Game Changer

Happy Fifth Birthday to Nimble Elearning

Neil HydeGloucestershire (UK), September 2019 - Nimble Elearning was formally introduced to the world in 2014, when it was launched at the Learning Technologies event in London. Conceived five years earlier as Elearning247, the brainchild of Neil Hyde and Joe Jarlett, it quickly turned into a game changer in the online learning industry. It aimed to empower trainers and L&D personnel to take control of their own online training.

Cast your mind back to 2014. The year when supermarkets launched do-it-yourself checkouts, as retail introduced greater levels of automation to increase efficiency. It was when smart watches became the latest must-have accessory, too; a computer strapped to your wrist felt like science fiction that had become reality. In 2014, five million smart watches were sold; this year it’s likely to be nineteen million.

Back in those days, the traditional culture was to commission courses from eLearning experts – instructional designers. This new platform planned to hand the process over to the content providers, the people with the original knowledge, to let them create the courses themselves. This was a vision to “take away the middle-man”, to increase accuracy, reduce time, reduce costs, and remove a lot of the frustration, too.

It has proved to be a huge success. Early adopters were National Security Inspectorate, UK Atomic Energy Authority, and National Nuclear Laboratories; these organisations remain customers today. They have been joined by over 250 more, as a new organisation comes on board each week.

As any father might feel about his offspring, Neil Hyde, Managing Director of Nimble, is proud of the company’s achievements: "Nimble has been used extremely effectively by hundreds of companies to enrich their training programmes. We love being able to support our customers in the way we do and feel we’re only just getting started!"

One factor that has maintained this success is the variety of customers who use the Nimble platform. They range from large commercial organisations with thousands of learners to individual entrepreneurs who want to produce their own professional resources whilst monetising their efforts.

For some, despite the platform’s intuitive ease of use, the free support provided by the Nimble team remains another factor in the company’s growth. Another game changer is the Nimble Success Programme. Nimble work alongside their customers, understanding how Nimble can help them achieve their business goals and provide valuable tools and advice to ensure they reach them.

Neil is optimistic about Nimble’s growth. "In little over five years, our customers have seen nearly three million of their courses completed. We’re super proud that our approachable platform has been able to support so many people."

It’s inevitable that this success drives Neil and his team to be even more ambitious for their five-year old. Not wishing to rest on their laurels, plans are afoot to strengthen the product further – its infrastructure as well as the support they provide. Their customers also had a wonderful opportunity to meet up with each other at the annual Nimble Community Day on 19 September. You might say they attended Nimble’s fifth birthday party. There was no jelly and ice cream, but there were a lot of people celebrating.