This post is a real departure from my usual selection of topics, but I think it's really important to help clients manage technical contacts and conversations.

We know that we depend on our clients to survive, of course. But sometimes I think we forget how much our clients depend on us. Case in point: a phone conference I was on the other day where the topic was making two different LMS products communicate with each other. I represented w/ and our product: simpleLMS (www.simplelms.com) and there were two technical contacts from the other company who were trying to communicate what they needed from our joint client.

The details on this project are a bit deep for most clients...but what do they need to know, really? They need to know the end result of how the two products will share information, how much it costs, and how long it will take. That's it.

The mistake the technical contacts made was thinking that the client needed to understand how their database was designed and how many variables were allowed, at which different levels of the product. In other words, they were getting the client involved in the design of the solution...and that's not the client's job. All the tech guys needed to know is what information from the learners' profiles needed to be shared between products and why (login, password, course completions and prerequisites). From that, they could come back with a simple proposal to make things work, without getting the client in way over her head.

Now, you clients out there...applause for how hard you work, but don't let the techies take over the show and drag you into more work, or more information, than you need to be involved in...

• In a preliminary conversation, tell your supplier what you want to accomplish
• Make sure they ask you enough questions, so that they really understand what you need
• Make sure they clearly explain what they will need from you, in order to be successful with your project
• Ask your supplier to create a scope document that outlines all of the above parameters, and have them include at least a preliminary budget and time table
• Now, review the document with support from other people who may be able to spot problems or additional opportunities and go to a final version of the scoping document with your supplier

Let's not talk politics, here. Let's talk business.

Not only are there less bodies, doing more work, in most organizations today, but we're all being forced to pay more attention to budgets, right?

Is your elearning budget smaller this year? Maybe like some of our clients, it's larger this year. After all, it's more important than ever to get people trained to be more effective and productive...and elearning is a cost effective way to accomplish these goals.

Still, whatever your budget, you (and your boss) are looking at it more closely than ever before. That's why early this year w/ decided to cut our prices by 20%. It's our own economic stimulus plan.

On top of our cut in pricing, we also simplified how we price our work. On most projects, we work from very basic "per page" pricing. And to make our stimulus package even better, we've done a complete overhaul on our production process:

• Now you and your SMEs have process support for how to quickly gather and organize content for a course
   
• You can form a solid learning strategy--right from the get-go--using our project checklist
  
  
• We'll get you to a well-defined project scope, right up front, so that you'll know what the project costs, and how to control costs
  
  
• And our entire project process--including your access to our online project management tool--will help you turn out more work in less time than ever before

If you want to know more about this process, and the documents that support it, just click or call about our economic stimulus package:

Economic Stumulus Details or 763-577-5995