Subject: Refund Request.
The words practically jumped off Janet’s monitor.
Since launching her organization’s performance-based certification (PBC) program, the certification manager had received more unhappy emails than she cared to admit. The irony?
The complaints weren’t because there was anything wrong with the program itself. Janet, and her lean team of two coworkers, spent 16 months developing a quality PBC program.
In fact, the team went over budget after outsourcing a UX professional, devops engineer and cyber security engineer to leave no stone unturned. Unfortunately, Janet was now dealing with a problem she had never anticipated: Growing pains.
After expanding the program into Southeast Asia, the certification manager began confronting latency issues, grading errors and reputation management challenges. All the signs the your performance-based certification program doesn’t scale well.
In this article, we’ll explain why Janet is experiencing these setbacks and what she could have done to prevent them from occurring.
Common Roadblocks to Scaling Performance-Based Certification Programs
Like most modern executives, Janet’s boss saw the potential to grow the company’s revenues by expanding into new global markets. After experiencing great success with its Proof-of-Concept (POC), he decided the organization should make the program available in APAC.
Being the awesome certification manager she is, Janet spent significant time educating her sales team on how to close sales with the new demographic. She taught them what matters most to Asian tech professionals, why PBC is better than multiple choice question exams and how to speak to the benefits of the program.
The only problem was she may have taught them too well! Her influx of new test-takers began magnifying previously unaddressed issues like lag times caused by poor infrastructure, proctors who couldn’t fully communicate in native languages and inefficient grading methods. And, without the budget to hire additional team members, the certification team quickly found itself overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed.
Here’s what partnering with a performance-based certification platform provider could have done to ensure to ensure that Janet’s performance-based certification program could scale.
1. Saved Money for Future Exam Iterations
Janet’s team spent upwards of $500,000 on their POC. By leveraging a platform provider who had already built the basic exam framework, the certification manager could have saved her company thousands of dollars in contractor fees.
2. Built Scalable Infrastructure
An experienced platform provider will have already tested PBC infrastructure for flexibility, scalability and robustness on previous projects. They can also reduce network latency and adjust resources in real-time based on demand. Janet could have avoided lag time, the need to issue refunds and negative word-of-mouth. Don’t be Janet. Leverage a PBC platform to help you scale your performance-based certification program.
3. Offered High-Quality, Remote Proctoring
While Janet’s proctoring vendor was already providing automated remote proctoring for multiple-choice exams, it wasn’t familiar with the particularities involved in monitoring both low-stakes and high-stakes for performance-based certification exams.
4. Provided 24/7 Troubleshooting
Put simply, no certification manager should be answering phone calls from test-takers in the wee hours of the night. But that’s exactly what Janet found herself doing because her proctors weren’t knowledgeable in how to troubleshoot issues with their software solution. PBC platform providers like TrueAbility can clients with round-the-clock monitoring, troubleshooting and resolution of exam environments for affordable fees.
5. Automated the Grading Process
Understandably, Janet often worried about making mistakes while grading exams. After reviewing hours of video playback, and their associated archived files, she became prone to monotonous oversights. Platform providers like TrueAbility relieve certification managers of this cumbersome task by automating the grading process. It’s just another example of how you can scale your performance-based certification program and improve grading accuracy.
Ensure Smooth Scaling for PBC Programs
Had Janet outsourced the aforementioned tasks to a full-service platform provider, she would have entered the Asian marketplace with a strong foundation for fast growth, minimal disruptions and more money in her budget.
This would have allowed her to focus on what she does best: Creating new certification programs, managing projects and building brand recognition in new regions.
If you’re a certification manager like Janet, we can help. TrueAbility is on a mission to make performance-based assessment convenient, scalable and accessible for today’s emerging tech leaders. Call us at 877-461-8702 or click the button below to schedule a demo.
Ready to learn more?
Schedule a demo of TrueAbility’s performance-based certification platform and see for yourself how a platform-based solution can help you launch and scale performance-based certification quickly and more affordably than ever.
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