Enterprise E-Learning Architecture: Working With the CIO

Had they not created a strategic plan, they might have had documentation sitting on different servers, possibly on people’s hard drives, and then when it came time to upgrade, they wouldn’t even know where to find all the components. They would, like many other companies, spend money recreating these documents. It happens time and time again.

Sharing Insight
Once established as a partner, the training department can contact IT and ask for insight on e-learning projects. Because of the trust the departments have established, IT won’t approach the project suspiciously. Training may not even be asking IT to do anything, but once the partners examine the situation, they may find that IT should be involved. This can prevent wasting a lot of money, time and effort on misaligned purchases.

You may be thinking that cooperation and a strategic plan are great for the big project, but are they necessary for the smaller project, something that doesn’t really involve IT? For instance, suppose the training department is going to outsource some training to a company that will provide the content on an ASP (application service provider) basis. The training people may figure that since the content is on the provider’s server and users are connecting strictly over the Internet, IT isn’t really involved and doesn’t need to know the details.

Wrong. Even in situations where your partner department has minimal involvement, they should be aware of all the plans in any implementation. IT will have legitimate concerns over security, network bandwidth and the “extended enterprise,” no matter how the content is delivered. Just as anything training- or education-related should be made known to the training group, the parties should communicate in the spirit of partnership.