lern.link: “Our income from partnering with iSpring has been increasing every year”
9 minutes
lern.link GmbH, a German provider of authoring software and learning management systems, is one of iSpring’s largest partners in the European region. The company not only resells iSpring software in the German market, but also provides consulting, technical support, arranges eLearning events and training sessions.
Guido Hornig, founder and director of lern.link, and Karen Schimpf, eLearning consultant and iSpring specialist, shared how partnering with iSpring was beneficial for lern.link and what their customers were able to achieve with iSpring software.
Guido Hornig, founder and director of lern.link
About lern.link
lern.link is a German software and training company in the field of eLearning. We assist our customers in all the stages of eLearning in their organization: from advising on LMS and authoring solutions that match their needs to implementing these solutions and providing technical support.
As a company, lern.link offers the following products:
Karen Schimpf, eLearning consultant and iSpring specialist at lern.link
- iSpring Suite — a professional authoring software for creating interactive learning units for digital learning
- Moodle LMS — a digital learning platform for training employees and students
- Moodle App and Moodle Course MEC
- lern.link-Conference — a conference system for online training and web meetings, based on BigBlueButton
lern.link also offers training for iSpring software and Moodle (MEC — Moodle Educator Certification Program).
The main objective of lern.link is to help people better understand eLearning. With our profound knowledge of the DACH market and deep technical expertise in the products that we offer, we help customers move from classroom training to eLearning quickly and easily.
Partnering with iSpring: Background
Back in 2014, when lern.link was a lot smaller than it is today, we were receiving multiple requests from customers to put their PowerPoint materials into their online platform. Classroom trainers used PowerPoint very often, and they wanted to use their content in online learning.
We started looking for a solution that would make PowerPoint presentations web-capable so our clients could convert them to SCORM for uploading to Moodle. We were quite disappointed with the conversion quality that authoring tools provided — until we found iSpring.
We were thrilled with the functionality of iSpring Suite and how accurately it converts PowerPoint animations, transitions, and triggers.
The very first customer we demonstrated iSpring to — EOS GmbH, the world’s leading technology provider in industrial 3D printing of metals and plastics — wanted to buy a license, but only if it was directly from us. For that reason, we applied for the iSpring partnership program in 2014.
Benefits of Partnering with iSpring
From that time on, our income from iSpring products has increased every year. Since 2014, lern.link has expanded dramatically — and we are still growing.
We have a good standing in selling iSpring Suite in the DACH region and even other countries in Europe. Among lern.link customers are large companies from the automotive, insurance, and finance sectors.
In 2019 and 2020, lern.link received the Best Partner badge from iSpring. Because of this award, lern.link is getting a solid reputation in the eLearning sector. The goal is to be the best partner again in 2021.
The Best Partner badge from iSpring on the lern.link website
There are a number of reasons why partnering with iSpring has been such a success for lern.link:
Open and cooperative iSpring team
Unlike other authoring tool vendors, iSpring is very easy to contact. We can contact iSpring with any tech questions we can’t answer and get second-level support from the iSpring engineers and developers.
The iSpring team also encourages us and our clients to share feature requests and improvement ideas.
Back in 2014, after six weeks of using iSpring, I thought of a small audio feature modification that would save a lot of development time. I contacted the iSpring team and was really fascinated that the company reacted to me. At that time I was just a small reseller.
At one point in our partnership with iSpring, we had an idea to localize iSpring’s interface for the German market. As a partner, we helped with the translation process, and iSpring 8.3 was the first version to be available in German. Many versions followed, and even now, we continue proofreading the translation and improving the German version of iSpring.
iSpring Suite is available in German, French, Spanish, and 14 more languages
Outstanding partner support
Another advantage of being an iSpring partner is the great level of support we get as a partner. We receive everything we need to present iSpring to our customers: marketing materials, presentations, demos, trainings, and NFR licenses. In addition, iSpring has a great support team, in case we need second-level support.
I love to work with iSpring. iSpring Solutions is a reliable partner that supports us in the best way. The cooperation, especially with Nadya, our manager, is very close and perfect. If we have any questions or concerns, she is always helpful and at our side.
