How SAP User Group sold more than double the amount of training licenses than anticipated and saved their members over £2m
Project dates
January – December 2018
Project team
Craig Dale, CEO
Helen Borland, General Manager
Robyn Brentley, Corporate Account Manager
Amy Hunter, Operations Support Coordinator
Gemma Craddy, Accounts Coordinator
Gill Bowness, Solicitor / Company Secretary
Tools & Systems
The tools we used during the Learning Hub discount campaign were for marketing purposes. We used a variety of channels to ensure the highest number of license purchases.
Website homepage – Added a Learning Hub banner
Email – we sent emails across the board to members and prospect members
JAM platform – this is a SAP ‘social media platform’, which we used to promote the campaign;
Cisco WebEx - hosted webinars discussing Learning Hub and it’s benefits for members to attend when considering the package
SAP’s marketing tool – promotion at their HQ via their advertising pillars, and online via their email marketing.
YouTube - video marketing through customer testimonials
Introduction
Skills are one of the most important building blocks for using the possibilities of digital transformation.
The SAP Learning Hub is SAPs most comprehensive learning offering on the market. The unsurpassed range and quality of content is enhanced by a social learning experience with other learners, trainers and experts. With over 3,000 easy to read handbooks, 450 e-learning titles and 600 role-based learning maps, SAP Learning Hub helps customers reap the benefits of today’s learning style reality. At UKISUG, we see the huge value that these resources give to companies. Therefore, we work closely with SAP so that we can provide a substantial discount, using the power of our member community. We receive orders for at least 600 licenses over 2 campaigns (from across our membership) to trigger a fantastic rate of £780 for the Learning Hub package, a massive saving of £1,668 - 67% discount on retail price.
Our goal as a User Group is to facilitate networking, knowledge exchange and best practice for and amongst members. We felt that making SAP Learning Hub more accessible to our members was a key way of working toward this aim.
Discovery
The SAP Learning Hub is a widely used offering amongst SAP users, however it has always been inaccessible to some, due to the high pricing. The Dutch SAP User Group has offered the Learning Hub Discount scheme to its members, in which it has been incredibly successful and boosted learning for members. We asked them for user feedback on the offering which all appeared positive. The Dutch User Group ran one campaign a year (meaning that they needed 300 license orders) and always exceeded this target – for which reason we decided to carry out two campaigns per year.
We have quarterly board meetings with the UKISUG board, which is made up of User Group members and volunteers. At a meeting, the proposal of running the campaign was presented to the board, who saw the huge benefit it would bring to our members. The idea was then presented to the rest of our volunteers, who also agreed that the campaign would be a value adding aspect to User Group membership. Therefore, we decided to commit to the campaign.
Objectives
300 license purchases required to deliver discount per cycle (2 cycles)
Through our Learning Hub customers, we have collated the following further objectives:
70% fewer training days required
Increase to 60% renewal rates
5 times more completed training activities with no additional cost
70% faster access to content
A reduction in overall education costs per year
Timeline
Jan – Mar 2018 – Promote ‘Cycle 1’ campaign - we marketed the opportunity to our members, attracting orders so that we could make up the 300 required licence sales before we placed the order on SAP
Early Mar 2018 – Invoice members with 14 days payment terms to ensure we had sufficient cashflow to pay for licences when SAP invoice was due
Late Mar 2018 - place order with SAP
Beginning April 2018 – deliver licences to customers
May – Jul 2018 – Promote ‘Cycle 2’ campaign (marketing) we marketed the opportunity to our members, attracting orders so that we could make up the 300 required licence sales before we placed the order on SAP
Early Jul 2018 – Invoice members with 14 days payment terms to ensure we had sufficient cash flow to pay for licences when SAP invoice was due
Late Jul 2018 - place order with SAP
Beginning Aug 2018 – deliver licences to customers
Activities
Our first point of call was to meet with the Head of Negotiations at SAP to discuss all things Learning Hub. As this was fairly new to us, we had to go into the negotiations with some clear objectives in order to get the best deal for ourselves and our members. We attempted to forecast how many licenses we would be purchasing for our members in order to come to a decision on the fee we would pay to SAP for these. We took a look at the current sales price with the Head of Negotiations and decided with them on a substantial discount for the purchase of over 300 licenses.
