Parth Khanna
April 11, 2023
An insightful piece from the Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network (LTEN) focusing on Building the Right Learning Technology Architecture sparked a conversation at ACTO about determining the value that your learning technology stack delivers and the importance of defining that correctly. In the LTEN article, Rich Baron aptly stated, “It’s not about which technology is best. You need the ones that best support your objectives.” This sentiment is particularly true in the Life Sciences industry. To continue the conversation prompted by this article, this blog explores how to define the value of a learning tech stack in terms of driving commercial excellence. We’ll start by defining and assessing the value of the technology stack. Then, we’ll examine how to measure its impact on training effectiveness, field performance, and revenue.
Defining tech stack value
“Tech stack value” refers to the benefits and return on investment (ROI) to an organization from the software systems, tools, and technology they use to run their business. To define tech stack value effectively, it’s crucial to identify and monitor the right KPIs that align with your company’s business goals and objectives. This will help you make informed decisions about how to impact your organization’s success. From a Commercial Learning and Development (CL&D) standpoint, an important KPI is the impact of training on field rep behavior and, ultimately, company revenue. Therefore, in assessing the value of your learning tech stack, you must see how your software systems, tools, and technology collectively impact sales rep behavior that can be tied to increased revenue.
How to measure the tech stack value
Measuring the impact of learning and development has always been a challenge, but Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation provides a clear framework to do it. In the Kirkpatrick Model, Level 1 measures the degree to which learners found the training relevant and engaging; Level 2 measures the degree to which learners acquired the knowledge or skills that were taught; Level 3 measures the degree to which learners apply what they’ve learned in the real world; and, Level 4 measures the degree to which the new behavior impacts targeted outcomes. With these KPIs in mind, CL&D teams can map how their learning tech stack supports each of them. However, when you have a complicated tech stack that consists of many point solutions that operate in isolation, it can be difficult to get the data needed to measure these KPIs.
For example, when launching a new pharmaceutical product and rolling out a training program to support the sales team, it’s crucial to track KPIs such as the reps’ ability to communicate the product’s value proposition effectively to healthcare professionals (HCPs), the number of scripts generated by territory reps after receiving training and coaching, and their adherence to regulatory guidelines and use of approved content and messaging in every HCP interaction. Ideally, insights from various sources, such as training modules, coaching sessions, and certification programs, should be collected in one place to provide a holistic view of a rep’s performance; however, these activities are typically managed through different systems at a company – a learning management system, a certification tool, a coaching platform, a marketing content platform, etc. The integration, data consolidation, and analysis required to get any kind of comprehensive view of performance with such a tech stack is daunting. So, how can you overcome these challenges?
The value of a unified platform
It is easy to understand how the learning tech stack got so complicated. Over the past two decades, point solutions to address individual activities have emerged and replaced manual or paper-based processes. While these point solutions addressed isolated inefficiencies, the cumulative impact of this collection of siloed solutions actually decreased overall efficiency. Recognizing this opportunity for overall process improvement, software platforms that support entire workflows have been developed. In fact, this is precisely what ACTO has done. In one unified platform, ACTO supports home-based learning, live training, certifications, scenario coaching, field coaching reports, and providing content and messaging to field reps in the flow of work. Not only is it a much better user experience for the field reps and sales managers, but it also provides real-time, consolidated data across all of these activities that give CL&D leaders the insight they need to measure the impact of training. With unified platforms, the value of your tech stack increases dramatically.
With a unified learning platform, you can link together the following:
- Training program effectiveness – Track everything from completion rates to assessment scores to get a comprehensive understanding of how well employees are learning and retaining the information they’ve learned. This enables leaders to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize their training programs and pull-through activities.
- Meeting engagement – Utilize digital meeting tools to make live learning more engaging and interactive. Use surveys and quizzes to underscore the importance of pre-work, gaming, and leaderboards to bring out the competitive nature of reps in the live training, and certifications to ensure learners leave the meeting with the knowledge and confidence they need to effectively sell in the field. Connecting all of this together provides a more interactive learning experience.
- Coaching impact – Implement coaching programs to identify areas where additional rep training may be needed or where reps excel. This includes using virtual role-play with real-world scenarios for actual use case training to provide learners with a safe environment to practice and apply their skills. This will lead to increased confidence, improved performance, and measurable outcomes that maximize the impact of field performance and revenue growth.
One of the most significant advantages of a unified learning platform is the ability to create data-driven targeted programs. By leveraging data and analytics from the platform, organizations can gain insights into engagement, feedback, and certifications across the entire training and coaching journey. This data-driven approach allows for continuous improvement of training and development programs, as well as personalized and targeted continuous learning for field reps. This results in improved performance, increased productivity, and ultimately, revenue growth.
Conclusion
The value of your learning technology stack goes beyond just the tools and software you use. It’s about how effectively it supports your organization’s objectives and drives commercial excellence. By defining and assessing the right KPIs that align with your goals and measuring the impact of training on-field performance and revenue using frameworks like Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your learning tech stack.
However, the challenge of measuring impact becomes more complex when dealing with multiple-point solutions that operate in isolation. This is where the value of a unified learning platform, like ACTO, becomes evident. A unified platform not only provides a better user experience for learners and sales managers, but it also consolidates data from various activities such as training, coaching, certifications, and content delivery, giving CL&D leaders real-time insights to measure the impact of training across the entire organization.
With a unified learning platform, you can seamlessly link training program effectiveness, meeting engagement, and coaching impact to create a powerful ecosystem that drives impactful learning experiences. Measuring the value of your learning tech stack and optimizing its effectiveness using a unified platform is vital to ensuring it delivers the necessary ROI to achieve commercial excellence.
Learn more about how the ACTO platform can provide real-time insights into your field team’s behavior to identify areas for improvement and optimize your training and coaching programs for outcomes.