Easy-to-use and functional product
The iSpring Suite product is great. The user interface is very consistent and easy to understand — and it doesn’t require any special skills to start creating eLearning.
iSpring Suite is perfect for converting PowerPoint animations and transitions, but it doesn’t stop at PowerPoint. The toolkit offers many other capabilities that are just so valuable for eLearning authoring:
Quizzes and assessments
In eLearning, it is very important to know if your learners have read the content and if they have understood it. iSpring Suite includes a wonderful and easy-to-use quiz maker tool to create tests with 14 question types.
Interactions
iSpring Suite also offers interactions – ready-to-go animated templates that you can fill with your own data to present it in a more captivating way. Learners can click on different elements of an interaction and discover additional content. This is very attractive and engaging.
An example of an interaction created by lern.link in iSpring Suite
Perfect support of mobile devices
One of the most attractive things about iSpring Suite is that it never asks the author if they want to create content for mobile or desktop. Courses created with iSpring work perfectly on any device and with any screen orientation.
Gateway to new business opportunities
Besides the above mentioned benefits and iSpring’s transparent discount system for partners, iSpring software often becomes a door opener to selling learning management systems, which brings lern.link new business opportunities.
Promoting iSpring in the German Market
Our customers truly value the fact that lern.link sells not only iSpring licenses but offers additional training services and events to our customers. Among the most frequent promotion activities are:
- Organizing iSpring user meetings
- Holding webinar series for our prospective customers
- Publishing promotional articles and posts on social media and print media (e.g., eLearning Journal)
- Attending local eLearning events like LEARNTEC, OEB, and iSpring Training Days
iSpring user meetings organized by lern.link
There are many companies in the German market that are not sure if they should invest in eLearning technology. iSpring makes it easy for businesses to launch a pilot eLearning project with minimum costs, evaluate results, and quickly scale up to a full-size eLearning solution for the whole organization.
We readily recommend iSpring both to organizations that are just starting their journey to online training and to those who are actively using eLearning and seeking products and services to make training easier and more effective:
- Small and medium-sized businesses that want to create eLearning fast and easy, without outsourcing eLearning developers
- Training departments or individual trainers who already use a lot of PowerPoint presentations for training or daily business
- Universities and authorities
Customers’ Case Studies and Results Achieved with iSpring
Our customers use iSpring to transform PowerPoint presentations that were originally designed for classroom trainings into interactive eLearning materials for use in their LMS — or to create learning content from scratch. Courses developed with iSpring are perfect for compliance training, product training, simulated conversations, quizzes, and much more.
These are a few success stories from lern.link customers:
A German car manufacturer was looking for an authoring solution to create iPad and desktop-ready courses for 1,000 young professionals. lern.link helped the company launch the Moodle LMS and supplied iSpring Suite licenses to create mobile-ready content. In three years, they have trained 3,500 thousand employees with iSpring learning materials.
An internationally active provider of sports betting and casino games does all their compliance training for its cashiers from all German outlets and all franchise partners with iSpring Suite and Moodle LMS. The entire protection of minors is performed only through online training, thanks to iSpring and Moodle.
A product development department of a large German insurance company needed to train hundreds of external salespeople and consultants. There is an internal eLearning department in the company, but their specialists are booked for months. The department required a quick and easy solution to create courses from PowerPoint slides. With iSpring Suite, they were able to create sales training within days and launch it in the LMS immediately.
Smaller customers appreciate iSpring Suite as well. Many of our clients say that being able to create their own courses without an external agency has been a great benefit.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, iSpring has become a real help for universities, authorities, companies, and individual trainers to produce digital content.
To Sum Up
We appreciate iSpring Solutions as a reliable and ever-growing company. The staff is exceptionally friendly and helpful. iSpring has a good sense of which products the market needs for creating eLearning modules fast and easy without having to be an expert.
Again, partnering with iSpring has been beneficial for us for many reasons, including:
- Open and cooperative iSpring team
- Outstanding partner support
- Easy-to-use and functional products
Since 2014, our income on iSpring products has been increasing every year, and we’re confident that this partnership will continue to be effective and beneficial for both sides.
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