We then had to calculate our own selling price. Although we are a not for profit organisation, we needed to make sure there was a form of profit margin to cover staffing and collateral costs for the project. For this reason, we were able to offer our members a 64% discount on the first cycle of the offering – still a huge saving for all. For both offering cycles, we had to calculate the selling price and discount offer as SAP costs fluctuated throughout the year.
We then worked together to create a Marketing Plan surrounding the Learning Hub campaigns. Promotion needed to be timed well and in alignment with the two cycles, to try and attract as many members as possible. We created various forms of collateral to promote the Learning Hub campaign.
A flyer and banner blinds were drafted to take to SAP themed events, including Itelligence and our own Special Interest Group meetings.
We also had promotion across our member website, with a banner advertisement leading to a page dedicated to the Learning Hub offering.
SAP also have pillars in their UKM headquarters which we used to promote our offer.
We tried to have a presence at as many relevant events as possible, including a branded Learning Hub stand at the SAP Forum.
Learning Hub Conference Stand
To boost sales, we sent direct emails to our members, as well as an automated email campaign (Drip).
We embarked on a small period of tele sales to ensure all our members were aware of the great saving.
Also, at our annual conference, UKISUG Connect, we had a dedicated area (Learning Hub Corner) in the Exhibition Hall in which we gave delegates information about the offering, how to use it and answered any queries delegates had on the offer.
Once we had enough members signed up to purchase the offer, we had to implement the correct credit control. We chased payments outside of usual terms i.e. 14 days rather than 30 and our members generally pay on average in 54 days. As we are a not for profit organisation, cashflow is important. For this reason, we invoiced those signed up to the offer prior to delivering the Learning Hub licences to ensure positive cashflow and that we could pay the SAP purchase bill.
We then needed to ensure SAP licenses were delivered to the right people and all email addresses were collated into one campaign. We stuck to our structured timeline to manage delivery and ensure that all members that purchased Learning Hub received it within the timescale.
Once the campaign had finished, we completed various types of follow-up activity to drive members to use their licences. This included courtesy calls to ask if they need any assistance with accessing the package and webinars showing members how to get the best out of their Learning Hub.
Innovation
We wanted to ensure that as many of our members as possible were fully informed about our Learning Hub offering and that we could answer any queries – to ensure our members could fully perceive and benefit from its value. Therefore, we incorporated a Learning Hub stand at our annual conference for member delegates to visit. We had Learning Hub experts on the stand throughout the conference to answer any questions, demonstrate some training exercises and discuss the potential value that a Learning Hub discounted investment could have for delegate organisations.
This was the first time we had used an automated email campaign, using Drip, to take prospects through a workflow and managed email flow to ensure they received the correct information and prompts, based on their behaviour (opens, clicks etc.).
Marketing
SAP Learning Hub discounts are a huge benefit and selling point of UKISUG membership, as it is a cheaper yet most comprehensive way to facilitate technical SAP learning within an organisation. For this reason, when attending SAP and technical-related events, we have emphasised this in our promotional materials. We have banner blinds based at our stand with a prominence of the saving and what is included. Also, we utilise SAP News Round, an internal SAP staff monthly newsletter in which we have a feature.
During the Learning Hub campaign, we tailored this article to this as a reason why SAP staff should encourage customers to join the User Group. Alongside this, we had an external email campaign targeted at current SAP customers to encourage them to take out UKISUG membership and purchase Learning Hub licenses.
We also had graphics created to include as email footers, as a banner on the website and information-based graphics for emails.
Learning Hub - promotional material
As the discount scheme is available to UKISUG members only, the marketing focus here was an email campaign to our members. This highlighted all the benefits of the scheme, with a focus on the huge saving of taking out Learning Hub through the User Group. The campaign was timed strategically, with longer emails explaining what is included and the benefits sent at the start of the scheme, ending the scheme with more frequent shorter emails to remind members of the saving and ‘time is almost up’ to stimulate purchases in order to meet the target of licenses.
