Scoring Docebo, a learning management vendor
- Summary:
- Docebo is one of many LMS providers - how does it score as a modern provider?
The Docebo team clearly sees the value in the 70-20-10 rule where 10% of training is formal (think classroom) training, 20% is social learning (i.e., where learning occurs via social interaction) and 70% rests in the experiential training (i.e., the sharing of job related experiences) realm.
A major focus of the product line now is in the experiential area. This is why Docebo is enabling the rapid capture and sharing of short peer-to-peer videos. This technology is what enables rapid, just-in-time knowledge transfer.
Docebo put a lot of thought behind the user interface/experience on this. The main user screen looks like a collection of YouTube videos that a worker can choose from. Videos are organized along ‘channels’ and the sequencing of these is controlled by a combination of behind the scenes logic (e.g., the firm now wants every employee to view this one video on ethics), prior training experience and search results.
Soon, Docebo will tap new machine learning technology that it is incorporating into its stack to make the video suggestions more relevant and to help users go to the exact location within a video to find the one ‘nugget’ of knowledge they are looking for. The goal is to make user access and adoption easier (i.e., less friction, lower failure rates, greater relevancy) while also making the training site a more valued destination for workers to seek.
On the social learning aspect, Docebo is betting on Ask the Expert and other techniques to drive network effect within the system. Workers can connect with a company SME, a peer or upper level executive and request that they produce a short video on a given topic. This request would likely originate as a result of the expert’s participation in the internal social media tool that Docebo is providing. People would recognize this person’s expertise and would appreciate that knowledge being summarized and placed on video.
These new videos would get voted on by employees. Employees would identify meta-tags identifying when and where tags belong in the video. Additionally, external links and other resources can be linked to the video. Lastly, the video can be suggested viewing for others via a “Invite to Watch” function.
Docebo the Company
So, here’s an Italian company with Canadian venture investors that generates almost half of its revenues from the United States. It’s captured a number of big-name clients in a short amount of time, too. At the present, the company has 934 customers that are producing and conducting training in 31 languages.
Customers like the company and the products. Three customers were in attendance at the analyst event and each, to the one, was genuinely enthusiastic. What was really noteworthy was that they all liked how easy it was to do business with Docebo. I can’t say I hear that a lot in the software world. Docebo’s target customer has between 500-10,000 employees. Their largest customer has 3.5 million employees.
Docebo is competing against some major, established players. These include: SkillSoft/SumTotal, SuccessFactors (now part of SAP), SABA, Halogen and many more. These are large, well-established and well-funded firms that can and will be formidable competitors.
Docebo can win in the market should it integrate easily with:
- HRMS solutions of leading ERP providers
- Microsoft Office, SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies
- Document sharing technologies (e.g., DropBox)
One of the customers we heard from, Optimizely, shared a graphic with the analysts. It depicted an upside-down pyramid of the different kinds of support this firm can offer its customers. The bottom of this pyramid reflected low scale support options (e.g., a 1:1 expert call) and the top showed highly scalable support options (e.g., embedded product knowledge within their software). Optimizely is using the social and other features of Docebo to help customers resolve issues. What Optimizely wants is to grow their firm and its customer base aggressively without having to materially expand some levels of the pyramid. In other words, if Optimizely can transfer more and more expert knowledge into Docebo education resources or its own products without adding materially to its own 1:1 expert call center group, then it can more profitably and productively grow the company. Growing smart and at scale is the goal.
Another customer has a similar challenge and uses Docebo to deliver what they called micro-learnings. These are training materials that are short in duration (and important) but not so big as to require plane trips, formal classes and overnight accommodations. This approach also improves the bottom line.
But, the biggest challenges for Docebo may be:
- Getting brand recognition in a noisy crowded space. The HR and learning markets are full of firms with great ideas but low market adoption. So far, Docebo is off to a good start.
- Maintaining a rapid development pace of new innovations to go with its current solution set – it must outpace its competitors or it will become a me-too solution.
- Ensure all customers fully embrace the technology. This means that Docebo’s social technology must achieve a network effect in every customer. To do that, there must be engaged workers, management, etc. who are not only using the tool but creating video and other content that makes the network an essential, go-to place for knowledge transfer.
- Relentlessly calculate and promote the impact the solution is having on corporate productivity and the bottom line. Lots of LMS and training products say they’ll deliver value but few ever prove they do. Docebo appears to have the potential to make this case well and often.
As to the peer-to-peer focus of much of the training, I suspect that this will provide a lot of value. I also believe that this helps people do the jobs they have today but does not necessarily address one of the biggest training shortfalls in business today: it may not create the future leaders and leadership pipeline that businesses desperately need. To do that well, an LMS and a human capital/human resources system need to work together. High performing and high potential personnel must be identified and the forward looking training they’ll need must be placed front and center within these persons’ training plans. Some leadership training may involve non-traditional activities (e.g., mentoring, job rotations, etc.) that aren’t necessarily suited to a classroom or video experience. Yet, leadership development is a major business need.
My take
For employers that constantly complain that they can’t find enough qualified people, here’s a potential solution. If you’re the kind of employer that thinks that training people is always some other firm’s responsibility, no technology will ever help you. But, if you’re ready to start doing something (positive), here’s an approach to consider.
I like to look at these kinds of products as they have the potential to create strong, vibrant companies and valuable employees. They also can create wealth for the investors. Lynda.com, for example, was acquired by LinkedIn for $1.5 billion (USD). Sometimes, LMS is a good space for everyone.