their partner eThink Education in order to fulfill their LMS needs. eThink Education’s fully-managed LMS solutions, paired with their industry-leading customer service, were a great fit for WekaIO. As eThink offers multiple LMS solutions, eThink worked with the WekaIO team to define their learning goals and needs and then choose the best LMS platform for them.

After considering the wide-ranging functionality that WekaIO wanted in their LMS, eThink suggested the dynamic and customizable open-source learning platform, Totara Learn. Totara’s open-source technology and corporate specific functionality provided an incredibly flexible solution that could be tailored to meet WekaIO’s specific needs, including allowing for the seamless integration of CyberCrocodile’s custom content as well as a variety of other technologies and plugins directly into the Totara platform. Ultimately, eThink provided WekaIO with a customized platform that met all of their technical needs, while still being priced effectively for their start-up budget. 

HR Import

eThink configured the HR Import feature in Totara to seamlessly import WekaIO’s team member data from their existing HR system into the new Totara instance.

Detailed Reporting

eThink set up customized reporting for WekaIO in Totara. Completion reports were configured for Courses, Programs, and SCORM modules using the Totara Report Builder. Filters were also set up so that administrators could separate their users based on Department, Course, and Completion status.

Audience Creation

Audiences were created based on job description to seamlessly assign courses to users within the LMS. Audience creation allows the WekaIO team to assign specific courses and programs to groups of users based on their audience categorization. The creation of Audiences allows for unique dashboards to be created for each specific audience. The current audience configured within the instance is for internal sales representatives, while another is being created for partner sales representatives.

CyberCrocodile’s Training Content Solutions

CyberCrocodile provided WekaIO with customized instructional design, content development, and solution engineering services that were essential to rounding out their training program. CyberCrocodile designed nearly 35 courses that were optimized for effectiveness and efficiency, and included interactive content that could be consumed on any device at anytime on WekaIO’s newly created LMS. CyberCrocodile conducted a half-day design workshop with the WekaIO team to identify their exact needs and to determine what design strategies should be implemented in their courses.

CyberCrocodile placed courses into a variety of categories including Intro, Basics, Sales, and Competition, allowing learners to select the most important courses for them. CyberCrocodile also incorporated interactive elements throughout the courses to make them more engaging for learners, including hover-to-reveal elements and in-course knowledge checks to reinforce critical concepts at the time of learning. CyberCrocodile’s formalized training solution is budget friendly, highly scalable, technologically flexible, and able to support WekaIO’s future needs for years to come.

The Results

Engaging Content for an Enhanced Learning Experience

The courses that CyberCrocodile created provided an effective, engaging learning solution for WekaIO’s sales team. Since the courses were created to be self-paced rather than proctored, managers could take a more hands-off approach, while still providing rich yet digestible and effective content for the onboarding of new sales hires at WekaIO. One WekaIO sales representative said of the courses:

“I found all of it to be very, very helpful. The content was exactly what I’ve been craving and these cleared up a lot for me. I found the sales, competition, architecture and vertical sessions invaluable. So much so, I will be returning frequently to soak it all in.”

By partnering with CyberCrocodile, WekaIO was able to commission a series of courses that fit the company’s exact needs, while taking large amounts of pressure off of their staff for internal content creation and course proctoring.

Hosted directly within Totara, the courses are rounded out by detailed reporting and analytics provided by eThink, which allows managers at WekaIO to easily track how their team members are progressing through the onboarding process. The reporting allows managers to track their new hires efficiently, and be able to notice if there are any areas in which learners are struggling. With eThink’s detailed reporting, WekaIO managers are able to closely track their employees’ knowledge retention, while still allowing learners to complete the required modules at their own pace.

“Our implementation experience with eThink has been very positive. Working with CyberCrocodile, who already has experience with eThink systems, made the whole process go very smoothly,” said Murphy.

Efficiency & Time-Saving

With the new Totara instance implemented by eThink, coupled with the courses created for WekaIO by CyberCrocodile, the amount of time that subject matter experts have to dedicate to training has been reduced by 70%. By streamlining training online, new hires are learning more efficiently and effectively.

“We have reduced internal manual training time by about 70%. I do not even begin in-person training until I see they have spent at least 20 hours on the LMS. It has given me the ability to make sales people first learn on their own, so we don’t have to start from scratch every time. The sales time to ramp has also improved significantly. With the new platform by eThink and new content by CyberCrocodile, competency time has shrunk from 3-4 months to 1-2 months.” Barbara Murphy, Vice President of Marketing at WekaIO

In stark contrast to the time-intensive style of training that had previously been the norm at WekaIO, the fully customised LMS and automated courses provide their sales team with the necessary information to quickly and efficiently get them up to speed, all within an easy-to-use platform. Reporting also allows managers to know exactly where new hires are in the onboarding process and see if the reps are struggling in any areas. With unlimited support by eThink, the WekaIO team does not have to commit any of their time to managing or maintaining the platform and instead can focus on other important tasks related to onboarding and the user experience.

Freedom for future innovation

The first stage of WekaIO’s training program implementation has been so successful that they have already initiated another stage of the process. eThink and CyberCrocodile are in the process of building a reseller partner training portal that includes curricula for partner sales representatives and sales engineers. As a part of the site expansion, eThink is also working with WekaIO to implement a Single Sign On (SSO) through WekaIO’s existing partner relationship management software system to allow for more efficient and user-friendly access to the Totara instance for their partner representatives. There is also an additional third stage for internal technical training that is in its planning stages.  Partnering with eThink Education and CyberCrocodile has allowed WekaIO to create an engaging and efficient sales training program that has the capability to scale within their organization and adapt to support their future needs and goals.