A short while ago at an HFS event, we had a candid conversation with a group of enterprise executives eager to embrace continual learning—or at the very least, ensure their team had the tools and resources they need to meet the shifting sands of the modern business environment. While their peers will undoubtedly tout the open and collaborative culture they have fostered that ensures their team is constantly abreast of the next big thing, the real work is taking place in service providers. In part, it’s because people are the very core of their business—they trade the skills and capabilities of their service delivery teams; now, more recently, it’s because the smart providers have recognized they can repackage internal training and development tools and resources and sell them to their clients. For this reason, enterprise leaders must look to providers for continual learning excellence.

Infosys’ innovative learning solution Wingspan is proof of how providers’ internal solutions often lead to the best external services

Since 2018, Wingspan, Infosys’s innovative learning platform, has been used by over a million employees internally; however, over the past two years, Infosys has pivoted the platform toward its clients. Thanks to the extensive internal deployment, Wingspan is recognized for its personalized and engaging learning experience, deployed at scale. It is helping level the balancing act between personalization and industrialized capability linked to current and business needs, which has been a major challenge for most enterprises.

Testament to the success of the platform, Infosys recently announced a major deal with Siemens to deploy Wingspan, named My Learning World internally, across the entire company, providing employees with personalized learning experiences and allowing each individual to tailor their agenda, track their progress, and celebrate successes. Thomas Leubner, Chief Learning Officer, Siemens AG, said, “Digitalization is at the core of our strategy for the future. We are excited to have found an effective partner in Infosys who can support us to further improve our employee’s growth journey with My Learning World. This is an important partnership for Siemens, and we look forward to a new learning experience for our employees.” The partnership aims to help Siemens extend market leadership in new digital technologies such as AI, IoT, automation, cybersecurity, and additive manufacturing.

Infosys’ innovative learning solution Wingspan is proof of how providers’ internal solutions often lead to the best external services

The partnership between Infosys and Siemens is far from typical. Many executives are understandably unsure about how they should rewire their talent learning and development structures to deliver the best results. In Exhibit 1, we can see the results from a recent HFS study that examines the levers executives are using to help drive change in talent models. Close to a third expect to deploy tools and resources that allow their teams to pursue training courses along with work.

Exhibit 1: 30% of executives believe the ability to pursue training courses along with work will help drive change

Sample: 100 C-level and business unit or function heads from Global 2000 enterprises

Deploying solutions such as Infosys Wingspan within enterprises will help these executives offer these capabilities to their teams. As Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said about the Siemens deal, “To survive the impact of digital disruption and to navigate these digital times, it is imperative for enterprises to ensure effective talent development. Wingspan, a robust open-source stack-based platform, will provide Siemens’ employees an innovative learning experience that will set new industry standards.”

The Bottom Line: Executives must look at providers who have invested internally first to find the solutions that will offer sustainable and scalable learning resources

The challenge for executives continues to be on how they can invest wisely in learning solutions to deliver real results. Simply put, the requirements of the modern enterprise are shifting too quickly for executives to bet on the wrong horse. They need to balance intuitive, personalized experiences that their talent will actually use with scalable platforms that can help them reskill entire teams. The route to success must be in finding partners who have the right tools and experience—and seeking providers that are actively reskilling hundreds of thousands of employees a year is a good place to start.