With 200 locations throughout North America and Europe employing nearly 19,000 personnel, Bunzl North America generates revenues in excess of $12 billion annually. The company continually invests in learning and development (L&D) opportunities with the goal of recruiting and retaining a skilled and engaged workforce. Still, in an organization this large and distributed, it’s common for such initiatives to be decentralized, which can lead to unnecessary duplicate spending. Continually on the hunt for efficiency gains, Bunzl North America is in the process of consolidating its content curation with OpenSesame and expects the move will save it $70,000 annually.
Distributed initiatives fed rogue spend
Bunzl North America’s Human Resources (HR) department began working with OpenSesame several months ago, rolling out the solution to 3,000 employees. The initial implementation was so successful that the company’s Talent Director began planning to make the solution available to an additional 5,000 personnel.
During this time, the Talent Director discovered that several other departments and locations had invested in their own LMS applications and were purchasing their own curricula independently. “We were unaware that this was happening,” she said. “Each department has their own training goals and independently they were making the L&D buying decisions. Without a coordinated effort, you can end up with duplication, overlap, and rogue spend.”
$70,000
saved annually by consolidating content curation
5,000
additional employees included after successful initial rollout to 3,000 employees
Duplication proved costly
The Talent Director’s research revealed that the company’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) department was using two separate LMS applications and several content providers to provide the breadth of training needed, as well as to support multiple languages. The total annual cost for the department’s training came in at over $80,000. “As it turns out, the teams found the applications difficult to use and the content lacking,” she added. “They were spending a lot of money but not getting a good return on that investment.”
In addition, Bunzl North America’s IT department had invested in its own LMS and content providers at a cost of over $40,000 annually. “In all, we found four separate LMS applications and multiple content vendor contracts,” the Training Coordinator said. “In total, it was costing the company more than $120,000 a year.”
Learning requirements vary across an enterprise of this size, so it’s not uncommon to see decentralization. EHS, HR, and IT departments have some of the highest levels of rogue spending surrounding training and development, in part because their training needs involve highly-specialized training along with critical compliance, and certification courses. Curricula for these courses can be difficult to obtain, and traditionally these departments have managed their own training budgets.
Centralize and save $70K
The discoveries led to enterprise-wide discussions on learning and development, which in turn created opportunities for efficiency and significant cost savings by consolidating content curation with a single vendor, OpenSesame.
With one LMS and OpenSesame as our exclusive content vendor, we expect to save $70,000 each year.”
Talent Director, Bunzl North America
“With new visibility into our spend, we found we could reduce costs substantially while still providing each department with the specialized curriculum they need,” the Talent Director said. “OpenSesame offers thousands of courses on every conceivable topic — including the specific courses our EHS, HR, and IT departments need — with much of it available in multiple languages.”
By centralizing and consolidating its learning and development initiatives, Bunzl North America expects to save tens of thousands of dollars annually. “We don’t plan to renew our subscriptions to the three duplicate LMS applications or the multiple content contracts,” the Training Coordinator said. “With one LMS and OpenSesame as our exclusive content vendor, we expect to save $70,000 each year.”
Value proposition multiplied
Centralizing content curation saves money by eliminating duplication and overlap, along with additional value propositions. For example, by including more users in the OpenSesame subscription, the training cost-per-user goes down, adding to the savings. There’s also time savings associated with fewer vendor contracts to manage. In addition, many tasks that were being duplicated across departments can be consolidated, freeing resources for new initiatives.
“Our OpenSesame Customer Success Manager really contributed to the success of this project,” the company’s Talent Director said. “They asked the right questions that got us thinking, got us talking, and ultimately, got us to a point where we’re saving money and improving the quality of our learning programs.”
“OpenSesame offers thousands of courses on every conceivable topic — including the highly specific courses our EHS, HR, and IT departments need.”
Talent Director, Bunzl North America
Most companies understand that employee training is a smart investment. However, rogue spending stemming from decentralized and duplicated learning and development efforts eats into that investment. With OpenSesame, Bunzl North America is simultaneously elevating its learning culture while lowering costs, turning a smart investment into one that pays dividends every single day.