3B Training

In 2020, 3B Training switched to accessplanit from another training management software provider. We spoke to Systems Manager, Alex Doyle, to find out why, and the impact this has had on this health and safety training provider over the past four years. 

About 3B Training

Founded in 2011, 3B Training is a nationwide health and safety training company, predominantly working in the construction sector. This includes in-person and online instructor-led training, eLearning and NVQs. They offer a variety of course types; public and in-house training courses are delivered either at 3B Training’s dedicated training venues across the country, their client’s premises, or online – by both internal and external trainers. 

What started as one small office with five members of staff has grown to nine training venues across the country, delivering a huge variety of courses to thousands of delegates per year. 

Alex began working at 3B Training in 2018 and is now Systems Manager. His main focus is ensuring that the IT systems and departments across the business work as efficiently as possible to allow for business growth, a vital role considering the depth of their offerings. It's essential that they have the correct software in place to enable the admin team to manage their high volumes of delegates and courses effectively. 

The challenge

"It was very manual, very admin heavy. We needed to be able to improve our customer experience and automate processes, but our system didn’t allow for that, so the only way we could have continued our growth was to recruit more admin staff, or swap systems."

Before accessplanit, 3B Training were working with a training management software provider which was stifling the team instead of helping them, as it lacked the functionality they needed.

"It was very manual, very admin heavy, from booking courses to sending confirmations," Alex explained. "The reporting wasn’t great and it didn’t give us access to the data we needed in real time."

"We needed to be able to improve our customer experience and automate processes, but the system didn’t allow for that, so the only way we could have continued our growth was to recruit more admin staff, or swap systems." 

Their old system was not providing return on investment and it was clear that changes needed to be made. They considered building a custom system but thorough research showed that accessplanit was the best option, with our configurable, all-in-one system designed to help training companies get the results they want.

The accessplanit solution 

"On the whole, it's made a massive impact. It's great to see where we are now compared to where we were, and we still have a long way to go."

Implementation 

After the pandemic, it was Alex's job to own the implementation of accessplanit. He explained that the accessplanit team was adaptable to their feedback and ways of working and soon they were making good progress.

accessplanit customers aren't left in the dark after implementation. Since then, 3B Training has explored many areas of the platform alongside their Customer Success Manager who Alex is appreciative of, saying that there's very little of the platform they don't use. 

"Jack is our Customer Success Manager and he is fantastic," Alex explained. “Jack has really gotten to know our business over the years we’ve worked with him so he’s like an extension to our in-house team and we really enjoy working with him.”

"We have a fortnightly call. I throw ideas and suggestions at him, use him as a sounding board. You don't often get a dedicated person with software products."

Read more about our implementation and support

Key features

Having said that, what are the most impactful areas of the platform that the team at 3B Training use?

Course creation

3B Training has streamlined their course management with accessplant, meaning they can add courses into accessplanit well in advance in bulk. Alex explained how the team can export the courses that performed particularly well in 2024, change the dates and then import this back into accessplanit - and it's done.

"They can essentially get an entire year of courses on the system a million times quicker than they used to be able to do." 

accessplanit uses course templates, which contain all of the most important information about a course, as a blueprint to schedule it in the future with no rekeying. This speeds up the process and reduces human error.

Automation

Alex also explained how much automation has helped the admin team: "Joining instructions, refresher reminders - everything used to be sent manually. Whereas now, the system does all of that," he said.

Whether delegates have passed, failed, not attended, whether it's 3B Accredited course certificates or booking confirmations – 3B continue to look for more ways to implement automation wherever possible. 

When these important tasks are completed via workflows, the admin team can shift their focus elsewhere, knowing that the right information is reaching the right people at the right time.

Dashboards

In Alex's role as Systems Manager, he needs good visibility over operations at 3B Training. He says that accessplanit's dashboards are helpful for this because they enable him to see live data, such as outstanding tasks and profitability.

Dashboards offer at-a-glance information that you can configure to suit your role, and you can have more than one dashboard area with different data depending on your changing responsibilities.