Challenges
Main challenge was to hit the 300 sales target each cycle, with an aim for 600+ over the period of 12 months. This was a new offering from the User Group and had only been slightly market tested in 2017, meaning a lot of our members did not know what Learning Hub was and, therefore needed educating on the product, service, offering.
Remaining in a cash positive position - being a not-for profit organisation it was important that we were able to receive payment from our members before we had to pay SAP. SAP work on 30-day payment terms, so we devised our timeline so that we could invoice our members on 14 day terms, which elapsed before we needed to the place the order on SAP, therefore, ensuring we had sufficient time to receive payment form the majority of members, before we had to pay SAP.
SAP terms and conditions - the T&Cs can be complex and open to change. As we had to sign for our members with SAP, we needed to mirror SAP’s terms to our members on the orders they placed with us to mitigate our risk.
Achievements
We have provided massive amounts of value to our members through the Learning Hub offer. Purchasing licenses through the UKISUG Learning Hub scheme saves users £1,668 on the retail price of Learning Hub. With UKISUG membership itself only £1,000, it is easy to perceive the value of membership for Learning Hub savings alone, not to mention the other benefits of becoming a UKISUG member. We have seen membership levels increase since the Learning Hub discount was offered, meaning that it has had a large impact on the growth of the association.
The offering and saving also meant that more SAP users could access the training that is normally unaffordable for many.
User experience
SAP Learning Hub is an innovative learning and training tool that can be tailored specifically to industry and job role through the specificity of its training areas. What makes the experience unique is that users have access to a wealth of up to date SAP training without having to leave their desk. This means that members who purchase licenses have one full year of training modules to utilize at their own speed, accessing whatever training they want, when they want to.
The discount level we provide makes the user experience an engaging one, as more SAP users across the UK and Ireland can access the training for a much lower price. Over the past 12 months, we have saved our users over £2 million on vital SAP learning.
Targets & Statistics
Our main objective for the campaign:
1,218 licenses purchased (more than double the target)
Through our Learning Hub customers, we have collated the following information regarding our objectives:
95% fewer training days required
70% renewal rate
13 times more completed training activities with no additional cost
70% faster access to content
15% reduction in overall education costs per year
Financials
To acquire the Learning Hub licenses for our members cost UKISUG £654,422 in total. As we are a not for profit organisation, we made a substantial investment into marketing for the campaign. The initial return was £133,597, which was reimbursed into marketing deficit and due to the sales success, delivered a surplus that was reinvested into User Group services.
We definitely believe that the Learning Hub campaign is both value for money and value added to membership. During the past 12-month campaign, we have saved our members a massive total of over £2 million on Learning Hub. Individual license saving for members was £1,668 – which, compared with membership price of just £1,000 is a huge value to being a part of UKISUG.
What would we do differently?
Spend more money on a better Automated Email tool (or only use it for one specific campaign) – the tool we used (drip) had some limitations as when we stated using it for other campaigns i.e. member engagement, if a member unsubscribed, it automatically unsubscribed them from everything, including Learning Hub. We had to then create a manual campaign through our web portal in 2019 to counteract this.
Advice
Know your membership
Have good relationships with all third parties
Ensure project team buy in to the success of the project
Feedback & Testimonials
“Our workforce is constantly pressing to expand and grow their skills and with SAP Learning Hub they have access to content that helps accomplish this 24/7 from anywhere”
Novartis
“The validation from SAP Global Certification and SAP Learning Hub sets our workforce on a solid path to success.”
Capgemini
“I would encourage [other members] to take up the SAP Learning Hub offer, which I think is good value.”
Patrick Byrd, Blue BI Ltd
“UKISUG work hard to ensure that we get the most out of our SAP investment and without UKISUG's involvement, I wouldn't have a Learning Hub licence!”
Simon Bacon, QD Stores
Wider impact
In the last 12 months, around 1300 of our members benefitted from a hugely discounted rate of Learning Hub. We have heard nothing but good reviews about the offering, and companies are constantly getting in touch with us to find out when the next campaign will be running. It has made a huge difference to our members and the User Group.
