Why infrastructure is your next learning technology investment

John Peebles, CEO, Administrate

In the 1850s, Peter Cooper read the room. A leading inventor of his time, he saw buildings stretching higher and higher in the ever-changing New York City skyline. His instinct alerted him that staircases, though a reliable technology, would soon lose practical value. So, when he designed The Cooper Union Foundation Building, he constructed an empty chamber that ran the vertical stretch of his building, bottom to top. At the time, freight lifts in various forms had been in use for decades, but safe passenger lifts would not be invented for another four years after his building was complete. Peter Cooper was not creating solutions to the constraints of the present. Instead, he constructed the ability to accommodate the innovation he knew would come and the capabilities that would be required to support the future.

Insightful leaders in enterprise training are planning and working in the spirit of Peter Cooper today. They’re taking a new approach to learning platforms, an approach that architects training technology for insight and innovation. Digital transformation for training is no longer about LXPs, LMSs or the next modality platform. It is something deeper, more fundamental.

The key to the future of enterprise training is learning technology infrastructure.

Training has always been responsive to new technology and often an early adopter of innovation. The financial investment of many companies reflects this, with elearning tools and learning tech stack budgets soaring into the millions for larger organisations. However, for decades, this investment has remained disjointed. This core business function abounds with point solutions built to address singular tasks, resulting in a cooked spaghetti collection of tools required to produce a modern training programme. Disconnected systems have resulted in disparate data that has overflowed into multiplied manual hours invested in spreadsheets that attempt to cobble together insightful reporting.

This is the data management staircase that has carried enterprise training to where we are today. It has taken organisations far but at a slow pace, while still requiring tremendous effort. It is also technology that is not sustainable as businesses climb higher, change faster and compete harder. Workforce needs such as upskilling and new skilling have already outpaced this climb.

The most painful problem with this old technology is that while it may produce a programme, it cannot empower timely, data-driven decisions. CLOs and CHROs know that the deeper value of the training function lies far beyond activity metrics and exit surveys. Training data can predict and prepare an organisation to act competitively in its market. It can inform high investment return on talent recruitment and retention. It can identify where operational hours can be gained for innovation that pivots an industry. Harnessing the business intelligence of training requires learning analytics and an approach to learning technology that is flexible to change. Point solutions will never provide this.

So, what is the lift shaft equivalent for enterprise training today? It’s headless architecture for learning technology.

Software infrastructure is a primary investment for training professionals. Image taken from Administrate’s guide, How Headless Architecture Transforms Training.

Like Cooper’s passenger lift shaft, training leaders are installing an open infrastructure to serve as the core of their learning tech stack. Long leveraged by ecommerce and other key business functions, a headless approach to training technology means that organisations can utilise best-in-class point solutions for designing and delivering learning experiences while maintaining a consistent system of record for deep analysis. It also opens the door to a centralised system of training management on the back end, creating deep efficiencies, continuity and stability for programme execution. When this foundation is installed and data is centralised, programmes are ready to adopt emerging technologies, such as AI tools, without risking the stability and utility of their prior investment.

API layer connects frontend and backend layers, that share a common data pool. Image taken from Administrate’s guide, How Headless Architecture Transforms Training.

This operational readiness in learning technology is a game-changer – if you get into the game. Much like a lift shaft, a headless approach to your learning tech stack is not something you can just add on later. You’ve either built this agility into your learning technology infrastructure, or you haven’t. This singular decision is the most crucial and consequential factor in learning tech purchases today. You may or may not leverage headless capabilities immediately, but the decision to equip your training programme with them will largely determine your ability to adopt, integrate and gain intelligence from the learning technologies you use in future. Without a headless architecture, your training programme, and your business, will be taking the stairs.

What’s your vision for your learning technology infrastructure? It’s time to focus on agility, not just utility. Training leaders are now implementing a headless architecture approach – why not explore how your organisation can move toward this capability?

Access Administrate’s guide, How Headless Architecture Transforms Training

By John Peebles, CEO, Administrate