ELB Learning Makes Acquisition, Rebrands Next Day
An acquisition one day. A rebrand the next. It was a big week for the company formerly known as eLearning Brothers, which made the two news announcements last week.
The American Fork, Utah-based provider of enterprise learning content and design services announced its third acquisition of 2022 on May 2, acquiring CoreAxis, a training, design and development provider. The next day, the company rebranded as ELB Learning.
“In the learning industry, there was a hole in the marketplace for a 'one-stop-shop,'" Andrew Scivally, ELB Learning's CEO, told Reworked. "Companies were working with various different vendors for their training needs, and I thought we could house it all under one roof. My goal is to be a strategic business partner for corporations, not just a one-off vendor. Each acquisition I make has to bring us closer to that."
The Reason Behind the Acquisition
The CoreAxis deal adds more corporate training muscle to ELB Learning's custom learning and content development service portfolio. It also brings in CoreAxis' staff augmentation service to help bring Scivally's one-stop shop vision closer to reality. CoreAxis manages more than 2,500 contract instructional designers and developers.
Further, CoreAxis shares many of the same values as ELB Learning, and they blend in seamlessly with their corporate culture, according to Scivally.
This latest news follows the January 2022 deal to acquire Rehearsal, a video-based coaching and practice platform. Using Rehearsal, users can record themselves practicing a skill, such as giving a presentation or doing a sales pitch, submit the video for review and get manager feedback and automated scoring via AI.
Also in January, ELB Learning struck a deal to grow the company's global footprint with Origin Learning, an India-based company that provides learning design, development and technology solutions.
Related Article: Training Can Close the Technology Skills Gap
A Growing Portfolio of Services
With these acquisitions, ELB Learning offers a range of learning products that includes:
- Gamification via The Training Arcade and Arcades learning environment.
- Course authoring with Lectora, Review Link and an asset library of templates.
- Virtual reality course authoring via CenarioVR.
- Learning platforms Rockstar Learning Platform and CourseMill.
- Video-based practice with Rehearsal.
- Off-the-shelf courseware.
The CoreAxis acquisition bolsters the services side of ELB Learning's business by adding staff augmentation to its custom learning design and learning strategy services.
Learning Opportunities
The company is working to integrate each acquisition into a complete suite. Currently, ELB Learning customers can access the asset library and community forums via a single sign-on gateway that includes development tools such as CenarioVR and Lectora. Users may also login and manage their accounts for all of their authoring suite products in one spot, according to Scivally. ELB Learning expects to make more acquisitions in the second half of this year, he added.
Related Article: Professional Learning Is Critical and in Need of a Refresh
Learning and Development Rising to the Top of the Agenda
The acquisition spree comes amid a time of transformation for many organizations, and the internal learning and development (L&D) teams that support them.
“L&D is having a watershed moment as they help companies focus on upskilling and reskilling the employee population,” said Tiffany Poeppelman, director of the business leadership program at LinkedIn in a recent Reworked story. “We’ve seen incredible growth in how management and the C-Suite prioritize L&D.”
According to LinkedIn’s latest workplace learning report, "The Transformation of L&D: Learning Leads the Way Through the Great Reshuffle," 87 percent of L&D leaders are now involved in change efforts across the organization, with 64 percent saying they are focused on rebuilding the organization. Three-quarters say L&D has become more cross-functional than it's ever been before.
The report also found a rapidly shifting reality for skill development. The skill make-up for most positions will have changed 40 percent by 2025, requiring companies to rethink who they hire and how they ensure new and existing employees continue to learn and grow within the company.
Other highlights from the LinkedIn report:
- 62% of organizations report that L&D is focused on rebuilding or reshaping their organization.
- 64% report their organization's culture of learning grew stronger in the past year.
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