At the 101st annual Institute for Supply Management (“ISM”) conference in Indianapolis last week, ISM debuted a new e-Learning initiative, eISM, that is designed to meet the needs of today’s busy procurement and supply management professionals wherever, whenever, and however they need it. eISM follows last year’s release of the ISM Mastery Model, which seeks to offer industry professionals with an online resource for industry-standard terms, definitions, concepts, best practices, and skills, and allow users to take courses and work towards professional development.
With the introduction of eISM, users can take courses through the new online learning program and apply credits towards the Mastery Model, as well as professional certifications, like the Certified Professional in Supply Management (“CPSM”). In keeping with today’s on-the-go culture, eISM is optimized for mobile device usage, including phones and tablets.
In developing the new online learning platform, ISM officials realized that their members are diverse, as they are in different places in their careers and have different needs. As a result, they designed eISM to be highly adaptable and tailored to meet individual needs – from recent college graduates that are new to the profession to seasoned veterans looking to expand their knowledge in emerging or niche areas.
Unlike traditional professional development programs, which can run the length of a college semester and be structured accordingly, eISM is dynamic and modular. It comes in three tracks:
- Guided learning courses conducted over three-to-five weeks, featuring 30-minute classes and an hour-long, instructor-led session each week. These are ideal for new and developing professionals.
- Self-guided learning courses tailored to the wants and needs of the individual user, covering one topic and ideal for experienced professionals.
- Just-in-Time (“JIT”) learning modules, which are essentially 15-minute videos meant to quickly get a user up-to-speed on a given topic.
Users can also access a self-assessment tool that allows them to rate themselves against Mastery Model competencies. According to M.L. Peck, Senior Vice President of Programs and Product Development at ISM, this can serve as a good conversation starter between users and their managers – i.e., “Here’s where I rate on this skill, what do you think? Where should I go from here? How can I improve?” Users can also take courses within eISM and apply the credits towards certifications, like the CPSM, and to annual certification requirements. JIT learning modules count as ¼ credit hour, while the three-to-five week and individualized training courses account for more credits.
eISM is available to members and non-members, with different pricing offered to each, Peck said. It is also best suited for procurement professionals already in the field. These are practitioners that typically have a baseline understanding of the history of procurement and supply management, and are looking for more advanced training in best practices from peers and practitioners in the field. As a result, eISM is not optimized for colleges or universities (Although ISM has had at least one supply management program at a university reach out to them to possibly integrate it into their curriculum).
eISM is also designed to be responsive to the evolutionary nature of supply management, and ought to adapt as industry trends and economic conditions change. For example, as cyber security continues to hold more supply chains and supplier relationships at risk, supply management professionals will need to understand more about IT security, governance, risk management, and compliance. As a result, Peck said that ISM has a cyber security risk module “in the pipeline” for eISM, something that tends to take universities a little more time to field. In fact, Peck wonders if eISM had been around in 2008-2009, whether ISM could have helped to retrain more workers and get them back on their feet sooner.
This responsiveness is good for ISM, but also motivating, as it pushes them to stay on the leading edge of industry trends in order to provide members with relevant and timely training. The pricing options also motivate ISM to “continuously innovate” for their subscribers, said Peck, as the JIT training modules cost just $15 for members and $25 for non-members, and subscribers are not locked into anything. Thus, ISM has to have the pulse of the industry and serve up training modules that are progressive and responsive to practitioners’ changing needs in order to retain subscriptions. “We can’t rest on our laurels like we might have previously done,” said Peck.
ISM officials expect that nearly 2,000 procurement and supply management professionals will use eISM in 2016, with more users taking advantage of the online learning program as more training modules and courses become available.
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