Training agents at your call center may be a necessity, but licensing a computer-based training (CBT) solution is not. Agents can also take on-line tutorials using software that vendors host from their servers and deliver to users' PCs through the Internet. The majority of computer-based training vendors have, in fact, morphed into application service providers (ASPs) by supplementing - or supplanting - on-site CD-ROM products with hosted versions.

The reason: increased popularity of hosted software. Vendors note that hosted CBT products are less burdensome financially because call center managers don't have to make the substantial purchases in hardware and software necessary for installing software on-site. Call centers can also customize a hosted training curriculum to meet specific or changed needs. CD-ROM lessons, by contrast, may require using and reusing the same lessons. And multisite call centers using hosted software can distribute courses through the Internet quickly and efficiently to agents working at separate locations.

"The overall administrative management of training is extremely difficult on CD-ROM," says Rusty Gordon, president and CEO of Knowlagent (Alpharetta, GA), which stopped offering training software on disc. "With the improvements in the backbone of the Internet and Web browser availability, we didn't feel it was necessary anymore. And our customers no longer request it."

Underpinning the growth of the hosted model, say observers, is the fact that the Web is becoming the dominant medium for call center applications - training or otherwise. The Internet, and ease of on-the-fly reprogramming enabled by HTML, allows for dynamic and continuous improvements to products and their immediate distribution to clients worldwide.

But Frank Russell, president and CEO of GeoLearning (West Des Moines, IA), a provider of hosted CBT solutions, concedes that some call centers remain wary of hosted training software. "The number one fear is security," he says. "If you have proprietary information specific to your business, you want that protected."

And though hosted solutions are on the rise in North America and Europe, computer-based training with CD-ROMs remains standard practice in some regions.

"The CD-ROM is more prevalent in countries where Internet connectivity is still not as advanced, like in South America and in certain parts of Asia and Africa," says Rajeev Venkat, senior director of solutions marketing for SmartForce (Redwood City, CA). "But I would say its use has declined. My guess is that it's in the 25% range."

The vendors we interviewed also don't recommend replacing live training with a purely software-based model - be it hosted or on-site. They agree that a "blended" approach, including classroom and computer-based training, works best. Agents can receive personal attention from a classroom instructor and use training software to review what they've studied. That speeds the learning curve. Vendors also say that blended training is a common practice among clients.

"I don't think that classroom training will go away," says GeoLearning's Russell. "I do think we're moving toward a blended world, where part of training can be done on-line and part of it can be done live."

Russell recommends a CBT solution to achieve consistency in training. Some in-classroom instructors are unbeatable; but many are mediocre - or worse. And though computer-based training isn't as intimate as classroom instruction, good CBT vendors compensate by making solutions interactive.

"You don't have the ability to read faces, so you need to find ways to get agents to participate and learn by interacting," says John Walber, COO of HorizonLive (New York, NY). "You need to ask more questions, throw out some open-ended concepts and let students chat on their own."

Blended training will also help agents adjust to training software if they've never used it before. The challenge is finding the right software package for your business. Here's a look at the latest CBT products and services, including hosted solutions that are changing the nature of training.

HOSTED CBT SOLUTIONS

GeoLearning lets you build a custom "on-line university" with GeoLearning Center, hosted software that simulates classroom learning. Agents navigate through a virtual building among five floors with classrooms. There are also "conference rooms" where agents participate in live Web-based seminars; and a "library" where they can request educational material through the Web or postal mail. The virtual building also includes a "student lounge," a chat room where agents can discuss what they've learned.

GeoLearning's Russell says the company consults with clients to develop the on-line curriculum for as long as a month, depending on how many courses clients want to create. Russell adds that sometimes GeoLearning also storyboards lessons, like a film or television script, to give clients a picture of how the finished product will look.

Baltimore, MD-based outsourcer Sitel uses GeoLearning Center to train agents at call centers in 20 countries. Russell says the software's 3-D environment helped Sitel bridge the cultural gap among agents by making the same training accessible to all in a format they could relate to. Agents took the classes in person so they could easily adapt to registering for courses and attending them in a virtual world.

GeoLearning also offers GeoLearning Express, a simpler version of GeoLearning Center that takes agents through one floor of virtual classrooms. In addition, the company can host training software from other vendors or convert your hard copy training materials to a Web-based format.

When Russell founded GeoLearning four years ago, he anticipated that 50% of clients would want to run training software from their servers. Currently, 95% use the hosted service.

Why? Customers like the fact that GeoLearning hosts the service from secure servers, limiting access to on-line training through a user ID and password prompt. And they prefer the convenience and lower cost of the hosted model to the personnel and equipment costs of a customer premise-based training system.

Both GeoLearning Center and GeoLearning Express, including a course design capability, start at $49 per user. The two ASP solutions accommodate 500 to 3,000 and 2,500-plus agents, respectively. You pay an additional fee to incorporate third-party training software into lesson plans. GeoLearning's options for converting existing training material to a Web-based format begin with posting a Microsoft PowerPoint slide show on-line for approximately $2,500.

KnowDev 6.0, the latest upgrade to Knowlagent's hosted software suite, lets you generate reports and view information from multiple call centers. You can, for example, view agents' performance statistics across call centers in five locations. Previous versions only created reports for each center.