Extending experience excellence to enterprise employee training and partners.
Adobe Digital University consistently delivers exceptional learning experiences to internal and external audiences with content from multiple authors using Adobe Learning Manager.
25%
Less time
required to train authors to create learning modules
Objectives
Continually modify learning content to support frequently updated products and services
Simplifying complexity of content authoring and learning module maintenance
Engaging large, dispersed groups in blended learning and tracking their success
Offering a world class learning experience which is native to user behavior
Results
6,500 supported Adobe users across Worldwide Field Operations with blended learning content
More securely delivers learning modules to more than 65,000 contacts from over 6,000 solution partners; 120,000 course completions and growing 100% YOY
Embedded Fluidic Player generates 200% more page visits to sales kickoff site and results in 20% more course completions
25% less time required to train authors to create learning modules
The mission of experience excellence
Adobe is on a mission to change the world by turning ordinary interactions into valuable digital experiences. Organizations everywhere use Adobe solutions that combine audience data and insights with amazing digital content to deliver exceptional, personalized experiences to each customer via any channel at any time.
Effectively communicating the rapid advances in a growing solutions portfolio requires equally effective education for Adobe teams, especially people closest to customers. The Adobe Worldwide Readiness and Enablement team meets these demands with Adobe Digital University (ADU), a centralized online learning destination packed with dynamic, engaging learning content. Powered by Adobe Learning Manager, the company’s own digital learning platform, ADU is an invaluable resource for advancing the Adobe mission.
“Adobe Digital University is an important investment in Adobe’s future,” says Marion Rittler, Head of Worldwide Readiness and Enablement at Adobe. “We don’t want training to feel like an obligation. We want it to be a fun, engaging, and impactful experience for Adobe employees and we want it to demonstrate the company’s commitment to their success.”
“The main benefit of Adobe Learning Manager is that it makes it easy to deliver great learning experiences. Learning Manager puts learner experiences first, and it’s also easy for authors to use. Since moving to Learning Manager, we cut the time required to train new authors to develop curriculum by 25%.”
Amanda Georges
Learning Platform Product Manager, Adobe Digital University
Founding a university
Adobe launched its first employee learning website in 2013. Nothing too fancy, it was a repository for learning materials that used a platform to administer, track, and deliver training courses. As it does today, the Readiness and Enablement team created interactive courses with Adobe Captivate using multimedia content made with Adobe Creative Cloud apps such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.
As Adobe expanded its global learning strategy to support the rapid business growth, it branded the internal site as Adobe Digital University and started looking for a new learning platform that could scale and offer better customizations for administrators and an elevated experience for learners. Around the same time, the Digital Learning business unit launched Adobe Learning Manager, a modern learning platform that met the requirements that ADU had in mind. In 2017 Adobe launched ADU on Adobe Learning Manager.
“The main benefit of Adobe Learning Manager is that it makes it easy to deliver great learning experiences,” says Amanda Georges, Learning Platform Product Manager, Adobe Digital University at Adobe. “Learning Manager puts learner experiences first, and it’s also easy for authors to use. Since moving to Learning Manager, we cut the time required to train new authors to develop curriculum by 25%.”
Internal engagement
ADU primarily serves the roughly 6,500 Adobe employees in the Worldwide Field Organization (WWFO) who work in customer support, sales, and Adobe Customer Solutions (consulting). The Readiness and Enablement team currently includes 100 members with about 35 instructional designers who create learning content that focuses on how to use and sell Adobe solutions; internal processes and tools; professional skills development; and field employee onboarding.
“Our big focus is to make ADU a partner in the success of the sales team,” says Michael Watschke, Head of Product Enablement at Adobe. “Adobe Learning Manager helps us optimize online and offline teaching methods. For instance, we cut six weeks of online sales training to just three weeks by making it a blended course. Since moving to Learning Manager, we’ve also realized a 20% increase in course completions.”
Blended learning combines self-paced online courses, virtual instructor-led courses, and in-person sessions. In addition to yielding higher up-front achievement, the blended approach enables Adobe learners to reinforce knowledge with access to content at any time and on any device. Such versatility powered by Adobe Learning Manager keeps learners engaged.
For example, the Readiness and Enablement team discovered that most users prefer desktop access for learning modules such as product simulations because the larger screen better mimics the actual customer experience. Meanwhile, sales teams that travel often appreciate the convenience of offline course availability.
