A key to the market's growth is the extension of e-learning's reach beyond traditional staff training applications to support sales and customer service initiatives and to train distributors, customers and suppliers.
The corporate e-learning industry has now entered a critical period, one in which companies' ability to make value-added acquisitions and integrate them is becoming a source of competitive advantage. Tighter capital markets and client requirements for comprehensive solutions have led to accelerated acquisition activity during the last two years
In 2001, through November, a total of 26 major corporate e-learning acquisitions took place, with a cumulative transaction value of an estimated $350 million. The acquirers included virtually every leading publicly-traded firm, including Click2learn, DigitalThink, Docent, Saba, and SmartForce, as well as a technology giant using an acquisition to accelerate market entry, Sun Microsystems.
Driving the market is a clear recognition that e-learning offers a significant return on investment (ROI). A new Eduventures report, Corporate E-learning ROI Scoreboard, introduces the Eduventures.com E-learning Rating System to assess the performance of e-learning vendors in delivering tangible business results for clients.
The rating system enables users to: