We're pleased to report the adoption and use of mobile learning by enterprise customers has been accelerating throughout first half of 2010 -- yeah!!; And as with any measurable change in market direction, this new-found momentum comes with advantages and challenges alike. The bigger the customer and/or engagement, the more revenue that deal can contribute and the easier it is for us to expand operations and assemble an even stronger team. But the bigger the enterprise, the more apt these customers are to want (even demand) more sophisticated features and service offerings to ensure their mobile initiatives are scalable, secure and standards-based.
As a result, our design and development teams have spent the first half of the year improving our core applications, device experiences and the underlying platform our customer and partners need to make mobile learning a reality for their own employees and customers. And somehow we've completed three years worth of effort in a six month time frame (once again!) to stay ahead of current demands and stated requirements. The tangible results are myriad and amazing. A high level summary of what comprises makes our CellCast Solution version 3.x offering would include:
- Improved Delivery Methods
- Advanced Mobile + Social Features
- Highly Scalable Architecture
- New Content Authoring Capabilities (incl Flash)
- Support for Learning Standards (SCORM)
- Enhanced Enterprise Security Features
- Expanded Localization/Language Support
In the days leading up to the mLearnCon Conference in San Diego, California (held mid-June 2010) and the weeks to follow, we plan to provide more detailed background and previews on each of these advances and highlight why we're proud and our customers/partners are happy with all these positive results. For now, here's a short summary of what our blog follows can look forward to learning about in future posts.
Improved Delivery Methods. One of the true value propositions of the CellCast Solution platform is the broad reach achieved from basic feature phones on one extreme to advanced smartphone devices on the other. CellCast can deliver 18 different kinds of mobile learning content ensuring there are reliable and cost effective ways to reach virtually everyone in an organization's extended ecosystem in one way or another (likely several) from just one integrated platform. Authors use "write once/publish to many" methods and tools to create content for delivery via text messaging, voice, mobile web or native app, and can leverage support for every major mobile device used in business. Our next blog post will highlight some of the new CellCast Widget improvements and devices we now support.
Advanced Mobile + Social Features. Not doubt about it, social content and informal learning are playing a larger role in enterprise education and the blended learning experience. To assist customers wishing to leverage these market trends, CellCast now provides an array of both Social Media ("SoMe") and Social Networking ("SoNe") features that promote the creation and distribution of user-generated content as well as providing AND MANAGING access to internal/private social networks (e.g., blogs/microblogs/wikis) and external/public social networks and feeds the establishment of managed private networks (e.g., Twitter, Yammer, Jive, RSS feeds). Access is permission-based and easily controlled/monitored as well as measurable to ensure proper use and conduct using company-owned devices and personnel respectively.
Highly Scalable Architecture. Mobile learning pilots may may only span a limited audience but enterprise deployments can likely expand to thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of mobile learners. Our updated CellCast Solution platform now scales to meet these ever-increasing demands using the industry's most efficient methods for content compression, distribution and synchronization.
New Authoring Capabilities & Functionality. It seems that every engagement we undertake includes 80% "situations we've seen and mastered" and the other 20% seems to be the "here's something that's never been attempted before - can you do it?" sort of situation. As such, our customers and partners have helped to continue to push the envelope in the ways and means that mobile learning content is designed and delivered. Recent experiences with HTML5, branching logic in PowerPoints, Flash-based mobile content (today only on Froyo-based Android and newer Windows Mobile devices), even conversions of desktop bound content created in tools like Articulate Presenter/Engage/Quizmaker, Adobe Captivate and Dreamweaver and Trivantis Lectora Publisher have helped shape the way we deal with new and existing content and make it as mobile friendly as possible.
Support for Learning Standards (SCORM). The bigger the customer/engagement, the more sensitive they are about support for training industry standards too. Take SCORM for example; what we thought impractical a few recent months has now proven to be both possible and even compelling! Our new CellCast Widgets now provide full SCO-level tracking and reporting for SCORM v1.2 and 2004 content packages played on mobile devices in BOTH online AND offline modes using our new CellCast mSCORM Player. Its simply fascinating to witness a SCORM package built for the desktop/online delivery running on a BlackBerry, iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile device even while on an airplane or out of wireless coverage areas.