The Readiness and Enablement team also leverages the Fluidic Player in its "embeddable avatar" to further extend seamless learning experiences. The player also lets learners access all formats of learning content without requiring plugins or downloads.
“Essentially, the Fluidic Player supports training delivery outside the learning platform and put it where the user is going to be, such as on our sales kickoff portal,” says Georges. “By embedding the Fluidic Player in the kickoff site built using Adobe Experience Manager, we observed a 200% increase in year-over-year page visits. It increased the visibility of our available learning content within their browsing experience while making it easier for people to access relevant career training.”
“Security is essential. We use existing curricula for partner sales and technical enablement. Adobe Learning Manager offers the best-in-class enterprise security and this empowers us to easily limit access to confidential information, while delivering exceptional personalized experiences to audiences.”
Amanda Georges
Learning Platform Product Manager, Adobe Digital University
Creating and sharing securely and efficiently
Rapid course development is a strategic priority because Adobe continually creates new solutions and enhances existing solutions with updated features. Adobe also expands its solution set by acquiring complementary technology companies such as Magento and Marketo. Adobe Learning Manager helps the Readiness and Enablement team keep up with the company’s dynamic growth by accelerating learning content updates, new course creation, and content migration from other learning management systems.
“Adobe Learning Manager allowed us to decentralize content creation while centralizing learning management,” Georges says. “Several teams author content simultaneously and upload it once. Then our team makes it available to multiple audiences as relevant courses.”
After uploading content such as videos, Adobe Captivate files, SCORM files, and PDF documents, authors use a course filter interface to create each module’s structure and sequence. They also identify which lessons are mandatory or optional and the audiences who are eligible to view them. Administrators then manage security permissions.
“Security is essential,” Georges says. “We use existing curricula for partner sales and technical enablement. Adobe Learning Manager offers the best-in-class enterprise security and this empowers us to easily limit access to confidential information, while delivering exceptional personalized experiences to audiences.”
Empowering business partners
Besides supporting ADU, the Readiness and Enablement team delivers learning content to the broad ecosystem of Adobe solution partners. Using the multi-tenancy capability in Adobe Learning Manager, the team created the Adobe Solution Partner Training Center. It currently supports more than 100,000 external learners who help sell and support Adobe solutions.
“Every organization needs to be able to get training and enablement out to their partners, their customers, and their internal field as quickly as possible,” says Matt Irvine, Group Manager for Partner Experience, Adobe Solution Partner Program. “They need a solution and a tool that is both extendible, flexible, and comprehensive. And that’s why Adobe chose to go with Adobe Learning Manager.”
The Solution Partner Program works with more than 65,000 contacts from over 6,000 digital agencies and systems integrators worldwide. The Portal is the main hub through which they access information about Adobe Experience Cloud solutions. Users include sales, marketing, and technical staff who need the latest product, implementation, services, and support information.
“It was very important for us to be able to integrate Adobe Learning Manager with the Solution Partner Portal in order to provide a seamless log-in experience,” says Irvine. “Achieving a single sign-on was a quick, easy win, allowing partners to register for our Solution Partner Portal and start their training within seconds.”
Such ease of access led the Adobe Solution Partner Program to quadruple its portfolio of available learning content to more than 900 courses in more than 100 learning programs. In the past year, the Portal registered more than 120,000 course completions.
Peer power
The Readiness and Enablement team monitors its success with the robust reporting features in Adobe Learning Manager. APIs support bringing in data from other third-party apps and creation of custom dashboards using integration with tools such as Microsoft Power BI for advanced data visualization. Such analysis provides insights into the effectiveness of Learning Manager features such as gamification and the new social learning capability that the ADU team will take advantage of soon.
Social Learning in Adobe Learning Manager allows learners to share web-based or user-based content via topic-based discussion boards. Like familiar social media platforms, Learning Manager Social Learning lets interested learners follow and contribute to topics, and leverages Adobe Sensei artificial intelligence and machine learning technology for content curation. Automated Content Curation, powered by Adobe Sensei, automatically scans content that a user would like to post for skills contained to see if they match what is being discussed on the board at hand. If the feature finds a match, the content is automatically posted. Manual curation either before or after this process is always an option as well.
In the next year, Adobe Digital University will support global learning expectations for all field and customer-facing employees with annual development and sales management modules.
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