Call center agent training differs from that of sales and marketing. Agents are under tremendous performance pressure given inbound call loads and new interaction models (e-mail, chat, co-browsing) that are added to traditional customer support technologies (telephone calls).

Call center agents require two contexts of e-learning application: initial training and ongoing training. Initial training can help train agents within the context of the actual performance aspects of the jobs (e.g., learning Siebel via e-learning while actually using Siebel). Ongoing training is the ability to deliver just-in-time training through the agent's queue, in short bursts, enabling agents to pull down content during "slow" times or breaks.

CIC-focused e-learning technologies include asynchronous learning, community and collaborative tools to provide training on a just-in-time basis, content-authoring tools to create proprietary content, e-coaching tools, and co-browsing capabilities.

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Currently, Witness Systems and Knowlagent are dominating this market. However, enterprise LMS vendors and content vendors (e.g., Click2learn, SmartForce), recognizing the revenue potential, are creating content solution sets focused on call center agents. By 2003, e-learning integration with e-service and agent observation technologies will create a lucrative new market segment for e-learning platform and LMS vendors. We do not expect integration of learning management systems and service knowledgebases to emerge until 2004-05 due to LMS platform incompatibility with current performance support systems.

Business impact: E-learning integration with CRM can reduce customer service cycle times and cost of service, and better align the knowledge of sales and marketing personnel with profitable customer opportunities.

Bottom line: E-learning will evolve as a standard component of CRM solutions, particularly as part of assisted customer service delivery channels, to optimize customer-facing processes.

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