Participants in the market for e-learning in the area of soft skills

Isabelle  Pfeiffer Fh Nürtingen  

  BW 6 / SS  2001

Table of  contents  

1  Introduction  1

1.1  General comments on the “Oberseminar paper “Participants in the  

  market for eLearning in the area of soft skills  1

1.2  Definitions  2

1.2.1  eLearning  2

1.2.2  Soft skills  2

2  The different participants in the market for eLearning  

in  the area of soft skills  4

2.1  Videokeskus - the company itself  4

2.2  Suppliers  4

2.3  The market intermediaries  6

2.3.1  Market intermediaries in the service industry, especially in the eLearning  

  sector  6

2.3.2  Some examples of market intermediaries  6

2.3.2.1  ed-scout com AG  6

2.3.2.2  www lernsoftware dehttp://www lernsoftware de/  7

2.3.2.3  KPMG  7

2.3.2.4  schenck de  8

2.4  Customers  8

2.4.1  Customers in the market for eLearning in the area of soft skills  8

2.4.2  Customers for whom eLearning in the area of soft skills is getting more and  

  more important  10

2.4.2.1  Call Centers  10

2.4.2.2  Nestlé  10

2.4.2.3  Karstadt  11

2.4.2.4  Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe  11

2.5  Competitors  11

2.5.1  Competitors in general  11

2.5.2  Different competitors in the German market  13

2.5.2.1  Add brain  13

2.5.2.2  imc  14

2.5.2.3  NetG  15

2.5.2.4  time4you  15

2.5.2.5  Metatrain Lernsoftware GmbH  15

2.5.2.6  IBM  16

2.5.2.7  IHK  16

2.5.2.8  Others  16

3  Summary  18

4  Index of Authors Cited in Text  33

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ASP Application Service Providing B2B business-to-business B2C business-to-consumer e.g. exempli gratia et at. and others CBT computer based training CLIX Corporate Learning & Information eXchange IT information technologies LSM learning service management LSP Learning Service Providing op.cit at the indicated place p. page PC Personal Computer pp. pages WBT web based training

List of figures

figure 1: What do companies teach online? page 9 figure 2: Participants in the market page 17

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1 Introduction

1.1 General comments on the “Oberseminar” paper “Participants

in the market for eLearning in the area of soft skills”

Videokeskus, a Finnish company, that is developing audio-visual learning packages in soft skills, wants to expand its eLearning business into the European market. Therefore different European universities will do research on their domestic and European market of eLearning.

The target of this “Oberseminar” paper is t o show the different participants in the German market of eLearning in the area of soft skills. In the paper, let’s pretend Videokeskus already is in the German market. One of the main objectives of this paper is to find out, which problems Videokeskus has to face establishing itself in the German market. Is there a big demand for the products of Videokeskus? Are there lots of competitors in the market of eLearning in the area of soft skills? Are the customers satisfied or dissatisfied with the current situation? Textually, this “Oberseminar” paper is structured as follows:

After advancing to the topic, the terms “eLearning”, and “soft skills” are defined in the introduction. In the main part the major actors in a company’s micro-environment are described referring to the German market, the place where services and goods are exchanged. The main part is divided into five blocks. First there will be an introduction of the company Videokeskus, in which the products of Videokeskus will also be described. In the second main part the suppliers, who are offering different products and services to the company itself for producing their goods or services, are described such as software companies. The market intermediaries, such as trainers, dealers, merchandisers, wholesalers or retailers form the third main part of this “Hauptseminar” paper. After discussing about the market intermediaries, some examples of customers will be given, which are introducing eLearning, such as Nestlé or Karstadt. The last section of the main part presents the competitors in the market of eLearning in the area of soft skills in Germany. The summary forms the conclusion of this oberseminarpaper, followed by the index of authors cited in text. The internet provided the main source of my research. By browsing through the net you find many articles on eLearning and the participants in the market for eLearning in the area of soft skills. Writing about the participants I also took sources from the Swiss market.

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The primary research of our questionnaire, in which we asked trainers, employees, and staff of personnel department of different companies all over Germany about the current situation of eLearning in the area of soft skills, and what they think about the role of eLearning in the future of further education, was not relevant for my paper.

1.2 Definitions

1.2.1 eLearning

“E-learning can be delivered over an intranet, extranet, or the internet and can include hyperlinks, e-mail, discussion forums, videoconferencing, animations, games, and simulations. Like other forms of technology-based training, e-learning requires a certain level of technological infrastructure. A student needs a computer with a browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) that is connected to all or part of the Web, and the organization providing the training needs a server on which to store the content that learners access. Many e-learning programs also require accompanying software to play audio and video and to run Java scripts, but this is often defined as part of the browser specification. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, for example, comes with audio, video, and Java-reading capabilities.” 1

Clear and brief eLearning is defined as education or training by or with the assistance of electronic media (internet, i ntranet or CD-Rom). It is divided into web-based training also called online learning like over internet, extranet or intranet, and computer-based training like with CD-Rom or the use of downloads.

1.2.2 Soft skills

The definition of training of soft skills we used in our questionnaire is defined as training in the area of team competence, cooperation competence, contact and communication competence and social competence as a key competence. The definition of soft skills by Videokeskus is the following: “[…] range of soft skills, such as customer service, team skills, management skills etc.” 2

¹ http://www.peoplefirstinteractive.com/articles/article1.html, access: 23/02/2001

² http://webct.mbs.fi/SCRIPT/M00255/scripts/serve_home, access: 20/02/2001

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A last definition of soft skills training is from the WR Hambrecht+Co report “Corporate e-learning: exploring a new frontier”, 2000, p. 86. In this study soft skills training “encompasses education on specific business areas, such as communications and presentation skills, leadership and general management skills, human resources, sales and marketing, professional development, project and time management, customer service, t eam building, administrative skills, accounting and finance, purchasing, and personal development, with the goal of improving the knowledge and performance of employees”.

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