What things cost? - The Training Marketplace - electronic training equipment - Statistical Data Included

T+D, June, 2002 by Haidee Allerton, Sabrina Hicks, Eva Kaplan-Leiserson, William Powell

The last time that T D scoped the prices of training purchases was June 1996.

Our categories were

* one hour of instructional design

* equipment rental

* support materials

* training administrations software

* customized video

* teleconferencing

* advertising and marketing

* writing and editing

* travel.

Things have changes.

For one, this time we decided not to cover the costs of travel. One obvious reason is that since September, 11, companies have cut back on business travel. In particular sending employees to conduct or receive. Training. The good news is that video-conferencing equipment has, on average, decreased in price from US$50,000 to $5,000, and the technology has improved.

* Since 9-11

90 percent of companies surveyed by Raymond James Financial plan to use video conferencing and Web-conferencing to replace air travel. Before 9-11, 66 percent of companies claimed to use such delivery methods as an alternative.

LEARNING

Another new development is e-learning. Let's take a quick look at some of those price tags:

* Learning management system: US$12 - $50 per user, with 15% of total for maintenance cost

* Library of workbook-style content: $100 per user for about 100 courses, usually either end-user and business or IT professional

* Simulations: $100s to $1000s.

Learning content management systems and virtual classrooms involve dozens of ways to determine costs, says Clark Aldrich of SimuLearn

www.simulearn.com. Those measures include per named user, per concurrent user, per author, per MB of hosted content, per course, per hour of content per person, and per server.

According to Click2learn www.click2learn.com pricing for e-learning solutions varies widely depending on the level of effort, number of users, size of organization, technology and tools used, and how the e-learning is deployed in the organization.

Simple Deployment

* Off-the-shelf courses: US$50 - $1500 per user

* Authoring tools: $2000 - $8000 per user; typically includes the tool, training, and maintenance or support for one year.

Solutions

* Small scale (1000 user base, limited services, training, no customizations): US$200,000 - $400,000

* Average (10,000 user base, average services, training, some customization): $400,000 - $700,000

* Complex (20,000 users, high level of services, training, customizations): $900,000 - $2 million.

LMS Only

* 1000 users: US$120 - $175 per user

* 10,000 users: $55 - $80 per user

* 20,000 users: $40 - $60 per user.

Put another way, an LMS on a company's server can cost from $495 to $2 million, depending on the number of users and features, and the level of complexity.

Source/www.brandon-hall.com

LCMS Only

* 1000 users: US$100 - $150 per user

* 10,000 users: $35 - $60 per user

* 20,000 users: $25 - $40 per user.

Maintenance

Per year, 15-20% of total license fees

US$60,000 (or lower) to millions, depending on the server space and bandwidth to host the technology and data, and the number of users.

Hosting

Other Costs

Add server costs for a behind-the-firewall solution and additional expenses for technology and marketing.

Free E-Learning

Though the availability of free stuff on the Web has been declining, you can still get free e-learning tools and content, though the quality, number of features, and flexibility may not be top tier. Still, it's a good place to start, and there are plenty of demos you can get Free for a trial period and pay only after 30 clays. Here's a sampling:

Free IT Tutorials

* www.edsurf.net/netlearning

* www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/training/?loc=dwmain

Free Tutorial to Learn Spanish

* www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm

Free Hosted Delivery/LMS

* www.teamxtend.com/xtention.html

Collaboration/Live E-Learning Software

Microsoft NetMeeting

Video-and audioconferencing, file sharing, whiteboard, chat, and more.

Free download www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/download/nm301x86.asp

Best used with high-speed Internet connection; make sure your machine meets the system requirements.

IBM Mindspan Solutions

Rapid education delivery services

* 90-day hosted virtual classroom with LMS, up to 100 users

* helpdesk support and training, three-day onsite consulting.

Cost: US$25,000 plus travel and living expenses for consultant

Content also available from IBM and NETg.

Centra Collaboration Solutions

* Symposium or virtual classroom: Starts at US$55,000 for 100 users (perpetual use).

* Conference and Web conferences: Start at $32,500 for 100 users (perpetual use).

* Emeeting and Web meetings: Start at $45,000 for 50 users (application service provider model).

Genesys Meeting Center

Virtual meeting and training room

A subscription for the center for up to 15 participants: US$39.95 per month, plus audio charges.

Additional participants, $0.40 per minute. A subscription includes an unlimited number of meetings to deliver presentations and collaborate in real time.

www.genesys.com

WebEx Online Meeting Platform

US$ 100 per phone line unlimited usage, or pay per use at $0.45 per minute with data, voice, and videoconferencing

Interwise Enterprise Communications Platform

Incorporates imentoring, imeeting, iclass, iseminar, and cast-live events, including one-on-one or broadcasts to thousands of participants; fully hosted. Can be deployed enterprise-wide or by department. Starts at US$75,000 for up to 300 users.