With the new financial year less than a month away, a lot of organisations are now finalising their next years budgets (if they haven’t already) or considering how they will deploy whats left in this years budget to finish out the quarter and get a start on next years goals.

Here’s 5 areas specific to online training platforms and content to consider when putting together your  budget for the year to come:

1. Platform Maintenance

All platforms will need some form of maintenance over the coming 12 months. This includes your Learning Management System and possibly your website and Student Management System. Whether its software maintenance to keep the platform code in a safe, stable and secure working order or data maintenance to keep your information clean, updated and relevant (or both), make sure you put some budget in there to maintain your existing sites and data.

2. Upgrades and improvements

Your platforms should not be set and forget. As business changes there will be opportunities to improve your processes and productivity. Maybe you want to add a new feature or plugin or integrate better with your reporting or financial system. Or maybe even its time to consider refreshing your theme to align with your new website or brand. Allow some budget this year to upgrade and improve.

3. Refresh a Course

Just like your platform, your online course should not be set and forget.

Its important that you keep your courses fresh and relevant. Just as you might update your PowerPoint deck or classroom notes with new examples or more recent images its important to do the same with your online training content.

Set aside some budget this year to give your most popular courses a quick facelift or refresher.

4. A new Course

If your online training initiative is going well, maybe its time to add a new course to your offering. It could be a new qualification or even a short course or may even be something as simple as a refresher course using your existing material. Consider how you can drive revenue or engagement with a new course, and allocate some budget to get it off the ground.

5. Staff Training

Daily we speak with organisations that have online training platforms where team members are struggling to do even the most basic of tasks. Training your staff to use your Learning Management System and platforms can provide massive payoffs in terms of direct revenue and productivity gains.

Maybe your organisation has had some promotion or staff turn over or maybe your business needs have changed. Maybe its just bad habits passed down from employee to employee. Regardless of the reason, the result can be expensive in terms of lost time and lost profit.

Considering adding some budget for staff training and development on your systems and ensure you are maximising your systems potential, as well as using your teams time most effectively.

Of course this year you might also be looking at bigger projects like a new platform or large scale integration, but the above 5 tips are the forgotten areas when it comes to budgeting. I hope they’ve helped.

Remember your budget is simply the plan to invest money to achieve your goals. Most organisations fail to hit their goals because they fail to budget (and invest) in the important pieces needed to reach their targets. And while you might argue you simply can’t afford some of the suggestions above, the cost of unproductive staff, unreliable systems, or an incomplete strategy might be costing you significantly more.

If you’re not hitting your online training goals it might be time to review your approach. Here at OTrain we have the experience and a proven process in helping to tease out and define your training goals and objectives and helping to create an execution plan that ensures that your systems and platforms support your goals, and that you not only meet but exceed your expectations.

If you’ve got any questions on what it might cost for some of the above tips, or what might be involved, give us a call in the office on

07 3040 3310.

About OTrain

OTrain provides a range of products and services to help you put YOUR training online; and help make YOUR training and business work. From a cloud based, Learning Management System and creative Studio team to create and host online training courses, to our  coaching, consulting workshops, templates and tools to help you get the most out of your business, OTrain is the logical choice for your online training partner. OTrain is Simply put, a better way to train.

Learn more about OTrain by visiting www.otrain.com.au or calling us on 07 3040 3310

About the Author

Shane Ridley is the Founder and Managing Director of OTrain. With a background in Workforce Development, Shane has been involved in everything from staffing and developing workforces in Greenfield sites to working with 100 year old companies. 1 man operations to multinationals.

Connect with Shane via LinkedIn or Twitter