Online Training Rates – What To Expect
Whenever we get interested in something the conversation always comes around to rates, or cost. For most people there is no point getting too excited about something if what you really want is not in the budget. And most decisions involve some kind of cost benefit approximation. What do I get and what do I have to give up.
There are three common rates for an Online Training System:
- Startup or Setup Rate is the first step and covers getting your course materials, downloads, any test questions, certificate for completed courses into an electronic format and loaded into the online training platform. Unless you are actually building a training platform and setting up the course you are likely looking at a cost in the several thousand dollar range. Parts of the setup may be based on the time it takes to complete the task and an hourly rate. Other parts of the setup may be based on a flat rate such as setting up a signup page for trainees to register and pay, with the funds going into your merchant account. As a general rule the more simple your requirements the lower the setup.
- Usage Rate refers to the actual use by your trainees, employees or customers (whoever is taking the course). The most common methods of pricing for online training delivery are the flat rate amount which usually has established limits to the number of trainees per month for a prescribed monthly rate. For example a maximum of 100 trainees for a rate of $100 per month. This benefit is you have a maximum amount which helps to budget for online training costs. The downside is that training may be high some months and low other months so you are paying for unused capacity. Another common training rate is the per usage or per access which is based on the number of people you give access to the training course. This can work equally as well for professional trainers selling their training courses as corporate training and online certification training - where volume is up and down from month to month.
- Service, Support and Maintenance Rate refers to any ongoing amounts that would be required. You may need assistance in using the Administrative part of the system and this may carry an additional cost to it. Support may be required by you or your trainees and some providers have an additional cost to provide technical support. Maintenance can be very broad and include a flat fee to maintain the technology. With licensed software maintenance fees often range from 15% to 18% of the startup or annual usage license rate.
When considering your online training delivery options remember to ask about the rates so you know what is one-time and what is ongoing.
We often refer to TrainingToDo.com as an online training engine which we see as more than just an LMS. It has multiple levels of training administration and an Educator level to allow you to manage your course materials on your own. There is a Reseller Admin level that is designed for people who are selling training and have different needs than someone who is doing only internal employee training online. If you compare a basic LMS rates to TrainingToDo.com you may find the usage rates to be comparable even though you are getting a more developed and advanced training and testing platform.
We have many fexible rate plans that make this affordable for whether you plan to train a 100 people, 1,000 people or 10,000 people. Feel free to contact us; we look forward to hearing from you.
