E-Training (Line56)

Elluminate explains the proposition; a number of big names, including Apple, are aboard

The utility of face-to-face training is shrinking. The biggest reason is cost. Fuel prices aren't going down anytime soon, and the training function is big on travel. "When our customers focused on classroom training, either trainees would fly into a central facility or trainers would fly all over creation to deliver personal classes," says Rajeev Arora, VP of Marketing for niche e-learning specialist Elluminate.

That means racking up big travel bills as well as losing employee productivity. That's because when people are in a central location being trained, they aren't doing their jobs. Of course, those aren't the only limitations of traditional on-site training. There are also the problems of reuse and on demand access to content.

Elluminate's solution to the problem is to deliver an online training platform. That doesn't mean courseware; unlike an eCornell, for example, Elluminate isn't in the business of supplying learning content and pedagogical models. Elluminate is focused, rather, on the means of delivery of existing training content.