Expertus and Training Industry, Inc. Survey Reveals Increasing Budgets and Strong Impacts

Mountain View, CA – September 3, 2008 – Expertus, a global leader in helping companies fuel business growth by maximizing the value of training investments, and Training Industry, Inc. (www.trainingindustry.com), an objective and trusted expert on the marketplace for learning, today announced the release of the findings from their joint August 2008 study, Optimizing Customer Training. The full results report can be viewed here:
http://www.trainingefficiency.com/system/files/SurveyResults_CustomerTraining_Expertus_Aug28.pdf.

The research found that 48% of survey respondents believed that customer training budgets would go up, compared with 32% of respondents who believed that employee training budgets would go up in 2009. Further, 41% believe customer training budgets would increase by over 10%, with as many as 19% expecting it to go up by over 20%.

“In the training industry it is always insightful to see how budgets shift, and this study revealed that many organizations’ customer training budgets are safe next year,” said Ramesh Ramani, Founder and CEO of Expertus. “In fact, the respondents were quite generous in the percentage increase that they expect to see.”

In addition to this growth, over one-third of respondents reported that they are getting a strong benefit from their customer training, not only in customer satisfaction (52%) but also in increasing training revenue (50%) and customer retention (30%).

“Customer training is making an impact in areas of interest to the C-suite,” added Doug Harward, CEO of Training Industry, Inc. “If there was any doubt before, this research illustrates that customer training is an important and growing piece of the training pie.”

Other findings include:

• The vast majority of companies used website and email marketing to market training to their customers, which many also considered to be the most effective way to market their programs.
• Webinar technology is used most frequently to deliver customer training.
• The two top challenges had to do with a lack of resources – in staffing and in marketing expertise or budget.

The survey findings will be addressed at an upcoming webinar, “Customer Training: 5 Ways to Fast-Track Your Programs in a Slow Economy,” scheduled for Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. To register, visit https://www.expertus.com/webinar3/pr. The free, one-hour webinar features an all-star cast of learning gurus, including Brian Summerfield, Managing Editor of CLO Magazine, Tom Kelly, 25-year learning veteran and independent learning strategy consultant, and Mohana Radhakrishnan, VP Client Services of Expertus.

The survey was completed by 34 respondents from companies in industries as diverse as technology, financial services, business services/consulting, telecommunications, and more. Companies ranged in size from 10-49 employees to over 30,000 employees. Most of the respondents are in leadership roles in customer and/or employee training.

To view the full results of the study and comprehensive charts, visit http://www.trainingefficiency.com/system/files/SurveyResults_CustomerTraining_Expertus_Aug28.pdf.

About Expertus
Expertus is the leading global provider of services that optimize the business impact of learning. For more than a decade, the firm’s 500+ learning management professionals have defined and implemented plans, processes and technologies that transform training organizations – creating measurable value for the world’s most successful corporations. Clients include ADP, Cisco, ConocoPhillips, EMC, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin. Every day at these and other companies, more than a million employees, customers and business partners are educated as a result of Expertus’ innovative business strategies, outsourcing services and technology-rich solutions.

Based in Silicon Valley, Expertus serves its clients from offices in the US, UK and India. For more information, visit www.expertus.com, or call toll-free 1-877-827-8160.

About Training Industry, Inc.
Training Industry, Inc. is an objective and trusted expert on the marketplace for learning. Its mission is to make the marketplace more efficient through the world’s largest online community of training communities and through services such as Training Industry Conferences, Training Industry Quarterly Ezine, Training Industry Webinars and Training Industry Research. For more information, go to www.trainingindustry.com or call (919) 653-4990.