Elearnity Launching New Research Program to Evaluate Customer Satisfaction with Learning Technology Solutions

A new research program to gauge user satisfaction of various learning technologies in Europe will be launched in the coming months, according to a recent press release.  Elearnity, an independent research firm on focused on corporate learning and talent management, announced that  “corporate customers across the UK and Europe are invited to rate the learning technology solutions they are using within their organization.” The research will focus on all the main areas of learning technologies including Learning Management Systems (LMS), bespoke and generic elearning content, authoring tools, Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS), social and collaboration tools, assessment tools and mobile learning solutions. Customer organizations are asked to rate the technology they are using in these different categories based on functionality, user experience, ease of delivery, configurability and flexibility, solution impact and total cost of ownership. They are also encouraged to leave supporting comments which will provide additional insights and qualitative input into the research. The firm that said that the results of the of the research will be published later in 2013, and that its goal is to provide a yearly study of learning technology customer satisfaction in Europe. My thoughts: I think that this research is surely a welcome development, from a variety of angles.  First, as companies have increased their funding in learning and development in recent years according to recent data, and since analyst firms are predicting continued growth in investment in the coming years, due to changing business practices and technology, there cannot be enough data of what is working and what isn’t. It’s of clear value to these companies as they can plan their budgets according.   Secondly, since learning technology is still very much a developing field, it’s important for solutions providers to be able to gauge customer feedback of their own technologies as well as those of others.  Feedback and customer satisfaction or lack thereof plays a key role in the development and improvement of the learning technology market.   Finally, from the customer side, the research will promote and reveal to the wider public the various technologies that are available, and how people are rating them.   Research like this is important and welcome, and we hope to see it in other regions beyond Europe in the future.