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Features

Published August 2008

Untangling the Web of Learning Integration

  

  Bill Perry

Rick Crowley and Mohana Radhakrishnan like to solve problems. And they make a good team. Crowley has 25 years of experience in application development, and Radhakrishnan holds an advanced degree in accounting and has developed numerous software systems.

In recent years, the pair has tackled the increasingly complex world of integrating learning technologies, which include virtual classrooms, learning content management systems (LCMS), learning management systems (LMS) and collaboration software.

The cost of underestimating this complexity can cast a long shadow over a career. According to a recent report by Forrester Research, a pharmaceutical maker walked away from a $900,000 LMS investment because the implementation failed. Integrations have become so complex, Forrester analysts explained, because “learning applications touch all people in your organization and interoperate with many corporate systems like payroll, HR, and content repositories.”

Seeing Opportunity in a Problem
Almost a decade ago, the two met while Crowley was director of e-learning systems and architecture at a large networking equipment maker. Radhakrishnan was chief consulting strategist for learning outsourcing firm Expertus.

At the time, Crowley’s company was examining its learning infrastructure, which included 95 learning partners, dozens of integrations and seven learning management systems, ultimately reduced to two. There can be hundreds of conflicting application requirements when trying to embed training and learning technologies into the way an organization acquires skills and know-how, Crowley said. Integrating learning systems is multifaceted work, so Crowley phoned Radhakrishnan for help.

“I believe in calling on people both inside and outside an organization to help with the design of learning applications,” Crowley said. “No one company can hold all the expertise it needs, so you turn to people like Mohana who can help you think through the options and execute.”

While Crowley had years and years of application development experience, he found that Radhakrishnan had the domain expertise to understand the learning industry, training technologies, the processes and the participants.

Radhakrishnan, who still holds the chief strategist role at Expertus, said, “Even the best organizations have trouble looking at a learning architecture in a holistic way. It’s a function of the way integrations are often done – one at a time.”

“We looked at what my employer had at the time, and we saw economies of scale not being taken advantage of,” Crowley said. “For example, the content that people wanted was being developed by many departments and each group had its own content management system. The content management systems in place were very specific about which content they would take.”

An Idea Is Born
So, after deliberation, analysis and planning with each other and their respective teams, Crowley and Radhakrishnan devised what they called a delivery management system (DMS). The DMS was a services-based architecture designed to untangle the dozens upon dozens of integrations inherent in the networking equipment maker’s learning architecture. The company’s learning architecture – like those of many other large and small organizations – was a web of integrations and connected technologies. When one learning technology vendor upgraded its system, Crowley found that upgrade could immediately impact the links to other systems spread across the architecture.