How Trimble Created an Enterprise-Wide Digital Credential Program
The Organization
As a leading industrial technology provider, Trimble offers a large selection of free and commercial online courses via Trimble Learn. The company’s trainings have grown significantly over the years and are highly popular among customers, partners, employees, and students.
But while the courses themselves are solid, the sheer volume of audiences and offerings makes for a complex credentialing process. Learning options span hundreds of products and industries — not to mention numerous locations, languages, and compliance regulations. As a result, each Trimble business unit had its method for issuing credentials. Some used digital badges, while others provided PDF certificates, and there was little consistency regarding branding and company logos. And as the portfolio of courses expanded, the overall program became less cohesive.
The global learning team knew it was time to streamline and saw an untapped opportunity to empower learners to share their achievements. With help from Accredible, they took it.
Challenges
Trimble had amassed an impressive library of course catalogs but had yet to unleash the program's full potential. To do that, the team needed to make improvements in several crucial areas.
First, there was the issue of inefficiency.
“We had some capabilities for credentialing and certificates within our LMS, but it was not streamlined,” says Global Learning Solutions Director Basia Bullard.
Many departments were still contending with time-consuming manual processes and were eager to modernize the experience. They also wanted to provide a more consistent learning experience that would provide exceptional value to learners and improve overall brand perception.
“We were issuing certificates for our training courses, but they were always static paper or PDF certificates that are very easy to fake,” says Ruth Murphy, Support Services Operations Coordinator. “It left us with a lot to wish for. We also wanted to find ways to inspire learners to complete our courses, rather than finding what they’re looking for halfway through and not having that extra motivation to finish.”
At the same time, the customer support team was looking to increase awareness. The sooner new customers complete training, the more successful they’ll be with Trimble products. And the faster credentials are issued, the easier it is for learners to share those badges on social media and recommend courses to colleagues.
Across all of these challenges, one solution stood out as the answer to them all: digital credentialing.
"By awarding our customers digital credentials to benchmark their learning success, we add value to their investment in Trimble solutions," Bullard says.
There were just two decisions left to make — which platform to use and how to implement it successfully across all Trimble business units.
The Solution
When Trimble teams initially investigated digital credentials, they compared several solutions before landing on a clear winner.
“We started investigating digital credentials in 2019 and looked at five or six platforms before we settled with Accredible — and the main driver was that customer experience,” says Alexis Corso, Manager of Product Training & Certification. “It sets Accredible apart from other digital credentialing companies. They’ve been a fantastic partner for us all along and help set us apart from the competition as we scale.”
A few years later, when it came time to decide which platform to use to scale digital credentialing enterprise-wide, the decision was easy.
“We discovered several businesses had already selected Accredible as an extension of our LMS because of the additional capabilities,” says Bullard. “It was a no-brainer at that point — why wouldn't we adopt Accredible as a standard and scale it across the entire enterprise? It was the obvious next best step for us to take.”
Thankfully, Accredible made this easy to do. The platform integrates seamlessly with Trimble’s learning management system (LMS), Docebo, to automate manual processes and provides all the support needed to ensure successful rollout.
Accredible was so supportive that Trimble decided to engage Accredible Professional Services to unify different departments' needs and voices and develop an enterprise-wide digital credentialing framework.
“The moment we realized we had an opportunity to make Accredible a standard part of our learning platform across the enterprise, we knew we’d need help,” recalls Bullard. “Having Trimble Learning leaders meet with Accredible Professional Services to design our accreditation framework was incredibly worthwhile.”
The Professional Services team worked closely with Trimble to design credentials, develop an onboarding and support process, create communication guidelines, and deliver a companywide playbook.
Results
Once Trimble started outlining a credential framework, the program really took off. With Accredible by their side, the team quickly scaled digital credentialing.
“The main thing we love about Accredible is that we can automate digital credential issuance,” says Murphy. “Minimizing manual touchpoints is essential for scaling our courses.”
The team gained access to a slew of "many other incredible features," such as custom designs and emails, that make enhancing the experience for a global audience easier than ever. And when questions arise, the answers come quickly.
“The Accredible Support Team is amazing,” says Corso. “When we need help, we need it immediately — and they respond immediately.”
As a result, enrollments went up, completion rates increased, and learners were increasingly excited to share digital badges on social media. Within a year, Trimble more than doubled the number of product lines offering digital credentials, resulting in a 94% year-over-year (YoY) increase in credentials issued through Trimble Learn. One business unit tripled the number of digital credentials issued. Another exceeded its original goal by 50%. And more than 90% of learners who earned badges for Trimble’s free courses went on to share them.
Because of Accredible’s easy-to-share digital credentials and the team’s optimizations, Trimble saw a 200% YoY increase in credentials shared on LinkedIn and other channels and a 54% YoY increase in its credential share rate—helping to boost brand awareness and program referrals.
“Surpassing our 2023 issuance and share rate targets is a good indicator of how useful our learners find digital credentials to be and the enthusiasm for them,” says Murphy. “In addition to LinkedIn shares, we’ve seen a good uptake of learners opting in to be featured in our Certified Credentials Directory. Since we started issuing digital credentials, we have seen good improvements across enrollment numbers, completion rates, and drop-off rates.”
“Beyond the credentials themselves, we’re finding tremendous value in the credentialing data in helping us understand how we accelerate our customer success journey,” Bullard says. “By rolling out credentialing through our student programs, we’re seeding the market with future Trimble ‘loyalists’ who will likely become customers, partners, and even employees. This data is so valuable because it enables us to capture that association with Trimble long before we actually service them as either a customer or a partner.”
Through it all, Accredible Professional Services served as a true partner and trusted advisor.
“I'm very grateful we did the Professional Services engagement, and I don't think we would be where we are today without it,” says Bullard.
Today, Trimble is more connected than ever to customers and prospects alike.
Best of all, a wealth of additional opportunities still lie ahead — and Trimble is confident they’ll continue to reach even bigger and better digital credentialing milestones.
“What makes a difference for us is the partnership and alignment in our shared success and how that factors into our roadmap for getting the most value out of digital credentialing,” says Bullard. “We trust Accredible will continue to grow with us.”
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