We spoke to Mike Bowie at Sphera to learn about how accessplanit has helped Sphera to manage their training courses, handle the transition from in-person training to eLearning and improve their offerings to delegates.
About Sphera
Sphera provides work control services for vertical markets such as oil, gas, mining and chemicals. This involves supporting a variety of large, global companies to manage their ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) responsibilities and a major part of this is the Control of Work software they offer.
Sphera train workers within the industry to use this software before going offshore, to ensure they adhere to all health and safety regulations. This is a legal requirement, requiring careful management of a large volume of delegates and their certifications. They train roughly 10,000 to 15,000 delegates per year from across the world.
To make this vital process more streamlined, they have recently moved from instructor-led training to eLearning. accessplanit’s training management software has been key for this to happen – read on to find out why.
The challenge
With some 55,000 delegates on their system, Sphera needs to have a centralised system where they can effectively organise their delegates and resources. Without automation, the admin work for Sphera was adding up and reducing the efficiency of their software training.
Mike explained, "Adding to the challenge is the nature of the highly transitional workforce, where vendors often work for a single or short-term contract with an operator, then move onto another platform to perform a similar task."
"The flexibility of the training management system allows easy tracking of this workforce by all vendor bookers, removing the chance of double booking and wasting a licence on someone who has already completed the required training."
The organisation of delegates and courses, and securing differing levels of access, was important for Sphera to get right.
Although Sphera considered opting for a learning management system (LMS) rather than a training management system (TMS), accessplanit was their pick of the bunch after their procurement process revealed that it met more of their requirements within their budget, with a much more configurable, functional and user-friendly interface than an LMS could offer.
The accessplanit solution
“We're doing the same with three people that we used to do with 17, and the same amount of people are getting trained.”
Mike Bowie | Sphera
Since adopting accessplanit’s training management software with the support of our implementation team, Sphera have made use of the platform’s features to make the lives of their staff easier and improve their products.
eLearning
With so many delegates, Sphera needed a platform to make a smooth switch to online learning to facilitate a cheaper and more efficient way to scale their training offerings. Using accessplanit’s eLearning tools their operations became much more effective.
“That’s fundamental for us. We’re doing the same with three people that we used to do with 17, and the same amount of people are getting trained,” says Mike.
Workflows
Mike highlighted that the Sphera team enjoy the user-friendly nature of accessplanit: “It works, it does exactly what we need.”
He named workflows as one of the most used areas of the platform that is simple to understand but has vastly improved the way their business operates: “Once workflows are running, you don’t have to worry about it. It just works. Once you’ve got the first one done, I can just clone that workflow and change the requirements of it.”
For example, Sphera use workflows for sending automated joining instructions and completion certificates to delegates. “It’s saved us a bucketload of time. That’s been the best thing, I think. The fact we don’t need to mess around – just click, all the joining instructions get sent, copies go to the booker and same with the certificates.”
Learner self-service
In addition, accessplanit has enabled Sphera’s clients to make their own bookings, another feature that has benefitted the way Sphera sells its training courses.
“Genuinely, that is a godsend. It’s actually so easy – it's just 20 minutes of showing them what to do. It’s great.” Mike also highlighted accessplanit’s support of vouchers as key to this, allowing certain customers to easily take advantage of discounts.
Accounts
The accessplanit platform, which uses account groups, has made it easier for Sphera to organise bookers and delegates with different access rights and capabilities, essential for their customer base which consists of companies with lots of delegates.
Delegates are assigned to the relevant account group and bookers are assigned to different accounts, with access to delegate names and their completed training. Relevant people can easily see which employees have completed certain training courses and enrol them on the required course.
Trainers are then able to manage and record whether the delegates passed or failed the course.
Using just one piece of software, Sphera are able to host around 200-300 different accounts, all configured for different levels of training.
Course templates
The accessplanit platform allows Sphera to create a course template, with all of the necessary information such as resources, price and time, and re-use this. This drastically reduces the manual admin time needed to set up recurring courses.
The results
“Invoicing at the end of the month is much more straightforward now. It takes two hours, whereas before it would have taken us days and an additional person to do it.”
Mike Bowie | Sphera
The variety of useful features within accessplanit’s training management system have benefitted Sphera in many ways, such as:
Streamlined admin
Since implementing accessplanit as their training management software, Sphera has found that they have more control over their day-to-day tasks, without having to hire more employees to complete repetitive but essential responsibilities.
This has saved them time and money, allowing for less focus on monotonous admin and more time optimising their offerings for delegates.
Mike singled out invoicing as something that has particularly improved. “Invoicing at the end of the month is much more straightforward now. It takes two hours, whereas before it would have taken us days and an additional person to do it.”
User-friendly course booking
It was really important to Sphera to have a system in place that had high usability for their paying customers.
Mike explained that Sphera ultimately went with accessplanit over other training management systems because it worked the best for their paying customers, with a user-friendly, customer-focused front-end.
“It’s Joe that goes off in a helicopter the next day, it’s not companies – it's people at home,” said Mike, highlighting the importance of a smooth course booking system that meets the needs of your delegates.
Efficiency
Using accessplanit, Sphera can manage all of their resources in one place, meaning they can complete tasks quicker with a reduced need to outsource.
“We now do everything in-house, from production to delivery. Ultimately, it was about efficiency,” said Mike. He explained how it could cost £700 a day to send someone to Aberdeen to train, for example, but making the switch to eLearning meant that they now only have to charge £90. “It’s a no-brainer for our contractors. It’s so much easier to maintain and manage.”
Scalability
With the efficiency that accessplanit offers Sphera, they have been able to upscale their course offerings in previously unimaginable ways, taking their business to new heights.
“Going with accessplanit has allowed us to completely change the way we work. It’s totally transformed how we train clients. I am setting up courses for completely different parts of Sphera that we wouldn’t have done before. This has allowed us to introduce new forms of training that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.”
Next steps
"Your support when we need it is really great. Your support is definitely what it says it is – you do get back to us and it’s all dealt with within a day."
Mike Bowie | Sphera
So what’s next for Sphera and accessplanit? We are committed to providing high levels of customer service to ensure our customers get the most out of their platform. You will have a dedicated Customer Success Manager assigned to your company and your success, as well as access to our UK-based Customer Support Team who are on hand to assist with any problems that may arise.
This means that we are with you well beyond launch, and Sphera enjoy this high level of support. “We would recommend accessplanit. Your support when we need it is really great. Your support is definitely what it says it is – you do get back to us and it’s all dealt with within a day.” says Mike.
With accessplanit, Sphera can continue to grow into the future and remain at the forefront of work control services providers.
Interested?
Want results like this for your business? Find out how our training management system can help your business by booking a demo today.