Enhanced Enterprise Security Features. The requirements for ensuring the security and integrity of enterprise content has become a common theme in recent months as business accelerates its adoption and use of mobile learning. CellCast now provides enhanced end-to-end security features covering every supported mobile device and the myriad of available security options now includes content encryption features (even on iPhones and Android devices) as well as other IT-friendly services like federated authentication/single sign-on integration, remote device wipe capabilities, and even time-based access restrictions.
Expanded Localization/Language Support. The farther the CellCast Solution travels (via multinational customers and global partners/resellers), the greater the need to provide support for languages and localization. User-facing interfaces are now available in 12 different languages (including character-based like Russian, Japanese, traditional and simplified Chinese) both via the mobile web and within the CellCast Widget; sorry, we can't help with the automatic conversion of your content though - that's your responsibility!
You can see we've been busy. And we look forward to showcasing many of the features in the coming days in support of the mLearnCon Conference and over the summer. Its an exciting and interesting time to be in the mobile learning business indeed!
Our team just returned from a full week down in Orlando, Florida participating in Research in Motion’s 2010 Worldwide Enterprise Summit (“WES”) Conference which proved once again to be a spectacular event and learning experience for all in attendance. Plenty of attention was paid to the fields of mobile Learning and mobilized content delivery to the ubiquitous BlackBerry – or as RIM refers to it – the “preferred smartphone for business” and this year’s event once again set the gold standard for “Best Conference Experience/Value” in what’s been an otherwise tepid tradeshow circuit these past few years.
Participation at WES is open to anyone interested in “The World of BlackBerry” though this year’s attendees (6,000+ and up 20% from 2009!) tend to fit one of four profiles including: (1) business or IT teams from larger enterprise accounts, (2) technical or channel resources from global carriers/wireless providers, (3) application developers and enterprise solution architects, or (4) market analysts, bloggers and techno freaks interested in experiencing what’s hot in BlackBerry. Virtually everyone we encountered throughout the four-day conference seemed to have either a mission to learn or a budget to invest (many had both!) and opportunities abounded!
Who’s not in attendance at WES? Thankfully, RIM’s international event wasn’t filled with casual tire kickers or non-practitioners just wasting time or trolling for free giveaways. In fact, more than half the attendees flew in from outside North America (with heavy participation from Europe and Asia Pacific) and they were there to really gain some advantage after enduring 10 to 20-hour flights!
Sessions of Interest
While there were no huge (unanticipated) product announcements from RIM, the highlights of the show included two new BlackBerry devices (the CDMA BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G/9100) that are both highly polished and ultra fast. And we’ll all soon put that speed to good use as RIM announced the upcoming availability of their BBOS version 6.0 platform coming sometime in Q3 2010. BBOS6 will provide a raft of new (and some long overdue) enhancements to the interface and web browsing experience and also serve to support new features like Flash Player 10.1 also slated for delivery later this year. For mobile learning developers and users alike, these advances and the new devices that will run them will help to ensure the BlackBerry remains a leading device in the smartphone arsenal for mobile learning delivery.
The discipline of Mobile Learning was spotlighted in several of the main sessions including a well attended session titled “WB-11 Developing and Distributing Media-Rich Content for Mobile Workers” in which I was a featured panelist along with Keith O’Loughlin from Intuition. Chalk Media, formally a direct competitor and now a subsidiary of RIM, also presented a few sessions on mobile content creation and delivery to both general audiences and channel partners and a short series of Chalk Pushcasts were deployed to WES attendees via their BlackBerry smartphones helping to make syndicated content delivery a front-of-mind experience for all interested parties.
The Solutions Showcase
The official Exhibit Hall for WES 2010 was the Solutions Showcase area and a record number of sponsors signed up this year and manned their “popsicle stands” to meet interested parties from the RIM ecosystem. The OnPoint team was able to meet and talk with a great number of current customers, partners and prospects and demonstrate why mobile learning in general and our CellCast Solution in particular are gaining in market acceptance and popularity. We were especially pleased with the interest from MVNOs/carriers and VARs we visited with and their expressed commitment to begin leveraging mobile learning to train their own employees and partners: interest seemed to come equally from North America, LATAM, EMEA and APAC alike as the global market heats up from mLearning. We look forward to the opportunities that mature in the coming weeks and months from our active participation in the Solutions Showcase. Martin Brown, our MD from Sydney, Australia, was certainly glad to made the trip over too!
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