"We've got a lot of dashboards. For example, the admin team have got an allocations dashboard so we can see if any courses need to be prepped," Alex explained. "All of that used to be a manual process, whereas now it’s digital."

Reporting

Alex and the team use dashboards for quick reporting and task management, but they also use our Report Writer module for deeper data analytics and business insight. In accessplanit, reports can be automated and sent out to stakeholders at preset intervals, again reducing the amount of manual admin work needed. 

With all of the data housed in one platform, it's a reliable source of truth which updates in real time. "You've got live profitability reporting at your fingertips," Alex said. 

Resource management

A big part of this is managing resources such as venues, trainers and equipment. In accessplanit, you can see their live availability and allocate them to courses with the touch of a button, helping you to stay organised and report on profitability with all costs accounted for. 

"You've got the ability to put the resources against the courses which we didn't have before," explained Alex. 

This helps with their bespoke course offerings: "If our sales team is making an in-house, dedicated course for a customer, they can quickly find a list of trainers. It's all on the system." 

Support

When Alex or the team have questions or issues with the platform, they contact our Support Team who are available on the phone or online from 9-5, Monday to Friday: "I cannot sing their praises more. Those guys are incredible. What a group of people you've got there!"

He continued: "You get exactly what you need and you always get a prompt response. If they've got any questions, they're not scared to ask which is good because it shows they want to provide that extra level of service. They can piece something together when you've just sent them a quick email."

He's built a good relationship with the team who have a solid understanding of 3B's operations, meaning they can provide quick and effective solutions: "They've worked with us now for four years and they know how we work." 

The result

"The efficiency and visibility - you can't compare it to what we had before."

Let's explore the effects this has had on 3B Training: 

Efficiency 

"The key change is the efficiency," Alex said. 

From cutting down admin thanks to automation, to rapid course scheduling and reporting, having all the tools they need in one place has impacted 3B Training for the better: "It's saved so much time and allowed us to grow massively as a business without having to redistribute all the admin."

Visibility

Better visibility has also been a game-changer for Alex. He enjoys being able to report on everything in one system to support the whole business: "Visibility has improved across the board with all teams." 

The sales team has an improved outlook on their opportunities, the admin team can manage their tasks more easily, and the finance team can pull off powerful reports. 

Alex specifically mentioned improved financial reporting per course: "From the revenue from bookings to the registration and literature fees, being able to log everything against the course means we can report on the live profitability figures."

Improved customer relationships

With workflows configured to send communications to customers when certain parameters are met, 3B Training can ensure customer satisfaction. Nothing falls through the cracks, and bookers get all the information they need in a timely manner - such as joining instructions, reminders and 3B accredited certificates. Plus, delegates can be cancelled, transferred and refunded in a matter of minutes by the admin team. This all guarantees a seamless experience for customers.  

Growth

All of the above has meant that, instead of endlessly hiring more administrators to keep up with demand, 3B Training has been able to scale up: "We've had a few years of some serious growth. We've completed a couple of acquisitions, opened new venues, gained new accreditations to deliver new courses."

"On the whole, it's made a massive impact. It's great to see where we are now compared to where we were," Alex said. 

He added that 3B Training chose accessplanit because they could see that our businesses were headed in the same direction: "One of the reasons we went with accessplanit was because you were growing at the same rate we were. It was nice to be able to grow alongside accessplanit and hopefully we'll continue to do so."

"I'd recommend accessplanit because it can transform the way you operate as a business."

Next steps

So what's in the future for the 3B Training team? Alex explained that 3B Training are hoping to continue to grow within the training industry, "Our goal is to be a world class training provider."

He said that part of this will be finding new ways to use the platform long into the future. They often make product suggestions and many have made it into the platform: "It's been good to see that you take things on board and you've implemented changes from feedback. From product updates to just the way you operate, it's nice to see that accessplanit do take what your customers say seriously."

They will also continue to attend our customer events to keep their platform knowledge up-to-date, including our regular free webinars and our in-person customer event, Connect, which we ran for the first time in 2024 and Alex enjoyed: "It was really good, I think it was fantastic, especially for a first time. We had some really great conversations with some other customers, explaining how we do things, them explaining how they do things."