PeopleSoft Service Gauges Training ROI

To help customers quantify their investments in its software, PeopleSoft Inc. is rolling out a service that enables companies to measure the benefits of software education and training.

ROI (return on investment) for Training, which will be announced this week and is free to PeopleSoft customers, addresses three groups: project teams doing implementations or upgrades, end users needing training on a specific program, and executive-level users. The service can be used not only to develop a methodology for training and education but also as a means to measure the total cost of the programs and track the results of training.

As part of the service, PeopleSoft sends newly trained delivery managers into a company, where they lay out training plans and implement a methodology for tracking the results of educational programs. ROI for Training includes a spreadsheet tool for determining the necessary education or training to implement as part of an enterprise project—for example, training call service agents on a new customer relationship management tool. Tools are then put in place to help track the results of the training and to hold managers accountable for any gaps.

PeopleSoft estimates that an untrained user takes 22 hours to get to the same level of competency as a user with 5 hours of training. One goal of the new service is to shift software training and education on the balance sheet.

"Education is listed as a cost, and that leaves it open to be cut or reduced," said Tom Cooper, director of education at PeopleSoft, in Pleasanton, Calif. "By assigning a value [to training], it turns it into an investment. The key is identifying metrics upfront.

"Helping customers build a business case [for training] is not new," Cooper said. "What is new is we are able to build a much better business case quickly and being able to track results."