IBM, Thomson Target Corporate E-Learning Market

With eyes set on the tricky e-learning market, IBM Corp.
Tuesday announced it would partner with The Thomson Corp. to marry e-learning technologies and services that target
corporate and government customers.

Financial terms of the alliance were not disclosed. Under the agreement,
IBM’s e-learning technologies and services would be combined with Thomson
learning products and services, especially the company’s portfolio of
professional and technical e-learning courses.

Big Blue and Thomson plan to co-market and resell their combined assets to
corporate and government clients and jointly develop new courseware and
e-learning software based on open, industry standards that enable employees
to participate in collaborative online classroom environments.

The deal between one of the biggest names in the tech sector and a pioneer
in the e-learning industry is sure to lend credibility to the concept of
Web-based learning environments, especially after a slew of e-learning
dot-coms fizzled after promising the moon and the stars.

But, it appears IBM and Thomson are banking on third-party data that shows
there is money to be made from signing on corporate clients. According to
research from International Data Corp. (IDC), worldwide revenues in the
corporate e-learning market will surpass $23 billion by 2004, heady numbers
when compared to 1999, when the sector was projected to rake in less than $2
billion at the end of 1999.

According to IDC, there is a huge market for corporate e-learning services in North America,
which will account for two-thirds of worldwide revenues through 2004. The
numbers are not lost on IBM and Thomson, which estimated the market to be in
the range of $18 billion.

With enterprises and government agencies turning to technology to reduce
travel and administrative expenses, and to provide faster and more effective
employee training programs, the e-learning sector is fast gaining acceptance
and IBM and Thomson said the partnership would jointly offer thousands of
e-learning courses on topics ranging from business law to information
technology, budgeting, e-commerce and grammar.

Using Thomson development tools, IBM plans to customize Thomson courses to
help clients train employees on company-specific products or practices. IBM
will also support Thomson clients with consulting, systems integration and
hosting services.

The companies said future e-learning courses developed would be fully
interoperable with the Lotus LearningSpace to make full use of IBM’s
learning management and “live virtual classroom” technologies.