Challenge
Automox allows IT admins to patch and configure devices remotely, with no VPN needed. The pandemic accelerated the market need for these security services and they were experiencing exponential growth.To onboard, new Automox customers were using company documentation and quick start guides, reaching out to support, and using information in the community portal. They were also participating in 1:1 training over Zoom with Customer Success Engineers (CSE). However, this involved a lot of repetitive trainings and it became tiring for Customer Success Engineers to complete day in and day out. Further, this manual process left little time for “stickier” conversations about their product’s more complex features and functionality.It soon became nearly impossible to keep up with the number of new customer onboarding training calls. With this level of growth, their SVP of Customer Experience. Guy Lever, knew they needed a scalable solution to improve the onboarding process as well as increase product usage of some of their more complex features.
Solution
Automox chose Skilljar to help them scale their training program in September of 2021 and completed their soft launch less than three months later. They initially rolled out with an onboarding program and have been adding more feature-oriented courses each month. This process allows them time to gather feedback and make improvements to the content. (Skilljar advises a “crawl, walk, run” approach when launching an eLearning platform, as it’s easy to iterate with our solution and keep building as needed.) Rather than continuing to provide repetitive, manual training, their Customer Success Engineers have been directing customers to Automox University to gather base-level knowledge on the product, freeing CSEs up to facilitate more advanced product discussions.
Advice to LMS seekers or switchers
Sara Anderson joined Automox in July 2021 as a Customer Success Engineer, providing training and technical assistance for customers. Their SVP of Customer Experience, Guy Lever, soon offered her the opportunity to lead their first foray into formalized Customer Education. She is now a Customer Education manager tasked with managing their soon-to-be-growing Customer Education team.
Here is Sara’s advice for learning professionals who are looking for or want to switch to another LMS:
- Choose a tool that is easy to use and that integrates easily with your tech stack.
- Start small. You don’t have to publish everything at once. Take your time to gather feedback and make improvements to your education content as you go.
Results
Although they haven’t done any formal marketing for Automox University just yet, Automox is already seeing exponential growth in customers and partners enrolling in training and taking courses through word of mouth.
With roughly 80 new accounts to be onboarded per month, Automox is seeing:
- ~3X+ new users enrolling in training within months of launch
- 75% reduction in manual training hours required to train
One of their largest customers was able to get two new admins up to speed quickly by having them take the four onboarding courses in less than 45 minutes. Previously, it took four one-hour workshops over Zoom and required Customer Success Manager (CSM) and a CSE to train.
What’s next for Automox University? They plan to have roughly 20 courses across five major curriculum themes by the end of 2022 on a range of topics from onboarding to industry best practices for security. Sara is also talking with her sales teammates to plan a formalized partner training program including certification and more sales-focused content.