Learning Project Overview:
Sunquest Information Systems Inc. is a leading U.S. developer of medical laboratory and diagnostic software, enabling lab capabilities including multi-site, multi-disciplinary support for complex clinical and anatomic workflows, and molecular and genetic testing.
As a software company in the highly-regulated, quality-focused healthcare industry, Sunquest must provide the highest quality training to its clients to ensure they use their Sunquest solutions effectively. Sunquest began utilizing LMS technologies to provide standardized training information to client sites. Throughout the process of designing Sunquest’s extended enterprise system, Sunquest University created many industry alliances. Through consistent innovation, response to market pressure, and peer communication, Sunquest iMentor seeks to ultimately redefine how learning is offered and consumed in the health IT space.
In 2018, Sunquest deployed the Docebo Learning Platform (Learn LMS, Extended Enterprise, E-Commerce modules) to power its iMentor training program. Docebo enabled Sunquest iMentor to offer e-commerce capabilities, allowing clients to access Sunquest iMentor training without a subscription and pay by course with a credit card. Additionally, flexibility within Docebo’s course formatting allowed Sunquest to create a single environment for virtual and self-directed workshops, eliminating the need to utilize three systems (formerly Salesforce, LMS and GoToTraining).
Customer Challenge:
In the early 2000’s, Sunquest began expanding and acquiring other software solutions and companies, resulting in extensive growth of its product portfolio. The continued growth of products increased the need for product training, encouraging Sunquest to adopt an LMS to provide standardized training information to its client sites.
In recent years, the healthcare industry has taken a sharp shift towards profitability and change to business strategy, as medical costs increase and hospitals struggle to survive. This is forcing laboratories to reposition themselves as a strategic pillar in the hospital organization, while reimbursements for testing and overall reinvestment declines, resulting in the consolidation of resources and the adoption of singular, enterprise healthcare systems.
Due in part to these changes, Sunquest experienced a decline in its traditional client base, responding with a strategic focus on interoperability, outreach and personalized (precision) medicine. The company recognized a need for standardized training content that could be used beyond the initial product install.
Sunquest implemented its first learning management system (LMS) for employee training in 2001, recognizing an opportunity to utilize the system to deliver electronic training developed by the client training team.
Knowing that training records are vital in the medical industry, it was important that records could be retained and easily accessed. However, with thousands of potential users, it would be too much of a burden for the current client training staff to manage the administration of all users. The goal was to create a system that enabled each client domain the flexibility to manage their own users, registrations and records, without the risk of sharing access across sites.
A progressive initiative was established for Sunquest iMentor, an initiative aimed at addressing the following critical business needs:
- The retention of existing clients and existing revenues
- Growth of net new clients and additional revenues
- Reduction of internal resource strain to positively impact organizational profitability
From this, the following goals were established:
- Position Sunquest iMentor as a product offering within the Sunquest portfolio
Reduce preventable losses - Ease the strain on other departments by reducing the number of hours needed by Subject Matter Experts to facilitate live training
- Create a scalable model that can adapt to the changing healthcare market and allows opportunities for growth
Solution:
Throughout the process of designing Sunquest’s iMentor extended enterprise training environment, the company established a number of industry alliances and through consistent innovation, response to market pressure, and peer communication, sought to ultimately redefine how learning is offered and consumed in the health IT space.
Since 2016, the client training group, now called Sunquest University, has implemented process and infrastructure changes to meet each of these goals, including updating or creating product curricula, developing self-paced online workshops, employing a strategic marketing plan, and implementing a new LMS.
“The biggest obstacle that we faced when looking for a new LMS was our need to allow each customer site to autonomously manage their own users and registrations,” says Jamie Schroder, Manager of Client Training at Sunquest.
Sunquest implemented a new LMS for internal and Sunquest iMentor use (external training, Extended Enterprise), launching with Docebo in 2018, which enabled iMentor to offer e-commerce capabilities. Clients are now able to access their training without a subscription and pay by course with a credit card. Plus, the company has launched a new course format in Docebo allowing for a single environment for virtual and self-directed workshops, eliminating the need to utilize three systems (formerly Salesforce, LMS and GoToTraining).
As the healthcare landscape changes and Sunquest broadens its client base through new product acquisitions, Docebo’s Extended Enterprise offering has allowed Sunquest iMentor to provide training options not possible before. These include the ability to create a separate portal for non-traditional users to access, eliminating the risk of allowing learners (who are not Sunquest clients) to access iMentor, a factor that expands revenue options for Sunquest.
In collaboration with Sunquest’s User Experience team, a usability study was conducted on Sunquest iMentor. The findings prompted several improvements in Sunquest iMentor’s layout and course structure. Micro-lessons are now combined by topic into a singular course shell, simplifying the search process and better aligning with the terms that users search by. Catalogs, formerly organized by modality, have been reorganized by product to align with how users search for training.
“We didn’t realize that we were going to improve searchability and usability of the system without us having to let go of our microlearning focus,” says Schroder. “One of the things in our usability study we identified was that it was hard for clients to find the courses they need.”
Docebo Pages has enabled Schroder and her team to create quick search pages. Instead of a user having to search through the entire course catalog, which totals more than 400 courses, they now navigate the Catalogs by Product page and click on the specific product they wish to train on, taking them to a product-specific catalog of courses and live events – without the burden of having to restructure entire courses.
“I love having this one-stop-shop within the course where you can have a variety of different learning objects: a simple course or a workshop within that same course, which provides continuity for our users within the environment that they are comfortable with and gives us a lot of flexibility within our development,” says Schroder, who joined Sunquest in 2015.
As the client base of Sunquest expands and changes, the value of long-term, large subscriptions is also changing. Many smaller labs want access to the training content, but cannot justify purchasing a subscription. Docebo’s e commerce module has solved the roadblock, enabling Sunquest iMentor to allow access to all Sunquest clients, regardless of subscription status. Clients who create a profile in the system without a subscription have the ability to purchase courses and live events via credit card or purchase order.
And the value is in the numbers, says Schroder.
“We haven’t lost a client to controllable attrition in 19 months – that’s been huge.”
Results:
Sunquest measures ROI impact and organizational impact via the following metrics:
- subscription revenue and retention
- resource utilization subscription growth, and
- adherence to contractual requirements.
As of 2019, Sunquest iMentor has not had a preventable termination since July 2017.
Resource utilization and efficiency is also a strong focus for Sunquest. With live training facilitation requiring subject matter expert (SME) resources, the need to maximize the efficiency of resource utilization is paramount.
For several years, Sunquest offered four web seminars, each focused on system manager topics related to its flagship laboratory software. These web seminars were two hours a day for ten days. The web seminars accounted for over 250 hours of SME facilitation time per year, all from the Client Support department, negatively impacting the department’s ability to manage support cases and backlog. The creation of the virtual and self-directed workshops enabled a drastic reduction in subject matter expert resources by 196 hours, while ROI increased by more than 20%.
In addition to the value recognized by Sunquest, these new class modalities have enabled clients to access training at any time, reducing the strain on laboratories trying to train new administrators. The classes also made it possible for clients outside of North American time zones, or those working non-traditional hours, to have access to training on their schedule.
With Sunquest iMentor being an additional revenue source for Sunquest, the drive for growth is ever present.
“We’ve increased the number of self-paced workshops by about 500% in the last year because we had a lot of webinars that have become self-paced workshops now, so clients are engaging with the system much more,” says Schroder.
“We haven’t heard anyone say they want live training or live webinars – workshops have enabled us to offer those classes at any time, whereas people used to have to wait a couple months to do it.”
“Docebo has expanded the possibilities of our business.”
