The Evolution of CoreMedia Training

Enterprise software is a big investment and the path to purchase can be a complicated one. We know, for example, that global brands choose CoreMedia Content Cloud for many different reasons, including the need for robust customization and integration capabilities.

One thing we’ve always been aware of is the need from customers to receive comprehensive training. Developers want to ramp up quickly so their companies can start leveraging our software immediately. And from the very beginning, the CoreMedia Training Center has been at the heart of our efforts to empower new customers.

With the global pandemic forcing change on every company, we’ve also had to ramp up our online training capabilities. So I thought it might be interesting to take a 360º look at our training methods – where we’ve been and where we’re going.

CoreMedia was founded back in 1996 with a Java-based server-client architecture (SCA) but a completely different development stack. At that time, trainers would travel to customers with CD-ROMs and install the software – with all its servers, clients and databases – on every user`s individual computer. Websites weren’t rendered by our Spring-based content application engine (CAE) but rather by the active delivery server (ADS). And editors did not have a web-based user interface but instead our Java-based “swing editor.”

Since most training relied on these in-person sessions, CoreMedia trainers were necessarily on the road a lot – sometimes staying on-site for several weeks in places as disparate as Finland, Australia, India and the US. And training often involved large teams, since many companies had created entirely new departments to deal with this dynamic new technology called the internet.

The next phase was growing our partner network – respected digital agencies and system integrators (SI) who we rely on to recommend CoreMedia to prospective customers and also implement the solution with them. This was when we initiated the CoreMedia certification program, to ensure that customers could choose partners with qualified developers to ensure a fast start.

And speaking of training, from now until the end of October you have the chance to get a free certification voucher by booking the appropriate training block. Get the full details here.

Back to the story: Several years and numerous releases later, we introduced our “blueprint” packages – pre-built business site templates – which mean the workload for CoreMedia developers changed considerably. And the training center reacted to this by dividing up Web Application Development training into backend-focused (i.e. working directly with the CAE) and frontend-focused development.

By now, average bandwidth speed was getting fast enough for us to start holding trainings online. Needless to say, the interest was immediate and overwhelming, particularly because cloud computing was just beginning to come to the fore.

At the same time, we started creating permanent video-based training material that can be viewed by any user anytime. These videos can all be found in our CoreMedia Knowledge base (CM-Account required).

We also realized that we needed to make sure all of our target groups had appropriate training course. So we started a general boot camp to train the most important CoreMedia stakeholders: the editors. This standard training followed, by an individual expert session with an advisor, reduces customer training costs significantly.

And now here we are dealing with Covid-19, like the rest of the world. Fortunately, we found ourselves in an excellent position due to all the previous prep work we had done over the years. We had seen demand for online training grow every year and we were ready. I’m happy to say that since the pandemic began, 100% of our live trainings have been held remotely without the need to cancel a single one.

But what’s next? Since online training works so well, will we ever return to in-person sessions? And how will courses evolve? Will actual trainers still be needed in the future or will these classes eventually become completely self-managed – personalized learning experiences customized by each attendee?

I would love your thoughts on this. Does your company provide online training? How do you see it evolving? How has Covid impacted your training strategy? And do you think the role of the live human trainer is irreplaceable or will trainings eventually become more self-paced?

Let me know your thoughts. Drop me an email at jendrys.dornheim@coremedia.com. I look forward to hearing from you.