Supporting Learning People to grow internationally

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Expanding your operations overseas while still maintaining productivity and efficiency is a challenge for any business. But it’s a challenge that training provider Learning People is tackling head on with the support of A2Z Cloud.

We chat with Andy Winstanley, Head of Operations at Learning People, to find out more.

About Learning People

Learning People is the UK’s largest tech education provider – with online courses covering IT, coding and project management. Since its launch in 2010, the company has trained more than 35,000 students. It has also provided specialist careers advice to students to help get them ‘job ready’.

The tech sector has seen huge growth in recent years, with more jobs available than people to fill vacant roles. So, there are significant growth opportunities for Learning People.

With more than 100 staff, Learning People now has offices in the UK and New Zealand – with further expansion on the horizon.

Learning People - UK's leading online education provider for the Tech and Project Management sectors

Transforming business operations with Zoho

As the business develops, Learning People is constantly looking for new ways to streamline its processes and overcome the challenges of legacy systems. 

As part of this work, A2Z Cloud has been instrumental in helping Learning People to integrate Zoho’s CRM and Zoho One across their UK and New Zealand operations.

“Zoho is at the heart of our business in terms of how we manage incoming students, from the first enquiry through to registration and post-course support, explains Andy Winstanley, Head of Operations at Learning People.

“We like the simplicity and adaptability of Zoho. It is also very competitively priced compared with HubSpot or Salesforce.

“A2Z’s support has been invaluable in helping us to make the best use of Zoho”, adds Andy. “The team was closely involved in the roll-out of Zoho One, which brings together many of Zoho’s most popular applications in one package.”

Andy Winstanley testimonial for A2Z Cloud

Streamlines sales and less manual work

Recently, Learning People called on A2Z Cloud to design a new pricing and inventory system to replace legacy software that was not meeting their needs.

Typically, Learning People’s students buy collections of courses rather than individual courses. With the old system, the enrolment team had to add multiple courses manually often a laborious and time-consuming process.

With A2Z Cloud’s new pricing and inventory system, they can simply enter the student’s details and select the right course collection from a dropdown list. Individual courses can be easily added or removed from the list.

The enrolment team can see, at a glance, the retail price and select the appropriate discount for that collection. It’s a streamlined process that reduces the manual work and risk of human error. 

Stock control can also be managed more effectively. Learning People buys a set number of licences for each course. With the old approach, there was limited visibility of the remaining licences available for each course. Plus, retired courses were sometimes visible alongside newer versions of the same course. This sometimes led to the wrong course being assigned to the student.

Learning People now has complete visibility of their current inventory at a glance – with details about courses sold in the UK and overseas, the retail price and the discounts applied. The new inventory system has been custom built in Zoho Creator.

“We’ve been delighted with the results. This completely transforms the way we manage our course sales and inventory”, says Andy.

A trusted partner for Zoho support and advice

Alongside specific projects, A2Z Cloud also provides an ongoing support and advisory role for Learning People.

“We have a small operations team, with two developers in house who provide first-line support for technical issues or problems”, explains Andy.

“But there are times when we need additional support and expertise. That’s where A2Z steps in. As the UK’s leading Zoho integrator, the team has a vast understanding of Zoho’s products and they provide the continuity of support that we need in the UK and New Zealand.

“We can just pick up the phone if we have a business issue or need advice on whether to adopt a new integration. This enables us to plan more effectively and get things done quicker”, says Andy.

Andy and his colleagues find A2Z Cloud very proactive in communicating news of the latest Zoho releases and new features.

“A2Z keep us in the loop with regular updates. Having the inside track from A2Z is a huge advantage for us”, says Andy.

A long-running collaboration

Following on from the success of the pricing and inventory project, Andy and his colleagues have recently asked A2Z Cloud to help with a much larger project to map their end-to-end business processes.

“We want to look at the whole student journey from when they make an initial enquiry through to enrolling, registration and ongoing support, explains Andy.

“Our aim is to make the process as smooth and efficient as it can be – both for students and staff.”

A2Z Cloud are also playing a critical role in supporting Learning People to transition from HubSpot to Zoho Marketing Automation.

“Marketing Automation will be directly integrated with the CRM, which will bring together marketing and sales in a much better way across our UK and New Zealand operations, says Andy.

So, what of the future? Learning People has ambitious plans for growth – with a new office opening in Australia imminently.

“A2Z’s support will be hugely important as we continue to grow in the UK and overseas”, concludes Andy. We really enjoy working with the A2Z team. They’re a great partner.”

 

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