E-learning software sales to soar this year

Sales of e-learning, or online multimedia training, software will grow at least threefold this year, boosted by growing demand from Polish companies and governmental agencies as the country gears up for European Union membership, according to some IT professionals. Polish companies that have invested in other popular corporate technologies, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) - software applications that allow businesses to electronically manage manufacturing, sales, human resources and customer service - are likely candidates for e-learning solutions, industry experts said. As the latest IT trend that surfaced here last year, e-learning will enable them to quickly instruct their workers scattered around the country about EU regulations prior to Poland's scheduled accession in 2004, as well as to save money on costly in-house training programs. Firms specializing in e-learning or others that considered offering the service intensively marketed their activities in 2001, although actual purchases of e-learning systems and content were limited. Based on an initial survey of local and international vendors and potential sellers of e-learning technologies, e-learning sales in Poland were less than $300,000 in 2001, according to Andrzej Jarosz, the Warsaw-based research manager of IT market research firm IDC. But IDC expects revenue to triple to about $1 million in 2002.

Other experts have more optimistic forecasts for e-learning sales this year. Aleksander Drzewiecki, the president of e-Learning.pl, a start-up that began selling e-learning content last October, estimates that total countrywide revenue will hit $8 million-$15 million in 2002. "Within the last year companies have learned about e-learning and now they are ready to buy," he said. Some e-learning providers anticipate that Poland's EU accession will usher in a business boom during the next two years, despite some current corporate and federal spending reductions on IT solutions. "If you want to train people, for example, on EU regulations, doing it in a classroom would cost millions," Drzewiecki said. "When you look at the budget situation of the government, it is an advantage to look into modern solutions." He predicted that some ministries or other government agencies would implement e-learning technology within the next 12 months, although none have done so yet. Other IT professionals are not so sure. "Logically it should happen but there has been no government activity yet and they have only one and a half years to implement it and to train society," said Igor Sikorski, the market development manager of IT firm Cisco Systems Poland. Since large multinational corporations with operations in Poland tend to have their own international e-learning solutions used by all their worldwide offices, content and systems providers are targeting big Polish companies, especially banks, insurance companies, telecoms and firms in heavy industries, which have big training needs for workers spread across the country. Saving potentials are huge, according to IT experts, with most firms realizing a return on investment in less than a year. According to e-Learning.pl's estimate, training 1,000 employees in a traditional classroom setting at a single location would cost zł. 1.3 million ($325,000), while blended, or combined classroom instruction and e-learning, would cost zł. 735,000 and e-learning alone zł. 300,000.

Implementing an e-learning system, including the hardware and a software license, for a firm of 10,000 in Poland could cost about $1 million, or $100 per user, according to Robert Frźchowicz, the vice president and sales director of Betacom, a distributor of e-learning platforms in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. He estimates that only two to three large Polish companies have implemented e-learning systems but expects the number to increase to 10-15 by the end of 2003. He also predicts that about 80% of Poland's 500 largest firms will be using different forms of e-learning systems in the next five years when the technology becomes the standard for employee training, replacing traditional methods of instruction.

But for medium-sized firms that only need to purchase the software rather than a complete IT system to manage applications over a wide-area network, e-learning solutions cost $20,000-$30,000 or more depending on their level of sophistication, according to Jacek Bartkowiak, e-Learning.pl's sales and marketing manager. Typical software for courses on customer service, computer skills, finance or marketing, for example, consist of preliminary tests to determine what the trainee already knows, instruction and exercises read by lecturers, role-playing simulations with digital managers and a final test. Each lesson typically takes about 20-30 minutes with four or five lessons in one course, and can be accessed through an Intranet - a company's internal online system - the Internet or via CD-ROM.